Page 73 of Hate the Game (Playing Dirty #1)

***Ryder***

Iknocked harder on Savannah’s door and turned to glare at Jax. “What did you do?”

He flushed red with anger as he came at me. “Are you fucking serious? Why would you assume I did something to her?”

Cole managed to get between us and shoved us both back. “Knock it off. Call Blaire again and-”

“Her phone’s still off. Security at her dorm changes over in the morning and we might be able to get in then but for now, she’s untouchable. The brat.” Jax tugged at his hair and squeezed his eyes shut. “She was fine when I left. Happy. There’s nothing that I said that should-”

I looked up at his sudden silence and followed his gaze down the hall to Cass.

She stood there, arms clutched around her body, face red from crying.

She wasn’t typically a crier, I didn’t think.

I’d never paid much attention, though. Before I could ask what was wrong with her she let her arms fall to her sides and came at us.

There were still tears in her eyes but there was also a surprising amount of anger.

She stopped right in front of us and jabbed her finger into Cole’s chest. “You’re all just a bunch of assholes.

You slept with her. Are you even doing the plan anymore?

I saw her. I saw her coming out of your room in your shirt this morning, Cole. ”

A feeling of dread settled over me. “Did you say anything to her?”

Cole looked dumbstruck. “What’s wrong, Cass? What’s-”

“You asshole!” She shoved at his chest and then openly broke down.

Her shoulders shook with her sobs but when Cole tried to wrap his arm around her she shoved him away again.

“How could you do that? How could you sleep with her when you know she’s here to hurt you?

She wants to take you down! She doesn’t care about you. I care about you!”

Jax winced. He and I weren’t shocked that Cass had finally hit a wall with Cole. He was oblivious to her feelings. With the way she was crying, I wondered if we all hadn’t been blind to just how seriously she felt about him.

“I care about each of you and you’re all too stupid to see it.

Instead, you want to mess around with a woman who hates you.

” Wiping her nose on her sweater, Cass glared straight into Cole’s soul.

“I told her everything. She knows that we all talked about who she was and why she was here. She knows that you three set out to seduce her to keep her article from happening. She knows you used her. She must be an amazing actress or bad at her job because she looked crushed.”

I growled and let her see the full force of my anger. “You had no right.”

“I had no right? Fuck you. I’ve done everything I can to be here for the three of you for so long and you barely even see me. I protected you from her and now you’re angry at me for what? For hurting her feelings? Or for cutting off your supply of tits and ass?”

“That’s not what she is, Cass.” Cole rubbed his hands down his face and looked like he was doing all that he could to keep his anger in check.

“She isn’t a hook up. I care about her. We all do.

You shouldn’t have done this. You should’ve stayed out of it and let us tell her when the time was right.

I’m sorry that you’re upset, Cass. I am.

But you don’t get to hurt Savannah just because the three of us don’t act or react the way you want.

Ryder’s right. You had no right to do this. ”

Cass let out a broken laugh and I would’ve felt awful for her if she hadn’t possibly just cost us Savannah.

Tears streaked down her cheeks and her shoulders slumped.

“You’re never going to care about me the way I care about you, are you?

You never have and you never will. I gave you all of my firsts, Cole.

I fought for you. I went against everything my parents ever said about you and I loved you.

Even when you didn’t deserve it. I kept thinking you’d wake up and see me but you’re never going to, are you? ”

Jax swore under his breath. “Fucking told you to handle this and now look at what it’s caused, Cole.”

“This? You told him to handle this? I’ve been your friend for forever, Jax, and now I don’t even deserve a name? You’re a piece of shit. I’ve always had your back and this is how you treat me… Asshole.”

Cole cut in. “I care about you as a friend, Cass. I’ve made it clear so many times.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry I don’t feel the same way you do and I’m sorry that you’re hurting.

I’m never going to want more from you than friendship.

You need to understand that. I don’t want to hurt you.

I’m furious with you right now but I still care about you.

I do. But this isn’t going to happen. And you need to step way back.

What you did with Savannah? That’s over the line. ”

“You’re going to lecture me about how I treated her now? After what you’ve done? You’re the one who fucked her under false pretenses. Now she knows that you’re a user and a shitty person. It’s better she knows now than wait a few years like me. Fuck all three of you. I hope she never forgives you.”

We all watched as she stormed back down to her room and flinched when she slammed her door closed.

“That wasn’t pretty.” Jax leaned back against our door and sighed. “What do we do?”

Cole rubbed his chest and stared after Cass. “I didn’t know. I never would’ve tried to hurt her. I just don’t feel that way. I fucked up. And she hurt Savannah because of me.”

I felt just as shitty. “We hurt Savannah. We should’ve told her. She opened up to us so much last night. If we’d told her she would’ve been upset but she would’ve forgiven us because we could’ve had a chance to explain. Now, though? Now, we’re fucked. She’ll never forgive us.”

“She has to.” Jax pushed off the door and I watched in shock as he pulled out his wallet and used a credit card to pop Savannah’s lock. “There has to be a way.”

“And you think it’s through breaking into her room?”

“I think it’s through finding out everything we can. We just need to figure out how to fix this. We fucking have to.” Jax shoved Cole. “Come on. You can feel shitty about Cass later. Right now we need to figure out how to fix this with Savannah.”

I went in last and shut the door behind me.

Her room smelled like her and it was a gut punch after finding out that she probably hated us.

I didn’t feel so tough when all I wanted to do was grab her pillow and curl up in her bed.

I was useless as we looked through her room.

I couldn’t get past the feeling of my heart being ripped out of my chest.

Jax snapped his head up and practically barked at us from where he was sitting at her desk with her laptop open in front of him. “Look at this. Look at these emails from Marla Knight.”

“How’d you hack into her computer? I’m smarter than you and I don’t know how to do that.” Cole grunted when Jax punched him.

“She doesn’t have a lock on it. Asshole. Just read the emails.” Jax waited impatiently as we skimmed them. “This woman is threatening her. Savannah doesn’t want to write the bad article but this woman is telling her she’ll never work in the field again if she doesn’t do it.”

“She probably wants to write the article now.” I sat down on the edge of her bed. “She’d have real shit to talk about us now.”

Jax stood up and shook his head. “No. I don’t think she’ll change her mind. If she does, we deserve it, but I don’t think she’ll write a bad article. I think we need to talk to this Marla woman. Maybe if she and my dad fix their shit she won’t want to bleed us dry. Maybe she’ll give Sav a break.”

“I’ll try anything. I don’t want her to believe we didn’t care about her. We did. We do… Right?” Cole looked from me to Jax. “We’re trying to start something here, right? Her with each of us?”

Jax nodded. “If there was ever a reason to shatter my golden boy image, it’s this. With her.”

“I don’t believe in wanting something and just walking away without trying.

Maybe this weird shit won’t work out and we’ll end up hating each other.

But maybe it will work out and we’ll have Savannah.

I don’t run scared.” I motioned to the laptop.

“Show us again. Show us what all she said so we can work out a plan.”