Authors: Alla Kar

Play Me (22 page)

BOOK: Play Me

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“Don’t you worry about them, Garrison. I’m not going to go back on my deal, we won’t hurt them.”

Ryan appears from the far right corner of the room. That must be the way out. But with two other guys standing in the corner of the room it doesn’t look like a run for it would work, even if I weren’t tied to a damn chair.

“I really don’t want to have to do this,” Ryan says, dragging a foldout chair across the concrete. Swinging the chair around, he sits in front of me. The gun in his hands flashes in the moonbeams. And everything sets in.

He isn’t stable and he’s holding a gun. No telling if he is high or not but I don’t think it makes much of a difference either way. He wants me dead and nothing is here to stop him.

“Then don’t.”

He chuckles and rubs the gun in-between the palms of each hand, his fingers twitching against the trigger. Both shoulders occasionally jerk and I know he’s stoned out of his mind. “You think I went two years without her so that you could have her? You’re not Maddox’s father, I am.”

“Well, you sure as hell don’t act like it,” I spit out. “A father doesn’t have to be biological to be your father. It’s how you fuckin’ act,
butt-fuck.”

The chair flies backwards as he jumps to his feet and points the gun right at my head. “They aren’t yours!” he screams, his voice echoing into the night.

Grinding my teeth together, I pull at the twist ties that are binding my wrists together. “That may be true. But they sure as hell aren’t yours either.”

He screams and pistol whips me across the face. My cheek throbs and blood starts to trail down my face. When I look back up, any ounce of humanity that was left in him is gone.

He brings the gun back up to my head and grabs a handful of his hair. “Ryan, bro, you—,”

“Shut up!” Ryan screams and begins to pace back and forth in front of me. I have no idea why he hasn’t killed me. But I’m not complaining. I tug on my wrists again but it only tightens more. “I’m going to do it. I have to. It’s the only way,” he’s mumbling to himself.

Blood is dripping from my face now and down my white T-shirt. I close my eyes. I don’t want to leave Roxanne, not only for selfish reasons—even though it’s obvious I’m going to miss her like fuck—but because I have no way of knowing how their life is going to turn out. Will Ryan really keep his fucking promise? Or will he force her to stay with him?

A loud bang shouts off, so I duck my head to my chest. Did someone shoot? Am I bleeding? I look down at my shirt but only the blood from my face is there. The two guys in the corner start shouting but an air horn sounds off from outside. “Magnolia Police, come out now!”

Jesus Christ
. Roxy must have gotten out. Ryan begins to screech while holding his ears. One of the guys comes up to Ryan and starts to drag him out of the building but he begins to fight. My heart is racing inside my chest. Ryan flings the gun around fighting with one of his guys. “Let go! Let go. Let go! I have to get him. I have to!” he screams.

The officer’s loud footsteps echo into our room and the tall guy bolts, leaving Ryan and me in the room alone. He searches the room—for what I don’t know—and then points the gun back at me.

This is it. And the theory that everything flashes before your mind is the fucking truth. From the good to the bad. Every goddamn important situation resurfaces, drowning you in your own life. But when those memories stop on Roxanne and Maddox, it doesn’t feel as hard to bear anymore.

When the gunshot rings through the air I close my eyes. My chair flies backwards and I hit the concrete with a thud. Someone shouts but I can’t tell who it is so I stay still. The throbbing pain in my head is leaving. I’m floating. But then I’m being pulled back down.

“Sunshine,” someone says.

I blink rapidly until I see Dom standing over me. He lets out a choked sound and leans my head upwards a bit since I’m still lying on the ground. “Intuition?” I ask.

Dom nods and gently slaps me on the cheek. “Yea.”

Epilogue

Three weeks later …

The stadium looks so intimidating with only three people in it. The hotness of the stadium lights are hotter. Each noise intensified to the fullest. It seems like life could go on forever like this.

I stretch my legs out in front of me on the seats below. Leaning back, I watch as Maddox chases Weston around the field with not a worry in the world. For either one of them. Or me.

Ryan was arrested on attempted murder charges, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and a bunch of drug charges. There isn’t any way he can get out of this. And that makes the pain he’s caused me bearable.

“Blue forty-two. Blue forty-two. Hut. Hut.” Weston yells, running backwards and tossing the ball over his good shoulder. With the other one in the cast I knew that he wouldn’t be able to play—again—for a while. For an entire month. The season will be almost ending by then.

“I got it!” Maddox yells. “Mom!” he turns to look up at me. ‘I got it!”

“Woohoo!” I yell.

Weston stands still and looks up at me. Even though there are a few hundred feet between us, a feeling I can’t explain overtakes me. I want—need—him up here with me. He nods slowly, bends down and says something to Maddox.

He nods and starts running around the field. Each step Weston takes toward me something pulls in my lower stomach. I slowly lower my gaze to his chest; even wrapped in a cast he looks amazing. That white T-shirt I helped him get into this morning is clinging to the muscles in his stomach. A pool of heat is burning inside of me.

When he’s close enough I lock eyes with him. Those big brown eyes roll over me and there is no remorse for his gawking. He takes a step inside the row in front of me. He places both knees on the seat below and lowers himself to me with one hand. “I’ve been shiverin’ down there, sweetheart.”

I lift an eyebrow. “Cold?”

He shakes his head, a chunk of dirty blonde hair falls against his forehead. Carefully I run my fingers over the scruff of his jaw. “I’m shiverin’ from want—need—and there is only one person that can help me out.”

He slides forward until he is bent in front of me, my legs spread around his big body. “Rebecca?” I whisper against his lips.

He laughs and cups my jaw with his good hand. “No, the most infuriatingly beautiful girl I’ve ever met.”

I smile and nip his bottom lip. “Coach called me today.”

Oh, no.
I lean backwards and stare at him. “What did he say?”

He frowns. “The Eagles heard about the accident and—,” he trails off, swallowing a lump in his throat. It seems like I feel it in my own throat. I want to take all of that pain away from him and store it inside of myself. He didn’t deserve this. “They want to offer me a contract.”

Wait—what? He starts to laugh and I shove him in his good shoulder. “You asshole!”

He nuzzles my neck and nips where shoulder meets neck. “Maddox is going to be mad.”
I laugh and it turns into a sob on his shoulder. “Baby—what’s wrong?”

I sniffle and lift my head. “I was so scared you’d lose your chance to get out of here. I couldn’t live with myself if I was the reason you didn’t make it.”

He furrows his brow and runs his finger against my lip and jaw. “No, baby. You’re the reason I’m goin’.”

“What do you mean?”

He sighs. “You and Maddox are mine now. I take care of you. I love both of you so much more than I ever felt I was capable of loving. And it’s us three to the end.” He swallows and then looks down to smile. “Well, maybe another little one in the next few years but us, always.” He scratches the back of his neck. “What I mean is that you two are coming with me. We’ll both graduate in May and we can find you a physical therapist job in Philadelphia. We can be the family I want—you want—and get out of this one horse town.” His bottom lip quivers. “Together. Always. You’re the realest fucking thing I’ve ever had in my life and I won’t take no for a fucking answer, Roxanne. I’m going to stop rambling now. Please, put me out of my misery.”

Tears are streaming down my face now. He tries to kiss them away but they’re too many. “Always,” I whisper.

He nods and presses his lips to mine in a soft, slow kiss that seers my toes. His fingers dig into the back of my neck and he forces me to look at him. “Thanks for taking a chance with me.”

“It was worth it.”

The End