Page 75 of Look What You Made Me Do

There wasn’t any look she could give him that hadn’t stared back at him from the mirror for the longest time. Even after all these years the memories of that night still scratched deep into the murky swamp of his guilt, pulling at the crust, lifting the ugly scab a little, making it bleed all over again.

“I refused,” Trish said. “I didn’t want to. Not right then. I was a hysterical mess. I was crying… shaking so hard. I just wanted to get away, go back to my house where I felt safe. Jake called around the next day to take me to the precinct but… who was going to believe me, Ella?”

Trish’s question was beseeching, one woman to another, and it didn’t surprise Jake when Ella gave a resigned, “Yeah.”

“Tony and I were in a relationship. I went into the room with him more than willingly. Fooled around quite happily. I’d had a couple of drinks.” Trish ticked the points off her fingers. “I knew how these things went down. Still go down. It’s never the guy who ends up looking bad.”

Another resigned, “Yeah,” from Ella was such a searing indictment on the way things were Jake’s jaw clenched.

“I guess I was in shock,” Trish continued. “We’d only been going out for a month but I think I fell for Tony the first time I laid eyes on him. He was so big and strong. He had this curly blond hair – I swear he looked like an angel. I couldn’t believe he was capable of that. I knew he was impatient with my decision to wait before taking our relationship to the next level, but I never thought he’d try and force me.”

“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Ella said, reaching across the table to give Trish’s arm a squeeze.

Trish gave a half-smile. “Thanks.”

“What happened after that?” Ella asked, looking between them. “Were there no repercussions for Tony?”

Shaking his head, Jake took over the story. “When Trish refused to go to the police, I went to the club. Told them everything. Demanded they get the police in to investigate. Demanded Tony be dropped from the team.”

Jake found it hard to believe he’d been that naive.

“I take it they didn’t quite see it your way?” Ella said.

“No, they didn’t.” Jake’s lips flattened. “They played hardball which resulted in Trish being offered cash to go away.”

“Which I took. I couldn’t face a protracted legal thing, all that media attention and” – she shook her head – “messiness. So I signed their NDA, took the money and walked away.”

“And I requested a trade.”

“I see,” Ella said although she was clearly clueless to how uncommon it was for rookies to be traded.

“Doesn’t it stick in your craw to know that Tony Winchester got away with it?” she asked Trish.

She nodded. “That’s why I couldn’t stand by two years ago and watch him walk over another woman. If I’d spoken up when he’d assaulted me, maybe it wouldn’t have happened to her but… there was the confidentiality agreement.”

“Ah,” she said and Jake saw the moment it all fell into place for Ella as she turned to him. “So you spoke up.”

“He did,” Trish confirmed. “The media were going on like Tony was this bastion of respectability. A happily married man, a great father, a stalwart of the community. Blah, blah, blah. I didn’t want to sit by and watch them crucify her without them knowing he had history.”

“But you couldn’t because of the NDA.”

“Right.” Trish nodded. “So Jake waded in all guns blazing. He went to the police and the media and told everyone what had happened all those years before at the Sentries. Which created a huge frenzy especially when he refused to identify me. The NFL closed ranks and after a shit ton of bad press, the Founders gave him an ultimatum. He could retire to great fanfare; after all, he was playing past the age a lot of players decide to hang up their cleats. Or he’d be let go.”

Old bitterness boiled to the surface and Jake was unable to sit still while all this old ground was being so casually turned over. He rose, heading for the windows, staring out at Lake Michigan and the dying rays of sunshine.

“Jake refused to retire, forcing them to sack him, forcing them to have to publicly defend their decision to get rid of one of the best tight ends the game has ever known. Someone who despite his age, was still playing brilliant football.”

“That was very honorable.”

Jake could feel the heat of Ella’s gaze between his shoulder blades. He opened his mouth to deny the charge because he didn’t think he should be lauded for just doing the right thing but Trish got in before him.

“It was magnificent,” Trish enthused. “I know you had a lot going on during that time with your mom and Cam but… you would have been so proud of him, Ella.”

“Sounds like it,” came her soft response.

“But it’s time for me to step up now.”

Jake whipped around. “No way.”

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