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“I tried to warn you! You shouldn’t have gone fucking with Danny! What did you think would happen when you messed with Redson’s new golden arm?”

I leaned in. “I actually didn’t fuck him. But he is thefuckingproblem, so to speak.”

Liam opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. I stared, watching him, breathing hard and inside my head, tumblers clicked.

“You knew,” I said low, almost a whisper. “You told me he gets what he wants.”

“I—” he began, then his jaw clenched and he swallowed loudly.

“You knew,” I said again, my voice like a snake rustling through the grass.

“I don’t know what I knew! You know how people talk!” He threw his arms wide, spreading blame. “He says he’s awesome in bed, says girls line up to fuck him. And then he’s got these photos to prove it?—”

“You’ve seen them?” If he had, I was going to strangle him immediately.

“No! I’ve just heard the other senior guys talking. Bragging rights.” I deflated a little, and Liam pressed his case. “He’s trouble. And he’s an asshole. But when you win as much as he does, you don’t have to be nice.”

And that was what it came down to, really. What incentive was there for Danny to be human or humane, when all of Redson acted like he was Colton Lewis’s second-coming?

Still pissed, I said the only thing I could think of that might hurt Liam. “Your brother has a nice aquarium. Too bad he couldn’t take it with him to college.”

“How—how did you know?”

“Because I saw it in the photos Mason was about to share at prom.”

The color drained from Liam’s face. “Colton’s room? They were in Colton’s room?”

“Yeah. Bison red curtains and Bison red sheets. In every photo.”

Something changed in Liam then. Anger rippled through his body, his jaw clenched, his shoulders pulled back and down, as his arms came out, hands in fists, ready to fight someone. I took an involuntary step back. “Those fuckers,” he muttered. “RunColton’s name through the dirt? They’re not fit to lick his cleats!” He started pacing in a small circle, swinging his arms.

He was more upset that it’d happened inside his house then that it’d happened at all, which I would’ve called him on, only I was worried that he would fly off the handle. At least someone else finally felt as impotent as Lacey and I had.

Another filthy message zipped home into my phone and it buzzed. What did I have left after this? Nothing. I’d shielded Lacey for a moment—or I hoped I had—but at the cost of everything. I didn’t have a goddamned thing left to use against Mason or Danny—but, as I watched Liam grapple with the betrayal of his teammates, I realized maybehedid.

“I need something on them, Liam.” I took a step nearer to him, and tried to look as sincere as I felt. “Both you and I know this’ll never end, if I don’t have ammo to fight back. You know what’s right, Liam. You’re not like they are. Not deep down inside.”

He looked over at me, eyes the color of a cloud going tornado, dark grey. “They’re my teammates.”

“For what, four more weeks? Their season’s almost over—but you’ve got two more years.”

His chest heaved and then he looked away. “I can’t. I have to protect the team.”

I’d lost him. I knew it. He started for his truck.

“Jessie?” I heard my name yelled behind me at the same time the trailer door slammed open. “Oh—oh—Liam! I’m sorry—want to come in?”

“No, Mrs. McMullen, I was just leaving,” he said, polite until the end, as he walked away.

A wind struck up, and my mother’s robe fluttered against her as she reached out a hand, looking like the old-timey-wife of a sailor going off to war. “Sorry to hear about prom!” she shouted, so that Liam would hear her inside his truck’s cab. For a heart-wrenching second I was afraid he’d race out and ruin things, but then he gave us both a confused nod, and peeled away.

My mother waited on the porch for me and gathered me up like a duckling. “I’m still so sorry, honey.”

“It’s okay,” I said as she herded me inside. “I’ll, uh, see him on Monday.”

She wiped a hand across her eyes and yawned. “In that case, I’m going back to bed.”

CHAPTER 45