Page 185 of Forever Relentless

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know what, or who, I suspected.” I didn’t know. I knew what I’d been angry about. I knew what I’d wanted someone to pay for. I wasn’t sure they were the same thing. “I knew I had to come here and look for myself. And . . . I really hate it, but I agree with Savannah. I trust Noah’s gut.”

“Did you tell him?” Savannah asked. “Did you tell him that?”

I shook my head. “No. I told him to leave.”

Her mouth formed an O, but she said nothing. None of us said anything, and this was the most depressed I’d ever been in a bar.

I slid out of the booth. “I’m not good company, sorry.” I laid a twenty on the table. “For the drinks.”

It wasn’t enough for them all, but it was enough for now.

I walked back to my apartment, the fresh air waking up my senses. I felt a little sluggish, a little slow. Not with the alcohol. With the specific weight of having spent months in a place I hated and leaving with less than I came for. I was so angry with him. Why? Because he took my choice away from me? From us? Yes. Maybe. I didn’t know.

By making an agreement with the antichrist — I choked back a laugh at Hadley’s reference — had he protected the very institution we were rallying against? That was my issue. Not the agreement. Not the fact that one guy had taken matters into his hands.

But who had he done it for? Me? Mason? His friends?

I didn’t know. He said it was for all of the above. But what if it was for his team?

His football team.

His career.

Noah had been vocal about the fact that their actions could hurt them. This deal took the risk away. And I didn’t know if I resented him for choosing that option. Look at my brother — he’d had his accident, and his life had spiraled.

Noah had stepped in front of the truck heading for all of us and taken the hit. He didn’t get to do that alone.

But he had.

And that’s what pissed me off.

How very dare he? I mean, how dare he take the hit for us?

I turned direction and went to Diana’s. She didn’t know what had happened, and ironically, she should have been one of the first to know.

I braced myself for meeting TJ Hembry, but she was alone. She had a bottle of nail polish and stuff out. I’d caught her in the middle of what looked like a home manicure.

“Hey,” she greeted. She held her fingers up. “Can I interest you in a French manicure?”

“No.” I took a seat and watched her close the door, locking it automatically. “We need to talk.”

She sighed. “Is it a lecture about sleeping with your brother? He texted me yesterday, and he said you told him about TJ. He’s fine.”

So much to unwrap there. “No. Not Mason.” Well, that wasn’t true. “Not about you and him anyway.”

I told her it all. When I finished, she didn’t look up from her nails.

“Diana?”

“Processing,” she murmured. She opened a bottle of base coat and started to do her toes. “Tell me again what they said she did.”

When Noah had told me the story, he’d been calm and direct. I didn’t have that skill. I stupidly had second-hand embarrassment.

Diana nodded when I finished. She paid attention to the other foot.

“She took his jersey, remember?” Her voice was soft. I watched her finish the base coat. She picked a pale pink polish. “She took his jersey, and I know . . . I know she gave him other things. A scarf, a hair tie once, though I can’t remember why he said she gave him that.”

“Mason told you this?”