Page 103 of Seren

“I do.”

She huffed and stopped walking with me.

Brooks had been right. People would suddenly like me for the wrong reasons. But I wouldn’t get caught up in all that bullshit. I was here to play football.And, I had a girl who loved me who I wouldn’t risk losing again.

I reached the front door of my dorm and sprinted inside, taking two steps at a time until I was in my room. I dropped onto my bed, needing a minute before calling my brothers. This had to work. There really wasn’t any other option. After a long moment, I slipped my phone out of my pocket. Being overly cautious, I stood and moved into the hallway. Only then did I click on the Zoom link we were all joining. Grace was already on the group video call when I appeared on the screen. “Hey,” I said, sitting down on the floor with my back against the wall.

“You looked amazing out there,” she gushed, her pretty smile beaming with pride.

“Did you expect anything less?” I asked.

“Honestly?” Her nose wrinkled like she had to think about it. “No, because you’re awesome.”

“Damn straight I am.”

Even though we were joking around, a silent moment passed between us. We both knew what was about to go down, and there were so many things that could go wrong with me in Alabama and my brothers at home. And, as much as I wanted to trust them to see this thing through, I had my doubts.

“You ready?” she asked.

“No. You?”

“No.”

Another silence passed between us. I really wished she was there with me because there was so much on the line. If Martine knew they’d been in his office looking for evidence that he was a cold-blooded killer, he’d try to pin it on Grace’s mom or me. “They can handle it,” I said.

“I know,” she said, but her tone was just about as convincing as mine.

Saint appeared in a box beside Grace on my screen. “Hey. Great game.”

“Thanks.”

“’Sup, Grace,” Saint said.

“Good luck,” she said.

“I don’t need luck. Sawyer does,” he said.

“Is he upstairs?” I asked just as Sawyer appeared on the screen. They were in three boxes now with Saint and Sawyer at the top and Grace down below.

“’Sup, brothers?” Sawyer said, before noticing Grace on the screen too. “Hey, girl. Looking hot as ever.”

Grace laughed. “Miss you, kid.”

“You too. Thanks for trying to save our mom,” he said.

Her eyes lowered and they were likely filling with tears. I hated seeing her cry. It just showed how much she’d been holding in. And as much as I knew what we were about to do was for my father and my mother, it was also for Grace. It was going to take a lot of time for her to get over the guilt and fear Martine had instilled in her. But once we found the proof we needed, we’d all be able to begin to heal and hopefully move on.

“We ready to do this?” Sawyer asked, always the excited and eager one.

“Areyouready?” I asked him.

“You can trust me,” Sawyer assured us. “Killer game, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

Saint’s screen was jumping all over the place which meant he was moving. “I’m almost there,” he whispered, knowing there were cameras and mics all over the manor.

My heartbeat began to accelerate. “You’ve got three minutes once everything goes dark before the generator kicks on,” I reminded Sawyer.

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