Page 100 of The Triple Play

The color drained from Xav’s face immediately. “Fuck. Does Annie know?”

“No, not yet,” Colton sighed. “This just happened, like, ten minutes ago.”

Xavi stared at him. “Please tell me you beat the shit out of him.”

My jaw tensed. “No, we didn’t,” I said. “I wish we could have. But Colton was right, he’s got Annie’s dad on his side. He would have just sued us into oblivion.”

“He’s fucking blackmailing all of us, though.” Xavi’s voice was getting louder, angrier, and I gripped him by the shoulder, hushing him. “Surely that’s fair game.”

“Yeah, fair game to do something legally, not bash his head in,” I sighed, rubbing my face in exhaustion. “We need to tell Annie. But I don’t know how to do that without stressing her out, and the stress will only make her nausea worse.”

“Shit, you’re right.” Colton sat down on the edge of the bed, his lips pursed, his jaw hard. “What the hell do we do about practice? I don’t want to leave her here when he could be just outside the gate.”

“We could bring her with us,” Xav offered. “Or one of us can stay home, tell Coach we’re sick.”

I mulled it over. “That’s not a bad idea. Rock, paper, scissors?”

“Fuck no, you keep winning,” Colton murmured.

“Well, if you’d stop picking paper every time?—”

“What are you playing rock, paper, scissors for?”

Three sets of eyes turned to the door immediately. Annie stood there, wrapped up in a towel, her damp hair falling around her face in long, stretched ringlets. Her hand pressed against her stomach over the towel, like she was trying to settle her stomach with touch alone.

None of us spoke, and she looked between the three of us, her nose crinkling just a little in confusion. “Uh…?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Colton was already moving, his arm reaching out toward her in an offering. “Come here, sweetheart,” he said gently, and she took a step toward him, taking his hand in hers. He pulled her to him, lowering her onto the bed beside him. “We need to talk.”

“Have you taken your meds yet this morning?” I asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, just before my shower. Why?”

“Did you keep them down?”

“Yeah. I’m nauseous, though,” she said hesitantly, her gaze flicking from me, to Xavi, to Colton. “Is that what this is about?”

“No,” I swallowed.

I stepped around to the front of the bed, taking her hands in mine as I crouched down in front of her. She looked a little pale already, and my stomach churned for her.

“Colton went out for a run this morning. Someone followed him, was taking pictures of him. It was Elliot,” I explained, watching as her eyes widened. “He’s working with your dad.”

The little bit of blood still left in her cheeks drained immediately. “What?”

“He knows you’re pregnant,” Colton added, quieter now. “Tried to convince me it could be his. He’s… Look, I don’t know the extent, but he said he had other pictures too. Ones that definitely didn’t sound PG. I don’t know how the hell he got our address, but he’s taken pictures of us through the fucking windows. He’s trying to use it against us.”

Her hands started to shake in mine, her eyes locked onto me, hearing what Colton was saying but unable to look at him.

“He threatened to go to the press.” My throat closed uncomfortably, and I tried to swallow around it. “He told Colton he’s just trying to get you to see sense and leave this behind.”

“Oh my god,” she croaked. “What?”

“One of us is going to stay home with you today,” I added. “None of us feel comfortable leaving you here alone right now. But we’re going to figure something out?—”

“This is my fault,” she whispered, cutting me off, her voice breaking. “Oh my god, this is my fault. All of it. You guys—your careers—fuck, I’m ruining everything.”

I went to move, but Xav was already crawling across the bed, naked as the day he was born, wrapping his arms around her from behind. “No, you’re not,” he said softly, his mouth brushing against her ear. “You’re not.”

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