Black Widows’ captain?”
I looked over and followed his finger up to where he was pointing into the stands, and sure enough, Quinn was sitting in the very front row, centerfield. She had a notebook in her hand and was furiously scribbling notes. I threw off my helmet and stormed over to where a cement barrier separated the field from the spectators. Most of the seats were empty already, but Quinn was there, totally focused on her notebook. She was so consumed with whatever she was doing that she didn’t even hear me approach.
“Hey,” I snapped. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Quinn’s head shot up, and when she noticed it was me, she rolled her eyes and looked back down at her notebook. My skin started to prickle with anger. I stepped over to the barrier, reached over it, and snatched the notebook away.
“I asked you a question,” I snarled.
Quinn stood up and reached out for the notebook, but I pulled it out of reach.
“Give that back.”
I looked down at the notebook, and it was a flurry of difficult to read notes on the game. To my insult, it seemed that most of the notes were regarding our opponents. I threw it into the stands a few rows back from where she was sitting.
She rolled her eyes and huffed, “That was mature.”
“I thought I’d get rid of that useless information for you.” She turned around, but I reached over, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back to face me. “Don’t walk away from me while I’m talking to you.”
“Hey! Matheson!” Tyler called.
Tyler was already running over, but before I could even look in his direction, Quinn swung out and struck me right across the face.
“Hey! Knock it off!” Tyler yelled at us.
My face stung, and though it wasn’t enough to break my jaw, the force behind it would certainly leave me bruised.
“Keep your hands off of me,” Quinn growled.
I stabbed a finger out at Tyler. “Don’t.” Tyler and the few remaining members of the team who’d stuck around stopped in their tracks. “Get out.”
Tyler took a step closer. “Zeke.”
“Now!” I shot a glare at him. “I have business to take care of.”
Quinn was walking back down from where I’d thrown her notebook and was scooping up her stuff.
“I asked you why you were here. You trying to jack my plays? Ruin my chances of going pro?”
“Ha!” Quinn laughed. “First, what plays? Second, you’re not going pro. If you honestly think you’re going pro with the shit way you played tonight, I’m the Queen of England.”
I wanted to argue, but knew I couldn’t. I was so distracted that I barely registered when a ball was in my hand. It was all her fault, though. “You think you know better than me, still? After the way we trounced you.”
“You had twice my team size.”
I couldn’t argue with that, either, but I wasn’t about to be pushed around. “Whatever excuses make you feel better.”
“I’m not making excuses. You slaughtered us. You were right. We had no business getting onto that field with you.” The sudden confession took me back a little. “But I’m not about to give up on my team because some crybaby chasing the pros thinks that we should. If you really want to go pro, prove that you can handle it without being a brat about it. Your team runs plays like you’re all using individual playbooks, and you’re a fucking blackhole. When the ball is in your hand, no one on your team can tell what you’re going to do, and it shows. You probably think it’s all of them that can’t get it together, but it’s the fact that you’re out there running mystery plays!”
I stood speechless for a moment. Her words coiled around my neck and started to gently close in. I was the problem? Not in a million years. I was officially done with Quinn Dallen. If crushing her with her team wasn’t enough to shut her up, I’d do it one-on-one. “You think you’re so smart? Come put your money where your mouth is.”
“What?” she asked.
“Right now. Come down on this field and run drills with me. Run plays. Show me for yourself how weak I am.” This was what it was going to take to get Quinn out of my mind. I’d put her down so hard she’d never want to touch a football again.
“Fine.” Quinn grabbed her jacket and backpack, climbed up onto the barrier, and then jumped the two feet down from