Page 40 of Freestyle (Boys of Frampton U #2)

Rowyn

I t’s the middle of the night and I’m curled between Gray and Nix, their body heat enveloping me, making me feel safe? Or is it more than that?

I think I was having a nightmare, but something woke me up. Listening to the soft snores around me, comforts me until I’m almost back asleep. Then I hear what woke me. My phone is vibrating on the bed side table. Who would be texting at this time?

The sheets whisper as I shift, sliding carefully out from under their warmth. Gray’s arm twitches once like he doesn’t want to let me go, but his breathing stays deep, steady. Phoenix doesn’t move at all, but even in sleep, he feels like something sharp coiled beneath the surface.

My phone buzzes again.

The vibration is short, soft, but now it feels like thunder in the quiet of this room. I reach the nightstand and glance back once. They’re both still wrapped in sleep, chests rising in rhythm, shadows painting them in moonlight.

I grab the phone and tilt the screen away from them, thumb hovering over the alert.

Three New Messages. Shakily, I click on the sender to show the message.

Unknown:

Do you think they can keep you safe forever? :)

And below it, two more—delivered within seconds of each other.

Unknown:

They look at you like they know you. They don’t.

I know what you really are.

My blood runs cold. For a second, I forget how to breathe.

The kind of stillness creeps in that only comes when fight hasn’t started yet, but flight is no longer an option.

My eyes flick toward the bed.

Gray’s on his side, his brow furrowed even in sleep, like his body knows something’s wrong.

Phoenix is still as stone, back against the headboard, one hand resting near where I’d just been. Like he was keeping me there.

They’re right there, two heartbeats away.

But I don’t move.

Because if I wake them, something changes. The safety shatters, the silence ends, and once they know… there’s no putting this back in the dark.

The cold isn’t on my skin, it’s in my bones. Sinking, slow. Like the words on that screen poisoned the air around me.

I don’t even think.

I turn.

I reach for the bed, for them.

“Gray,” I whisper first, touching his arm.

His eyes open instantly, sharp, alert, like sleep never really had him. “Row?”

I don’t answer.

Phoenix stirs beside him, already upright, the tension snapping into place like a coiled spring finding resistance. “What is it?” he asks, voice lower, raw from sleep.

I can’t speak. I just hold out the phone.

Gray grabs it with one hand, brushing my back with the other like he knows I need that anchor. His eyes scan the screen.

One second. Two.

Then he goes very still.

Phoenix leans over to look too, and I see it, the shift. Like something behind his eyes just turned to iron.

Gray exhales through his nose. Not angry, not surprised, just ready. His fingers tighten around the phone, jaw locking as he rereads the messages.

He doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t blink. Just breathes in slow, measured silence.

Then, voice like flint, he asks, “How long have you had these?”

I swallow. “Just now. They all came in at once. I—I woke up and saw the screen light up.”

Phoenix is already on his feet, pacing like the floor’s not solid under him, but Gray never breaks eye contact with me.

“Okay,” he says, calm but razor-edged. “Then you did the right thing telling us. ”

Gray’s voice is quieter now, but lethal around the edges. “They’re escalating.”

Phoenix nods once, already climbing out of bed, reaching for his phone, grabbing a hoodie. “We lock this down now.”

Gray pulls me into his chest without a word and I go, because this is the only place I feel like I’m not coming apart.

“I’ve got you,” he whispers against my hair. “We’ve got you.”

“Give me the phone. I can trace the number. We aren’t waiting around anymore, we’re taking this fight to him.” Gray tosses him the phone, then begins rubbing circles along my back.

Across the room, Phoenix catches the phone mid-air, already moving. He doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t ask if I’m sure, he just says, “I’ll find him.”

And somehow that scares me more, because I believe him.

Gray tightens his hold, like he can feel me spiraling. Like he knows how close I am to unraveling.

“Breathe, baby,” he murmurs in the shell of my ear as goosebumps trail along my skin.

I do.

Not because I remember how, but because he does. Because Gray’s saying my name like it’s a vow, and suddenly the air comes easier, like my lungs forgot how to collapse when he’s this close .

In front of us, Phoenix is already in motion. Quiet, dangerous. His fingers fly across his phone screen, jaw tight, mouth set like he’s already halfway into war.

“We’re not waiting,” he says without looking up. “Alberto is done with his little mind games. This ends now .”

“What’s the plan?” I ask, hesitantly.

The anger on Gray’s face is barely restrained, simmering beneath the surface. But it isn’t the heat I see, it’s the steel.

He nods toward Nix, giving him the floor.

And that’s when the panic truly hits.

Because whatever Nix is planning, I don’t think I’m going to like it.

“Do you remember when we were talking about your favorite place on campus?”

My stomach flips. “The fountain.”

“You’re going to walk through those doors and go straight there. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t look at anyone. Just walk, and when you get to the fountain, sit down and wait for us. Understood?”

I nod.

“No! We are not using her as bait, Nix. That’s totally out of the question. No way in hell. Are you even listening to yourself right now?” Gray growls. the vibration from his voice almost palpable, and I swear the ground shakes beneath his feet.

“I-I can do it. Will it lead him to me?” I ask, a nervous twinge in my voice.

“I will be monitoring the whole time. If anything happens, I can stop him. Trust me, baby.” Nix coos, caressing my cheek.

“I want him gone. I can’t handle him following me, stalking me, and leaving things for me anymore.” I plead, begging them with my eyes.

“Call your dad, Gray. We’re going to need a cleanup crew.”

“I didn’t say I was agreeing to this. We are sending an innocent woman out alone, so we can draw him out? That’s fucked up.”

The silence that falls afterward is sharp and brittle, thin glass waiting to shatter beneath the wrong word.

Gray’s pacing now, running a hand through his hair like he’s physically trying to keep the fury from slipping out. “There’s got to be another way,” he mutters. “Something that doesn’t involve her walking straight into his crosshairs.”

“I’m not walking into anything,” I say, steadying myself. “I’ll be surrounded. Watched.”

“You shouldn’t have to be.” He turns to me, his eyes lit with something dangerous. “You shouldn’t be the one out there dangling like bait.”

“I’m not helpless,” I snap, the words sharper than I intend.

His jaw works. He doesn’t argue, but he also doesn’t agree .

Phoenix, still crouched in front of me, meets my eyes. There’s a promise there, a tether. “The moment he shows his face, he’s done. We’re in position, we’ve got eyes in the crowd, comms in your ear. You won’t even sit down before I’ve got him in our grasp. I’ve already got eyes on his location.”

Gray grits his teeth. “And what if you’re wrong? What if she hesitates, or freezes—”

“Then I move.” Phoenix’s tone is final. “Because I’ve got her.”

I exhale slowly.

“I want this,” I say again. “I need this.”

Gray still looks like he wants to put his fist through a wall but after a moment he nods once, just once, and pulls out his phone.

“Fine,” he growls. “But if we’re doing this…” He scrolls, then taps. “…I’m calling in everyone.”