CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
When I left the bathroom and headed for the coffee cart, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. Was I worried about everyone finding out about Mason and me
—yes. Was it enough to paralyze me with fear—no. With that decision made, I was more annoyed than normal when I snapped my order to the girl behind the coffee counter.
"Whoa, what's wrong?"
I stopped in my tracks at the sight of Adam. And then I tried to force myself to relax. "Hey, how are you?"
"You okay?" His eyebrows were arched high with his own cup of coffee in hand.
I rolled my shoulders back. "Yeah, I'm fine or I will be."
"Huh?"
"Nothing, just an annoying run-in with Cassandra in the bathroom."
"Ah." He nodded his head. "Gotcha. She does that to me too."
"I think she's decided to try her luck with Logan again."
"Yeah, she told me the same thing." Something sad flashed in his eyes. "It won't work, will it?"
I shook my head. "Nope and if it does, I'll tie him down and do a drug test on him."
He grinned. "Yeah, you seem pretty tight with both of them."
"I guess…" I eyed him warily. We were treading into forbidden land, could he handle that reality? He couldn't before.
He spread his hand wide. "Hey, I'm okay with this. Really. I've given up on that, but I won't for your friendship. I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep your friendship."
An arm was thrown around my shoulders and Logan's body fell hard against my side. He smirked. "Really?"
Adam drew to his fullest height and the gentleness in his eyes vanished. A hard look entered instead when he clipped out, "Really."
Logan's body shook in silent laughter. "You just want to keep her friendship, huh?"
"You got a problem with that?"
"Yeah, I do. She's going to be my sister, man. You think I want a parasite hanging around her because that's what you are. You're one of those guys who sit back and wait for the guy to screw up. When she's hurting or lonely, you guys swoop in. Hell, I should tip my hat to you guys. I couldn't do it. I couldn't wait around and watch the woman I wanted be with another guy, waiting until there's a break with them, until she's vulnerable." He mocked him. "Yeah, it must take a special kind of guy to do that."
Adam's eyes had narrowed to a dangerous level. His hand was clenched into a fist, but he kept it down and pressed against his side.
Logan continued, "Or maybe that's what makes creepers. I've got a different viewpoint on stalkers now…"
Adam's lip curled up as he tried to mask a sneer. "You're calling me the creeper? What are you doing?" His eyes pointedly slid to me and it took Logan a second before he launched himself forward. His arm was thrown back, his fist ready, and look of hatred came to his eyes.
Adam's eyes went wide as he saw it in slow motion, but before Logan's fist connected, Mason tucked an arm around his chest and threw him backwards.
He cursed as he tried to twist away from his hold. "Let me at him, Mase. Come on."
Shaken, Adam puffed out his chest and smoothed his hands down the front of his pants. "Hey, man. If it weren't true…"
Mason glanced over his shoulder. The look of warning made Adam shut his lips. "Shut up or we'll do round two, somewhere private."
Logan threw over his brother's shoulders, "Where there won't be teachers or some girl to save you."
Mason glanced at me and I narrowed my eyes. There was a searching look in him. I lifted my chin. What was he looking for? Then I tried to search inside of him. What was he thinking?
He blinked and the look was gone. The normal unreadable wall was back in place. He threw Logan in front of him and neither seemed to care about the crowd that had formed or who Logan ran into.
Adam seemed frozen in place.
Cassandra's voice came from behind me. I gritted my teeth as I heard her coo,
"Logan, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
Logan barked out an ugly-sounding laugh and shoved her to the side. "Back off. You've got no chance."
I tried to suppress a smile at that, but couldn't so I looked down.
"Oh shut up," she cried out in anger. "You do not laugh at me, whore."
My head came up and my eyes widened. Her fury was directed at me. She approached with two steps and a hand in the air. "You dare to laugh at me? Do you know who I am? Or what I could do to you? I would demolish you, slut. I would run your name through the mud so much you'd beg me to let you out of your misery. You'd be—"
Something snapped inside of me and I marched up to her. I knew my eyes were dead when they met hers and she shrunk away, a little bit. "You think you scare me? Nothing scares me. Nothing, Sullivan."
"Whatever…" she tried to laugh it off and turn away.
My hand clasped onto her arm and I whirled her back around. I was in her face and all the hatred I had boiled to the top. "You want all the dirt on me. Here you go. I hope you take notes. My mom's a cheater. She left my dad for another guy and took me with. I was living with two guys who hated me because of that. Then I found out my boyfriend was screwing my best friend and my other best friend knew about it, for two years. Next bombshell—my dad's not my dad. Think it could get worse? It did. I had no one. No friends, no nothing. The guy who raised me all my life couldn't talk to me because of stupid legalities. Now my real dad's in town, my mom's hit me a couple times, and I'm screwing my future stepbrother. You think I'm scared of you?" A hollow laugh broke out of me. "I can handle anything you've got up your sleeve."
