“If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out.”
“I won’t,” Dawson said and meant it. He was going to have to involve himself personally. There was the obvious shittiness of how the betrayal felt. But then there was the additional wrinkle that he was going to have to journey back to that mental place where he’d lost himself last year.Alone. Without Simon and without Alex.
“Excellent. Have a good night.” Natalia hung up.
“Daws?”
Dawson looked up and Cam was standing there, obvious worry on his face. It only hit him that maybe he wouldn’t be alone this time.
He’d have Cam. Marty. Even Aidan, mostly because if he caught even a hint of what was going on, he’d butt in until Dawson confessed everything.
There’d been teammates and coaches in Baltimore, of course, but there it had always felt different. Like he only earned their approval as long as he was perfect. As soon as he’d stopped being perfect, their support hadn’t exactlyended, but it had faded away over time, until ithadfelt like he was alone.
“You okay?” Cameron asked, coming over to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
Dawson let out a short, unsteady breath. There was the truth and then there was what he might’ve said, to anybody else.
He’d thought it would be a lot tougher decision, but in the end, it wasn’t at all.
“No,” he said.
Cam’s face creased with worry. “You were right,” he guessed.
“Yeah. Yeah, it seems that way. I need to call Simon. And God,Alex.”
“Alex?” Cam’s arm looped all the way around Dawson’s shoulders now, pulling him in close.
“My agent.” Dawson’s throat clogged. Alex had been with him from the very beginning. How could he have conspired with Simon against him? He’dknownhow devastating the blows of last season had been.
“Shit.” Cam gestured down the sidewalk. “You wanna deal with them on the walk home or when we get home or . . .”
“I’m going to call Simon first.”
“Alright. Whatever you need.” Cam’s hand slipped down his shoulder and then grasped Dawson’s, gripping it tightly and not letting go as they started to walk back towards their building.
He didn’t have to repeat again that he was there for Dawson, no matter what the fallout, because Dawsonfeltit. Solid and unshakeable.
Of course he’d felt that way about Brynn too, at one point. But by the time things had come to a head last year, things between them had already disintegrated into ash. Burned upandburned out.
Dawson stared at his phone. He was really tempted to call Alex first. He’d known Alex longer. But the way the reality was taking shape in his mind, he had a feeling whose idea this had been. Before this, he’d have trusted Alex with his life. Simon he’d trusted too, butless.
There’d always been a worry in the back of his mind that Simon was a little too smooth, a little too easy. He’d told himself it was just the natural distrust of lawyers, but now he looked at that and wondered if deep down, he’d already known the truth.
So he called Simon first.
Simon picked up on the third ring, the sound echoing like he was in the car. “Hey, Daws, what’s up?” he asked.
There was nothing to do but rip the Band-Aid off. Dawson had spent enough time shying away from the truth; too much time already worrying that he was right.
“I just got off the phone with Natalia Kaminski,” Dawson said bluntly.
“I told you—”
“I know what you fucking told me,” Dawson retorted, suddenly full of blinding rage. “I know all the lies you told me.”
“They weren’tlies,” Simon said entreatingly. “We were worried about you! You nearly flushed your career down the drain in Baltimore. The last thing you needed was for you to get dragged into all this bullshit again. It’s what I kept telling Kaminski, but she wouldn’t accept it.”
“We?” Dawson asked in a low voice. He’d assumed that it had to be Alex, too.
