Found by You (26 page)

Yeah, this probably didn’t look so good. I gnawed my bottom lip. “I think she just wanted her to know she meant business?”

My words came out as a question because when I saw the bat from the bush, I wasn’t so sure. Sheila was quite aggressive on the derby floor. At the time, I hoped she wouldn’t deviate from the plan. However, she didn’t, so I knew Clare had nothing to worry about. I waved her off. “Just watch. She won’t do anything with that. She’s just trying to look hard.”

Clare nodded, but her expression was close to Tanya’s, though not nearly as intense. The blonde looked absolutely terrified.

She’d spun around, her purse swinging with her. “What do you guys want?” she shrieked. “Money? You freaks can have it.”

A chorus of female laughter rang through the group. They stood strategically in a semi circle, allowing me to capture everything from where I was. The bush I was in blocked Tanya’s only means of escape.

Sheila settled the bat on her shoulder. “Look at this girl. Insulting the very people she believes would mug her.”

“The audacity!” a girl shouted. “The gall,” someone else said. The voice was high-pitched; it sounded like April’s.

“More like the stupidity,” Sheila finished, cocking her masked face to the side. “We were told you were kind of lippy. But, no, we don’t want money. We actually want something far simpler. It won’t cost you a damn thing and it might even get you back some of your humanity.”

The camera focus zoomed in on Tanya. Her blonde eyebrows drew in. “What are you talking about?”

The footage went wide again. Sheila lowered her bat to the sidewalk, setting her hands to rest on it. “You’ve messed with not one, but
two,
of our own. We just want to make sure you’re done messin’. Does the name Clare ring a bell? How about…” Sheila shrugged. “Roxie?”

Tanya was squinting at this point, but when my name was said, her face dawned in realization. She tipped her head back and a short laugh hit from her throat. “I get it. This is a set up. Trying to scare me to get me to back off? What? Is that fatty with you?” She got up on her toes, gazing around. “Come on, Roxie! Come out and show your—”

The girls rushed her before she could finish the last syllable of the word. One grabbed each of her arms while Sheila got up right in her face, white mask and all.

She raised the bat, tipping Tanya’s chin with it. Tanya wasn’t looking like she wanted to insult me anymore. In fact, she seemed very much ready to listen with the look of shock written across her pretty face.

“Roxie, don’t know shit about tonight,” Sheila bluffed, her words so sharp I got goose bumps even hearing them this second time. “If she did, she’d try to stop us. You see, we have no problem leaving your pretty ass broken somewhere. Believe that. No fucks given. We’re not as nice as she is.”

Tanya’s lips parted. “What…” she panted. “What do you guys want?”

“Ah. She’s ready to listen folks.” Sheila raised her head, the girls giving their nods and voices of approval. “What we want is quite simple. You will forget about Roxie. You will scrape your memory clean of her boy, Griffin, and any plans you had of smearing his image. You will also delete any files you have of Destiny and Clare, as well as anything you got on Roxie. We don’t want another one of your showings like you did at the bake sale again, do we?”

“Check…” Tanya shook, breathing out the words. “Check my purse. It’s the only DVD I have. I swear it.”

Someone from her side checked, pulling out the same color CD case she showed me at my apartment that night. She kept it on her at all times; she probably didn’t trust it anywhere else.

The Venomous Vixen holding the DVD handed it to Sheila. She opened it, nodding. “This is the one from the bake sale and Roxie?”

Tanya shook her head. “Just Roxie. I didn’t keep the one of Destiny and Clare. I had no use for it, so I tossed it. I tossed it, I swear!”

I almost felt bad for Tanya, but she really did do this to herself. I could only hope that one day she found her peace. I didn’t care for her, but I wished no ill will toward anyone. That just wasn’t my way. It didn’t make me feel any better to do so, so I always figured there wasn’t a point.

“This is it?” Sheila held up the DVD. “Because we really don’t want to have to do anymore of these run-ins with you. If I’m being honest, I think we all got better things to do than track down your ass. We will if we have to, though. So tell me, will we have to?”

“No!” Tanya shrieked, looking on the verge of tears. “I swear you won’t have to. That’s the only one.”

