Page 70 of Play Dirty

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

I stepped a little closer. Not exactly confronting him, but not backing off, either.

“You want to know what people outside your little bubble think?” I asked.

Something in his posture changed. He seemed suddenly… interested.

“Go ahead.”

So I did.

“They think the team turned on Trees,” I said.

His expression didn’t change, overall. There was a new glimmer in his eyes, though.

“They think you guys stopped buying in. Stopped listening. Made it impossible for management to keep him.”

He still hadn’t said anything; hadn’t done anything, except slowly pull his shirt on. But I could feel the tension building.

“And Sutherland?” I continued.

That got something.

It was small. Tight. Almost imperceptible.

“They think he figured it out,” I told him.

“Figured what out?”

I held his gaze.

“That something wasn’t right.”

Silence filled the locker room. It settled between us, as heavy as the rolling steam.

“They think he tried to say something,” I went on. “Tried to expose it.”

Grayson didn’t move. He didn’t blink. He wasn’t doing anything at all.

“They think you pushed him out,” I finished. “To protect yourselves.”

I expected anger, or dismay, or righteous indignation. Instead, Grayson gave me nothing.

And nothing was more shocking than anything else.

The stillness he gave back wasn’t calm, though. It was controlled. Too controlled.

I watched him carefully, waiting for a denial.

But it never came.

“People think a lot of things,” he finally said.

I noticed his words were even; the statement carefully measured. But there was something underneath it, too. A flicker of… something else.

“You asked,” I said with a shrug.

He pulled back a little, nodding his head.