Tackled Read online

  "Is she at your place? I need to talk to her."

  Sable nods and points toward the front door. "Go, go, go."

  I run up to my bedroom to grab my wallet. I'm too lit to drive. I'll walk. I take the stairs two at a time, flinging the door open and –

  There's a naked girl sitting on my bed.

  Once upon a time, that would have been a gift from the universe. Now, I exhale heavily, annoyed with the fact that getting rid of her is going to slow me down here. "Why are you in my room?"

  I reach into my bottom desk drawer and pull out my wallet.

  "One of your teammates sent me here," she says. "Said you were in… need. And coincidentally, so am I."

  I narrow my eyes at her. None of my roommates would have sent a naked girl up to my room. "Who sent you up here?" I ask. "Did you take anything from this room?"

  She cocks her head to the side and looks at me stupidly. "Where would I hide it?"

  "Good point," I say. "The guy who sent you here. Name?"

  She shrugs. "Big guy."

  That describes most of the football team.

  "Helpful," I grunt.

  "If I'd have known you'd need a name, I'd have gotten it. Frankly, I'm slightly offended that you're still wearing clothes."

  I reach down to the floor and toss the rumpled beach towel at her. "I'm offended that your bare ass is on my bed."

  "I can put it on your face instead," she suggests. "Oh. Almost forgot. I did have a message for you."

  "From who?"

  "I don't know," she says, shrugging. "A girl came in here fifteen minutes ago. She said to tell you that your former tutor stopped by to wish you luck."

  I cross the space between us. "What exactly did she say?"

  "That's what she said," the girl says. "Exact words. She came by to wish you luck. I mean, that's dedication, stopping by on a Saturday night to wish a student luck, but –"

  I stop her from talking. "And you were… like this… when she came by?"

  "Well, I had the towel on and then I twirled around to surprise you," she says. "But it wasn't you."

  "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

  "Ooh, yeah," she agrees. "I'm down for a little dirty talk."

  "Get the hell out of my room," I bellow, my voice loud even with the music downstairs.

  "Are you joking?"

  "Get out. Now."

  She huffs as she climbs off the bed. "You're going to turn this down?" she asks. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

  "Out."

  Outside the house, Dillon stands by the front door smoking a cigarette. "Tough break about your tutor," he mutters.

  "You sent that chick up to my room?"

  He shrugs. "Thought you might need some consoling. The tutor was really upset to hear the things you'd been saying about her."

  I don't think. I rush him, driving my head into him with enough force that he slams back up against the side of the house, landing a fist on the side of his head. He gets enough space between us to hit me, and I reel backwards from the unexpected blow. Then he rushes me and we're on the ground, and people outside are chanting. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

  I lose my shit. When I pin him to the ground, I punch him – I don't know how many times – until Tank and Emmett grab my arms and literally drag me away from him.

  Tank blocks my view of Dillon. "Jesus, Colt, you want to fucking kill him?"

  "Are you really asking me that question?" I yell. "Because the answer is yes."

  "Get a hold of yourself," Tank warns. "I know you're mad at Cassie, but you can't just kick the shit out of everyone in your way. Do you even want to play this fall? You know Coach's rules – you're fighting, you're done."

  "Fuck!" I scream at the top of my lungs, running my hands through my hair. I think I'm crawling out of my damn skin right now, hopped up on anger and adrenaline. I don't want to explain to Tank what Dillon did, not right now. "Get away from me."

  I push against Tank's chest.

  "If I let you go, are you going to just go over there and beat on him?" Tank asks, talking to me like he'd speak to a small child.

  "I'm getting out of here," I grumble.

  "You should do that," Tank says.

  I storm across the front yard without a second glance behind me. I don't care if Dillon lives or dies.

  The only thing I care about right now is seeing her.

  She's got to hate me right now.

  I don't want to imagine what the hell Dillon made her think I was saying. Or the look on her face when she walked into my room and saw the naked girl.

  She thinks I'm scum. I know she does.

  When I get to Cassie's apartment, I pause at the door. I didn't plan what to say. I have no idea what to say. Anything I say is going to sound like I’m trying to explain away my guilt.

  I knock on the door and wait. She doesn't answer.

  I do it again. No answer.

  Fuck, she's probably not home. Or she's inside wishing I'll just go away. I briefly consider kicking the door down.

  I knock again.

  The deadbolt turns and Cassie pulls the door open, just a few inches. I push gently against it, but she puts her foot behind it to stop it from opening further.

  "I need to talk to you," I insist.

  "I only came out here to tell you that if you pound on my door one more time, I'm going to call the cops."

  "Cassie. You need to listen to me, just for five minutes."

  "I don't need to do anything, Mr. King," she says coolly. "You were so offended because I didn't tell you about my thesis, because you're such an honest guy, huh?"

  "I am honest. If you give me a minute to explain what happened, you'd see that everything is just a big misunderstanding."

  "I'm sure it's a big fucking misunderstanding that you've been bragging about doing me, right? Talking about nailing the nerdy little tutor to your teammates. That makes you feel like a big man, doesn't it?"

  I clench my fists by my side. I hope Dillon has to have his jaw wired shut. If he doesn't, I'm going to fix that the next time I see him. "I didn't say anything, Cassie," I protest. "That's the guy who was talking about nailing you before, the one I beat up that night I came here. Remember?"

  She laughs bitterly. "He knew I was a virgin, Colton," she says. "Explain how he knew I was a virgin if you weren't bragging about bagging the virgin tutor, huh?"

  Fuck. How did he know that?

  Then, it hits me. "She's a virgin, you stupid fuck." I said it right before I hit him that night.

  "Okay, that I did tell him, but not in the way he told you I told him. And not in the way you think I told him."

  She shakes her head and looks at me. She doesn't even look angry. She looks… disappointed. And betrayed.

  In that moment, I feel like the wind is totally knocked out of me.

  "I have to go, Colton," she says. "Don't come back here. If you do, I swear I will call the cops."

  She slams the door in my face and the deadbolt turns.

  Shutting me out.

  42

  Cassie

  "I'm not sure if it went down the way you think it went down, Cass, that's all I'm saying." Sable dips her chip into queso and shovels it into her mouth.

  "And I already told you that I don't want to talk about That Asshole," I huff over the noise on the restaurant patio. New house rule: we refer to Colton King as That Asshole. I take a sip of my margarita. Okay, I take a giant gulp. You'd think I'd have learned after the tequila shots, but what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.

  Obviously, since I was fucking around with Colton King.

  I should have known better.

  "I'm just saying that he and one of the guys on the team really got into it that night," she says. "I mean, Colt – That Asshole — was crazy pissed. Tank thought he was going to kill the guy."

  I flash to the image of Colton at my door, his lip bloody and a bruise along the side of his jaw, then force it out of my head.

  I wonder if it was