“Whoa!” Alec pointed up into the stands, and running along the wall right behind our bench was a giant Black Widow mascot.
I punched Cal. “You didn’t have to do that.” He’d alluded to a big surprise earlier in the week but hadn’t told me what.
“If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it,” Cal replied.
We made our way over to our bench and situated ourselves, and after about twenty minutes, the captains were called to the field. It was George and Max that stood up when it was time to file out, and I smiled at them. With Lila gone, none of the Widows had been more dedicated to the team than them. I started out to centerfield and noticed Zeke across the way, making his way out with a pair of Vipers at his sides, as well. We met in the middle, and Zeke held out a fist. I bumped it.
“I don’t think I need to tell you two, but I’ll say it anyway, keep it clean out there.” The ref looked at Zeke. “Call it.”
“Tails.” The ref flipped the coin into the air, and it dropped down onto the turf, tails up. Zeke looked over at me. “We’ll kick.”
I shrugged. “It’s your funeral,” and he laughed.
The ref motioned that the Widows were receiving first, and we turned to head back to our benches. My back was barely to Zeke when I felt a tug at my jersey. I turned, and he was smiling at me.
“I love you.”
My smile grew. “I love you.” I raised an eyebrow. “No mercy.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe in mercy.”
Everything between that moment and standing on the field to wait for the kick was a blur. The roar of the fans and the heat sweltering in my body—all of it pumped me up until I thought my bones were going to jump out of my body. I side-eyed Jansen, but she was already low to the ground, ready to run. The whistle blew, and the Vipers’ kicker charged forward and kicked the ball high into the air. It sailed down the field, and for a second, I was worried it was going to go short, but Jansen raced forward at lightning speed and snagged it. The Widows took off as the Vipers charged her, each of us colliding with their defensive line as they tried to get to Jansen.
I was on Jansen’s feet, shoving guys aside as I did when a Viper cut out from upfield. I peeled off to the right of Jansen, and just as he was about to jump and tackle her, I lept and hooked his feet, taking him down to his face. Jansen continued, threading her way in and out of Vipers until she was running across the line into the end zone. I jumped to my feet, unsure that I’d seen that right, but before long, there were Widows jumping up and down around me. We started the game with a kick return!
“I’ll take it!” I screamed.
We kicked the ball off to the Vipers next, and they fought not to be outdone. Though they didn’t run it all the way back for a return like we did, their movement up the field was quick. We knew that without Lila’s power on defense, our best hope was going to be to score more points. That said, we could lock the Vipers up pretty good, and I was elated when Zeke wasn’t able to get the ball out of his hands before I tackled him to the ground.
“You’re supposed to throw the ball, my love,” I teased.
He shoved me off of him playfully. “Pipe down.”
In no world could we force a turnover. It took longer for them than it took us, but the Vipers returned the points we scored easily, and made a successful conversion, bringing them to the lead. The game was a tit-for-tat match of the Widows scoring and the Vipers scoring right behind us. I knew that, unless we managed to get a point gap going, the Vipers were going to win, if only by a small margin. Cal had a play designed to make the most of our team offensively, but it was a little reckless and took a lot of stamina off Hollie and Gria. We could probably only run it for two possessions before they were too tired to do it, so I positioned one right after we came back from halftime and held over the other for near the end.
Between the reckless plays, I relied on my team to open the Vipers up and make small advances toward the end zone instead of throwing it for big yardage. It was a strain on my stamina, and the Vipers were well aware of my ability to sneak through tiny openings, but I kept on and on until we were within the twenty-yard line. Kris snapped the ball back to me, and it barely touched my hands before I threw it. I had to blindly trust that the Widows would get where they needed to be, and I need not be worried.
Beck was smaller and faster than Jansen. She shook off her mark quickly and got down the field at lightning speed, earning her nickname. She was under the ball without breaking a sweat, and it dropped into her hands in the end zone without an issue. We ran the Vipers through their next possession, barely allowing them by for a touchdown and foiling their conversion attempt. It was just about to tick over into the final two minutes of the game, and the conditions were optimal. Our victory was so close I could taste it.
We used our final timeout just in time, and I huddled the Widows. “We’re going reckless,” I looked at Gria and Hollie. “Take care of yourselves out there, but give it all you’ve got. This is it.”
Gria nodded and put a hand on Hollie’s head. “We got it.”
Cal put his hand in the middle. “Widows!”
“Widows!”
We broke and walked back out onto the field, and the Vipers defense had repositioned for our reckless play. I should have known it wouldn’t get past Zeke the first time we used it, but it was exactly why I didn’t run them back to back. The best we could hope for was to pull it off, anyway. It was a quick and dirty play. Gria and Hollie had to topple as many heads as they could, while Beck and Jansen got down the field. If I could get the ball over the Vipers and down to them, we could win.
The whistle blew, and Kris snapped the ball back. Zeke was off the line and rushing toward me in a flash. He knew what I was up to. I looked to my left and right, but I was buttoned up. My mind flashed back to when I ran drills with Zeke in that very stadium a month ago. He charged at me the same way, and I’d held my ground. I thought about my dad and that first time that I took him off his feet. I thought about Lila holding me down, rendering me helpless while I fought for the ball. All of the power in my career surged into me, and I ducked and ran at Zeke.
The crowd went wild around me as I slammed into him with my shoulder, knocking him to the right and off his feet. There was no one behind him, so I bolted between the line that Hollie and Gria were holding back and up the field. I spied Jansen and Beck, and they were both heavily guarded, but everyone around me was too far away to catch me. It was the riskiest thing I’d done in my career, but I barrelled all my stamina into my legs and raced as fast as I could for the end zone.
28
Zeke
“Shh, shh, look! Quinn’s famous!” Quinn’s teammate Kris held the remote up to the flat screen in MontRec and turned it up at the sight of Quinn, with sweat still pouring down her face on the field.
“That was an insane play you ran at the end there,” the reporter said. “How did it feel crossing that line?”
“Unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” the recorded version of Quinn responded. “We owed the Vipers a loss for the one they gave us, and I was happy my team did me the honor of letting me bring it in.”