Sworn Enemies: A Small Town Enemies To Lovers Sports Romance (The Football Boys Book 3)

by Rebel Hart

  She giggled. “What? I told you I need help developing a new gameplan. Lila has mysteriously disappeared from practices. She’s not dead or anything. Her family has talked to her, but she hasn’t been to practice and won’t return any of our calls. She was our powerhouse, and we’re going in with ten players on Friday, so I was hoping you could help.”

  I crossed my arms like a pouting child. “I thought it was a ploy to get in my pants.”

  She let out a barking laugh. “I don’t need a ploy to get into your pants.”

  I chuckled back at her. “Yeah, that’s true.” I rubbed my thumb along her cheek. “I’m kidding, anyway. You know I’ll help.”

  She leaned forward and kissed me. “Thank you. It’s not like we won’t eventually get there. Patience is a virtue.”

  “You make patience difficult,” I replied with a wink, and she blushed a little.

  She started to unzip her hoodie to pull it off and then stopped short. She turned a sly smile to me. “I have an idea.”

  “Okay?”

  She zipped her hoodie all the way back up. “How about for every play we come up with, I’ll take off an article of clothing.”

  Excitement shot downwards at the suggestion. “Football is going to earn me sex?”

  She grinned. “Maybe.”

  I snatched her playbook from her and flipped it open. “Well, what the fuck are we wasting so much time for?”

  24

  Quinn

  “That is amazing.”

  My entire team was pointing and smiling up toward the stands. Zeke, whose relationship with the Vipers had been improving exponentially since he took my advice about being more reasonable with them, had managed to convince some of his teammates to show up to cheer us on for our next game. They filed into the stands in seemingly random order at first, but once they were situated, it was clear to see that they formed the shape of a black widow. Most of the Vipers were dressed in black, but Zeke and two of his teammates were sitting in a line in the center, dressed in red, making the notable red marking on a black widow’s back.

  Alec pinched my cheek. “Look at you. You’re beaming.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I am. That’s pretty awesome.”

  I locked eyes with Zeke, and he mouthed, “Good luck.”

  I couldn’t chart exactly when things had changed. For a while, the only thing that mattered to me was football and going semi-pro. It was like Zeke said—suddenly, there were things more important than that.

  “You’re falling for him,” Alec murmured into my ear.

  The sentence sent a shiver down my spine, not because I wanted to deny it but because I couldn’t. “Yeah.” I looked over at him. “I am.”

  Alec squealed. “I’m so happy for you.” He tapped my head. “Now, let’s go win this game so I can quit my job and become the Widows’ manager for real.”

  That thought made me happy, too. I briefly imagined a world where I worked with my best friend, did what I loved for a living every single day, and was in a relationship with the greatest guy I’d ever been with. It seemed too good to be true, yet I was staring it down. I was so close I could taste it.

  I managed to drag my team’s attention away from Zeke and the other Vipers and brought us over to huddle with Cal. I handed my playbook to Cal and then went and stood amongst the fray. Between what Cal came up with and what Zeke and I concocted, we had a whole book of plays that utilized the ten of us to the best of our abilities. A lot of my plays simply needed revamping, creatively moving people from one place to another in order to cover the field and still make the important cogs in the plays turn. Cal had come with two new plays that had our team operating like a pack of birds flying south. Our practice the day before, which would ordinarily be just a couple of hours, ended up being six hours long and extending well into the night. No one complained. We were all exhilarated and energized by still being able to do damage without Lila’s attitude bogging us down.

  “All right, Widows, I know I don’t need to tell you that this game is a big deal,” Cal said. “We’ve only won one of our first two games, so we have to win this one, or we’re out. It’s a lot of pressure, but I don’t want you to let it get to you. You’re a good team, and Lila or not, you can beat this team.”

