Page 84 of Throwing the Curve

“Fine, stay.” He turned on his heel and started to walk away.

“Do you not listen to any of the PR lectures they make us attend? California has laws around revenge porn and video consent, asshole. With all the shit in the media right now, this is not a scandal you want to have,” Smitty called after him.

Gonzo gripped Andy’s shoulder and he winced. “Delete it. Now.”

Andy pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it.

“Angle your phone so she can make sure you’re deleting the right thing,” Gonzo ordered.

“Jesus.” Andy angled his phone toward Peyton and with a couple of swipes he deleted the video. “Happy?”

The knot in her stomach eased slightly as he deleted the first video. “Getting there. Delete the one on the cloud too,” she demanded.

“Fuck.” Andy pulled up his cloud account and deleted the video from there too while Peyton watched.

“Are those the only copies?”

“Yeah,” he grumbled.

“It better be because otherwise I’m not kidding about going to the police.” She glanced behind her at Ryan’s friends and Simon’s teammates. The outrage on their faces steeled her confidence. “You were dumb enough to show the whole team the video, so you gave me some witness’s the police can call upon.”

“We’d be more than happy to talk to them,” Smitty replied.

Andy’s mouth tightened into a hard, sneering line. “You seriously would side with her over your own teammate?”

“We happen to be on the same team, but we sure as hell aren’t friends, asshole,” Smitty snarled.

“Whatever. Should have known you two were so far up Golden Boy’s ass—”

Gonzo pressed his chest against Andy’s, bumping the smaller man back. “You want to finish that sentence?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so,” Gonzo replied.

Andy turned and stormed off toward the entrance to the stadium.

Peyton hated to admit that she wasn’t sure Simon would have deleted the video without their backup. His ego wouldn’t let him be pushed around by a woman. He would have forced her hand. “Thanks, guys. I really appreciate your help.” Her cheeks burned with humiliation as she looked at the two men and pasted on a small smile. At least these two weren’t douchebags.

“No problem, Ryan would have our ass’s if we let that asshole talk to you like that.”

If only that were true. The man at her apartment the other night was not the man she knew. She wasn’t sure which one was the real version. At this moment, she wasn’t sure she cared. Everything in her hurt. This entire incident was too raw, too painful, too real. “I’m not sure Ryan would care all that much.”

“What are you talking about? Of course he would,” Smitty replied.

“Maybe you should talk to him about that,” she told them.

Gonzo stuck his hands in his front pockets and looked down at his feet. “We heard you broke up.”

“It’ll blow over.” Smitty said.

“No chance of that.” The things they’d said to each other couldn’t be unsaid. He hated her, thought she was a whore. And honestly, he wasn’t who she thought he was either.

“That your doing or his? Because I know the video was a bit of a shock, but Ryan is crazy about you.”

“Not crazy enough, apparently,” she replied. The pain of admitting that out loud slicked through her chest and tears welled up behind her eyes. “Shoot,” she mumbled as she blinked rapidly to quell the tears from sliding down her face.

“Ah geez, Peyton, don’t cry,” Smitty groaned.

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