I could walk back into Coach Snow’s office like a coward, but I’m going to have to face him eventually. I keep my feet planted and wait for him to notice me. After one more shot, he tucks the ball under his arm and walks toward me. With every step, my heart thuds louder in my chest. “Come on,” he says, taking my hand and pulling me toward a door I know all too well.
“No,” I say, yanking at my hand. “Let me go, Preston.”
He sighs and releases my hand, reaches into his pocket, and hands me his knife, handle first. “Take that if it makes you feel better. I just want to show you something.”
“How dumb do you think I am?”
“Come on, Crystal,” he says, sounding genuinely frustrated. “Devlin’s my boy. I would never hurt his girl.”
“You already did.”
He rubs between his brows with his thumb. “You’re right,” he says at last, lifting his head and meeting my eyes. “There’s no excuse for what I did to you. I’m the worst of all the pieces of shit you’ve ever encountered, and I know it. But I told you I’m not a liar, and I’m not a liar.”
“Sounds like something a liar would say.”
“Look, Devlin didn’t say you were his girl until he did,” Preston says. “And now you’re his girl, which means you’re one of us. Which means, whether I like it or not, I’d take a fucking bullet for you, Crystal.”
“I thought you and Colt turned your back on him when he went to jail.”
Preston’s jaw tenses. “Where’d you hear that?”
“From Devlin.”
“Then keep it to yourself,” he says. “That’s between us. We don’t need that shit getting out.”
Interesting. So Devlin told me something they don’t want the school to know. I treasure that little piece of information more than I should. Devlin doesn’t just love me. He trusts me.
“Okay,” I say, flicking the blade of his knife out. “Then tell me what happened, and I’ll go in there with you.”
“You know what happened,” he says. “Devlin’s dad ratted out Grampa Darling. Devlin knew he’d be in serious trouble for that, so he tried to take the fall for his dad. They were both arrested. We were supposed to shun him except at school.”
“You’re just faking it?” I ask. “Does he know that?”
“We’re not faking anything,” Preston says. “Devlin did right by his dad. The dude’s too fucking noble for his own good. Colt and I aren’t holding shit against him because he didn’t do shit wrong. So, did I answer all your questions?”
“Walk in front of me,” I say after a second’s hesitation.
“Want me to put my hands above my head?” he asks sarcastically, shoving the door of the locker room open and stalking in.
I step in behind him. My heart lurches into my throat. Preston walks back to the shower where he dragged me that day and stops, turning to the stall. I can’t look. My breath is coming fast, and my mind spins so wildly I can’t hold a thought. It’s just a blur of images, of raw emotion choking through me like it did in those moments, that horrible, endless stream of minutes where I hung here alone, waiting for every woman’s worst nightmare to come true.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask Preston, my voice strangled.
“Look,” he orders. “It’s just a shower stall, Crystal. It can’t hurt you.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. He’s wrong. It hurts too much.
I hear him shift, and his arm slides around me. I jump, shock hammering into me. But his grip is comforting as he stands next to me, not pinning my arms but holding my waist; not trapping me but supporting me.
I didn’t know the whole world would shift when Devlin said he loved me.
“I know I’m the last fucking person on this earth who needs to be giving advice,” Preston says, his voice a soft murmur. “But even evil people get it right sometimes. As my old man likes to say, every action you take is letting the world know who you are. You can stand there and cry about it like a little bitch, or you can suck it up and show no fear, like a man.”
“I’m not a man,” I say through numb lips.
“Open your eyes, Crystal,” he says. “You’re stronger than this.”
He’s right. There’s only one thing in this room that can hurt me, and it’s not a shower stall. I open my eyes. It’s so unremarkable, that shower stall. The floor and walls are just tile. The showerhead is just stainless steel. No rope. No blood. No hair.