The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player #1)

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

PARKER

W e’d gotten our asses kicked in practice, and I was looking forward to food and a fuck…not necessarily in that order, as I rounded the hallway that led to Casey’s room, stopping dead in my tracks when I saw him—Gray, standing in front of Casey’s door.

My jaw clenched, and I stepped back, slipping into the shadow of the hallway so I could watch. He looked desperate, his posture tense as he ran his hands through his hair frantically and stared at the door.

“Casey, open up,” he yelled, banging on the wood so hard that all the doors in the hallway rattled.

I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that at all.

I wanted to kill him.

The door opened a crack, and Nat stuck her head out, her eyes narrowing the second she saw him. “Get lost, you fucking asshole,” she snapped, her voice sharp and dismissive.

I grinned at that, happy my lady had such a good friend. I hadn’t been too sure of her when I’d met her—if she was being nice to Casey to get in with the football team or something. But so far, there hadn’t been any red flags. Which was good. I had enough red flags to go around.

Andrews didn’t back down. “I need to talk to her,” he insisted, his voice low and pleading. “Just for a minute.”

“Fuck you,” she hissed, slamming the door in his face without another word.

You go girl.

His shoulders sagged, but he didn’t move. He stood there for a moment longer, staring at the wood as if he could will the door to open. Finally, he turned and started to walk back down the hall, toward me, frustration and agony all over his face.

I understood what he was feeling. I would do anything to get Casey back if I lost her—I was doing all sorts of things right now to keep her.

But my understanding didn’t mean that I was going to allow it.

I waited around the corner, listening to his steps approach as he neared the end of the hall. As soon as he turned, I grabbed his shoulder and slammed him against the wall, feeling the solid impact, the satisfaction of his body colliding with the concrete.

Gray’s eyes widened as he looked at me, shock…and a hint of fear flashed across his face. I kept my hand firmly on his chest, pressing him into the wall, leaning in until there was barely an inch of space between us. I knew Gray had played basketball in high school, and he still worked out now, but he was no match for a football player in his prime.

And he knew it.

“What do you think you’re doing here, Andrews?”

“Trying to talk to my girlfriend,” he hissed.

I knocked his head against the wall for good measure, because obviously he had some kind of screw loose. Apparently breaking his nose wasn’t enough, so I guess things would have to escalate.

“Listen to me, Andrews,” I said, my voice low, cold…and deadly serious. “I don’t want to see you near her again. You’re done. She doesn’t need you. She doesn’t want you.”

Gray’s face twisted, and he sneered at me. “She just needs to be reminded of what we had. Once she remembers, it won’t matter that you’re the star quarterback, Davis. Casey will want to come back to me.”

I grinned. “You should know this now, before you get yourself in any more trouble. It will really help you out.” I leaned in closer. “I win,” I said mockingly.

His face paled, but he wasn’t done. “I know you did something that night. I don’t know how, but I know it was you .”

I adopted my best mocking, Bambi eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I answered innocently. “I don’t see how I could make you ‘cheat’ on the most perfect girl that exists in the world. That was all you, Andrews.”

“I didn’t cheat on her!” he yelled. “It doesn’t count if I was pissed out of my mind and I had no idea what I was doing!”

“See, that’s the difference between you and me. I love her so much that my dick wouldn’t even work on other girls.”

He scoffed. “It was a kiss. Nothing but a kiss.”

I flashed my teeth at him. “It was a betrayal and my way in. You’re just going to have to accept that.”

He opened his mouth to say something else idiotic, and my hand creeped to his neck…squeezing and cutting off whatever bullshit was about to come out of his mouth. His eyes widened. “Casey belongs to me now. You so much as look at her again, and we’re going to have a problem. You don’t get to haunt her. Not anymore.”

I released his neck, and he coughed. “Casey know you’re a fucking psychopath?” he growled, and I laughed as I stepped back as he tried to regain his balance, his face red with barely contained rage.

Without another word, he turned and walked away, his steps echoing down the hall. I watched him leave, anger still simmering in my veins.

I finally straightened my shirt and walked down to Casey’s door, knocking on it lightly.

Nat opened the door just a crack, relief flooding her features as she opened the door wider and let me in. I immediately went to Casey, pulling her in for a deep kiss because I’d missed her so fucking much. It should be illegal for her to ever be away from me.

When I pulled away, I tried to keep my expression neutral. “Was that Gray I just saw outside?” I asked, keeping my voice easy.

Casey hesitated, her gaze flickering away. But before she could answer me, Nat jumped in, her tone annoyed. “The asshole just won’t leave her alone.”

I kept my mouth from twisting into a scowl, forcing myself to nod and act like it wasn’t anything to me. “Let me know if he tries to talk to you again,” I said, locking my eyes on Casey’s.

She nodded, her voice soft. “I will.”

Relieved she hadn’t tried to argue with me, I pulled her back into my chest, lowering my voice so only she could hear me. “Let’s go to my place,” I murmured, letting the words linger as my lips brushed against her skin. “I’m feeling…hungry.”

Her eyes lit up, and without another word, I slid my hand in hers and led her toward the door.

