Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45351 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45351 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Only the ones that hurt you.”
She grows still at this. Her eyes narrow and she searches my face to see what I’m angling for. She’s never had anyone in her life do anything for her and my desire to protect her is confusing. Trust isn’t something I can build overnight. I realize that. The reason the team has summer training camp is so that new players adjust to the old ones and vice versa. We have practice for hours every day, we train together, we eat together, we are supposed to goof off together and all of that is designed to get us to trust each other, because if we can’t rely on the other person to run their route or make that block then we can’t function as a team. Right now, the waif doesn’t trust me with even her name. What I need is time.
“All right. No beating anyone up today.”
She visibly wilts in relief, her hand sliding off my arm. I miss the warmth, but grabbing her fingers and placing them back on my biceps isn’t going to win any prizes—not after I ripped her shirt. It’s hanging open again. I reach behind me and pull off my tank. “Here,” I say, thrusting it in her direction. “Your tits are showing.”
“Oh my God,” she wails in embarrassment. She grabs the tank and stomps off to the opposite side of the room, muttering under her breath what an asshole I am.
“That shirt looked horrible on you,” I lie. I enjoyed seeing her in my shirt. It was stupid to have ripped it but I can replace it. I wasn’t thinking straight.
She flips me off.
“Go into my room and pick out some clothes. We need to go shopping today.”
“For what?” she says, refusing to turn around.
“Clothes for school.”
This gets her attention. “What are you talking about?” she scowls over her shoulder.
“You’re three months from graduation. If you aren’t going back to your old school, you need to get into another one.”
“I can’t just show up at a new school and say howdy. There’s registration and shit.” She waves an irritated hand in my direction.
“Watch and learn.” I grab my phone and call up Brad. He’s FU High’s resident hacker. There isn’t any information about the school and how it works that he doesn’t know.
“Hey, Brad, need a favor.”
“Oh, Carter, my man. How is it going? I heard your pool is heated and you use it even in the winter. Would be rad to have a party there this weekend.”
I grimace. The price for this favor is going to be too fucking high. I nearly hang up when a flash of blue catches my eye. The waif has flopped down on the sofa. My tank hangs around her smaller frame. She drops her head into her heads and while she’s not crying, I imagine she feels close to it.
“I can safely say that I’ve never wanted to host a pool party more,” I tell Brad.
“I am so happy to hear that. Now, what do you need?”
The payment made, Brad is more than willing to do as I ask. Records will be transferred along with a new student profile created. As of Monday, the waif will be a student at FU High. I just need her name.
Chapter 10
Mallory
“I don’t think you can park here,” I say as Carter puts his fancy car into park in front of the mall.
“I’ll park anywhere I want.” I roll my eyes as he slides out of the car. Why do I find his confidence and arrogance attractive? There is something wrong with me. My door opens a second later and I see a man in a valet vest. Malls have valets? That’s new. At least to me that’s new. “Leave the car there,” Carter tells the guy as he slips him some money. “Don’t open my car door.” He issues more commands to the poor valet guy as I step out. The valet looks down at his hand, seeing the money, and doesn’t look put out by Carter’s rudeness. I’m not sure the man had much of a choice. It wasn’t taking much for me to see that Carter—or maybe it’s his family—has power. I’m guessing that comes from the money. It usually does go hand in hand.
I wonder if he issued the order about my door because he doesn't want someone touching his car or opening a door for me. I’m going to go with someone touching his car. He’s rather protective of the thing. It’s nice and pretty, I’ll give him that, but it’s still only a car. Carter walks around to my side and opens the door further for me. I step out and he closes the door behind me.
“Keep your eyes to yourself while you’re at it,” Carter growls as I begin walking. I turn around to say something sarcastic but when I do, I realize he’s not talking to me. He’s looking straight at the valet.