Page 95 of Forever Relentless

“Do I?” Dustin challenged. “Why is nothing being done?”

“Because there is nothing to find,” Hembry said calmly.

“Or they don’t know exactly where to look,” I surmised. I met the coach’s stare. “And neither do you?”

He looked like he was going to argue, but he shook his head. “No. I don’t.”

“So instead of speaking up, you’re leaving?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I went to a lot of effort to keep that quiet. What was the point?” he grumbled to himself.

“What do we do, Coach?” Dust asked. “Seriously, we know something shit is happening. People connected to us know. I’m not okay with pretending I know nothing when next time it could be me. Or Noah. Or Dante.”

Hembry snorted. “It’ll never be Spence.”

I felt the specific wrongness of that before I even thought about why.

Dustin glanced at me. “Why?”

Diana came back into the room, her smile fading as she picked up on the tension. “Do I want to know?” she asked tiredly, setting the IV bags down.

“No.”

She didn’t comment on the fact that all three of us answered her question or on the fact that Coach Hembry walked out of the room shortly after she entered. She set up the IVs in silence and had Dustin and me back out onto the training field in no time at all.

I felt better physically, but my heart felt heavier.

“Why not Dante?” Dustin asked as he watched Dante throw the ball down the training ground.

“Too risky, maybe?” I mumbled. “More than just this school will notice if he gets benched or whatever.”

Dustin’s hands were on his hips. “Fucking QBs always steal the glory.”

I sniggered at that. “Time to lift our profiles?”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah. Let’s make sure they know our names as much as they know QB10’s.”

I looked down at the turf and thought about it. “We’re not in competition with him,” I reminded Dustin softly.

“In this we are.” His voice was grim with truth. “We need to stick together, but we also need to make sure we’re seen.” He turned to me. “You did the right thing, asking Briar to handle your social media. I’m doing the same. I’ll ask Hadley for help. Let’s not take it for granted. Let’s make sure they remember who we are. On and off the field.”

“And Dante?”

Dustin licked his bottom teeth. “You heard, Hembry. The QB’s golden. Let’s worry about ourselves first.”

“Slater, you still sleeping?” Sutherland bellowed.

“No, Coach!” Dustin ran down the field and joined the offensive line.

I blew out a breath. Every day came with a new problem. So much for being relaxed.

Now we were pitting ourselves against Dante? This was worse than before.

Thank fuck I knew where to go to get a punching bag.

Chapter 20

Briar