Page 63 of I Blame the Rival

I whip my head around, searching for the boy who had been right behind me two minutes ago.

“What’s Skylar Vin doing here?” Stella frowns, pointing over my shoulder to a figure heading in the opposite direction.

“He came with me.”

I turn to go chase him down, but a small hand grabs my arm.

“Do you know who he is?” Stella looks at me with wide eyes, “The Vin family is bad news, Lacey. You do not want to be a part of that.”

Trip frowns, “Do you mean Vin as in Vector Vin?”

“That’s exactly who I mean.” Stella shakes her head, “He’s the guy who put our captain out of commission last year.”

Cody pipes up from behind her, “All things considered, I think I did pretty well.”

“You are not helping, Ellsworth.”

He grins, “Just making sure you get the facts right.”

Stella shoots her boyfriend a glare before turning back to me, “He doesn’t belong here, Lacey. Let him go.”

“No.” I shake off her hold, refusing to let another person make snap judgements about the boy I love, “I know exactly who Skylar is.”

Stella opens her mouth but I beat her to the punch.

“He’s my friend.”

And then I turn and run after him.

Skylar

He’s here.

The one with a kind smile. The one who got trampled because my brother can’t control his temper.

The fallen captain is here.

My feet propel me forward, desperately trying to get away from the people holding my last name accountable. The moment I saw Stella O’Brien, I knew it was all over. Lacey was finally going to discover the violent reputation my brother has thrown over the family name.

Nausea creeps up my throat when I think about the injuries Vector left on Taber’s lacrosse captain this time last year. It took Cody six weeks to recover from the cracked ribs and the pictures of his broken cheekbone had me throwing my sketchbook across the room.

My brother is a fucking monster.

All the men in the Vin family are monsters.

The sharp sting of self-loathing fills every pore as I hurry away from the stadium. The last time I was here, Cody got carried out on a stretcher while my brother got slapped with a couple of anger management sessions.

It was wrong every way you looked at it.

“Skylar, wait!”

Lacey’s voice rips through the crowd, and my steps falter. I can hear the distress in her voice and it makes me sick knowing I put it there.

I glance over my shoulder and find Lacey running towards me. Ducking my head, shame heats my cheeks as I back into the shadows of a nearby corner.

Lacey draws to a halt in front of me, her breathing heavy and uneven from the spurt of activity. Keeping my head down, I lower my gaze to the purple laces of her sneakers.

“There you are.”

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