The Game You Play (Rixon Raiders 2)

“I can’t… I’m not…”

?

?Fee, baby,” Asher came over the line. “How’re you holding up?”

“I don’t… It’s true? He’s down there fighting Thatcher?”

“We’re not too sure what the fuck is happening right now which is why we need you to go down there. Now, Felicity.”

I couldn’t speak, the words lodged up against the giant lump in my throat.

“Asher? It’s Mya. She’s spaced out or something. Yeah, okay. We can do that. Should we call… No, okay. Got it.” She thrust the cell phone back at me.

“We need to leave, now.”

“But—”

“Pull yourself together, your man needs you.”

“He’s not—”

Mya slammed her hands down on the table, leaning over to shove her face in front of mine. “You need to get it together, okay?” I nodded. “Jason can hold his own, but Asher is worried… it doesn’t matter. We need to go stat. You can either stay here and freak out, or you can come with me and hope to God you can talk some sense into him before it’s too late.”

“The play-offs,” I shrieked, leaping to my feet. If Coach or Principal Finnigan found out about this, Jason could be forced to sit out of the play-offs.

Mya rolled her eyes dramatically. “Now she gets it. Come on, we’re wasting time.” She’d rolled up the sleeves on her jacket and pulled her spiral curls into a messy ponytail which made me wonder how often she did this kind of thing for Jermaine.

“Too many times,” she said as if she heard my thoughts. “Now let’s go. Jason needs you.”

I could barely see for the sea of people—Rixon and Rixon East kids—all mingled together, desperate to get a glimpse of Thatcher and Jason, their quarterback Kings going at it.

“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” I asked Mya, clutching onto her hand like it was my lifeline.

“Flick, over here,” Hailee’s voice settled some of the unease swimming in my stomach.

“Thank God,” I all but fell into her arms, taking comfort from her hug. “This is crazy. Hey, how’d you get here before me?”

“Asher drove like a crazy person.” She gave him a scowl. “But we’re here now, and the guys called the cavalry.”

“The cav—” the words died on my tongue as the entire team filtered in behind Asher and Cameron.

“We need to disperse this crowd,” Cam said, his brows pinched with concern. “Any suggestions?”

“Leave it to me,” Asher said, grabbing a couple of the guys and whispering in their ears. Soon they had disappeared into the crowd.

“Come on,” Cam grabbed Hailee’s hand and motioned for us to follow. We had to push and shove our way through the wall of bodies, but when I finally saw Jason, I froze. The sight of him shirtless and bloody was sensory overload.

“Flick?” Mya yelled over the noise: the grunts and groans from the two fighters in the middle of the crudely formed ring, the bloodthirsty cheers from our classmates. “Hold it together,” she scolded, yanking on my arm, jerking me into action. “He’s okay, see? You need to really worry when—”

Thatcher got in a good hit, the crack of bone on bone reverberating through me so violently, my stomach lurched, bile rushing up my throat. I swallowed, dragging in a lungful of fresh air. “Someone has to do something.”

“We are, if you’ll just keep moving.”

“Thank fuck,” Grady rushed over to us, sporting a black eye of his own.

Cam shook his head at his teammate, disapproval written all over his expression. “Save the lecture, man, I’m fully aware of what a clusterfuck this is,” Grady winced.

“I’ll deal with you later,” Cameron seethed. “Right now, we need to figure out how to end this.”