Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“It was here when I got here today, and I was the first,” Jody nodded.
I shrugged, then unlocked the door to the gym.
“You go in here alone?” Casten asked, stopping me from opening it all the way.
I nodded.
“Yes.”
His eyes narrowed, and he opened the door and disappeared inside without asking.
Lights appeared throughout the long hallway.
We shared the hallway with the other sports teams, and all of the coaches had offices in the hallway as well.
He was gone for nearly ten minutes while the lot of us squeezed into the hallway waiting for him to come back.
“Who’s that, Coach?” Adriana whispered.
I looked at her.
She was the youngest, at fifteen, and the only freshman on the team.
She was good, too.
And would probably be amazing by the time she graduated in four years.
“That’s Casten,” I answered her, purposefully skipping the part where I told them exactly what he was to me.
“He’s hot,” Elsa chirped.
I smiled at her.
“He is.”
“It’s all clear,” Casten came back, startling us all by appearing behind us and not in front of us.
“How’d you get in?” I squeaked.
The door had been locked, and I knew this for sure because I’d been the one to lock it.
“The car was gone when I came around the front,” he conveniently didn’t answer my question.
I blinked.
“Why are you trying to scare us?” I poked him.
“This isn’t safe. Y’all are women, and this is a big place with lots of places to hide,” he looked at the hallway beyond me. “There’s no reason in the world that y’all should be here without a security system to make sure that the inside is free of squatters. You shouldn’t have to wonder if you’re ever alone.”
I agreed with him, and it’d been a dilemma on my mind since I’d started at the school two years ago.
Yet, the administration had never done anything about it and had no plans to.
“It’s not in their budget to install a security system,” I told him. “Let’s go, ladies, you’ve got a little over an hour for practice before you have to be at your first class.”
They filed through the hallway, one by one, each of them tossing curious looks over their shoulders at the two of us.
“Thank you,” I said once the last girl filed through the gym’s door.
He looked away. “You need to be more cautious.”
I did.
But I’d been doing this for two years now.
“Thanks for the ride,” I called as I walked past him.
He glared at my back until I disappeared around the corner, grabbing the carts of balls as I went, smiling as I did it.
Chapter 3
If you want to see bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning, look out the window. Because I’m not a fucking squirrel.
-Tasha’s secret thoughts
Casten
I couldn’t say why I was upset, but by the time I reached my office, I was beyond pissed off.
There were fifteen girls there, including Tasha, and the entire school had been dark.
The gym was massive, and there were so many dark areas and places for someone to hide that I’d been sick with dread by the time I made it back around the parking lot to find the suspicious car gone.
By the time I’d gotten to my office, I was ready to spit nails.
None of the girls would’ve been able to protect themselves. They were all ranging in age from fifteen to seventeen.
I’d never, not once, imagined that I would be worrying about the safety dynamics of a girls’ volleyball team, but there I was, contemplating how to make it better.
“What’s your deal?” my sister asked.
I looked to her, then away as I started to input the number of the person who texted Tasha earlier this morning.
It came up as a burner phone, and I narrowed my eyes at the screen as if it would give me the information I sought if I glared hard enough.
“Nothing,” I muttered darkly, standing up and facing her with my cup of coffee in my hand.
Her eyes went to the paper cup and widened.
“Why does your cup say ‘Whore-Hey?’” Her eyes glittered.
I shrugged.
“What are you doing here?” I changed the subject.
I wasn’t ready to talk to my sister, or anyone, about Tasha.
“I thought you were sleeping,” I lifted a brow at her.
She worked night shift, and she should be sleeping right now.
“I got a phone call from our mother,” she huffed, taking a seat on the couch with a soft plunk.
I gritted my teeth.
“And what did she want?” I leaned against my desk and crossed my feet.
“She’s getting married next weekend, as you know, and she wants to know if either one of us needs a date or if we plan on wasting our plus one,” CeeCee explained.
“Fuck no she didn’t,” I growled.
CeeCee smiled like it was painful.
“I told her we had dates,” she smiled like she’d solved a problem instead of creating one.