Page 119 of Forever Relentless

“I know.”

She licked her lips as she watched me. “We can’t tell them. None of them, even Savvy.”

“Savvy will tell Dante.”

“Exactly.” She looked over at me. “Or worse, her dad.”

“How do I make the first post impactful?”

She sat down, her face full of concentration. “Well, Briar would know more about that, but I guess we aren’t involving her either?”

I shook my head. “She needs to be clear of this.” She’d hate it. I was doing it anyway.

“Pity.” She tapped the side of her coffee cup as she thought. I could practically smell the gears turning in her head. “Any other reason you want to keep Briar, the social media manager, out of this plan?” She failed miserably at casual curiosity. “Maybe . . . something’s happened between you?”

“Stay focused.”

“Spoilsport.”

I didn’t deny it.

Hadley watched me as she thought it through. “We’d need to tag someone big enough that they’d see it, and then their followers would see it, and then . . .” She lined the fingers of one hand against the other and tipped the first one over with a small push. “Then watch it fall like dominoes.”

“And we’d need to be fast.” I stood up, taking my tea over to her sink. “We’d need to keep the momentum going to keep their attention.” I dumped my iced tea down her sink. “Too sweet.”

“I wish I had better knowledge of this,” she grumbled. “We definitely can’t get Briar involved?”

“No.”

“You could get into trouble for this,” she reminded me.

“I’m already in trouble.” I loosened my arms like I was warming up. “And I was recently reminded that if a college is found to be doing something wrong, the NCAA protects the players, unless the players are involved. I’m benched. I’m definitely not involved in any player protection or benefits.”

She chewed her coffee cup. “And if it goes wrong, and they say nothing is wrong here, then you lose your place next year.” She looked away. “It can’t land on Dust or Dante either.”

“Never,” I told her solemnly. “I already thought about that. That’s why we keep them clear of this, right?”

I looked down at my phone, at the message that just popped up, and smiled as I read it.

Hadley stood. “Noah? What are you scheming?”

“Will you help me?”

“Yes.” No hesitation. Absolute commitment. “We do this to expose them, but at no risk to my man and our friends.”

“Thank you.” I smiled in relief. “When do we start?”

“Duh. Now.”

We spent the morning planning what we knew so far. We itemized what was worst and worked backward. About two hours in, both of us missing classes, and neither of us caring, Hadley sat up from where she was crouched over her two notebooks.

“We could clear Mason’s name.”

“His name is clear.” I was stretched out on her couch, which was not comfortable.

“In these halls, it’s still smeared. He didn’t do anything wrong.” She glanced at me. “It’s why Briar is here.”

“She’s here to see Sutherland take a fall for something, anything I think. Mason is an incentive.”