“Nah, I prefer to see you cry,” I taunt, raising my hand to smack her again.
Strong arms yank me off Liv, who’s now crying. I’m no match for Cal, so I give up, falling limp in his grip. Aunt Karen is furious by the time she makes it over to us and assists Liv to her feet.
“In my office. Now,” Aunt Karen seethes. “I’ll get the boys. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
“You’re lucky you’re all under eighteen,” Aunt Karen admonishes. “Every last one of you could get arrested for what went on today.”
Cal shakes his head. “Girls fight. That’s normal. What those two did”—he points a finger at both Grayson and Eli—“is assault. They should go to jail.”
“And you should go to jail for beating the shit out of Aaron!” Eli roars back.
Cal sneers at them. “Aaron who? Never heard of him.”
“Enough,” Aunt Karen snaps. “Liv and Penny, I’m giving you detention this week. Mr. Hutton will hold it in his classroom. I don’t want to hear so much as an unkind word out of both of you or you’ll both be benched for your first basketball game.”
I grind my teeth together, trying to keep my mouth shut.
“Grayson and Eli, you’re both suspended for a week,” Aunt Karen states, her no-nonsense glare pinning them in their seats.
“Objection!” Cal bellows.
“This is not court,” Aunt Karen growls. “I said stop.”
“They dragged her, kicking and screaming, into the bathroom to do God only knows what,” he snarls. “And they’re getting a slap on the hand?”
“My hands are tied here,” she throws back. “There were no witnesses and she wasn’t hurt.”
I meet Eli’s glare, glance at his nasty-ass wound and laugh, the sound bitter and cruel. He rises to his feet, his hands fisted.
“Shut the fuck up or—”
Dad breezes into the office, Samantha on his heels. I’ve never been so happy to see Dad.
“Go on,” Dad clips out. “Finish that statement in front of my attorney.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ,” Aunt Karen huffs. “Who invited you two here?”
Cal flashes me a smirk.
“Liv,” Aunt Karen barks out. “Wait in the office for Cal. Detention starts today after this meeting.”
She sulks but obeys. Good riddance. Dad takes her vacated seat beside me, clutching onto my hand. His eyes are filled with concern as he visually assesses me for damage.
“For the record,” Samantha purrs, “these two men physically dragged my client into the men’s restroom to try and sexually assault her again? Am I understanding that correctly? Because in the state of Oregon, seventeen can still be tried as an adult.”
“You can’t talk to them without their parents here,” Aunt Karen grumbles. “I’ve suspended them both. This is my job and I can handle it.”
“Suspended. Hmm,” Samantha says, a bite to her voice, turning her attention to Grayson and Eli. “Fine, I won’t speak to them, Karen, I’ll speak to you.” Her eyes never leave them. “These boys will be suspended, and it will be explicitly detailed what they did to Penny. That way, if they ever try to hurt her again, we will have something on file so that we can nail their asses to the wall. Understood?”
“Everything will be by the book, I assure you,” Aunt Karen grinds out. “You may leave now.”
Dad reaches for my hand and squeezes it. His voice is pleasant as he delivers his next words to Eli. “If you ever hurt or intimidate my daughter again, you’ll be nursing more than a contusion and bruises on your head.”
“Garrett,” Aunt Karen bites out. “Enough. You can’t threaten them.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Samantha says, a smile on her pretty face. “Did you, Cal?”
Cal cracks his neck and grins evilly at them. “Nope.”
“Penny,” Aunt Karen says with a sigh. “Take them out of here and then go to detention with Mr. Hutton. Please.”
I rise to my feet and meet Eli’s stare again. “I hope it burns.”
Terrence
As soon as practice ends, I grab my bag and limp my ass across the school to Cal’s classroom. My rage hasn’t cooled one bit since I read his text a half hour ago when he left his meeting to head to detention. Not only was Penny not coming to practice, she was going to be in detention as well. All I know is Eli and Grayson attacked her in the bathroom, forcing her to Mace them, and then she somehow ended up in a brawl with one of my other players, Liv. Of all people who belong in detention, Penny isn’t one of them.
Cal’s classroom door is open and I can hear him laughing. I walk inside to find Liv sitting in a desk at the very back of the room while Penny sits up front. Charlotte is perched on the edge of Cal’s desk, grinning at him.
“What happened?” I demand, my eyes locking onto Penny.
Her cheeks are tearstained, and her eyes are bloodshot. Aside from that, she just seems bored.
“She attacked me, Coach,” Liv whines. “And then she broke my phone! For no reason!”
“The reason is on her phone,” Penny says in a cool tone. “Pictures of me. In a state of…undress.”
My blood boils as I snap my attention to Liv. “You have pictures on your phone from when they sexually assaulted her?”
Liv’s eyes widen. “I, uh, they were sent to me. I didn’t take them. I was going to delete them. I swear!”
“Go home,” I growl. “Delete that shit from your cloud or wherever the fuck you have it.”
She flinches at my harshly delivered words. I should feel bad, but I don’t. I don’t have any patience for anyone who actively sets out to hurt my people.
Penny is mine.
As soon as she leaves, I squat down in front of Penny’s desk. “You okay?”
“When I think about Eli’s screams, everything feels better than okay.” She smirks. “Did you miss me, Coach?”
“Not as much as Tierra did,” I tease. “She had to whip everyone’s asses all by herself in practice since you were busy.”
Cal’s hand clamps on my shoulder. “We’re going to dinner at Eldridge’s steakhouse tonight. You two coming with?”
“Yeah,” I say as Penny murmurs, “Nope.”
I shoot her a questioning look. She won’t meet my stare as she stands up.
“We’re going to hang out at Cal’s then?” I ask, taking her hand.
“I have a thing to do. I’ll come over later.” Her lips press together and she fidgets.
I’m not about to press her in front of Cal and Charlotte. With a heavy sigh, I nod. “I’ll be there. Text when you’re on your way.”
“So,” Charlotte says, waggling her finger between us. “You two are a thing now?”
“Yep,” Penny replies, giving me a rare smile. “And don’t tell our brother. I don’t want my boyfriend to die.”
Boyfriend?
My lips curl into a wide smile. “Did you just claim me, mean-ass?”