There was silence around me and then she belted out a hysterical laugh. "I knew you were sleeping with Logan. Of all—"
I slapped her.
Then I stood there and waited for her reaction. She gasped and reeled back with a hand pressed to her cheek. Her eyes bulged out and she was seething.
"You just—"
My face was calm, devoid of emotion. I didn't feel a thing. "I did. What are you going to do about it?"
She watched me, torn for some reason.
My eyebrow lifted. "Are you going to hit back or are you going to tattle on me?"
The tension was thick in the air. I felt it swirl around inside of me and knew she could see the storm inside of me. I wanted her to hit me. I wanted to hit her again…I wanted a reason to unleash my hell on someone…
Her shoulders slumped forward and she looked down as she stepped back.
I clipped out, "Are you backing away from me?"
She looked up. I caught the scared look in them. Then she turned and was swallowed up in the crowd.
I stared after her and started to look around. Miranda Stewart stood there, so did the rest of the Elite. I met all of their gazes unflinching. One by one they looked away. When I got to the last one, I was surprised to see pity in Adam's gaze.
"What are you looking at?"
His chest lifted up and down. "I told you. We're friends. I may hate your stepbrothers, but not you. Never you."
Logan bit out a curse. "Is he serious?"
Mason turned on him. "Shut up." He strode forward until he blocked me from Adam's gaze. His back was to me, like so many other times. "Message received, Quinn. You're not going anywhere, but neither are we."
Adam flinched, but a resolved look came over him.
Then Mason reached behind him and grasped my arm. He turned and led through the crowd, dragging me behind. Logan followed, but threw a few dirty looks behind him. He muttered under his breath, "Gonna bust your face open."
We hadn't gotten to Mason's car before David's voice hollered through the parking lot, "You can't leave, Mason. You agreed for the whole day and tomorrow."
Mason let go of my arm and cursed as he turned back around. Empty cars were parked all around us and a slight chill breezed around us after a soft rain. The cars were wet and small puddles had formed on the pavement. David approached us with a forceful stride. His jaw was clenched tight and his shoulders were thrown back.
He raked his gaze over me, but spoke to Mason, "You can't leave. That's part of your discipline."
Mason cursed at him. "Forget your little agreement. I'm not staying in there where my brother and your daughter get attacked. You've got a bunch of angry pussies on your team. They don't know when to shut up and leave things alone."
David's mouth turned into a frown. I felt his gaze over me again as he asked softly, "You were attacked, Samantha?"
I jerked away.
Mason stepped in front of me again. "Quinn's obsessed with her. That doesn't bode well with the rest of the girls in your school. She should switch to public school. We could protect her there."
David stepped around him and reached for my arm. "Sam, is this true?"
I hissed as I swung my arm away, but I sent Mason a searching look. What was he doing?
"Sam."
"What?" I wheeled to the only father I knew. "What do you want? The guys in there hate Mason and Logan. You were stupid to think this would work out and Mason could last the whole weekend."
David looked down. "I tried to steer him clear from them."
"It didn't work. Think of another plan, but surrounding him with those guys won't work, especially if he's alone. Logan and I were there to support him."
David's jaw clenched. "Who were they, Sam? Who targeted him?"
I wanted to throw my hands up in frustration. He wasn't hearing me. He didn't get it. "No one, but they don't mix. Mason, Logan, and me—we don't mix with this school."
"You've gone here all your life."
"I don't mix anymore."
"You don't want to go to school here anymore?"
Logan stepped forward and brushed me back with his arm. "She's not saying that, sir. Fallen Academy is a good school. Sam will be fine, but she's saying that you can't ask us to get along with your football team. It won't work, sir."
David looked between the three of us. He breathed in and out and then murmured, "So it's like that, huh?"
I closed my eyes. His hurt was evident.
He added in a quiet voice, "You're one of them, aren't you? I tried to tell you
—"
My eyelids came back up. "Are you kidding me? Is this really about Mason and Logan or is this about you and mom? Why'd you want Mason to volunteer at the festival? Was it really because you needed the help or is it because you wanted one of James Kade's son under your thumb, for even a little bit?"
"Sam." Mason touched my arm.
I whirled to him. "Back off."
He moved a step away, but there was no judgment in his eyes, only understanding. My heart jerked at the sight of that. I didn't want him to understand me. No one could. They'd only pity me instead.
He blinked and it was gone. His hand moved away from my arm.
David looked between the two us, but sighed. "Samantha, your mother said I could have joint custody of you—"
"My real dad's in town."
