Page 87 of Give You Up

She has so much pride, and I like her more for it. I pull her onto my lap, hoping to God we don’t break her rickety chair, and hold her tight to me.

“Think of it as my severance pay to you.”

“You—”

“Understand what you’re doing, protecting the ones you care deeply for. I’d do the same were I in your shoes.”

“Hunter can still go to the media.”

“If he does, we spin our own tale. We’ll tell the media Hunter is an ex with a chip on his shoulder for you breaking things off with him. He’s telling lies to get back at you. He’s also an attention-seeking, opportunistic son of a bitch using your friendship with the Sterlings as leverage to extort money and favors from you.”

“Wow, you are good. Remind me not to piss you off.”

Chuckling, I plant a kiss on her mouth and quickly break off our kiss before we end up in bed, though that is the final goal after we go over our most important goal—finding the guy who hurt Natalie.

I run my hand over Syn’s spreadsheet. A third of the guys are blocked off in red. Those are the guys we’ve eliminated based on hair color alone. Next, there is a block of green. After practice, we guys head for the locker room to get out of our smelly practice gear and get in a quick shower. I do a walk-through, disguising my reconnaissance as joking and ribbing on the guys, including the ones who hate my guts. The ones blocked off in green do not have a snake and butterfly tat.

That leaves us with six guys. These guys stick to their pack, and their pack leader is, you guessed it, Jackson. The chicks dig him and his friends, so why does a guy need to drug a girl to get himself tail?

I run it by Syn.

“It’s not a crime of passion. Rape is a crime of violence.” She stares intently at the block of names highlighted in light green. “What should we do with them?”

“Bonding time.”

“Oh, like paintball?” She runs the plan by me. I give her the bad news, letting her down easy. I mean, my girl went out of her way to come up with ways to get these dirtbags off my back.

“Syn, babe, I would love to play me a game of paintball with you kicking my ass in Nerf war. How about we save it for after the season’s over? Coach will have our asses if anyone rolls their ankles before games start.”

“I didn’t think of that.”

I press another kiss to her mouth.

“You would have, Pixie Dust. You’re smart that way. It’s just you have a lot on your plate lately.” Case in point, her calendar and the spreadsheet opened side by side on separate screens.

She wears down her bottom lip with her teeth. Clenches and unclenches her hands over her thighs.

“It is a lot, isn’t it?”

I would never openly admit that to her. Syn has to do what works for her life.

“Baby, if you’re okay with how you live your life based off your calendar, I’m all for it too.”

“That’s the thing. It’s a lot, and seeing it like this, with someone else, I’m having second thoughts.”

“Would it help to un-color code what you think can be put off?”

“I can start with my old library shifts.” She gets rid of the yellow. Already, her calendar is less hectic. “Time with my friends, I’d like to keep.”

I cradle her jaw in my palm and stroke the curve of her cheek, needing to touch and reassure her that I am here for her. “They’ll appreciate that. Time with friends is important.”

“And you?”

“Andy and Jordan are good people. I consider them my friends. My old teammates too, but we were never close like you are with your friends. They have busy lives. Girlfriends. Families. Some have a family of their own.”

“Really?” Her eyes are wide.

She is so damn sexy and adorable, I nudge her face up with my finger under her chin and suck her bottom lip in my mouth. Her lip ring strokes my flesh and a groan lodges in my throat. Fuck, I’ll never tire of feeling that sliver of metal on my flesh. I kiss her over and over. Deep kisses. Lingering kisses. Plundering, devouring kisses. We break apart, each breathing heavy.

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