Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
"Neil wasn't fighting with himself," Wymack said, with steel in his voice. "If Coach Moriyama wants the Away side, I'll take the Home."
"Of course," Moriyama said, looking unmoved by the chaos. "Riko?"
They set off in one direction, so Wymack practically carried Neil the other. Neil knew Abby and the Foxes were following them off the court but he couldn't take his eyes off Riko to look at any of them. He lost sight of Riko when Wymack shoved him through the court door, but it wasn't until Wymack bodily planted him on one of the Home benches that Neil could look up at him. Wymack waved Katelyn and Nicky's date Thomas back onto the court with an impatient jerk of his hand, then rounded on Neil again.
"What the hell was that?"
"Coach?"
"Don't you dare 'Coach?' me, you malfunctioning retard."
"No, but really," Nicky said, looking wide-eyed at Neil. "What happened?"
"Neil hit Riko," Matt said. "It was beautiful."
"What?" Nicky squawked. "Not fair! I missed it! Go do it again. Or not," he added quickly when Wymack leveled a death glare at him. "You can't blame a guy for dreaming, right, Coach?"
"Shut up." Wymack returned his glower to Neil. "I'm waiting."
Neil felt his wrist and winced at the lingering pain. Abby slipped past Dan to get to him and sat at Neil's side. Neil let her take his hand and looked past Wymack at the court. "Riko bought off the prosecution." The words came slowly; they were so awful he thought he'd be violently ill just hearing them aloud again. "That's why Drake risked coming all the way here to see Andrew. Riko would get the charges dismissed if Drake would—" He gritted his teeth and shook his head, unable to finish.
He didn't have to say anything else. The music was still going, blasting through the speakers, but the silence between the Foxes was absolute.
Aaron was the first to get his voice back. "You're lying."
Neil sucked in a shaky breath and looked at Kevin. In French he asked, "Did you get it? My ticket?" Kevin stared at him and through him, too stunned to understand or respond. "Kevin, look at me."
"I'm going to kill him," Nicky said.
"No," Neil said, with a ferocity that had even Matt eyeing him warily. "We've got to break him first. If Exy is the only thing he cares about we're going to take it away from him. First we destroy his reputation, then we destroy him. I don't want us to lose a single game this spring. Can we do that?"
"Not a single damn game," Dan said in a hard voice.
Neil looked around at them, at the cold rage on their faces, and focused on Kevin. He tried again in French with an insistent, "Do you have my ticket?"
"You're not going," Kevin said. "Do you know what he'll do to you?"
"Do you know what he'll do to Andrew if I don't go?" Neil said. "I don't have a choice. I have to go. You have to trust me."
"He will break you."
"He wishes he knew how," Neil said. "Trust me. I promise I'll come back, and when I do I'll bring Andrew back with me. It's going to be fine. So do you have my ticket or don't you?"
Kevin pressed his lips into a hard, white line and looked away. "I have it."
When the strikers fell quiet, Dan looked at Wymack. "Let's go home, Coach."
The banquet was hours from being over, but it was too dangerous to stay any longer. The next time one of them saw Riko they'd try to break his neck. Wymack trusted Renee's self-control the most, so he sent her in search of the missing dates. As soon as Renee returned with Katelyn and Thomas the Foxes high-tailed it to the bus. They slowed to grab their bags from the locker room but not long enough to change. Wymack had them on the road in minutes.
The ride back to Palmetto was silent. They made it back in the dead of night, but despite the hour none of the Foxes could sleep. Wymack dropped the dates off first, then took his team to Fox Tower. They rode the elevator up together. Kevin passed Neil a folded slip of paper as they stepped into the hallway. Neil didn't have to open it to know it was the confirmation for his flight.
Matt tried to bring Neil to the girls' room so they could finally talk about what happened, but Neil went next door. He kicked his shoes off to one side and pushed the window open. He tried to light a cigarette but his hands were shaking too badly. He ended up crawling into bed fully dressed. He checked the departure time so he'd know how early to set his alarm, then shoved the paper under his pillow with Andrew's bands. He pulled his blankets over his head to block out the room and willed himself to stop thinking.
When he finally slept, he dreamed of death and blood.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Neil woke to the sound of movement in the other room. Despite the late night, the Foxes were up and about by mid-morning. Today was the day the team cleared out for winter break, and most of them had long enough flights to sleep on. Allison, Renee, and Dan were flying out to Bismarck together around lunch time and would split up after they landed. Two hours after they were in the air the rest of the Foxes would be en route to LaGuardia.
Neil had passed Matt's invitation along the week before exams and let Nicky do most of the work from there. Nicky's original plans to go to Germany for Christmas derailed when Andrew got committed. He didn't want to get that far away from Aaron. Unfortunately Erik couldn't take enough time off to come to the States. That meant Matt was Nicky's only chance for a fun holiday.
None of the so-called monsters of the team were sure why Matt was being nice to them, but Nicky was too excited to spend New Year's in Times Square to really care. Wymack claimed to be happier than Nicky was about the arrangement, since their absence meant he could finally have some peace and quiet. Aaron had to get permission from his lawyer to leave the state, but they'd settled that easily enough.