  He flipped open his binder. “Colorado is the only other all-women’s team you’re up against. Some might say that’s an advantage, but we all know that it means you’re going up against someone with your same gumption. We can’t afford to underestimate this team. The second we do, they’ll stomp all over us. They still have four times our team’s number to shuffle in and out if they want, so you have to keep your stamina high. No unnecessary movement, keep your feet on the ground as much as possible, and share the wealth. If you’ve got a girl closer to a mark, let them take it, but stay vigilant.” He looked over at me. “Cap?”

  “Cal covered most of it. I know that we’re down Lila’s power, and that’s a tough gap to fill, but we practiced the hardest we ever have this week. Let’s get out there and prove that one person’s selfish attitude isn’t going to ruin our chances of going semi-pro.” I stuck my hand into the center of our huddle, and everyone’s landed on top of mine. “Black Widows on three! One, two, three.”

  “Black Widows!”

  We peeled off from one another to get our pads and helmets on, and a few seconds later, a whistle blew. I looked over, and a ref was beckoning the captains forward. I glanced at Kris, and she walked over to me. We stepped out onto the field. Colorado was taking their time, so I turned around and looked back at Zeke. He was talking and smiling with his team, but having him nearby filled me with power.

  “Fuck. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  I looked back at Kris, and she looked like she’d seen a ghost. I followed her gaze to where Colorado’s captain was walking onto the field, and my heart sank. Standing next to her, in Colorado’s orange and brown jersey and walking toward us with an evil smirk on her face, was Lila.

  “What?” I whispered. “What’s going on?”

  The captain and Lila made their way over to us, and Lila smiled at me. “Hi, Quinn.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why did you—”

  “All right, ladies, we want a clean game. Let’s give the people what they came for.” The ref pointed at Colorado’s captain. “Call it.”

  The captain looked at me with an equally evil grin. “Heads.”

  The ref flipped a coin into the air. It glinted against the afternoon sun before landing on the turf tails up. The ref looked over at me, but I was still too shocked to speak.

  Kris nudged me, and I just managed to get out, “We’ll receive.”

  “Very well.”

  The ref motioned toward our team, letting everyone know we were receiving first, and then Kris had to physically drag me off the field. It didn’t take long for the rest of the Widows to notice my shock.

  “Quinn, what’s wrong?” Cal asked, putting a hand on my back.

  I still couldn’t answer, so Kris stepped forward. “Lila’s over there. She’s playing for Colorado.”

  “What!” a chorus called in shock.

  Their eyes all shot across the field, and just like she always did with us, Lila was already standing out on the field, waiting for her team to catch up.

  “Bitch!” Mala barked.

  George and Max exchanged heartbroken looks, and then Max’s jaw clenched, and her expression turned angry. “I thought she was fucking dead or something.”

  George slammed her fist into her palm. “Let’s fucking smash her.”

  I looked at Cal and shook my head. “I can’t. We didn’t account for that power. We couldn’t even beat Lila when she was playing against us.”

  Cal grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the team. “You have to stop this. You’re the captain. If you waver, the whole team will crumble beneath you.”

  “Quinn!” I looked over toward the stands, and Zeke was looking back at me with concern.

  I
shook my head until Cal snapped his hand in front of my face to bring me back to attention. “We can beat them. We can beat her. You believe in this team, right?” I nodded. “You’re not just a run of the mill player, Quinn.” He took my helmet from my hand, pulled it over my head, and then smacked it. “Now, get out there and fuck ‘em up.”

  I nodded but didn’t go back toward the team. I walked out onto the field and took my mark, staring Lila down. Both teams bled in around us until we were prepped and ready to go. The noise around me faded away until all I could hear was my breathing. I ducked down, the sound of the whistle far from me, and I didn’t hear anything again until someone was screaming my name.

  “Quinn!”

  The ball was in my hand, I’d backed away from the center, and Lila was charging at me like a freight train. I looked around, trying to find someplace to dump the ball, but she was like a big, impassable wall in my way. I couldn’t see around her, and soon, she smashed into me, taking me to the ground. The ball went flying from my hands and rolled along the turf. I tried to scramble to get it, but Lila kept her knee buried in my back.

