AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Noah removed my hand from his wrist, and for a moment his facade dropped. The showmanship was gone. It was the first time I’d actually seen him as a man, and not some larger than life television personality.
“Maybe I did,” he allowed, adding a hint of a shrug. “Maybe I didn’t.”
“My old team’s going to hate me,” I sighed in frustration. “They didn’t know about any of this. You wouldn’t let me call them, or tell them, and now suddenly they’re here competing against me instead of beside me.”
“They came on their own,” Noah shot back. “Trust me, when we contacted them and offered them a Shadow Team position they were more than happy to fly out.”
I glanced over my shoulder. On the other side of the room I could see my former teammates huddled together. Two of them were staring at me through the crowd.
“You did all this for the show,” I finished, “but you didn’t consider how it would make them feel. You didn’t stop to—”
“Brooke?”
The way he suddenly called my name stopped me mid-sentence. I stood for a moment, just staring.
“You came,” said Noah. “They didn’t. It could’ve any one of you in this position right now, it just happened to be you.” He looked at me pointedly. “We didn’t choose it. We only took advantage of it.”
He twirled a finger, and I noticed all the cameras and recorders still trained on us.
“Youearnedthis over the past four weeks,” Noah finished. “You, Brooke. Not them.”
The bitter taste in my mouth was still there. I couldn’t get rid of it.
“So would you like one last piece of advice?” he asked. “Something that might make the whole thing better for you?”
I didn’t nod, I didn’t shake my head. I actually didn’t do anything but stand there numbly, until he dropped a fatherly hand on my shoulder that felt like it weighed a million pounds.
“Win.”
