“All I know is you joined the team and ever since then, my life has genuinely sucked.”
Logan snorted. “That sounds more like a case of bad karma than Sam’s agenda. I’m sure she saw you on the team one day, and thought to herself, ‘Hmmm. That girl looks evil. I should join the team after a chance meeting with my track coach where he insists I join, and yes, by golly, I’ll take that girl down.’” He rolled his eyes. “Hell yes. Samantha Strattan, my stepsister mastermind extraordinaire. That’s her, all right.”
Faith sucked in her breath. “You don’t have to make fun of me. The damage is done. My best friend is in the hospital, and the doctors say she may never run again.”
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?!” She glowered at Logan, perhaps wishing he’d never run again.
“Yeah.” Logan’s head inclined toward her. “I call bullshit. I’ve been in enough situations to know the chances of having an epic verbal smackdown at a party with someone and hours later, one of the people gets hit and is ‘never going to run again’ is highly unlikely. It seems to me like you’re the one with the agenda. I’m calling your bluff.”
She gritted her teeth and spoke through them. “What are you saying?”
“Call the cops. Tell them you think Sam was behind it. That is what you’re implying, right?”
Her neck grew red. The color crept up to her cheeks. “Are you—”
“I’m not joking.” His tone was dead serious. His eyes were calm. “Make the claim. Make it official. Don’t think you can play in our league just by saying you’re in our league. Actually do it, then sit back and see how we handle you.”
“Is that a threat?” It came out as a whisper.
“Not a threat. A fact. Do it.”
“You’re insane.”
I was tired of this. She was going to sputter and hiss like a broken record. Logan was going to continue to call her bluff. I had come to do one thing, and I turned around to do it.
“Where are you going?” Logan called after me.
“I’m going to see how Raelynn is,” I threw over my shoulder.
I hoped Logan would keep Faith distracted. I tensed, waiting for her to hurry after me with more threats, but I didn’t hear any yells or footsteps. I got to Raelynn’s door and looked back. Logan seemed to be still talking to Faith. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to leave them alone, but he knew what he was doing. He wouldn’t give her any ammunition.
I knocked softly and looked into the room.
Raelynn was curled up in the bed, turned away from me. A sheet completely covered her shoulder, but I saw some bruising on her neck. I moved around the bed, seeing the steady rise and fall of deep breathing, and guessed she was sleeping. When I got to the other side and could see her face, I almost gasped out loud. My mouth fell open, but I covered it and stifled the sound.
Her entire face was black and blue. Her right eye had a bandage over it, and her mouth looked cut up.
This accident hadn’t been staged. It was the real deal.
Then her left eye opened, and she saw me.
I shot my hands out. “Please don’t get mad at me. I just wanted to see how you were.”
Her eye narrowed, and she rolled to her back. Grimacing, she sat up and pointed to a pillow on the chair next to me. I handed it over, and she placed it behind her.
She leaned back gingerly, still cringing. “Are you here to gloat?”
I sat down, my hand covering my mouth. I felt tears threatening. She was clearly in a massive amount of pain. “Faith thinks I had something to do with this. I did not.” I gestured to her. “I’m so sorry.”
Her mouth was stiff, and her words came out slowly. “The other driver was some drunk guy. He was going home from the bar. The cops arrested him already. It’s his third car accident. He’ll be in county jail for a while, and he’s supposed to get his license taken away. Unless you had someone proposition him, I doubt you’d know Jim DeLuca.”
“That’s his name?”
“He calls himself Jimbo.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I know you didn’t do this. You’re not like that.”
“Faith said the doctors don’t think you can run again?”
She groaned. “Faith is such a liar. That’s not true. I can’t run this year. I’ll be running next year just fine.”
“That’s a relief then.”
She looked away. “Not that it matters. Only two people from our team make it to nationals. It’ll be you and Faith now. I’d be out anyway. And Faith is going to milk my accident so she gets all the attention. Good luck with her. She’ll have everyone convinced you slept with Jimbo to try to kill me, and the cops were paid off by your rich daddy to keep quiet about the whole thing.”