  “Not so fast, captain,” she huffed at me. Colorado ran over and scooped up the ball and started off toward their end zone. I tried to shove Lila off me, but I didn’t have the leverage to do so.

  I could hear Cal screaming from the sidelines, and finally, a yellow flag went flying through the air. A ref rushed over to pull Lila off my back, and at the very least, she relented to his pull. I got to my feet and glared at her, and she smiled at me.

  “Unnecessary roughness!” the ref called. “You’re off to a bad start.”

  The penalty was the only thing that kept Colorado from snagging an immediate touchdown, but they did so easily on the next play. Even with Cal’s new plays in the mix, Colorado had our every movement memorized. They knew exactly how to spread their players against us, and they allowed Lila to stay trained on me as much as she wanted. I spent the entire game getting pummeled by Lila, who was clearly out for revenge more than she cared about winning the game. Not that she had to dedicate much energy to that front—her team did it for her. With them knowing our plays as well as we did, we couldn’t get around them. We managed a couple of field goals, but they were a drip in the pot compared to the multiple touchdowns Colorado got while Lila had me locked up. When the final whistle blew, the score was forty-three to six. Not only did Lila cost us the game, but she cost us our semi-pro chances.

  Everyone stayed fifty feet away from me as I filed off the field. Cal made a single attempt to put an arm on my shoulder for comfort, but I swung and nearly decked him in the face. Alec walked up to me and pulled me into a hug, and I stood there in stunned silence. I remembered Wright saying that he was planning to live stream the game, and knew that many more people than just those in the stands had seen our crushing defeat.

  “Good game, Widows.” I pulled away from Alec and turned around. Lila was standing facing me with a disgusting grin on her face. “I was almost impressed.”

  “You were way out of line,” Cal started, but Lila held up a hand, and I saw him rigidify with rage.

  “How could you do this?” Max asked. “What about us?”

  Lila looked over at George and Max. “I’ve made arrangements to have you transferred to Colorado, as well. You two will still go semi-pro, even if your poor excuse for a team can’t.”

  “Fuck you,” George spat, and it actually earned a beat of shock from Lila. “I’m not trash like you.”

  Max crossed her arms. “Like she said.”

  “Just get out of here, Lila. You’ve already destroyed us. Don’t pour salt in the wounds,” Hollie grumbled.

  “No, wait,” I said finally. “Why? Why did you do this? I know you weren’t happy with Cal, but this is extreme, even for you.”

  Lila glanced over toward the stands. “Maybe you should ask him.”

  I looked over at Zeke, who was staring back at me, worried and waiting for a chance to come down. I looked back at Lila. “What do you mean?”

  Lila pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it over to me. “This is what happens when you trust men.”

  I looked down at the screen and recognized Zeke’s number at the top of a text message feed.

  Stop texting me. Talk to

  Quinn if you want to know

  more about the Widows.

  I’m not interested.

  But I know you can do

  better than such a low

  team.

  Now you’re talking about

  my team?

  Set up a meeting with

  Colorado and see what

  they have to say.

  Make sure no one knows

  I’m involved.

  Alec was reading over my shoulder and gasped. He looked over at me. “He was sleeping with you to pinch your powerhouse so that you’d never even make it to the final game.” He looked over at the stands. “It was all a front.”

  I felt like I was going to be sick to my stomach. The past few weeks I’d had with Zeke went flashing through my mind. Running drills with him on his field, drinking together, the paintball arena, him helping me with my plays—it was all just a trick?

  “It can’t be,” I whispered before looking over at Alec. “It was real.”

  He motioned down to the phone. “Sweetie, it’s right there. You can see it.”

  I looked back at the phone and searched tirelessly for any sign of fakeness, but the texts were in Lila’s text feed and even dated before Lila went missing. It was plain as day. My whole world came crumbling down around me. No working with my best friend. No doing what I loved for a living. No being with an amazing guy. In the blink of an eye, it all went up in smoke.

