Kicked: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (36 page)

Teagan's roommate opened the door and let me in, shutting it softly behind me. I didn't ask any questions, just started down the hallway towards Teagan's room when a hand on my arm stopped me. I glanced over my shoulder and found the girl—I think her name was Chelease—crying. Tears were rolling down her cheeks in fat, wet drops as she stared at me like I was half-hero, half-villain. I didn't know which one I was supposed to be. I had no clue anymore. All I knew was that I needed to see Teagan, smile at her, hold her, tell her I was sorry for the very last fucking time.

I blew my NFL career for her. Possibly my freedom. She was exactly what I always thought she would be, a vortex sucking me in, pulling me deep, fucking up my life until I didn't know which way was up or down.

And yet … it was worth it.

“Yeah?” I asked, trying not to sound impatient. But last night had been surreal and I was still trying to process everything. Right now, what I needed was to see Teagan.

“I know I shouldn't say this, but … thank you.”

I raised an eyebrow at her as she swept some braids over her shoulder and let go of my arm, taking a step back from me. Her brown eyes lifted, scanned me once, flickered with a grudging approval.

“For saving Teagan. I know it might not seem like a big deal …” Chelease paused and took a deep breath, fidgeting with the white hoodie she was wearing as she stared at her bare feet. “But it is, no matter what happens to Mason Fenna. Shit like that, it cuts into your soul.” She looked back up at me. “And I'm still learning how to heal mine.” A hard swallow, a flicker of lashes as she struggled to maintain her composure. “How to deal with the fact that the guy that raped me goes to this school, transferred here just to torment me. Because he knows that with my tuition already paid, the strain it put on my family, I've got nowhere else to go.”

Chelease lifted her hand up, squeezed my arm one more time and turned away. It took me a second to put the pieces together.

Mason was from Texas; Teagan had told me Chelease was from Texas.

A chill went down my spine as I watched her walk out the front door.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I rushed the rest of the way down the hall and burst into Teagan's bedroom, my right hand splayed open against her bedroom door. She was lying on her side with a bunch of Polaroid pictures scattered around her, gazing at them with a black eye, a swollen mouth and a swollen nose.

I froze there for several seconds as she lifted her green eyes up and caught mine. I had no clue what to say or do, so I just stood there. My heart was pounding in my chest and I felt light-headed, dizzy. The image of Teagan last night, pressed into that brick wall was stuck in my head. I wanted it gone, wanted to break this tension between us, so I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I didn't know Chelease and Mason—” I started, but Teagan was already sitting up and shaking her head.

“Me neither,” she whispered, reaching a hand up to her puffy face and wincing. “Not until this morning anyway.” Teagan gathered up the pictures, clearing a space for me on the edge of her bed. I had no idea if that was her actual intention or not, but I moved over to her anyway and sat down. My weight caused the mattress to dip, bumping Teagan's shoulder against my own.

My breath hissed out between my teeth at the contact and then I was just turning and wrapping my arms around her, pulling her into my lap and leaning us against the headboard. My right hand was shaking when I reached it up and cupped her head gently, stroked her silken hair with my fingers.

I think we sat like that for a whole hour, neither of us moving or saying anything.

“Tyce,” Teagan said, her voice low but strong, like there was no way in hell this was going to defeat her, break her down, make her feel less than human. “Thank you.”

“Don't,” I said, because I didn't feel like I deserved any thanks. Part of me felt responsible for the whole situation, like Mason was only after Teagan because of me. But who the hell could possibly know something like that? It was stupid to place blame on myself, but I tried to do it anyway. “I don't need any thanks.”

“Yeah, well, when I think about what might've happened if you'd left when I told you to, if I'd been alone with Mason in that alley …” Teagan's body shivered and I pulled her tighter, closer, squeezed her to me and kissed the top of her head. She smelt like antiseptic and shampoo, but it was the sweetest scent I'd ever smelled.
Holy crap, I'm turning into a fucking sap already.

But I didn't care.

Right here, now, with the sun streaming in the open window, I felt like this was my last chance to be really happy, to hold her and love her and pretend for a second that I hadn't just gone batshit and almost killed somebody. That I'd definitely get suspended from the team, definitely fucked up my chances of ever getting drafted.

The media needed that blood to be shed, and I'd delivered.

They would crucify me. Mason, too, maybe, but his dad was rich as hell with friends all over the place. I had nobody. Well, I had somebody. The best fucking somebody. But she sure as shit didn't have any pull.

As I held her, I reached down and took the fan of photos from her fingers, lifting them up and examining them. It was like staring straight into a time machine, a rabbit hole. A set of out of focus Polaroids with me, with Teagan, with Venus. I stared at them for a long time before I sucked in another breath. I guess I'd been holding it.

“Would she have been proud of me?” I wondered as I slid the photos together until there was just one on top of the stack, a picture of all three of us together. “Not for beating the ever living crap out of some guy, but for … anything else?”

My heart pounded as I laid there and stared at that shot, thinking of all the decisions I'd made, regretting some of them. But I guess they'd gotten me here, with Teagan in my arms, so it couldn't be all bad.

Teagan sniffled a little and reached out, pulling the pictures from my hand and setting them back on the bed. Tucked up against me like this, with a cold stake of fear still shoved into my heart, it was hard to remember why I'd been so fucking afraid of her.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I knew we had stuff to work out, that saving her from some piece of shit rapist didn't automatically guarantee us a happily ever after, but at least it was a start. And a start was all we really needed.