He had his mouth open and a sound choked out of him before he shut his mouth.
I glanced down. "She's lying to you, whatever's going on between you two about me, it's all a lie. She called my dad a week ago and he's in town. He wants to get to know me." I looked back up and tears had formed at the corners. "I'm eighteen in four months, David. None of this will matter anyway.
I don't know why you're even going along with it."
"Because I care about you." He touched me arm instead. "You're my daughter, Sam. I raised you. It's never going to matter who your real dad is or what your mom says. I've been there since you were born. You're my family too."
The dam broke in me and I turned as I covered my face. David hugged me to him and I cried into his chest.
We stood like that for awhile until Logan cleared his throat. "This is touching and all, but…I'm uncomfortable right now."
I could sense the disapproval from David as I lifted my gaze. A smile touched the corner of my lips instead. "Get in touch with your emotions, Kade. It might do you some good."
He looked in pain. "Yeah…"
Mason cleared his throat. "Can we go? The touchy-feeling scene is done."
David shook his head. "What my daughter sees in the two of you—"
"She's not really your daughter." Mason didn't blink as he leveled him with a look. "She comes from someone else and you were the one who swooped in to raise her, but like she said—she's going to be 18 and it's not going to make a difference. It'll be her choice." He stepped forward and his chest touched my back. An arm curved around my waist and he pulled me against him before he kissed my shoulder where my shirt had been pulled to the side. His breath fanned against my skin. "And she's made her choice, a couple times now…with me."
David's face had turned to stone.
My stomach twisted into a knot and I felt it drop to my feet. I didn't know how to undo what he'd done.
Logan covered up a laugh behind us, but I knew he wasn't hiding back his smirk.
Then David bit out, "Why did you want me to know that?"
Mason fell silent.
My dad jerked forward a step. His eyes gleamed with some emotion I couldn't place. His jaw was so rigid. "You made a grand show here, Mason, and you wanted me to know that my daughter is sleeping with you. Congratulations. I figured it out long ago, but your delivery was in poor sportsmanship. Why'd you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Deliver your triumph how you did." David's eyes were unyielding. "You wanted to hurt me. You wanted me to know that she's sleeping with you. Why?
Are you threatened by me? Do you think she'll listen to me if I tell her to dump you?"
Mason's arm stiffened around my waist, but he remained quiet.
David went on, "I don't like you. I don't like either of you, but I respect you as football players. I don't think you've ever been coached by someone that you respect and I don't think you've ever respected another man, even your father. I've watched the two of you on the field. Everyone has in this state and you are both ruthless. You're the best and you make damn sure everyone knows it on the field, but the one thing that always strikes me isn't how good you both are, it's your level of respect. You don't respect anyone else on the field, but you respect the game. Every time I watch you, I think to myself what kind of men are you two? What motivates you?"
"You think you're the coach that we're going to respect? Did you raise Samantha with Disney movies too?" Mason's tone was mocking and it sent chills down my back. His arm wasn't moving around my waist.
David moved back a step and he sounded sorry when he spoke. "I think of the men you could've been under my watch. You would've been twice the men you are now."
Logan had grown quiet, but Mason let go of my waist and moved me behind him. He was face to face with my father now and his tone had gentled. "You think we're two kids who grew up with bad parenting, but you're wrong. I might not respect my dad, but I love him and I respect my mother. You've never met her. You don't know a damn thing about Logan and me, but you're reaching for straws. I don't like you, but you're a great coach. I've watched you too and I know you're a great coach, but your players don't respect you, sir. They listen to you because you motivate them, but don't misunderstand that. They don't respect you. If they did, Quinn would never treat Samantha how he does. She's a prize to him. You want to paint us as the bastards that grew up with no competition. You want to paint our dad as someone less than you, but you couldn't be farther from the truth. We grew up knowing who we're going to have to deal with during our lives and guys like you, guys like Quinn are a dime a dozen. They're around every bend in the road. Logan and I aren't stupid enough to buy the crap most adults try to sell."
He turned and met my gaze. I flinched under his stare, but held it. He was looking for something inside of me and I knew I couldn't look away. I couldn't quake or tremble so I settled my nerves, stood upright, and lifted my jaw. My eyes were hard as I stared back at him.
Mason turned back to my father. "I respect you as a coach, but I don't respect you as a man. You should've never let Sam go."
The fallen look on my dad would haunt me forever. That knowledge trembled inside of me and I turned away to press into Mason's arms. He swept me up and pressed a kiss against my forehead. As he deposited me in his vehicle, I didn't hear anything. Logan should've been laughing. My dad should've been yelling. I should've been crying, but there was nothing. Just silence.
It echoed throughout my body.