Page 155 of Play Dirty

Anger flared from the pit of my stomach. Sharp and undeniable.

“You blamed me for Trees!” I cried. “When from the moment I got here, you already knew—”

“I didn’t know you weren’t involved,” he countered. “Not totally. You could’ve been in with management for all I knew.”

“But I wasn’t,” I shot back. “You know I would never—”

“I know that now,” he conceded. Then, more gently: “Of course I do.”

He looked down, dejectedly, at the piles of snow. For a long time, neither of us spoke. The silence was finally broken by the distant shoveling of Ares and Sebastian.

“You’re telling them,” I said.

He didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah.”

Grayson picked up the shovel again. Turning back to the mountain of snow between us and the base of the driveway, he tore into it with all new energy.

I watched him work like a machine for a while, before veering off to widen the path to the house. I shoveled alone, turning over my thoughts. Trying to put myself in his shoes, or skates, or whatever.

He knew.

That part was ugly. What wasn’t ugly was that he’d taken the whole thing upon his shoulders. Tried to fix everything quietly, the only way a captain knew.

It was a hell of a lot to handle alone.

By mid-afternoon, we’d cleared the driveway enough for the team’s arrival. Which wouldn’t be until tomorrow, according to Mercer’s last less-than cheerful phone call.

By evening, I was mentally and physically exhausted.

Dinner was surprisingly good frozen pizza, excavated from the back of the freezer. It was quieter than it should’ve been. Sebastian filled the silence with jokes, but Ares didn’t bite. Grayson barely spoke at all.

I watched him.

Waited.

After we ate, we ended up in the living room. Lights low. Storm still dragging across what was left of the sky.

Sebastian grabbed the remote.

“What are we watching?” I asked him.

“Rocky Four.”

Ares snorted.

“Seriously?”

“Hey, do you want to explain to Mercer why we didn’t do our homework?”

Grayson didn’t react. Ares just sighed.

“Fine.”

The movie rolled, and we watched in silence. The run-up, the initial fight. The death of Apollo. Rocky flying to Russia, to battle his demons.

Every now and then I stole a glance at Grayson.