Page 52 of Taking Over the Dark

I’ll always be thankful to the Devils for choosing me to be their new franchise quarterback, but the main thing the Devils brought me was acceptance.

Love.

And partnership.

Partnership in every aspect I can think of.

I get to experience love from three different people, and the way each one of them shows that love is such a stark difference. All in ways I need.

We’re running the last couple of routes for the practice, and fuck if Zamir and I aren’t one mind tonight.

He’s a fucking machine and hasn’t missed one of my throws. I find myself wondering if he’s feeling as good as I am. The ball is flying out of my hand like a magnet to Z’s hands.

He’s back to the line, but before he’s back to the outside corner, he comes up to whisper in the hole of my helmet. I place my hand over my other helmet hole to hear whatever has him so eager to get to me. “Get three more in my hands like that, and I’ll suck that cock on the way to the warehouse after practice. I also brought you a plug to put in to prep that pretty hole of yours.”

Mierda.

Coach lets out a whistle warning to tell us that we have twenty seconds on the pretend play clock. Z jogs down to his spot and looks at me in his ready stance, grinning like a wild man, and I start my cadence. “Down. Set. Dilly Willy.”

The balls snapped into my hands, and I spin the football to find the laces, running my fingers back and forth, scanning the field right, left, and right again. As planned, Zamir’s breaking away from the corner. I launch the ball down the field, and I watch as the ball floats over his shoulder, both of his hands fly out in front of him to catch it. He laid out to get the catch transitioning into a roll but still managed to keep ahold of it.

We’re back at the line again, but this time, it’s just a handoff to the running back. He only makes it a yard or two before being tackled.

This is the lightest I’ve felt while playing, ever. Even Zamir noticed, as did a couple of the other players. Ass slap after ass slap was landed, but I wasn’t sure if it was from them feeling bad about my dad passing. But the further I got into practice, I knew it was from how well I’m playing.

We ran the rest of practice like this, and let’s just say I made triple the number of passes to Zamir that he wanted from me.

?*Rhett meets Zamir and me outside the locker rooms, and he looks ghostly white…

I joke, “Rhett, bud, you don’t look too good.”

“We’ve gotta move. Now.” The shake in Rhett’s voice is enough to have my heart rate picking up.

“Fill me in,” Zamir barks out.

“I just got a call from Noah saying somebody drove up and shot Dino. He said it looked like it was only his shoulder, but he didn’t see where he went. Vin is on his way up here to scope the outside out and try to find him. Boss said he would’ve come but didn’t want to leave your cousin and his hacker alone in the warehouse.”

“We’ll find Dino. I’m sure he sent them running and is checking the perimeter.” Zamir places his hand on Rhett’s shoulder, and I shove down the pang of jealousy. I know he’s just trying to comfort him in this wild time, but what’s mine is mine.

“Noah at least said he didn’t get taken, so that gives me some hope.”

We bust out the door right as my phone starts to ring, and it’s Marcello.

In a serious tone, I answer, “Sir.”

The grunt that nickname gets me every time I say it sends joy racing through my veins. “Vin found Dino in the back. The premise is clear, but stay alert. I’m sending a clean-up crew, Vin got excited.”

I thought Marcello was overexaggerating like most days, but no.

He was not in the slightest.

As we make our way to the side of the building, we find Vin’s wrapping his belt around Dino’s shoulder as he cries out in pain. Rhett takes off in a full sprint, and I notice Zamir’s head whipping around, making sure Vin didn’t miss anybody.

From the looks of it he didn’t. We practically have to step over bodies as we get to the guys. Rhett hits his knees on Dino’s other side, and before I know it, their lips are smashing into one another.

Zamir yells, “I fucking knew it!”

“I had no goddamn clue. Why didn’t you fill me in, ” I whisper yell to him.

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