“You too, kiddo,” Axe said with a wink. “Don’t keep my boy out too late. We’re gonna need all the help we can get tomorrow.”
I nodded and waved at the rest of the table. Not that they cared. Weston followed me out and back into the chaos of the restaurant.
“So?” He asked me, not even waiting for us to leave the building.
“It’s a favor, right? Axe and Bill.” I didn't beat around the bush because there was no need to. If Weston’s coach was the snake, then the request had to be big.
“You saw that, right?” He said. “Both of them.”
“Yeah, them sending you not-so-subtle hints about your potential demise if you don’t play their game on and off the field. It was a little hard to miss,” I told him.
“Fucking, thank you! I thought I was being paranoid,” he practically screamed and kissed me on my lips. The contact surprised me, distracting me for a moment. I reeled myself in enough to focus on his situation.
“What are they asking you to do?” I repeated.
He looked around the restaurant. He could have told me right here. No one would hear over the buzzing crowd, but he wasn’t comfortable.
“Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed my hand.
Once we were near his truck, he finally started talking again.
“I thought I was being paranoid. They sent me a text anonymously,” he explained. “Spent hours putting clues together.”
“Weston,” I said, trying to regain his attention. He kept rambling.
“At first, it was just questions about what I did and how the process worked. Typical new client worries. And then, last week they finally made their request,” he continued as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Weston,” I repeated, still failing to get his attention.
“Now, I have a countdown. If I don’t do this, I’m out. Back to who I used to be before all of this football stuff.Useless.”
“Hey, listen to me,” I said, grabbing his hand. He finally stopped talking to himself and looked at me. “What did they ask you to do?”
“My specialty,” he explained. “Beat someone within an inch of their life.”
Chapter 24
“You’resure it’s Axe and Bill?” I asked as I slammed the truck door. “Not the guys on the team trying to prank you or something?
Weston had driven us to the stadium parking lot. The place was empty for now until tomorrow when it’d be overflowing with fans.
He nodded, meeting me at the back of the truck. “Axe and Bill are the only ones with connections deep enough to find out about one of my jobs. I helped a few guys who were members of a country club last year. Their type of crowd. And Kramer only transferred here a few months ago. The guys on the team don’t know what I do… in my spare time. They couldn’t have gotten my extra phone number to prank me.”
“Okay. Well, then who do they want you to hurt?” I replayed the night in my mind, trying to pick up on anything else I might have missed.
Weston’s jaw clenched. He was silent as I waited patiently for him to say something. The more seconds went by, the more my stomach churned.
“Dakota,” Weston finally let out.
I frowned. “Dakota?”
He nodded in confirmation. “They say he hurt some guy over the summer. One of their nephews.”
“What?” I shook my head, thinking about the only guy on Weston’s team who’d made me feel comfortable enough to talk freely. “How? Did you confirm this?”
“It’s a lie.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve known Dakota for three years and he’s not once lost his cool. And the date they gave me of the supposed incident, Dakota and I were at a training camp. We shared a room there, too.”
“Why would they ask you to do something that cruel, then?”
