Page 105 of Necessary Roughness
“If we had known that was his house…” Knox began.
“You couldn’t have known,” I replied. I was still staring at the brown stain. “None of us could have. We just wanted to have a good time.”
“I, for one, had agreattime,” Logan declared. “Until the fight, I mean.”
I smiled, but my heart wasn’t in it.
Roman was released at two in the morning. His right hand was bandaged, the clean white wrapping contrasting with the blood stains on his T-shirt and jeans. I jumped up and ran forward, embracing him like I thought he would never be released.
“They have an X-ray machine,” Roman said softly. “Usually used to detect contraband, they told me. My knuckles are broken.” He raised his hand to show me.
“Oh no!” My guilt swelled like a tide. “The game next week…”
“They’ll put a club cast on my hand,” Roman explained. “Happens all the time. I’ll be able to play.”
I was more relieved about that than anything else, I realized. If I was the reason Roman had to miss a game…
Logan drove us home in his Jeep 4Runner. We skulked inside, shoulders slumped, exhausted from everything that had happened and wanting to finally call an end to the day.
Before I could disappear into my room, Roman stopped me with a touch. “Sloane. I… I wanted to apologize.”
“For what?” I asked. “For defending me from an asshole?”
He didn’t smile. “I went too far. I lost control. That’s not the kind of man I am. It’s important to me that you know that.”
His dark eyes were wide and pleading, like this was the most important thing in the world. I hugged him, and felt him relax in my embrace.
“I forgive you,” I whispered. “But there’s nothing to forgive. A small part of me was happy to see Troy get what was coming to him.”
Roman grunted.
“I mostly feel bad for you. Breaking your hand. And if he presses charges…”
“I’ll be fine, Sloane,” he murmured while stroking my hair. “Don’t worry about me. Everything’s going to be fine.”
But it wasn’t.
Troy’s father was a lawyer. And not just any lawyer, but an ambulance chaser who made his fortune representing people with fake injuries. People who pretended to slip in department stores and then sued them for millions.
And in this case, Troy’s injuries wereveryreal.
We learned from Roman’s lawyer that Troy had a broken mandible, three cracked teeth, a fractured orbital bone, and two cracked ribs. “And he’ll probably claim to have a concussion, as well as emotional pain and suffering,” the lawyer added. “I’ll let you know when they contact me, but Roman… it’s not looking good.”
Soon after his lawyer left, the football coach and Zane paid Roman a visit. I locked myself in my bedroom and pretended I wasn’t there, but I could hear everything clearly through the walls.
Roman was being put on academic suspension. He could immediately appeal the decision, which would buy him enough time to play in the final game of the regular season on Saturday, but he would almost certainly miss the conference championship in two weeks.
“What came over you, son?” the head coach asked. Knox had described him as an angry authoritarian on the field, but now he only sounded like a concerned grandfather. “This isn’t like you.”
“He was attacking my… a friend,” Roman replied. “I saw red.”
“Afriend?”The coach snorted. “Must be a real good friend, considering what you did to that boy’s face.”
“He deserved it,” Knox cut in. It was the first time he’d spoken since the coach arrived. “Roman went too far, sure… but that asshole deserved it.”
There was a shuffling sound as the coach rose from the couch. “We’ll see if you feel the same way when our best linebacker is sitting out the conference championship.”
“Forget the championship,” Zane chimed in. “Roman, you’re being charged with battery. You might go tojail.”