“Good. Good,” Sheila said. “And no running your mouth about any of this. You have a good rest of the year. Pleasure doing business with you.”

The girls released her and Tanya just about dropped to her knees. She was left alone on the sidewalk, attempting to get her bearings as she stood tall to her feet. She brushed herself off frantically, her hands shaking. It was at that point I veered the camera down so the image dropped, but at the sound a voice saying, “Tanya,” I raised it up.

Tanya was no longer alone. A girl stood in front of her, dressed as a Vixen just like the others. Skates and all. Her dark hair was long, flowing down the sides of her mask, her body a bit thinner than most of our girls. Her skin tan.

Tanya backed up. “What do you want? I told your friends I wouldn’t be any trouble—”

“Why!” the girl shouted, her hands clenched into fists. “Why did you do this? Why did you set up Clare and…” She tilted her head away. Shaking her head, she faced her. “Why did you do this to your friend, Destiny? She was your friend, right? So why did you do this to her?”

Clare moved forward so fast next to me I nearly dropped my computer. She got close to my monitor, pointing her finger. “Is that…”

I didn’t know whether she figured out what was happening in front of her or if she was just lost, intent on seeing the rest of the footage play out. Either way, she remained silent to the video in front of her eyes.

Tanya gazed at the girl curiously, the one so tall ahead of her due to her skates. If she knew who the person was, she didn’t say, but she did stand tall to her, confident. Slowly, she leaned in. “I did her a favor. She isn’t anymore gay than I am. She’s just fooling herself.”

The girl on the skates shook her head. “That’s all I wanted to know. By the way, we have all of this on camera. Your confession to what happened at the bake sale and your plans to smear Griffin’s career and take down Roxie, plus that shit you did to Destiny. Basically enough to let everyone know who you are. Remember that if you think about talking about any of this with anyone.”

Tanya’s brows shot up and the girl on the skates spun around, moving out of my shot. That’s when I lowered the camera again, losing the image. My screen went blank and I looked at Clare. She sat there, stark still, staring at my computer as if the images would continue.

“That was…” she whispered out, “Destiny?”

Before I could answer her, a knock hit her door. I told the visitor to wait a few minutes, so I’d been expecting it. I left Clare on her bed, no words said before I opened the door to the person there. I let Destiny in, the beautiful girl with long raven hair and tan skin.

Clare leaped from her bed, restlessly playing with her hands, and then fixed her hair.

The girl who approached her did the same thing until they both broke down and brought each other into a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Clare,” Destiny said, tears moving down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, baby. About the DVD. About Tanya. I’m just so sorry. I had no idea you were a virgin. I swear it. I never would have…”

Clare pulled away and put her hands on the girl’s cheeks. Clare wasn’t a crier, but she definitely looked close to it this evening with her cheeks so red. “It’s okay. I’m kind of glad it all happened this way.”

Both my eyes and Destiny’s widened at the admission, and Clare laughed.

She wiped away some of Destiny’s tears. “I came out to my parents. They’re okay. They even said they already knew. So I guess it works out for the best. By the way, they’re expecting to meet you soon.”

Destiny’s gaze went warm, and before I knew it, she was bringing Clare into another embrace. It was in that moment that I decided to slide my bag over my arm and slip out of the small dormitory just as quickly. These two had some talking to do, and I had a man I wanted to chill with tonight anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Griffin

The passing days since I came back from Texas had been quiet, and damn was that nice. We were pushing toward graduation, Roxie and me. The weather was finally nice again, and my season had been amazing. My team and I could almost see the finish line. It was a great ending to a fantastic year…

In more ways than one.

I tore my gaze from the basketball game I’d been analyzing on my small television screen to the reason why. Roxie was under my arm, her knees upraised and knobbed in. Her small feet were donned in fuzzy purple socks, her hair in a braid on her shoulder. The two of us lay on my bed together. We’d spent a lot of time in my bedroom lately. Not just for the obvious reason, either. She genuinely liked my space despite the fact that it was small. This surprised me. She lived alone and had a whole apartment to herself, and I shared with two other guys. In the back of my mind, I wondered if she liked it because of her previous seclusion. I had a feeling she used to spend a lot of time alone. Now, she was taking any chance she got to be in a full space with my roommates and me. This made me happy. She really was opening up and coming out of her shell.