And as we walked out of the dorm all I could think was…it was time for her to move in.

I handed Casey the card, watching the flicker of hesitation in her eyes. She always acted so shy when I tried to buy her anything. She hadn’t realized yet that I would buy her literally anything she wanted. Since the moment I met her, everything I had done was to set us up for the future and make it so I could. “I’ve got a late practice tonight. Grab some dinner on me,” I told her.

Casey shook her head. “Parker, you don’t need to?—”

Before she could finish, Nat snatched the card right out of my hand with a wide grin. “Don’t mind if we do. Your man just got a deal with Nike, he can definitely afford to treat us to a nice dinner, Case.” She flashed the card at Casey like a victory. “We’re going to get steak by the way,” she said, tossing me a mischievous grin.

I smirked, raising an eyebrow as I looked at Casey. “You better.”

Nat made a swooning sound while I kissed Casey, and then I left their dorm room, heading to practice, which was in fact scheduled to be an hour shorter than usual.

When I got out, night had fallen, and when I checked my app, I saw that Casey was headed to the restaurant, a fancy steak house on the outside of town.

Perfect.

“I need you to distract someone for me,” I told Jace as we changed and headed out of the locker room.

He squinted at me. “Why does that sound so…foreboding? But yes, I’m in.”

“Why aren’t you asking me to help?” said Matty, sounding annoyed.

“Because he needs someone with a big dick, Matthew ,” said Jace, sounding completely serious. “Mine is obviously the better choice.”

Matty blinked at him. “It’s A HALF INCH.”

I snorted. “You have tutoring tonight…and morals. I’m trying to be nice. Give you a break for once. Wouldn’t want you to be haunted or anything.”

Matty wrinkled his nose…and shivered as he no doubt thought about our little night in the cemetery. “I can be nefarious …but I do have tutoring.” He side-eyed me. “Real tutoring might I add.”

“See, right there, that was judgy. You need to work on that, Matty, if you’re going to be in the Pussy Posse ,” said Jace, acting like he was giving him really important advice as he slapped him on the back.

Matty flipped him off. “I’m vetoing that one.”

“Me too,” I agreed, glancing at my app again. They were almost at the restaurant. “But we can discuss that later. We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Let me know if I need to bail you both out of jail,” Matty sighed as we parted ways.

I grinned at him. “We’d only need that if I get caught, and that’s obviously not going to happen.”

Matty was shaking his head as Jace and I got into the truck, a small smirk on his lips.

“That guy totally likes nefarious things. He’s just lying to himself.”

“I agree,” I told him, before launching into an explanation of my plans for the evening.

Jace was gaping at me as I finished.

“Let me clarify this real quick. You’re going to get your girlfriend kicked out of her dorm by having me distract the front desk so no one sees you breaking in. Then you’re going to light a fire so that the sprinklers go off and ruin the room. And then you’re going to use a fire escape ladder that you bought online to scale down the building so that no one sees you leaving. Did I get that all right?”

“Well, it’s not breaking in anymore since I have a key,” I corrected him as I pulled into a parking lot a few buildings down from Casey’s dorm.

“THAT YOU STOLE AND COPIED.”

I winked at him. “I don’t see the problem in that sentence.”

Jace sighed, blinking his eyes a few times. “Alright, so we’re doing this. I didn’t have it written on my calendar to add breaking and entering and fire to my dossier today, but I can pivot.”

I snorted as I got out of the truck and grabbed my bag out of the back. “It’s just a little fire if that makes you feel better.”

“Hey, I didn’t say fire like it was a bad thing,” Jace said as we started walking toward the dorm.

“Except you just said it the same way again.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t say it like it was a bad thing, so it doesn’t matter if I add a little emphasis to it, don’t you agree?”

“Sure,” I murmured, as we reached the edge of the building.

I jumped up and knocked the fixed security camera up so that it wasn’t aimed at the door anymore. No one actually manned those things—the college was too cheap—but I didn’t want us to be on the camera footage just in case.

“Okay, just go in, do your little charming thing and get her out of the building somehow so that I can sneak in.”

“Yeah, I’ve got all that, except I’m going to need you to rephrase that. It’s not a little charming thing. It’s a big charming thing,” he argued.

“Alright, yes, that. It’s a big…charming thing.”

“That’s what she said,” he quipped as he began to creep toward the door like we were in some spy movie.

“What are you doing? That’s the opposite of the charming thing.”

“Oh, right. Just thought that creeping was part of our villain era.”

“We’re not villains,” I hissed after him as he began walking normally again and had made it to the entrance. “We just don’t let things interfere with true love.”

“Rigggght,” Jace said, sounding very sarcastic. “That’s all we’re doing.”

I peeked through one of the windows as Jace leaned over the counter, working his magic as he flirted hard with the girl at the front desk. He was definitely going to get an orgasm out of this .

I wasn’t going to owe him shit.

Two minutes later, she was somehow following him out of the building. Where he was taking her…I had no idea. But at least she wasn’t manning the front desk anymore.

Perfect.

