Page 75 of Hate the Game (Playing Dirty #1)

***Cole***

“This is absurd. You got me here under false pretenses and I don’t appreciate being jerked around by a bunch of toddlers in football pads.

I’ll be filing a complaint with President O’Madden.

” Marla Knight was a pain in the ass. She was angry, volatile, hated us with a passion, and just all-around kind of sucked.

Jax scowled at the woman, his perfect facade dropped somewhere along the way with Ryder’s aloofness and my inability to commit.

No one could ever say that Savannah hadn’t made an impact on us.

She definitely had. Like a fucking meteorite.

Before Jax could completely throw caution to the wind and toss Marla out a window, I stepped in.

“Why don’t you file a complaint with Coach first? He’s in his office, waiting on you.” I forced a smile but judging by the way she took a step back, it hadn’t been pretty.

“Did Savannah help you do this? I knew she’d gotten involved with one of you. And after what you did to her brothers. Shame on you and shame on her for emailing me to set this bullshit up. I’m going to make sure she never-”

“Just go into the fucking office, lady! You’ve been inching that way the whole time. It’s clear you want to. Go. Now. For the love of god, just go!” Ryder threw his hands up and walked a few feet down the hallway, away from Coach’s office and Marla Knight.

“And don’t threaten Savannah. She had nothing to do with this. She doesn’t know we emailed you.” I crossed my arms. “If you talk to Coach and still want to throw a tantrum, we’ll be here waiting.”

She jabbed her finger in my direction and growled before spinning around and barging into Coach’s office. We hadn’t warned him, of course. He was sitting in on an athletic department meeting, headphones blocking out the ruckus we were making. He was in for quite the surprise.

I caught a glimpse of his dumbstruck face before it turned to anger and he shot out of his chair, headphones flying off as he went. We followed Marla in, not giving the two of them enough time to fully get into it before we intervened.

“What the fuck is this about?” Coach swung around on us. “What is this?”

Jax stepped closer to his dad’s desk and crossed his arms over his chest, the picture of cool authority.

“Marla Knight gave the internship to Savannah. Savannah Lane Ford. They planned on trashing the football program in the article at the end of the season but Savannah changed her mind. Marla here has a hard on for you, though, Dad, so she’s pushing Savannah and threatening to ruin her career.

Or keep her from ever having one. Whatever happened between the two of you, sort it out.

It’s bullshit that Savannah is going to be hurt because of your issues. ”

Coach’s mouth dropped open. “Ford? Savannah Lane Ford?”

Marla put her hands on her hips. “Yeah. That Ford. You and your team hurt two of her brothers last year and she wanted revenge. She was going to be brilliant but apparently, she’s sleeping with one of these idiots and has lost sight of her plan.

Maybe it’s like father, like son. Maybe your son used his good looks and okay personality to charm her into his bed and once she’s missed her chance to do the job, he’ll leave her to her own devices.

Alone and crushed because he promised the world with no intention of delivering it. ”

“First of all, no one hurt her brothers on purpose. It’s a goddamn shame that those boys got hurt.

Someone should’ve explained to her that sometimes accidents happen in football and that’s the risk these boys take to play the game.

You damn well know my boys didn’t target her brothers.

Yet you let her go on believing that to further your little game?

” Coach’s head was so red that I was slightly concerned for his heart but it didn’t slow him down.

“Second of all, what the fuck is wrong with you? You have shown up here twice now with a stick up your ass and an attitude problem the size of the fucking state, all in the name of hating me. It’s bullshit and it stops now! ”

“Yeah, we’re going to go. We just need you two to sort this out.

We care about Savannah, Dad.” Jax softened his tone but stared his dad down, making sure Coach understood how serious he was being.

“We care about her a lot and it would be a damn shame if you two let your petty drama hurt her and her future.”

Marla started yelling again like she didn’t give a flying fuck about what Jax was saying. “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me?! You! You act like you’re god’s gift but we both know what you did to me!”

“What I did to you?! You’re the one who left, Mar. You left and then you-”

“I had to be closer to my family! You knew that! You told me you’d wait on me and you-”

“Just figure it out! We’ll be outside waiting.” Jax led the three of us out and I slammed the door behind us, frustrated that they were arguing like a couple of teenagers instead of having the smallest bit of maturity about the whole thing.

Once we were in the hallway the shouting started back up, muffled but very clearly still shouting.

We moved a little farther down the hallway and leaned against the wall while we waited.

They couldn’t argue forever. We just needed Marla to relax on her vendetta plan, just enough for Savannah to be okay.

The thought of Savannah being cut off in her career, again, made me sick to my stomach.

I didn’t want to have anything to do with her suffering in any way.

I’d already done more than enough of that for a lifetime.

No matter how I felt about her, she believed we’d lied and pretended to get her to like us.

I couldn’t even imagine the shit she was telling herself.

Did she think differently about our time in the shower?

It killed me to think that she might’ve believed I’d only joined her in the shower that night as some ploy to protect my career.

Maybe we’d started out wanting to protect ourselves but getting to know Savannah changes things.

I let my head thump against the wall behind me and sighed. “Think they’ll sort out their shit?”

Jax blew out a sharp breath. “If they don’t, we’ll figure something else out.”

Ryder’s sudden and sharp inhale had Jax and I jerking to attention. He was staring down the hall and when we followed his gaze we saw Savannah.

She stood far enough away from us that she would’ve had plenty of time to run away if she wanted to. She didn’t run, though. She stood perfectly still, staring at us with wide eyes. Why was she there? Was it to see us? Coach? Had she found the emails we’d sent from her account?

It fucking gutted me that I could see the pain in her eyes and the way she immediately crossed her arms over her stomach, trying to hide the strip of skin her shirt exposed. She was so beautiful it hurt but there she was, trying to hide her body from us.

I balled my hands into fists and hid them behind my back to keep from grabbing or scaring her. I took a shaky step towards her and opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. I didn’t have words. I just wanted to hold her and show her how sorry I was for hurting her.

She tipped her chin a little higher and walked towards us. She was doing her best to look unbothered but I’d watched her smile enough to know when she wasn’t happy. She stopped in front of us and took a deep breath. “I need to see Coach.”