Page 43 of Necessary Roughness
He was taller than me. Stronger than me. Nobody in the party was paying attention. I tried pulling my arm away, but he still didn’t release his grip.
There was a blur of motion, and then another man—taller and stronger than Troy—was pushing him up against the wall.
Knox.
The quarterback grabbed a handful of Troy’s shirt in a fist, then leaned in close to growl at him.
“Back. The.Fuck. Up.”
17
Knox
There were a lot of things that made me a good quarterback. Obviously I had a strong arm, and I was tall enough to see over my linemen. I had a world-class work ethic, spending at least an hour a day studying opposing teams and all the ways their defenses intended to stop me. I was lucky enough to remain relatively injury-free since I started playing this sport 15 years ago.
But the biggest thing was that I had a powerful intuition. I couldfeelwhen a play was collapsing, and sense when opposing players were about to tackle me. A tingle on the back of my neck letting me know something wasoff.
While refilling the beer pong cups for the next game, I felt that tingle.
“I’ll be back,” I told Logan, and immediately went searching for Sloane.
It was probably nothing. It was more likely she was standing in line for the bathroom rather than something bad happening. But I wasn’t going to be able to relax until I knew for certain.
I found her in the hallway arguing with some guy.
I instantly knew they had a history. This dude had Big Ex Energy. I kept my distance, watching from across the hall while a nearby freshman girl frowned up at me.
“How do I know you?” she asked.
“I’m Ken Jennings, the host of Jeopardy,” I replied absently. My eyes were locked onto Sloane and the mystery man.
“What’s Jeopardy?” the girl asked.
The guy grabbed Sloane’s arm forcefully.
I immediately acted on instinct, the same as when I felt an opponent rushing into my blind spot to tackle me. I surged forward, shouldering past other partiers to get to Sloane as quickly as possible, grabbing the guy by his shirt and shoving him up against the wallhard.
I didn’t even remember what I said, but I put as much menace as I could into the words.
The guy was alarmed for a moment, then the look in his eyes changed. “Holy shit. You’re Knox Maddox.” His gaze cut past me. “Sloane, you know the captain of the football team?”
“I don’t know her,” I said, leaning a little more of my weight into him. “But I know you’re harassing her.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said stubbornly. “This is my ex. We were having a discussion.”
“I agree,” I said softly. “Youwerehaving a discussion. Past tense.”
With the same intuition that had brought me here, I sensed Logan stepping behind me to back me up.
“And here’s Logan Fucking Hunter,” Sloane’s ex said. “Are you going to assault me, too?”
“Maybe. If I have to.” I saw Logan shrug out of the corner of my eye. “I’m more of a nonviolent kind of guy, but I won’t shy away from an ass that needs kicking. Up to you.”
“You’ve got five seconds to leave this party,” I said, lessening my grip on his shirt.
He lifted his chin. “Or what?”
“Or we’ll get you kicked out,” Logan said. “And not just this party. I can send one text message and you’ll be banned from every single party on campus for the next two semesters. See? Told you I was nonviolent!”
