Page 49 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

SARAH

“ D o you think they’ll actually show?” Rhea shimmed into her shorts, pulling them over her spanx and adjusting them around her thighs. Her dark hair was pulled back into two messy buns on the side of her head. Game days were her favorite, and it was easy to tell by the way her eyes sparkled.

“Jensen takes his bets pretty seriously,” I said, tying my cleat in a double knot. “We should be more worried about this team today. The Jags aren’t messing around.”

“Tenzie is back—”

“Wasn’t she suspended for metal cleats?” Sunday was braiding Kaia’s hair into two neat rows beside me.

“Kenna has the scars to prove it,” Kaia added. “Just watch each other's backs and if she tries anything shady we deal with her.”

“Your definition of dealing with her will end up with you in jail so just be vocal about the misconduct if it rises and let Cosy handle it.” I warned her and Kaia rolled her eyes. “I mean it.”

“I heard you,” Kaia patted Sunday on the thigh and stood up rolling out her shoulders in her jersey.

“You hearing me and you listening are two different things, Kaia.” I stand up, shaking out my legs to fix the creases in my shorts as I tighten my ponytail. She watched me carefully as I cocked my head to the side. “Today is going to be hard, don’t get hurt. Please.”

“Don’t give me those puppy dog eyes, Minty. It’s illegal,” Kaia said, shaking her head and looking away from me .

“You forced my hand,” I said, I was only trying to keep her upright and out of trouble for as long as I could, “promise me.” I poked.

“You are a thief of joy,” she said but shook my hand, rolling our palms together in a smooth movement that linked our pinky’s tightly.

“I promise…“ she started to back away and I instantly knew what was coming out of her mouth, “to never die…” she changed her words at the last second and went running from the locker room.

“You can’t Team America me and run away, Kaia!” I called after her, and we all flooded from the cramped locker room onto the pitch. The bleachers were vibrating with energy that matched the rapid rate of my heartbeat.

Kaia was already chatting with Coach as we lined the side of the pitch and started to warm up. I knew that she was amped about today, it was going to cause trouble if she wasn’t able to reel it in but I always knew she spotted my new agent in the stands and she’d do anything for me.

I stepped onto the field with the team, following through the warm-ups with Sunday at my side while she remained with her head in the clouds. She lost her balance once or twice during her scoop stretch and ended up on the ground laughing as I hauled her to her feet.

“Oh my god,” she said, her eyes widening at something over my shoulder. “They came.”

I turned on my heel as the rest of the team flanked us in awe. Not only had Jensen managed to get nearly the entire Hornet’s team to join him but he had several of the Hogs in toe, including both Black brothers and Loveday, all three shirtless and painted head to toes in Hillcats colours.

The Hornets team wore similar getups, using their gifted rugby jerseys as bandanas or armbands.

Every single one of them was sporting either a letter of the Hillcats name painted in bright orange on their bare chests, or a number that corresponded with a player.

Ella was carrying a box and one by one the guys pulled out Pom poms that looked roughly handmade and lopsided.

She gave me a little wave as Arlo laid out a blanket for her on the bleachers, giving her a hand up and leaning against the side with a disinterested expression on his face.

Brighton was talking to Judd both wearing backwards Hillcats hats, their array of tattoos peaking out beneath the blue body paint as Boone helped the guys line up to spell Hillcats correctly.

“Are they missing an L?” Cosy sounded confused.

“No it’s Arlo,” I said, pointing to him still standing with Ella. The chaos of the situation combined with one two many naked men was drawing the attention from both sides of the field. They might actually turn out to be a good distraction as long as it was the other team they were disturbing.

“Boone’s been working out.” Rhea’s head tilted to the side.

“He stopped drinking,” Kaia said, “It’s annoying.” It meant that he wasn’t as fun, at least not when she needed him to be, in those dark moments when she just needed a clown.

I didn’t care about any of them though, because Jensen was staring at me with a goofy look on his face and Hillcats bandana wrapped around his neck. He was painted with my number and gave me a wink before turning back to his team.

“Why are they in a huddle?” Cosy asked nervously.

“That can’t be good,” Sunday said.

“Ladies, time to play a game!” Coach interrupted before we had the chance with a clap of her hands. The Jaguars had brought a crowd of their own and before long the bleachers were alive with noise which felt intense with pressure as the game began.

The ball came off Sunday’s boot and ripped through the air as Kaia surged through her attacker toward it. It bounced wildly, tipping to the right and staying in bounds but slipping between the fingers of the chaser.

The action caused the Jaguar to miss the ball completely and allowed Kaia to wrap herself around it, flipping the play and stealing the ball. Rhea wasn’t far behind and took up her flank, clearing the left side so she could get a few uncontested yards before being thrown to the ground.

Kaia pushed the ball out, her body covered by the attacker and a struggling Cosy who was fighting against their props unassisted until Megan flew in to help from around the right side.

Sunday scooped up the ball in record time, her legs moving faster than the attacker as she goose-stepped to the right, surging forward into open field with Rhea and myself on her tail to assist .

“Sunny!” Rhea called out. The ball popped out and flung back into her arms roughly as Sunday was tangled up around the waist and spun out of the play.

