AllFreeNovel
Share Us
JACE
“Ican’t even practice?” I asked Coach.
Sure, he could sit me out during the game on Friday, but I still wanted to get out onto the field, help my team, and work on my skills. If I was going to Michigan for football, I needed to be ready. I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing.
Coach placed a hand on my shoulder and ushered me to the sidelines. “You need to relax and take some time off. I understand what you’re going through, and I heard the other side of the story from Jamal after you stormed off yesterday. But the principal and everyone in Redwood are watching you. If you screw up out here in the open, I can’t hide it for you. And I can’t lie to the principal if Carter get his parents involved for you hitting him. You understand me?”
I clenched my jaw and growled to myself. I understood, but that didn’t mean I liked it.
Coach nodded to Allie, who sat on the bleachers in the freezing cold. “Why don’t you go spend time with her?” He cracked a smile. “Word around town is that you took my advice, stopped being an ass, and are back together with her. Is that right?”
My lips curled into a soft smile. “Yeah, it is.”
“I’m proud of you,” he said, making me smile even harder. “Take some time off. We’ll be here on Friday night. Don’t be late for the game. I need you to help me coach.”
After grabbing my bag, I jogged past Carter toward the bleachers and tried hard not to lose my cool. Instead of making a huge deal out of what had happened, like I’d thought he would, he had been awfully quiet at school today about the fight.
“Allie,” I shouted from the sidelines. “Come on. We’re going home.”
Stuffed in her new winter coat that seemed to swallow her body, she bounced up on her toes and hurried down the metal steps. “Already? You didn’t even practice.”
“It doesn’t matter. Now, come on.”
When she stepped off the bleachers, I wanted to reach for her hand more than anything. But she kept her hands stuffed into her pockets and was staring down at the ground all the way to my Maserati. I opened the door for her and watched her slide into the car.
“Did Carter talk to you today?” I asked on the ride home.
“No,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “But … he makes me nervous.”
“What’d he do?” I asked her, grasping the steering wheel.
“Nothing yet, but you were right. He’s unstable.”
After clutching the steering wheel even harder, I growled and pulled into our driveway. A sleek black car with tinted windows was parked in front of the house. Just the people I needed to see, though I didn’t quite know why they were here.
“What’s Poison doing here?” Allie asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, stepping out of the car.
Poison got out of their car and nodded to the front door, wanting me to let them in. I blew a breath out of my nose, snatched Allie’s hand, and ushered her inside.
“What do you want?”
Allie rocked back on her heels, standing behind me and staring between the three of them. She crossed her arms and glanced at Kai. “Before you leave, I need to talk to you,” she said to him, then disappeared into the living room.
“You have a problem,” João said.
“Me?” I asked.
“Nicole’s father found out about the missing evidence,” Landon said, crossing his arms over his chest. “He doesn’t know who did it, but he knows that it was sometime between Friday night and Tuesday morning.”
I tensed and glanced into the living room. If he found out that it was me and Poison, he’d throw us in jail or do something much, much worse to hurt me, like fuck with Allie and all the opportunities that she had worked so hard for.
“Since it wasn’t only your mother’s case that was stolen, he can’t pinpoint who it was. It could literally be anyone. Nicole has so many people over at her house all the time. The cheerleaders, football players, even some nobodies that she likes sleeping with. But he knows that it’s gone.”
“If you don’t want Allie hurt, you’d better have a plan to come out with it all,” Kai said to me, following my gaze into the living room. “Soon.”
I ran a hand over my face and groaned internally. “I need more time. I’m not ready. I don’t have everything I need or the people I need to get this information out. Once I release it, all of Redwood is going to rally behind my father’s back, and you fucking know it.”