  Lila pulled her phone from my hands. “I warned you.” She looked over at Cal. “Not that it matters much now, anyway.”

  Cal wrapped an arm around my back and said to Lila, “We’ll try again. You’re not gonna ruin this for us.”

  “No,” I muttered sadly. “It’s over.”

  Enough of the spectators had filed away, so Zeke came running onto the field. He ran over to me and put a hand on my face. “Quinn.” He looked over at Lila. “Back off.” He turned to face me again. “Hey, it’s okay. This isn’t it. We’ll figure something out.”

  I smacked his hand away. “Enough!”

  He recoiled a bit. “Quinn.”

  “I know that you orchestrated all of this. When did it start? With getting me drunk? Or did it all come together after we slept together that night?” I bellowed.

  Zeke shook his head. “What?”

  “Stop! Don’t lie to me anymore. I saw you set up Lila with Colorado. You set me up!”

  Zeke stepped forward. “Quinn. I had noth—”

  I pushed him. “Stay away from me!”

  Zeke stared back at me, wide-eyed. “I swear to god I have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Save it,” Alec growled. He grabbed Lila’s phone and shoved it at Zeke. “Who are we supposed to believe, you or our own eyes?”

  Zeke looked over the texts, and his jaw dropped. His shoulders drooped with defeat, and I knew he realized he’d been caught. He looked up at me. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

  “Yes, it is.” I bit my cheek to hold back the tears that were threatening to come. “We’re done.”

  25

  Zeke

  I sat in silence on the Widows’ bench, deflated, defeated, confused, and above all, heartbroken. All because I wasn’t smart enough to stay away from Wright, I lost the best woman I’d ever been with and cost the Black Widows their chance to go semi-pro. The Widows all glared at me as they cleaned up their materials, and before their coach, Cal, walked away, he warned me to stay far away from Quinn. Before long, I was alone in the cold evening air. I pulled out my phone and navigated to my text messages, but I knew the ones I wanted wouldn’t be there. I’d deleted the texts I got from Wright immediately after sending them. I had no way of proving to Quinn t
hat Wright had set me up.

  It was over.

  “Well, isn’t this a sad sight?” a voice called out. “It’s a good thing the cameras aren’t running anymore.” I dragged my gaze up to where Wright was standing in front of me. He wasn’t wearing his typical suit and tie, but rather a pair of dark sweatpants and a Colorado sweatshirt. “Tell me, what has Zeke Matheson so sad?”

  “If you don’t get the fuck away from me, I’m gonna punch you in the fucking mouth,” I hissed.

  Wright smiled, unphased. “I’d like to see you try.” He sighed. “I suppose I do feel a little bad about how things went for Quinn, but she’ll be okay.”

  “You don’t give a shit about her or the Widows.”

  “No, I don’t, that’s true, but the views they bring in.” He grinned. “My wallet has never been so happy. We’ll take a small hit, delaying the final game, but the anticipation for its reschedule should be good, and just imagine how much better it will be when Quinn is desperate to beat you for trying to sabotage her chances.”

  “Can you not count, you whack job? Losing this game meant they’re out,” I hissed back.

  “True indeed, but I’ll have no choice but to give them a second chance when their petition gets ten thousand signatures,” he replied. “It’s already drafted and will be released by an anonymous source tomorrow. All I have to do is have a paid fan release the story of how you helped one of their players turn on them, and it’ll be trending in no time. I think I’ll make my announcement of their second chance by next Friday. Give it about a week to trend.”

  I said nothing, and he smiled. “My staunch support of the Widows and bashing of your tactics will earn me many followers. ‘I always liked the Widows. I really think they can do it if everyone plays fair,’” he said with faux emotion like he was on camera. His vile grin grew larger as he imagined it. “Sponsors will be pouring in. Of course, the Vipers will have to fall on their sword for this one, but you have no one to blame for that but yourself.”