Page 56 of Rounding Third

I have enough money saved to last a while, but only if I don’t need to pay for a place to live, otherwise, I’ll only have a few months.

“Hey, have you seen Smithy?” I ask Charlie as I pass her.

“No, but I'm sure he isn't happy.” She eyes me with a mixture of disappointment and anger.

My brows knit, but I keep going. I need to talk to him. I can figure out what’s wrong with him and why he wouldn’t be happy then.

“Have you seen Smithy?” I ask as Macy speed walks in my direction.

“No, but I'm busy enough trying to clean up your mess,” she practically growls as she lifts her phone to her ear and begins yelling at someone on the other end.

“What the heck is going on?” I murmur to myself. What mess did I cause? I doubt Bill wrote my article and even if he did, it was all good things.

I push open the door to the locker room and find dozens of angry glares aimed right at me. Smithy’s standing in Owen’s office with concern written all over his face. What the hell is going on?

“You have some fucking nerve showing up here,” Wheeler hisses. “Was everything fake? Did you date him just to get closer to the clubhouse?”

My stomach drops as I look at a man I’ve always considered a close friend. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this mad.

And what’s he talking about? Was what fake? Why would I date Smithy just to get closer to the clubhouse?

“Yeah, how big are your balls?” A rookie sneers.

My mind spins with what they could be talking about. I didn’t do anything.

“Did you only hang around to get dirt on us?” Someone else asks.

“What are you talking about?” My gaze snaps to Smithy as confusion takes over me. Clearly, something happened and I'm completely clueless.

“Come here, Sweets.” Smithy motions for me to walk into Owen’s office.

I eye the men behind the desk, wondering if they’re pissed at me too. Both of their faces are expressionless, which doesn’t make me feel any better. I know Owen can school his features when he needs to and I'm sure Levi learned to do the same after being in the spotlight for so long.

“Care to explain this?” Owen stands from his chair and offers it to me. “You told me about the article Bill wanted you to write, but I didn’t expect this to be released.”

I take a seat and slide the chair closer to the screen. My eyes scan the article in front of me and my stomach rolls with the lies typed out on the screen. Who could hate someone this much to write this and publish it for the world to see?

When I get to the bottom line, it takes everything in me to take in a deep breath and blow it out slowly. There in black and white is ‘Written by Liliana Sweets’.

“I didn’t… I don’t know where they got this.” I glance at Smithy, then Owen and Levi.

“Did you write this?” Smithy asks quietly.

“No. I’d never write this.” My chest aches at the thought of Smithy thinking I could do this. I feel like I'm going to be sick.

How could he believe I’d get closer to him just to hurt the team? Maybe we’re not meant to be together. If he truly believes I could do this, we don’t belong together.

“I told you she wouldn’t do it,” Smithy breathes a sigh of relief and drops into the chair across the desk from me. He places his elbows on his knees and drops his face into his hands.

“What?” I whisper.

“Sweets, I know you. I never believed for a second you wrote that article.” Smithy lifts his gaze to meet mine. “The question is, who wrote it and slapped your name on it?”

“And why?” Owen adds. “They made sure your name was attached, I want to know why.”

“I only gave Bill my article… an hour ago. This had to already be written for it to be published that quickly.” I frown at the screen, still not understanding this. “For it to be edited and ready to go, it would take a few hours. I purposely didn’t email Bill my article because I assumed it would be the cause of me getting fired. I even had a resignation letter written out before I went into his office. When he told me I was done, I sent the email right away. I don’t see why he would publish anything I’ve written once I was fired.”

“Why would Bill attach your name to it?” Owen asks again.

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