“If she'd turned on that TV and found you by accident like I had, Tyce, if she'd seen you in your element with the sun on your back and a helmet on your head and a ball in your hand … I know she would've been like me. She would've been awestruck and proud and excited for you all at the same time. She would've missed you like hell, and if she'd seen you, she would've hugged you until you couldn't breathe.”

I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to get my thoughts in order.

Venus was dead. And I never could make amends with her. I couldn't hug her or thank her for protecting me, going to
jail
for me, and I couldn't tell her that I loved her.

But there was one other person I could tell that to, and she was sitting right fucking here.

“Teagan,” I told her before I could act like a coward and back out of this or screw things up again, “I love you.” The words came out in a rush, like one single syllable. They almost hurt coming up, but not for the same reasons I'd thought before. It was like they were so long overdue that they were desperate, sliding past my tongue and falling heavy into the air between us. I didn't expect Teagan to say them back, although she kind of already had in her own way.

As the silence settled again, I opened my eyes back up and stared out the window at the leaves of a nearby tree. I figured Teagan was still angry with me, and I couldn't blame her, so I continued to hold her for as long as she'd let me, to listen to the fluttering beat of her pulse.

Teagan swallowed hard and nuzzled into me, sending my heart into a galloping beat, making my fingers curl more tightly around her, squeeze her closer. It was the best feeling in the fucking world—and I'd been stupid enough to run from it.

“I love you, too, Tyce. Even though … we still have a lot to work out.”

My breath caught sharply in relief.

“We do,” I agreed as I closed my eyes again and felt the stress of the night wash over me. I was starting to fall asleep when she whispered against my chest.

“But for now, can you just hold me?”

And so I did.

Tyce and I fell asleep on my bed, curled together though half the night. I registered at some point that he was getting up, but I was too tired and groggy and sore to move. The drug that Mason had slipped into my drink had nearly killed me.

I was still finding that impossible to believe.

One minute, I'd been dancing, smiling, apologizing to that asshole, and the next … I sat up in bed, running my hands down my face and trying not to scream. That feeling of helplessness, it was like
nothing
I'd ever experienced before. Nothing. I'd never felt so low, so sick, so fucking terrified.

Chelease.

I couldn't believe the guy from Chelease's story was
Mason Fenna,
that he'd followed her to the U of O. What a psycho. A creep. And what Tyce did to him, it was only half of what he deserved.

I started to get up, grabbing my phone off the nightstand and looking for texts from Tyce.

There weren't any.

A few seconds later, I got something even better.

He opened the door and moved back into the room, shutting it softly behind him and reaching up to run his hands down his face. The amount of relief I felt at seeing him was almost criminal. Like he'd run away again after all of that. Doubtful.

I'm still mad at him,
I thought, and I kind of was. I mean, he still had that thing with Jia, and he still disappeared for four years, and he was definitely still kind of an asshole, but … it didn't seem like that big of a deal anymore.
Teagan, I love you.
He'd said it. Said it.
Finally
fucking said it.

“Are you okay?” I whispered, feeling a little drowsy from waking up in the middle of the night. Outside, the trees rustled with an icy breeze and the orange streetlights cast strange shadows.

Tyce paused, looking up at me like he was surprised to find me awake.

“I'm alright,” he said, but he didn't look alright. He still looked scared, trashed, terrified. He looked like a man who was about to sacrifice himself for the person he loved and, although he'd never regret doing it, the moment was still bittersweet. “I just … I've been ignoring calls from my coaches all day. Texts from the guys. I'm scared to look at them or listen to my voicemail.”

I wrinkled my brows up and sat back against the headboard, twisting the covers up to my chest. I was dressed in a flimsy old white nightgown that was so threadbare, it was almost see through.
It's not like you haven't slept together—or texted dirty photos,
I thought. But that was different. Tonight, now, it felt … tender. The moment was tender.

It was so much harder to look at Tyce's face.

“You missed a day of practice, so what? Don't they make exceptions for stuff like this?”

Tyce stared back at me with a bitter half-smile on his face that was honestly a little more in the frown family than I would've liked to see. Yes, something bad almost happened, but at least now Chelease would see Mason brought to justice. It might not be for what he did to her, but there would be repercussions. He wasn't walking away from this; the cops had promised me that.

“Teagan, I'm screwed. I almost
killed
a guy. It's over for me. There's not going to
be
anymore practices. No NFL. Nothing. I could even go to jail.”

My heart twisted up and I felt sick with guilt. Crap. I should've told Tyce sooner.

“No, you're not,” I told him as he just stood there in the strange half-light leaking in from outside and stared at me. His eyes were so dark right now, they looked black. “Mason's dad has a really good attorney, but he's not a god. He contacted the police right away to work on a plea deal.”

Tyce furrowed his brow at me and shook his head.

“Wait, what? Where did you hear this?”

“From the detective that came to take my statement in the hospital,” I said. “Mason was … he was under investigation for drugging and raping a girl last month. You didn't hear about it because his dad paid a lot of money to keep it under wraps, but it's true. And then there's the past allegations from Chelease. This was a nail in the coffin for him.”

I felt sick telling the story, so maybe that's why I hadn't blurted it all out at Tyce when he first walked in. Besides, then he'd started looking at the pictures and he told me he loved me and … I just couldn't bring myself to swallow the fact that I'd gone out with Mason for even a night. He was such a fucking creep.

“But … what?” Tyce put the fingers of his tattooed right hand up to his temple. I was blowing his mind right now, I guess. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Tyce, Mason was up for attempted murder charges. He almost
killed
me.”