Page 67 of Eight Count Heat
Gray takes my chin in his fingers, tilting my face up to his. “We'll figure this out, Reese. I promise.” Then he walks out the door, letting it click softly behind him.
After he leaves, I prepare for bed methodically, trying not to think about the weekend's inevitable confrontation. But as I lie in the darkness of the unfamiliar hotel room, one thought keeps cycling through my mind:
For the first time in my life, someone believes I'm strong enough to face what's coming. Someone thinks I'm worth defending.
It should terrify me, how much that means. Instead, it feels like the first steady thing I've had to hold onto in weeks.
Whatever happens this weekend at Riverside, I won't be facing it completely alone. And maybe, just maybe, that will be enough.
chapter SEVENTEEN
Beckett
The team house feelsdifferent this morning. There's an undercurrent of tension that has nothing to do with our usual pre-practice routine and everything to do with the empty chair at our breakfast table.
Reese should be here by now. Gray left twenty minutes ago to pick her up from the hotel, and knowing our captain's obsession with punctuality, they should have been back ten minutes ago.
"Think she's okay?" Zane asks, voicing what we're all thinking as he pushes scrambled eggs around his plate. "After what happened yesterday..."
"She's fine," Bo says firmly, but I catch the way his eyes keep flicking to the window. "Gray's with her."
Tyler looks up from his tablet, where he's been obsessively checking weather reports for this weekend's regatta."Statistically speaking, the likelihood of another incident occurring within a twenty-four-hour window is—"
"Nobody asked for statistics, Wu," Jackson cuts him off, pouring coffee with more force than necessary.
Cameron sits at the far end of the table, silent as always, but his dark eyes hold that watchful intensity that makes me think he's cataloging every detail of our collective anxiety. Eli hasn't touched his food, just stares at his phone like he can will Gray to text an update.
The whole situation has us on edge. Someone broke into Reese's room yesterday, went through her personal belongings, left another threatening note. The violation of it, the escalation, has every protective instinct in the house firing on all cylinders.
And now her parents are coming this weekend, expecting to see their daughter competing for Westlake instead of coxing for us. The collision course has been set, and there's nothing any of us can do to stop it.
"Maybe we should call," Zane suggests, already reaching for his phone.
"Give them five more minutes," Bo says. "Traffic's probably heavier than usual."
As if summoned by our collective worry, the back door opens and Gray walks in, alone. His expression is carefully neutral, but I know him well enough to recognize the tension in his shoulders.
"Where's Callahan?" Tyler asks immediately.
"Getting her gear from the car," Gray replies. "She's fine. Just tired."
The way he says it tells me there's more to the story, but before I can probe, Reese appears in the doorway. She looks composed, put-together, every inch the unflappable coxswain we've come to know. But there are shadows under her eyes that makeup can't quite hide, and something fragile in the way she holds herself.
"Morning, everyone," she says, moving to grab coffee from the pot. "Sorry we're late."
"No worries, Cox," I say, flashing my most charming smile. "We were just discussing the finer points of Tyler's weather obsession."
She rewards me with a small smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Find anything useful in all those forecasts?"
"Light rain expected Friday evening," Tyler responds seriously. "Clearing by Saturday morning. Ideal conditions for the regatta."
"Good." She takes a sip of coffee, wrapping her hands around the mug like she needs the warmth. "One less thing to worry about."
But her voice catches slightly on the word "worry," and I file away the observation. Our unshakeable coxswain is more rattled than she's letting on.
"So," I say, leaning back in my chair, "anyone want to fill me in on the security situation? I feel like I'm missing some crucial details about why our cox is suddenly under protective custody."
Gray's jaw tightens. "Someone's been targeting Reese. Escalating threats. We're handling it."
