Page 20 of Hate the Game
“I’m not kissing her.” Yet. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and had to force myself to sit still and not grab it. “I thought we all thought she was an idiot and we didn’t like her? And we didn’t want her getting any info on us to write a shit article?”
“I think she might have multiple personalities, man. She was completely different at times when we were hanging out.”
“Same. She fucking line danced at Billy’s. She was sweet. She talked football. Intelligently.” Leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, Jax raised his brows at me. “Has she been different with you?”
I thought of the texts we’d exchanged and the heated way she’d told me off multiple times. “Yeah, she dropped the ditzy act with me pretty fast.”
“What the fuck’s the deal with her?” Cole winced. “And why do I want so badly to have her ride me while she’s wearing those cowboy boots?”
We all went silent as the door to the lounge was opened and Cass walked in. I inwardly groaned. She was nice but it was obvious she was still in love with Cole and he was about as interested in her as he was in me.
Cass strode across the room and stopped between our two couches. “I have something you’re going to want to see.”
Before I could even grunt to show how uninterested I was she slapped a printout down on the table between us. We all leaned forward and I felt my stomach drop.Shit.
***Cole***
“Itried to tell you she was up to no good, Cole.” Cass tapped the paper angrily and then sat down across from me and crossed her arms. “Maybe you’ll listen to me from now on.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the paper. There was a photo and an article beneath it talking about Sam Ford and his four children, all football fanatics in their own ways. The three Ford sons, Weston, Cash, and Hayes, I recognized from playing Texas the year before. The fourth child, the daughter, was Savannah. Savannah Lane Ford. The article was a few years old and she looked younger but it was her. S. Lane. Little sister to three assholes that had actively shit talked us after we killed them in a championship game. Three assholes who’d accused us of trying to end their careers.
“Are you fucking serious?” Jax snatched the paper off the table and studied it closer. “What the fuck?”
“I did some digging after I got weird vibes from her. You know how she’s doing that huge article forVarsity Ledger? I can’t be sure but I think she’s going to trash you guys.” Cass glanced over at Ryder. “None of you have given her anything, right? I can’tbelieve that bitch is going to try to hurt you three. She is, though. I know it.”
“Why?” I blew out a deep sigh and sat back. I didn’t want to admit it and I never would but I felt a little hurt. And fucking embarrassed. I’d just been talking about how different she was and about how I’d kissed her. She hadn’t had to try very hard to get to us. All of us.
Cass knew me too well. She came over and sat next to me and rested her head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Cole. I would never want to upset you but I had to tell you. I won’t let her hurt you. I’ll figure out a way to take her down before she even thinks about publishing some bullshit article about you guys.”
Jax tossed the paper down. “How do we know for sure?”
Cass winced. “I saw the name of the woman running the program. I looked her up and recognized her. Marla Knight.”
“Oh, goddammit.” Jax stood up and started pacing. “Of course. She fucking hates Dad.”
“It’s okay. She couldn’t have gotten very much on you guys yet. We know who she is and what she’s doing now so we can control the narrative. Right?” Cass went into Cass-mode. She stood up and paced opposite of Jax. “If she thinks she’s going to come in here and trash you guys, she’s going to have a rude awakening.”
I sighed. “Thanks for finding this out, Cass.”
“Of course. You know I love you guys. I’ll always look out for you if I can.” She smiled and ruffled my hair. “Same as I have been since we were kids.”
I stood up and hugged her. If she hadn’t found out about Savannah we might’ve been led by our dicks straight into career suicide. We’d probably already done too much. “Love you, too. Thank you.”
“Those fuckers lost fair and square and then send their little sister to fuck with us? No fucking way.” Jax perched on the edgeof the couch, ready to pace again if he needed to. “I’m not letting this go. I took her to Billy’s. I don’t take anyone to Billy’s.”
“Wait. You took her to Billy’s? Why?” Cass sounded genuinely confused. “You dated Sarah Booth for a year and a half and never took her.”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters now is we stop this hit piece and take her down a few pegs.” He shook his head and glanced over at Ryder. “What do you think?”
Ryder looked so still it was eerie. He slowly sat forward and tapped the picture of Savannah. “I want to take her down more than several pegs. The way she did her best to get inside of our group…”
“How did she…” Cass looked at the three of us and then threw her hands up. “Do men ever think with anything other than their dicks?”
“Not when the woman in front of us looks like Savannah.” I looked down at my dick and scowled. “He doesn’t exactly make great decisions at the best of times.”
Cass groaned. “Ew. Don’t talk about your dick in front of me.”
I waved her off and rolled my eyes. “How long have you been our friend, Cass? Come on. You’ve heard way worse from us.”
