Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Kristin stuck her chin out. “And we’ll all be ready when they do.”
Soon, the teams were once again positioning themselves on the field. Casey sensed that Sherryl was doing her best to catch her eye, but Casey paid her zero attention. The whistle sounded, and all the players sprung to life.
Again, the Seals hogged the ball. Again, they also had their sick fun with Casey; did more pinching, elbowing, spitting, and tripping her up so often that her skin tingled with turf burns.
A Seal midfielder cockily committed a foul right under the ref’s nose. Even though Casey’s knees and palms burned from the fall, she inwardly smiled as the ref issued the midfielder a yellow card. Some of the Seals surrounded him and tried appealing his decision, but no amount of whining from them made any difference.
Really, you’d have thought the Seals would then have decided to be more careful. They didn’t. And then the opening that Casey had been waiting for finally came.
Powering past the bitches trying to crowd her, she intercepted a kick from one of the Seals. Heart beating rapidly in her chest, Casey rocketed up the field, steering the ball with her instep. Most of the Hounds seemed to stampede toward the opposition’s goal, and hardly any of them were covered by Seals because the bitches were too busy descending on Casey.
Undeterred, she kept moving, feinting, and dribbling. Mere seconds before a Seal defender tripped her, she kicked the ball, passing it to Kristin. Casey went down hard, and pain streaked up the back of her leg. She ignored it, her eyes locked on the ball as Kristin booted it hard. It zipped through the air and straight into the low, right corner of the net.
The Hounds roared. Kristin let out a war-cry. Cheers and hoots sounded from the spectators.
Casey jumped to her feet, ignoring the twinge of pain in her leg, and ran to her teammate. She and Kristin collided, hugging each other tightly. Some of the other Hounds surrounded them, roaring in triumph.
Glancing around, Casey could see that the Seals were beyond shocked. Maybe they’d just figured it would be an easy win, maybe they just had a whole lot of confidence in their goalkeeper, or maybe they’d thought that making it hard for Casey to play would be enough to stop the Hounds from scoring—she didn’t know.
As for Sherryl … her face was twisted into a mask of pure fury.
Moments later, the teams were playing once more. Just as Eli had predicted, everyone’s focus seemed to snap onto the game, as if the Seals finally remembered why they were there. But, shockingly, they began to play like crap. They were totally invested in the game, but they couldn’t seem to get their shit together. The Hounds, on the other hand, had never played better—no doubt partly because the goal had lifted their spirits.
Casey’s leg was still smarting from her awkward fall. She knew it would give her some grief throughout the rest of the game, but she’d be damned if she’d show it. The Seals would pounce on that weakness and target her leg again and again.
The defender marking Casey ceased trying to foul her and instead threw all her energy into trying to block her shots. The bitch was good, so she often succeeded. But not always.
At one point, Casey spun, using her body to shield the ball from the defender. Timing it just right, Casey abruptly swerved and then volleyed the ball hard. It sank into the net. Joy lifted her heart. She smiled as Eli’s pride and elation hummed down their bond like a congratulatory hug.
The Seals then seemed to get desperate, because they were committing fouls here, there, and everyfuckingwhere.
One Seal crashed into Kristin with such force that she knocked the midfielder down. The side of Kristin’s head smacked hard into the ground. The harsh whack made Casey wince. She would have been surprised that her teammate hadn’t passed out if it had been anyone other than Kristin—the girl had a hard head.
The captain bounced to her feet, seething as her infamous temper kicked in, and went nose to nose with the offending Seal. Oh, shit.
Casey and Emma quickly dashed over and slipped between the two players. The ref hadn’t seen the foul, so he didn’t act on it. That only pissed Kristin off more, so it wasn’t easy to talk her down from punching the ref in the throat—something she vowed she’d do to him the moment the game was over, which made him swallow hard.
Red splotches covering her damp face, Kristin shoved at her short sleeve and settled for spitting at the offending Seal’s feet. “Bitch.”
Panting, throat raw, Casey guided her away and said, “She went after you on purpose, knowing you were likely to snap. We can’t afford for you to get sent off the field. Keep it locked down, yeah?”