“We’ll get there.”
“No,” Reid, Davis, and Micah say at the same time.
“Whatever, assholes. Thanks for coming.”
“Now that I’ll toast to,” Reid says.
We all clink glasses, and before they can pull away, I really quickly yell out, “To the Gods,” then down my drink.
They love me.
23
Reid
“Divide and conquer?”
“Divide and conquer,” Cade states, touching his fist to mine. He walks away with the same determined look I feel throughout my body. Football is supposed to be about competition, about team, about brotherhood. We don’t fuck around with people’s personal lives, and as far as I’m concerned, McNally is the lowest kind of piece of shit on Earth. Threatening players, conning women into sleeping with him, and maybe going as far as injuring one of us.
We just need evidence.
I head toward Deion James, our defense captain. He can get the word out to his guys. Cade and I thought it best that we didn’t leave paper trails—no messages or emails. We need discussions.
“James.”
He turns around, grinning. “What’s up, QB? If this is about Roberts, I told him he has to get up quicker off the snap.”
Shaking my head, I peer around, then lean against the cubby next to his. “It’s not about that. Listen, I have a little something I want to keep on the down-low, but I was hoping for your help.”
His face turns serious. “You know I got you.”
“McNally,” I state. “Ever heard anything about him?”
“Besides what he did to Freeman?”
I nod once.
Deion looks off to the side. “Naw, man. Not that I can think of. He always seems chill to me. You heard different?”
“Yeah. The kind of stuff we don’t want around the team.”
Deion has a seat on the bench. “What can I do?”
“Ask around the defense. See if they know anything. Just tell me privately. No phones or computers. Or they can come to me themselves.”
“You got it, bro.” He hits his knuckles with mine. “You going to tell me what happened?”
“I don’t want to say until we’re certain, but he’s taking things outside the team. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it was warranted. If anyone is buddy-buddy with him, maybe skip them. We don’t need this getting back to him.”
“Alright. I got you.”
I fist bump him one more time, and then catch back up with Cade, who’s talking to a group of special teams. I’m not even surprised. Cade can hold court with anyone.
He peeks up and sees me standing there. He says one last thing, then bro hugs each and every one of them before striding toward me.
Every time I see the two of us in a place like this, I think about how far we’ve come from peewee when our helmets looked gigantic on our heads. We’ve already been through so much, along with Lex. I wish he was with us right now. He was always the more level-headed one. But I’ll be damned if I let someonethreaten to take this all away from us. Or threaten Briar. Or Charley for that matter.
McNally doesn’t understand who he’s messing with.
