Page 66 of Sidelining the Safety

What the hell?

“Mac! Don’t touch it.”

He froze, not even realizing he’d bent to pick it up.

“Oh, shit. You’re bleeding.”

Who’s bleeding? He looked up at Katy, staring at him with her mouth open, and his stomach turned over. Feeling light-headed, he fell on his butt, and then his world turned dark.

CHAPTER 45

LEE

“Man, I’m glad we decided to commute in together. I’m bushed.” Lee leaned back in the front passenger seat, rolling his head toward Drew.

“Me, too. I like having you all to myself as we sit in traffic for who knows how long.” Drew chuckled, glancing at Lee with a smile. “That was some game. How are you feeling? Anything hurt?”

Lee assessed, shifting his body around and curling his hands into fists. “Good. Maybe a little tender where Collins landed on me when we came down in the end zone, and he scratched up my arms trying to get the ball.”

“That was a hell of a catch. You won us the game… again.” Drew flashed him another grin, then sighed with relief as the traffic eased. “Finally. Text Mac, will ya? Let him know we’ll be there soon.”

Lee looked out the window and gauged how much longer. “Feels weird to be going past my place and then backtracking toward the stadium.” He pulled out his phone and opened his contacts.

Ten minutes.

They sat in silence with Lee not wanting to disturb Drew in the still heavy traffic, but the drowsiness he’d been feeling had ebbed with the anticipation of seeing Mac. They had a plan: party with the team for an hour or two before heading back to his apartment and celebrating in a whole other way. The “strip each other’s clothes off and get naked” kind of way. The “fall on the bed” way. The “I’m going to?—”

“What the fuck?” Drew shouted, pulling into the diner’s lot and hitting the brakes hard, stopping in between two rows.

Lee twisted in his seat, glancing around, clicking his seatbelt off, and had the door already half open as Drew put the car in park. The crystalline shatter of glass splintered the air. Lee launched himself out of the car and toward the shadowed figure who’d thrown something through the diner’s window, shattering it.

He pounded pavement, but the slap of his feet must have tipped off the miscreant, who took off running. Lee shouted for them to stop, but when they didn’t, he kept right on going. When the criminal’s hood blew off and long, scraggly dirty blond hair streaked behind him, Lee had a name. Troy.

“Oh, hell no. You’re not getting away this time,” he gritted out as he booked it down the block. He put on a burst of speed, closed the distance, and didn’t even think, leaping for and tackling Troy to the ground.

He pulled back his arm to punch Troy, kicking and squirming and yelling beneath him, and only stopped when someone grabbed him. “No!” they shouted loud enough to penetrate the swoosh of blood rushing in his ears.

Lee looked up at the circle of blue uniforms, several with guns pointed down at Troy. “Fuck.” He scrambled off of Troy, letting the police handle the arrest. Sitting on his butt with his arms wrapped around his legs, Lee panted. Numbly, he noticed he had red-tinged fabric around a gaping hole in the knee of his slacks. Lee hadn’t even felt getting torn up, but as the adrenaline wore off, pain crept in. Knee, elbow, shoulder, hip, all down his right side. When he finally gathered enough of his wits, he glanced around and realized they were on the sidewalk in front of the police station. He started laughing.

“Holy shit.”

“I know, right?” Carey said, standing next to him. “Ran right toward the station. Like ‘Here, officer, I was a bad boy. Lock me up.’” He snickered as he shook his head, then offered a hand up to Lee. The moment he went up, he almost went right back down, woozy and nauseous. Thankfully, Carey was right there to grab him.

“Medic!” Carey shouted, holding Lee tight around the chest. He slowly lowered him all the way down.

A paramedic detoured from his run past them. He took one look at Lee and dropped to his knees to assess him.

“Was someone injured at the diner?” Carey squeaked, looking that way.

“Yeah. Glass caught one of the employees. Cut them up and they fainted.”

“Lee?” Carey gazed at him.

“Go,” Lee said, rubbing his shoulder. Seeing the paramedic’s name, Michaels, on the guy’s jacket reminded him of Coach Mike. Lee groaned. “Coach is gonna have my ass.”

“Aren’t there team rules against doing foolish things?” Michaels asked, pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting open Lee’s pant leg. “You got some dirt and gravel in here that’s going to need to be cleaned, but otherwise, it’s pretty superficial. I’m sure your team doctor is going to want to check you over.”

Katy jogged up to them and, with a cry of dismay, knelt beside Lee. She carefully touched his cheek. “Mac got hit with some of the glass. He has a few cuts on his face and arms, minor stuff, but he fainted and hit his head on the floor when he landed. Drew doesn’t think it’s a concussion, but we’re going to take him and you, I think, to the ER. Drew’s already called Dr. Rosie, and she’s going to meet us there.”

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