Page 11 of This Is War: All's Fair Duet
Logan rolls his eyes at me as the guy slips past, exiting the large room. “The phone, please.”
I take a minute to open my locker, then root around in my duffel. “Here.” I chuck it at him, then huff out a laugh as he almost fumbles the catch. “Sorry, I forgot you’re supposed to be a pitcher, not a catcher.”
“Fuck you, man.” He shoots me a half-grin. “Glad you assume you’re pitching in that first game, by the way. Might be smart to wait until practices get rolling, don’t you think? It’s not your decision, either way. And we both know I’m just as good as you. Possibly better.”
I ignore his barb, instead going for the jugular. “So, did you enjoy Rya being matched with me for Friend and a Fifth?” I throw him a laughing wink and wait for the explosion. When he still hasn’t gone off several seconds later, my brows raise. The amount of self-control he’s exhibiting is rather impressive. Back when we were living in the same house, I used to be able to get under his skin a whole lot easier than this.
Logan stares evenly at me while taking several steadying breaths. “I just wanna know… why didn’t you come find me if she passed out?” He pauses to exhale hard, pinning me with his eyes. “Did you realize she ended up back in the athletic dorm, but in someone else’s room?” He takes a step toward me as he waits for me to answer. “Why’d you let her drink so much of your bottle?”
Disregarding his questions, I shrug. “I’ve got news for you. Rya’s a little pistol. She might give off the illusion of a pretty little ballet dancer, but she’s headstrong as hell.” I snicker. “She does what she wants. I’m surprised you don’t know that, considering she’s your girl and all.”
I wonder if Logan told Rya who I am to him. That’d make things more interesting. I wet my lips. “As for the long series of questions you fired at me, I didn’t come get you because I didn’t think you’d want me to interrupt whatever you had going on with your friend. Looked like you were still fighting over who was going to finish yourfifth. It’s not like you were waiting anxiously at the top of the stairs for your girl.” My lips twitch. “She doesn’t realize that, does she?”
“The fuck, Jaxon,” he hisses, his bold blue eyes boring into mine. “If you fucking touched her—” Rage pours off Logan, and I swear he looks like he’s going to pop a blood vessel in his head, he’s so livid.
It makes me so fucking happy, I smile, drawing in an amused breath. “Calm down”—I pause, getting in his face—“dickweed. I thought we were brothers.” I cock my head to the side. “And brothers share shit all the time. No big deal, right?” My chest rises with my chuckle. “I’ve gotta admit, Rya was pretty wild at the party last night. Sweet girl, though. Especially when I slipped my tongue between her thighs.”
As expected, he launches himself at me, his full weight knocking me into the lockers at my back. It steals the breath from my lungs, as does the punch I take to the gut. Gasping for air, I shove against his chest with everything I have, and he stumbles backward. His ass hits the floor, and it’s on. I leap on top of him, straddling his torso. My arms shoot out, trying to grab him so I can wrestle him into submission, but he’s having none of that. He dodges me, then bucks me off him.
First, I have the advantage, then he does. We trade backand forth, both of us furiously attacking the other. Logan isn’t holding back at all. He weighs more than he did the last time we did this, and definitely has a lot more muscle. In the midst of the frenzied fight, our eyes connect. His are trained on me, so full of torment and anger, I almost feel bad for him. Grunts and muttered expletives fill the room as we go right back to grappling on the floor.
“Holy shit.” An unknown voice reaches my ears, but the person attached to it is gone before I can whip my head around to see if I recognize them. I get a fist to my jaw for my trouble, which makes me deliver a string of curses that would make the filthiest sailor proud.
“If I find out you assaulted her, you’re done, motherfucker. Dead.”
“Told you I didn’t do anything to her she didn’t want. Maybe if you were giving her what she needed, she wouldn’t have come to me so willingly. Ever. Thought. Of. That?” Those last four words are punctuated with quick strikes to his gut. “She fuckin’ begged me for it.” We roll again, and my breath heaves from me as he nails me on the chin. A metallic taste fills my mouth.Fuck. Bit my goddamn tongue.
“Won’t let you touch her ever again,” he gasps out, his breathing labored as he puts a hand to my throat and squeezes. His grip is brutally tight, and with my hand onhis chest, I feel the growl rip from his body as well as hear it. “Never again.”
The door to the locker room slams open, the sound like a shot ricocheting around the room. “What in the ever-loving fuck is going on in here?” a voice shouts right before whoever it is drags Logan off me. I blink, giving my head a hard shake to clear the remnants of the darkness that was about to take me under.
Halfway across the room, Coach Kimball grunts loudly as he attempts to subdue my stepbrother. “Cut this shit out right now,” he bellows.
“Get off me!”
If my face didn’t hurt, I’d laugh. Or smirk.Something. Poor asshole has no idea who is restraining his arms.
“The fuck I will, son.” Coach spins Logan around, smacking him into the wall behind them. It’s hysterical the moment my stepbrother realizes exactly who he’s been fighting and who he’s yelled at. I can see Coach’s raised brow as he cuts Logan down with his pissed off stare.
The look of regret on Logan’s face is worth every punch we’d exchanged. He winces, his eyes closing. “Sorry, sir.”
“Damn right you’re going to call me sir. Come with me. Now.”
He deflates at those words, the fight literally going out of him. “Yes, sir.” Coach lets him go, then glances back atme. “I wanna talk to you, too, Jaxon. Be waiting outside my office in ten minutes.”
“Of course. I’ll be there.” I slide my tongue over my bottom lip and when he turns around, I give Logan a feral blood-stained grin. “I hope we can work things out, man. See you at practice tomorrow.”
He shakes his head without a word, following Coach out, his head hanging, shoulders slumped. Ah, so dejected. Poor guy.
And that’s when I spot Rya’s phone on the floor all the way across the room under a bench. I throw back my head, a rough chuckle leaving my lips.Well, that’s just fucking handy, isn’t it?
7
RYA
“That dormmeeting is at four, right?” Hazel looks up from her laptop. “Any clue what it’s about?” Something on the computer draws her attention back to the screen. I have no idea what she’s doing over there, but she’s been tapping away on the keyboard for the better part of an hour while I’ve been reading.
Eyeing her as her focus intensifies, I shrug. “We had one back in August, too, so I’m betting it’s probably a refresher on the rules to keep us in line.” I have no idea if she heard me or not. Her brows are drawn together, and her tongue pokes out to wet her lips. “Did you hear me?”