The parties had pretty much stopped around here, so I was more than happy to play host. Seemed D was taking it to other venues, which I had no problem with at all. Neither did Ryan as he always had the job of wrangling the house parties. The place had been nice and docile, allowing us both to be able to think when we needed to. I’d question D about the movement of the parties, but I kinda had a feeling I knew the reason. He still had some beef with me due to the Roxie thing. I hated to say it, but when it came between him and her…

Well, I chose her. D would have to get over his issues with me. I’d be waiting for him when he did. The two of us had been boys since freshman year. A new girl in my life shouldn’t come in the way of that, especially not if we really were as good of friends as I thought. I had hoped we were, so I didn’t let how he was acting get to me too much. Roxie helped with that. Her being around uplifted my mood and kept the stress off. Being crazy sick in love had a way of making a guy happy all the time.

I gave a short laugh looking at her. She wasn’t watching the game on T.V. at all. She simply clicked away on her smartphone, an online junkie until the end. She also had on those big glasses that I loved.

I paused the game I had recorded and brought the top of her head to me, kissing her hair once. “I’m going to turn you, you know. Get you into basketball. I know you hate it.”

She never did pay too much attention when we watched games at my place. If not being into basketball was her only flaw, I’d take it. Basketball loving could be learned, and I planned on us having lots of time to do that. Maybe more than had even crossed her own mind.

Frowning, she looked up at me from above her big frames. “I don’t hate it.” She sat up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Chuckling, she pointed at the T.V. “It’s just I’ve seen this one before. This is you, right? That game you played last week?” She cocked her head at me. “If your memory fails you, I was there. Right up front.”

Snatching her up close to me, I moved my body on hers, kissing her into the sheets. She squealed as I had my way with her.

“Yes, I know you were there, smarty,” I said, going for her neck next. “Pardon me in thinking you’d never grow tired of seeing me play.”

I was joking of course. I didn’t give a crap if she didn’t feel like watching me on the court. I just liked playing with her.

She giggled, not putting in much effort into trying to push me away from her by my shoulders. “Griffin, you’re going to crush my glasses.”

Well, we didn’t want that. They made her look far too adorable to ruin. I decided to give her a break and leaned off her. Her glasses were askew on her face. Laughing, I righted them on her nose.

She batted my hands away, poking her tongue out at me. “Turn on a game I haven’t seen, and I’d love to watch it. I really do like seeing you play.”

I slung my arm around her waist, and we both leaned back against my headboard. I picked up the remote to the T.V.

“I know you do,” I said, clicking the game back on. “I was just messing with you, babe.”

I always loved that silly grin that lit her face when I called her that. I loved it even more that she was mine so I could call her that.

She brought her arms around her legs, holding that silly smile as she viewed the T.V. over her knees. I shook my head at her, tipping her chin with my finger. “You really don’t have to watch. Hell, this shit is boring me. I’ve seen it three times already.”

Her eyebrows knitted in. “Why do you have it on then?”

I pushed my arm behind my head, resting it against the headboard. She lay on my chest when I did and that made me smile. I shrugged at her question. “Coach. He wants me to figure out what happened at our last game. We really shouldn’t have lost that one.”

She tilted her head to look up at me. “People lose games all the time. No big deal.”

“True, but at this stage in the season we can’t afford them. And really, we shouldn’t have lost. Based on our and the rival team’s stats, we were favored to win.”

She gazed at the screen, studying the moving bodies. “Maybe you guys were just having an off day.”

Those off times for our team were fortunately rare and only came when we were against certain teams. Her words actually made me think about another off game we had earlier in the season. We hadn’t lost that one, but it really was too close for comfort.

She patted my chest, leaning up. “I’m hungry.”

I followed her moving to the edge of my bed with my gaze. “You want me to make you something?”

She shook her head, stepping to the floor from my bed. “How about I make you something? PB and J? That’s what I’m getting.”