Page 105 of 4th Degree

I suck in a deep, shaky breath. “Yeah, I’m here. I’m good.”

“Jax and I are trying to get the Reddit thread taken down, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take. We?—”

“It got posted to Reddit?” Nothing should horrify me at this point, so I don’t know why that does.

“Yeah. Whoever sent the email last night also posted it at the same time. We can’t figure out where it came from. I just need you to hold tight, okay?”

I nod, even though he can’t see me.

“Go to the gym, Jax and I are on our way over. We’ll figure out what to do, I promise.”

“Okay,” I answer in a daze. “I’ll meet you over there.” And then I hang up.

When my phone rings a few seconds later, I think my brain assumes it’s Tristan again. I don’t know, I can’t think straight. I hit answer.

“Dom?”

I frown. That’s not Tristan.

Pulling the phone away from my ear, I realize it’s one of my friends who owns a gym himself over in New Jersey about an hour outside of the city.

“Andy?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

But he doesn’t say anything else. And it hits me immediately.

“You saw it, didn’t you?”

A pause. “Yeah. I did.”

I swallow roughly and force myself to ask, “Was it… Was it sent to you?”

Another hesitation. “Yeah. We all got the email.”

“We?” I choke out.

“Yeah. All the Philly and Jersey coaches. We got the email last night. And then… We saw all the comments on social media.”

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

“Jesus, Dom, a teenager? What the hell were you thinking?”

“It’s not… It’s not what it looks like.” Is this what my whole day is going to be like? That on repeat?

Suddenly, I need out of this conversation. I need air.

“Andy, it’s not what it looks like. I swear. Just…trust me a little, okay? I’ve gotta go.”

I hang up before he can respond.

And then I’m grabbing my keys and Brutus and leaving for the gym.

I don’t remember any of the drive, because parts of me are still running on autopilot. But I think I’m hoping I’ll snap out of it at the gym, or somehow magically figure out how to fix this. Because I have to fix this.

Jax and Tristan are already at the gym when I get there. When I walk in the door, their conversation stops, and their heads turn toward me.

I stop where I am and just stare at them. I have no fucking clue what to say.

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