Sworn Enemies - Rebel Hart Page 0,13

sweatshirt and removed my hat. If it weren’t for the fact that she was an insult to my sport, I might have been flattered by the way her mouth went agape and eyes flared.

“Zeke Matheson?” she asked. The rest of the Widows started to murmur amongst themselves, all in varying states of awe. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard about your application. I’d like to discuss.”

“Application?” one of the women behind Quinn, a dark-skinned woman with dreadlocks, asked. “What application?”

If I wasn’t glaring at Quinn with disgust, I certainly was then. “They don’t even know?”

Quinn closed some of the distance between us. “I didn’t want to put unnecessary pressure on this game. It’s my decision,” Quinn replied with a touch of bite to her voice that belied that she appeared to be starstruck a few moments ago. “What do you want to discuss?”

“Quinn, you good?” the same dark-skinned teammate called over.

Quinn looked back at them. “It’s fine. You guys head home. I’ll explain tomorrow.”

The team mostly seemed to take the direction without hesitation, but one of her team members, the rowdy one that struggled with teamwork, was staring back at me, and if looks could kill, I’d have died, come back to life, and died again.

“She seems fun,” I growled.

Quinn snapped in my line of sight to bring my attention back to her. It was oddly commanding, and it irritated me that I responded exactly as she wanted to by pulling my gaze back to her.

“Don’t talk about my girls,” she hissed. “What did you want to discuss?”

“I came to tell you to withdraw your application. The sooner, the better.”

Quinn crossed her arms. “What? Why would I do that?”

“Because you’re out of your depth. Sure, you’re pretty good, but this team? This team doesn’t deserve to bust balls on my team’s level. You need to back off.”

“Your level?” Quinn spat back. “I certainly hope you’re not talking about the level you played against Minnesota on Wednesday.” She looked me up and down. “I’m surprised you’re still standing with the way you bent over.”

“Oh, what a nasty woman.” I chuckled. “One loss doesn’t a shitty team make.”

“That’s funny because at least my team won.” Quinn wasn’t just a tornado on the field. “I bet we could beat the Vipers.”

“Ha!” I looked around to see if anyone was listening, but everyone was gone except for that one wild Widow in the back. “With her, you mean? She wouldn’t listen to you for one second.”

That second look I gave her was all the invitation she needed. She was at Quinn’s side in a second, with Quinn’s arm held out to keep her back. “Lila.”

“Oh, I saw your name on the roster. Lila Skeddit.” I snickered. “You think you can take me?”

“You wouldn’t even remember it,” she growled back.

“Believe me, if I let her loose, you’d regret egging her on,” Quinn added.

“My team would run circles around her,” I smiled at Lila, keeping my calm even though she was so mad I could damn near see smoke coming out of her nose. “She only thinks she’s a beast because she’s been running around with bugs. I have a jungle she’d drown in.”

“Quinn, please let me tear his head off.”

Quinn stepped between Lila and me. “I will, in a game.” She glared up at me. “Next Friday. At MontRec. My girls could show up exhausted and crippled and still beat the team I saw on Wednesday.”

It wiped the smile off my face. “You can’t be serious?”

Lila glowered at me, towering over Quinn. “You’ll see how serious we are.”

“Or are you scared?” Quinn asked, poking out her bottom lip in faux-sadness. It, too, was a shame. How much of an insult she was to my livelihood killed her beauty.

“Next Friday,” I replied. “I’ll show you just how out of bounds you are.”

Quinn didn’t say anything else. She had to put active effort into pushing Lila away from me, but eventually, they were back over to where all their supplies were. I stood my ground as they collected their things and walked off. I smoothed back my hair and slid my hat on over it, then I pulled up my hood and made off for my own car.

I tried not to be in the business of ruining dreams, but Quinn and her team deserved the rude awakening she just signed up for.

6

Quinn

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Alec said. “You applied for semi-pro status.”

I stared in annoyance at Alec, who was repeating my words back to