“I took your power away.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “You sure did.”
A weight settled in my chest. I swallowed the unexpected knot wedged in my throat and forced the words past my lips. “And I weaponized you for her.”
“Yup.”
“Are you going to tell me what the deal is between you and Tilly?”
“Nope. Now, if you’d asked me before—” She shrugged and pulled a twenty from her bag and tossed it on the counter. “Doesn’t matter now.” But her mouth trembled when she said it—just one of a dozen different ways she showed me it mattered.
“You’re just going to let me go into this blind?”
“How does it feel?” she snapped as she slid off the stool.
Rory glanced between the two of us and moved in closer. Ready to protect Mayhem—from me.
In the span of one disastrous move, I now stood apart from the team—maybe even more separated than Tilly. God, that was a kick in the balls right there.
Mayhem started past me without even a glance and I couldn’t let her go. My sister was right… I was already well on my way to falling in love with her and if I let her walk away from me now, she might walk away from me for good.
I curled my fingers around her arm and let them slide down over her wrist to her hand.
She slowed to a stop next to me and closed her eyes.
Afraid to breathe, I waited to see what she would do when my palm slid against hers.
She glanced down at our hands, her index finger twitching against my skin. I felt the shudder move through her a split second before she lightly laced her fingers with mine.
“I won’t let her hurt you,” I promised her, squeezing her hand gently, afraid to push her any farther.
Damp, bright-blue eyes heavy with unshed tears ripped into me with a glimpse of what I’d done to her.
“You can’t protect me,” she murmured as she let my fingers go and walked out the door.
I can’t protect anyone.
But for the first time since Abel died, my instinct wasn’t to run from trying.
17
My hair follicles hurt.
No really…all it took was a breeze wafting through the open doorway to make me whimper.
And I still had two hours of practice left to go.
“Push, Mayhem!”
Push this, fucker.
“Get up, get up, get up!”
What the hell did he think I was doing? I just barely got down here. Like really, guy.
“Find your balance!”
I know he better not just be yelling that at me.
“Stay low!”
Demanding bastard.
“That’s it. Take five,” he called.
Marty hunched over and braced her hands on her knees as she gasped out a breath. “I don’t even want to skate off the bank because I’m going to blink and have to get back on.”
“I’m not moving. I’m just going to be here trying not to die,” Rory said as she clung to the padded rail, her chest laboring to move air.
“He’s got a real boner for being up your ass today,” Marty said with a quick glance in my direction.
“He’s got a boner to get up her ass every day,” Sean said as she snickered.
Where the hell did she find the extra air for that?
“Has he gotten his boner near your ass yet, Maze?” Rory asked.
“Don’t fucking call me Maze. I don’t want to have to use my last burst of energy to kick your ass.”
Rory glared. “Hey, you let Patti call you Maze.”
“Because I’m afraid Patti will kick my ass. Besides, no one lets Patti do anything. She just does it.”
“Maybe he’d lighten up if you just do the deed already. You want it. He wants it. I’m ready to hear about some bone action,” Marty said.
Sean squatted low and propelled herself back up with a wince. “I bet he’s got a really great bone. Like worth molding for a sex toy. Every once in a while he turns a certain way in those shorts and—”
All of our gazes swung in her direction and froze.
“Like you guys haven’t noticed,” she said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. “But he’s still paying for letting Tilly on the team.”
“She’s kept her ass in line. I’ll give her that,” Rory said, straightening and stretching her arms over her head.
Something cold hit my shoulder and I glanced up to find Tilly tapping a water bottle against my skin.
“Thirsty?”
I tensed but took the bottle from her. “Uh, yeah, thanks.”
No smile. Expressionless eyes. Without another word, she handed the bottle to me and skated away.
I looked around to see if she’d handed out a bunch of them or only brought one for me, but I couldn’t tell. Carmen, Dixie, Lexi, and Cat all had water, but they were already half gone at this point. Besides, they stood in a tight circle with Zara, all lips flapping and hand gestures, talking about something that had them all fired up.
My gaze landed on Tilly only to find her watching me from the edge of the infield as she tipped her bottle back.
What the fuck did this mean?
“Make sure the seal’s intact,” Marty muttered.
“Funny.” I pushed off and started a lap around the track. And yeah, I made sure I broke the seal.
We still hadn’t done an all-out jam yet. Instead, Priest kept us on the bank relearning every basic skill. Hours upon hours he hammered us with endless stops, starts, blocks, transitions, duck walks, duck runs, push drills, swoop and block drills, everything we needed to learn to stay upright on a bank while getting hit from each side.
He didn’t miss a single thing, his shrewd eyes scanning, studying, always watching every move.
If we did it wrong, slacked, or looked tired—he called us out.
He called us out hard.
He also made it hella hard for a girl to have a private couple of seconds to pick a fucking wedgie, that was for damn sure.
When he