The next two attackers took on Rhea from either side, smart enough to know that if they tried it alone they’d never take her down and if they missed their chance she would be gone.

But Rhea was smarter than both of them, waiting until the last possible second to push the ball out, sending it flying through the air like a torpedo into my arms as Kaia bulldozed her way across the field behind me to have my flank.

The girl that got loose to follow me was fast, but she wasn’t as fast as me.

She surged forward trying to get her fingers around my jersey, but I kicked out my leg and darted from her grasp before she could get purchase.

I felt the other chaser on my right and pushed a little harder, flinging myself over the line just short of middle and scored the first try of the game.

The home crowd erupted into cheers, the Hornet’s doing a very sloppy coordinated chant that was completely inaudible. Kaia wrapped her arm around my middle in a lazy, out of breath full body high five before letting me take the ball back to center.

Cosy was standing lopsided ahead of me and I could see the bruise starting to form on her bicep from being stepped on. “You alright?”

“Beauty run, Minty.” She said, not answering my question. Cosy was our team mom, she always had been, always stuffing down her own pain to put on a smile for us. I scanned over her again, finding no blood but knew that Tenzie was playing dirty from the way she was smiling in line across from me.

She was a beast, a solid hundred and eighty pounds of anger that she took out on anyone she could. Luckily she was slow and the only time she got her hands on any of the smaller players is when we made a mistake.

“Play clean, play fast!” Cosy yelled, reading my mind as the ball was kicked, wasting no time putting us back in motion. The game became chippy after Sunday scored a third try with another conversion bringing the game to a tie. It was more of a fight than we’d ever expected.

I carried the ball, checking over my shoulder for help but Rhea was too far behind and caught up with another body when I collided with Tenzie.

Her arms wrapped around my legs, pushing me off the ground a solid two feet before Cosy came up behind me to support the huddle and shove her back a step into her own player.

I tried to chuck the ball to Kaia the moment I saw her but Tenzie had other plans, she loosened the hold causing me to fall backwards unbalanced and hit the ground.

Cosy tried to move in for coverage but her cleat was already ripping the skin of my inner thigh.

Screaming out I yanked as hard as I could to pop the ball free and push it out on the ground for Kaia who grabbed it quickly and took off as fast as she could through the break.

Cosy followed, only doing her job as Tenzie ripped away from me and I rolled clumsily off the ground to get back into the action.

I could feel the blood pooling down my thigh as I forced my body to ignore the searing pain and caught up to the action just in time to see Kaia score.

“Looks like you need a sub, Sarah!” She called to me, jogging backwards with a smug look on her face.

“Yeah fuck you, Tenzie!” I hollered at her, pulling my shorts down over the wicked scratches left behind by her cleats, hissing as the fabric made contact and hiding it as best I could from Coach. We had one half left in the game, there was no way I was being taken out.

The girls huddled together, passing water around when Kaia’s eyes landed on the smudge of blood and dirt between my legs. “My eyes are up here, Killer.” I joked with her but she had the look of murder in her eyes.

“Was it her?” She snapped over the sound of Coach talking us through what needed to happen to hold our lead. “I’m going to fucking kill that bitch.”

“Later,” Rhea said, her voice more commanding than normal. “First we win, Minty has eyes on her, we can't turn this match into a bloodbath.”

“What we can’t do is let that ogre get away with playing dirty,” Kaia argued, her knuckles white as it tangled into the side of my jersey.

“Beat her above the board and we’ll slash her tires in the parking lot later,” Rhea yanked gently on one of Kaia’s braids making her look at her. “We’ll make her pay, I promise.”

Rhea was the only one good for it. Kaia knew that, if Rhea made a promise. No matter how ridiculous, or sometimes even illegal, she was the first to sign up for trouble and always followed through .

“Okay don’t make us all complicit in your crimes please?” Cosy furrowed a brow as she whispered.

Once the second half started the blood kept spilling.

Tenzie was on me constantly, leaving me very little room to do anything besides push the ball out to the next set of hands.

I spent more time on the ground than I had all last season, and my body was starting to feel the effects of the abuse.

I got up off the ground as Rhea pushed her way over the try line.

Coach was trying to get me to come in off the field but the game had two minutes left and I wasn’t giving up just because she was trying to put me down.

We were up, but it wasn’t enough. There was still time for them to tie the game and we couldn’t let that happen.

“Run a chicken,” I yelled out. It was a play we did to distract the opposition and create holes, it didn’t work often but it would work now because they were so hyper-focused on putting me in the dirt.

Sunday stepped up to my side as the kick was made and like lightning crashing the adrenaline exploded under my skin.

I took off as fast as I could, pushing those sore muscles to their limit to collect the ball before it hit the ground.

Pocketing it I sidestepped out of the attackers grasp and took off into the empty pocket left by Tenzie who had been distracted by Sunday for a damning split second.

The crowd was on fire as I walked the ball to center and tapped it on the ground, kneeling down with it between my legs to catch my breath. The new minted cheerleading squad were dog piled screaming and cheering, paint smudged across their chests and smiles bright as they screamed.

“If that didn’t impress your agent, I don’t know what will.” Kaia stepped toward me and helped me off the ground. “Put that ball through the posts and let's get drunk.”