“You good, Jase? You look a little—”
Jason broke our connection to glare at Asher. “I’m good,” he growled. “Coach wants us on the buses stat.”
“Guess this is goodbye, ladies. Until tomorrow?”
Jason paused, glancing back at us. “You invited them?”
“Well, yeah, I didn’t—”
“Whatever.” He stomped off, and I let out a shaky breath.
“What crawled up his ass?” Asher asked Cam.
“I think it’s just the pressure of everything.”
Or the fact he was a moody asshole.
Coach Hasson and his assistants began rounding up the team to get on the buses, while a few fans lingered to wave them off. We hung back too because we were those girls now.
Strangely, I didn’t mind.
“Do you think we should have told them?” I asked Hailee as she made moon eyes at Cam.
“And worry them for nothing? No.” She folded her arms around her waist and I saw the flicker of doubt in her eyes. Hailee didn’t like keeping secrets, least of all from Cameron. But we’d decided not to tell them about Thatcher being here to avoid any more trouble.
“Come on, we should go,” Hailee started toward my car but paused when Thatcher appeared. He leaned casually against the hood, throwing a wolfish grin in our direction. I glanced back, hoping the team buses were still there, but they were already disappearing down the road.
Crap.
“Hmm, Hailee, what do we do??
?
“Just play it cool,” she said. “He won’t do anything. He just wants to use us to get to the guys.”
Which is exactly what I was worried about.
“He really doesn’t know when to quit it, does he?” Mya asked as we inched closer.
“Ladies,” he drawled just as his friend and another guy stepped out of the shadows.
There were still a few people in the parking lot, but they were all heading back to their cars, paying the three of us no attention.
“Should we shout for—”
“No,” Hailee said, rolling her shoulders back. She was used to Jason’s games; his cruel pranks. But this felt different. It was different. Hailee was no one to Thatcher, but she was someone to Jason and Cameron, and he knew it.
“What do you want, Lewis?” she said as we reached them.
“I want a lot of things.” He let his eyes run down the length of her body.
“Yeah, well, so do I, but we can’t always get what we want. You should probably leave.”
“Or what?” He pushed off the hood. “I saw the buses leave. Your brother and boyfriend are on their way back to Rixon and you’re here, all alone.”
“She’s not alone.” Mya stepped forward.
“Yeah, she has us,” I added, digging my hand in my pocket, my fingers grazing the corner of my cell.