Page 102 of Callous Shot

“Then you followed me with the intention of getting information you could use against my family. I get it, I really do, but the fact was, you didn’t trust me enough to tell me what was going on. You betrayed my trust with the things you did. How can there be anything between us after that? Without trust, what do we have?”

He stared at me hopelessly, not even bothering to wipe away his tears anymore. My own were coming thick and fast, burning my eyes and the back of my throat.

“W-what can I do to make you trust me again?”

Closing my eyes, I let my head fall back against the wall as the raw, painful truth spilled from my lips. “Honestly, Link? I don’t know if you can.”

46

DAN

“You gonna be okay?”

I glanced up at my captain from my position on the benches. “Yeah. I can do this.”

It would be the first time I’d seen Lincoln since that night. The night I’d broken what was left of my heart, and maybe even his. It was going to take everything I had to get through this game, knowing that he was no longer mine.

Ryker sank down next to me, knocking his knee against mine. “Alright. I’ll take your word for it, but if you need to change your mind, you can.”

“Thanks.” I shot him a quick smile. My face felt weird. I hadn’t had much to smile about lately.

“Arson? This came for you this morning. I forgot to give it to you, sorry.” Toby appeared in front of me, waving a bubble mailer in my face. It was red.

“Uh…thanks. Any reason you couldn’t have given it to me later?”

“I didn’t want to forget again.” He thrust the package at me and disappeared to the other side of the locker room.

“What the fuck?” I muttered to myself, ripping open the package and pulling out the contents.

My mouth fell open as I stared down at the clear bag in my hands. A bag that was filled to the brim with red Haribo gummy bears, with a Post-it note attached.

For Ganon x

Ryker’s brows rose. “Ganon?”

“Yeah.” My face was doing that weird movement again. Smiling. Widely. I climbed to my feet, grabbing my phone. The past two weeks had been absolute fucking agony without Lincoln in my life, the emptiness inside a constant ache that could never be filled. Two weeks of second-guessing myself and wanting nothing more than to make him mine again.

Eventually, I’d given in and reactivated my accounts and unblocked him, so I could at least stalk his social media and torture myself with everything I’d lost. I’d drafted so many messages to him, all unsent, and I’d refused to read the countless messages he’d left me.

The only sliver of light in the darkness had come from Neil. He’d told me that maybe there was more to the situation, and after Operation Foxglove had wrapped up, we’d be able to talk and get to the bottom of it all. He was probably just trying to make me feel better, and maybe I’d been deluding myself in wanting to believe him, but his words had been the thread of hope I was still desperately hanging on to.

What if there was an explanation for what Lincoln had done?

Steeling myself, I scrolled to our social media message thread. Bypassing the slew of unread notifications, I tapped out my first message to him since everything had fallen apart.

@danhfirestarter:

ganon?

A reply came through so quickly, he must’ve been holding his phone in his hands.

@linkb_flames:

you got my gift then

@danhfirestarter:

wellsy just gave it to me. red haribo?