Page 20 of Play Dirty

“That’s the thing,” he said. “No one really knows.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“No one?”

“Not officially,” he explained. “One day he’s here, next day he’s traded. That’s when I came in.”

“And the guys didn’t question it?”

“They did,” he said. “Didn’t get answers. There was no clear explanation. I think everyone was in shock.”

“Coach Trees, too?”

“Him especially,” Sebastian nodded.

I set my fork down for a minute, and settled back in my chair. My dinner guest kept eating ravenously, however.

“Don’t you think that’s weird?” I asked.

He met my gaze.

“Everything about this team is weird.”

I nodded, slowly. It wasn’t something I could argue.

“Anyway, the team struggled even more after that,” Sebastian went on. “There was a lot of tension. A couple of rough weeks went by, and Coach Trees was let go.”

“Why?”

“Performance inconsistency,” he said, repeating the words with the same tone they were obviously given to him. “Something else about ‘organizational direction’. The usual bullshit.”

I nodded, like I understood. I didn’t.

“That’s when coach Mercer was brought in,” he said. “Good guy. Tough. Likable enough. But… he’s no Trees.”

He hesitated for a moment.

“And that’s when we also got… well…”

“Me.”

Sebastian shrugged again, and went back to eating his soup. I watched him for a second, then dropped my gaze to my own bowl.

So that was it. Not the whole story, not even close. But enough to understand the shape of it. Enough to see where I fit… or didn’t.

Sutherland gone. Trees gone. Mercer brought in.

And me — right behind it.

I let out a slow breath, twirling what was left of my noodles instead of eating them. Tyler said it earlier, like it was the simplest explanation in the world:

The timing sucked.

They didn’t trust me because they didn’t know. And it was easier not to.

I pushed my chair back and stood, gathering my bowl and heading for the sink. The water ran hot and steady as I rinsed it all off.

For now, at least, they could keep their assumptions. I’d keep the results. Results had always been good to me. They were the one thing no one could argue with.