Page 1 of Delayed Offsides

PERIOD 1

CHAPTER1

BLUE LINE

LEO

The lines separating the attacking/defending zones from the neutral zone.

Good Samaritan Hospital

San Jose, California

Doyou see that guy lying in the hospital bed?

He’s a piece of shit. Hey, I’m sure the same can be said about me from time to time, but I’d never do what he’s done. Not a fucking chance in hell.

“Why?” I ask, demanding an answer.

Dave sighs. “Jesus Christ. Why what, Leo? Maybe you should be asking Mase this question.”

I want to punch him. Right in the goddamn mouth. I want to make him bleed more than he already did tonight after Mase got a hold of him. I want him to suffer. I want to… do so many things that will get me locked away forever and exactly where he’s going to be heading. The entire world is about to know what he’s done, but right now,right now,he needs to answer to me. So I go with a more traditional approach.

Words. Funny how that works, huh?

“Why’d you doit?”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific here, Orting.” His cuffs clank against the bed. “It’s been a long night.”

I kick the bed frame and the sound echoes through the room. “Don’t fuckin’ bullshit me, man. You know what I’m talking about.”

Dave shakes his head to avoid looking at me and stares up at the ceiling. “I’ll say the same thing I said to Evan. Why the fuck does it matter?”

Dave Keller used to be one of my good friends.Used to beis key here.

You wanna know when it changed?

I’ll tell you. Something about a guy raping a woman. That ends friendships.

Okay, well, your eyes might be bugging out about now, but that really isn’t even the most shocking part about this. Sadly, men mistake a signal, and a yes is construed, and before you know it, she’s saying she’d been raped. Happens a lot when you’re a professional athlete too. But that’s not what happened here. This motherfucker, he took advantage of a girl who said no.

Still confused?

I’ll recap for you.

In a matter of hours, my so-called friend will be arrested and charged with attempted murder and rape of a seventeen-year-old girl. It wasn’t just attempted murder on anyone though. It was the girl of one of my brothers, a guy I would bleed for. A guy who’s bled for me. My teammate.

Last year on Christmas Eve, Evan Masen—or Mase as I call him—found a girl who’d been brutally beaten and raped in an alley. Being the guy he is, he took her to the hospital and waited until she woke up. Having no memory of the incident, Ami couldn’t tell the police what happened. Mase fell hopelessly in love with this girl. We moved on, even thought it would blow over. Until tonight. Until Mase discovered Dave’s secret. Dave is the one who raped and nearly killed Ami.

None of us expected that.

Or maybe Mase did and never told anyone. I don’t know.

What I do know now is that Dave’s also the one who roughed up my girl. Okay, to be fair, the girl doesn’t know she is mine yet, but she will, eventually. There’s time for all that later. Let’s focus on one thing at a time.

The girl? Callie Pratt. Some might go as far as to call her a puck bunny. A slut. But I don’t see her like that. I never have. Anyway, a couple months back, Dave got rough with Callie, gave her a black eye. She refused to admit who that guy was. Only we know now.Iknow.

“Callie was your friend. That’s why it fucking matters.”

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