“For her?” His brow hit his hairline. “But why?”
Why?
That was the question I’d asked myself over and over since getting back to Ash’s house.
“Because the thought of him hurting her any more than he already had kills me.”
A slow smile cracked his face.
“What?” I asked.
“Took you long enough.”
“Doesn’t change anything,” I groaned, pain burning through every part of me.
“I think it does. I think it changes everything.”
“I’m not that guy, Cam. I’m not like you.”
“You just got your ass handed to you... for a girl. I think you’re more like me than you give yourself credit for.”
I snorted. “I had him.” There was no way Thatcher had the upper hand on me. Sure, I was bloody and bruised but so was he. My knuckles were busted wide open to prove it.
“So in the end you risked everything... for a girl.”
“Not just any girl.” My head dropped back, my eyes shuttering as the reality of everything sank in.
Asher was right. I’d blown everything I’d ever worked for. But it wasn’t for nothing.
It was for her.
And I’d do it again. Over and over, if it meant protecting Felicity from the likes of Thatcher and his goons.
“He has some images of her... us.” I groaned the words, guilt slamming into me. It was all my fucking fault. Thatcher might have been unhinged but I’d given him the ammunition he needed to come after Hailee and then Felicity. All this time, I’d thought by not caring, by not giving a crap about anyone around me, I was protecting myself. But they weren’t the weak link.
I was.
“Images, what kind of... oh, shit.”
“Yeah,” I breathed out. I still had no idea how he got them, but I’d seen them with my own eyes; me and Felicity in my car down by the lake. “He threatened to send them viral unless I agreed to the fight.”
“Did Aimee know? She was the one who messaged Asher.”
“I have no idea why the fuck she was there. She turned up at my house to warn me it was a setup, that Thatcher intended on fucking me up enough to ruin my shot at playing in the play-offs.”
“First Hailee, now you and Felicity. This isn’t just some harmless prank, Jase; it’s more serious than that.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“We have to report him.”
“I started it.” I ground out. “None of this would ever have happened if it wasn’t for that video I sent him of me and Aimee.”
“True but that was between the three of you.” Cam rubbed his temples. “You never passed that shit around. He’s out of control and there’s still nothing stopping him from sending those images to everyone. We have to report him.”
“Give me some time to figure this out, yeah?”
“Jase...”