Page 96 of Forever Relentless

I chewed the edge of my thumb as I waited.

Diana’s text had been vague but urgent. Not a healthy combination in my opinion. I glanced at the phone again — no update.

I caught myself from pacing. I like to move when I’m restless, and I was definitely restless.

Had I ever felt calm since I got here? I don’t think I had.

“Hey.”

I turned and watched as Diana hurried up to me. She was wearing her PT uniform. With black leggings, a white polo shirt with the team’s logo, and a form-fitting zip-up jacket, she fit right into their program.

“What’s happening?” I demanded as we walked. “Do you know it isn’t even seven in the morning?”

Diana gave me a look that I knew well.

“Yes, Bri, I do. Because I just walked out of the stadium to see you.”

“Do they know you’re here?”

She shook her head. “No, I made sure all of them were on the field when I texted.”

The campus was quiet. It was seven a.m., after all. The students who were awake either had early classes, hadn’t gone to bed yet, or were simply insane.

“Talk to me,” I urged as I followed her around the back of one of the bigger buildings that hid us from the main quad’s sight.

“Noah and the wide receiver got sent to PT for IV drips this morning, and—”

“They did? Why?”

Diana ignored my question. “I was talking to TJ in the coffee station. And they walked in.”

“I thought you and him were keeping it cool at work?”

“Yeah, well, that was before he decided to take interviews for a job somewhere else and didn’t tell me,” she snapped.

“Okay, I get you’re pissed. I’m on your side, remember?”

She ignored me again. “We were talking, Matthews and Slater came in, I went to get them IV drips and left them.”

“Why did they need IVs?” He’d left me quite late. Did he go somewhere else? To someone else?

“Who cares?”

Right. That should be my answer too.

“I was only gone four, five minutes tops. I came back, and both of them looked pissed, and TJ walked out of there like a bear with a sore paw.”

“What happened?”

The look I received was not friendly.

“Jesus, Diana, will you dial it down? I’m not the one you’re mad at.” I thought about it. “Am I?”

“They didn’t tell me, the guys, I mean. So when I was done with them, I went and found TJ.”

“Because you weren’t done with him either?”

“Right. And he . . .” She shook her head, looking away from me, her eyes filling with tears. “He reminded me how disposable I am.”