Walking inside, I jogged up the stairs, somehow not seeing anyone. Using my key, I let myself in and snapped a quick photo of the room…since this was where Casey had given me her virginity…and this was the last time I’d be in here.

I moved a few things so they wouldn’t get completely ruined, like the photo of her and her brother, and then I reached into my bag and pulled out the rain poncho I’d brought with me, shaking it out before sliding it on and zipping it up to my chin. The plastic crinkled softly as I pulled out the pack of cigarettes. With a quick flick of the lighter, I sparked all of them at once, the orange glow intensifying as they caught, releasing thin streams of smoke almost instantly.

Holding the lit cigarettes under the sprinkler, I watched as the tendrils of smoke curled upward, swirling toward the ceiling like a ghostly signal. The scent thickened in the air, mingling with the faint traces of Casey’s perfume that still lingered in the room. I waited, the seconds stretching until finally— click —the sprinkler system activated with a sudden jolt. Cold, chemical-laced water sprayed down in thick streams, coating everything in its path.

The fire alarm began blaring out in the hall. Shit . I needed to be quick.

Water hit the bed in heavy splatters, seeping into her comforter, her pillows, her neatly stacked textbooks on the nightstand. Her posters curled as the mist reached them, edges darkening, the ink running as they began to peel. The photos Nat had taped up on the wall, buckled and blurred, the memories fading under the onslaught. Every trace of her was slowly wiped away.

Satisfied, I tossed the smoldering cigarettes onto the floor, watching them sizzle against the wet carpet, then turned to the window. I unlocked it and pushed it up, cool air rushing in. Pulling the fire ladder from my bag, I hooked it onto the windowsill and climbed out, closing the window as much as I could behind me.

Once I reached the ground, I pulled the ladder down and unzipped the poncho, tugging it off in one swift motion, before stuffing both into my bag. With one last glance up at her window, now clouded with condensation from the inside, I jogged into the woods behind the dorm, disappearing into the shadows before anyone could notice.

It wasn’t long before my phone buzzed, and Casey’s name lit up the screen. I answered on the first ring, keeping my voice calm and steady.

“Parker…” Her voice was thick, choked with panic. “Our room—it’s completely ruined. Everything’s soaked, and campus security found cigarettes. They think we did it. They’re saying…we’re getting kicked out of the dorms.”

I could hear the tears, the shock and frustration clinging to every word she spoke. I tried not to smile. Not because I was happy she was upset, of course, but because the plan had come together perfectly .

“Stay where you are, baby,” I murmured, letting a note of concern lace through my voice. “I’ll be right there.”

Ten minutes later, I found her waiting outside the dorm, eyes red-rimmed, hugging herself tightly as if she could hold herself together. Nat was next to her, pacing and muttering under her breath, looking as furious as Casey was distraught. As soon as Casey spotted me, she broke from Nat and walked straight into my arms.

“They really think it was us,” she said, burying her face into my chest, her words muffled against my shirt. “They won’t even listen.”

I ran my hand up and down her back, feeling her steady, little by little, against me. “It’s going to be alright,” I told her softly. “We’ll get it figured out.”

Nat folded her arms, shaking her head as she glanced between us. “I tried to show them the fucking receipt from dinner, and they weren’t interested,” she fumed. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

A moment later, Nat’s phone buzzed, and she glanced down at the message, her eyes widening. “Oh, thank God. It’s from my friend Mia—she has a spot off campus. She said I can crash with her until things get figured out.” She looked back up at us, her gaze worried. “But what are you going to do, Case?”

I could feel Casey tense against me, and I looked down at her, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “She’s going to stay with me,” I said easily, slipping my arm around Casey’s shoulders.

Casey looked up, her brows knitting together, uncertain. “Parker, I don’t know…I don’t want to just show up and crash your place.”

I laughed softly, shaking my head. “Baby, it’s not ‘crashing’ if I want you there.” I leaned down, my gaze locking onto hers. “I’d feel a whole lot better knowing you’re somewhere safe. Besides—” I let a smirk tug at my lips. “I wanted you to move in with me the moment I saw you.”

Nat gave me a knowing look, like she could see right through me, but she still decided to help me out. “It’s true, Casey. You’d be way more comfortable at his place than trying to find a place off campus with a stranger. I don’t even know if we could find a place right now. And what if they’re snack stealers?”

Casey huffed at what must be an inside joke for the two of them, and I was absurdly jealous.

I wanted to be in on all of her inside jokes.

I also needed to buy Nat more steaks because her little spiel had helped.

Casey bit her lip, glancing between us, still hesitant. “But—I mean—are you ready for that? To live with me? It hasn’t been that long…”

“Ready?” I repeated, feigning offense with a playful smirk. “Trust me, I’m not going to be complaining.” I tilted my head, lowering my voice so only she could hear. “It will just give me a chance to convince you that you should stay…forever.”

She glanced at me and mouthed “crazy,” but I could see I was wearing her down.

“Just say yes, baby. There are a lot of things you should say no to in life, but this is not one of them.” I reached down and grabbed her hand, bringing it to my lips for a kiss—because for some reason she melted every time I did that. “Look, stay for a night or two. See how it feels. And if you’re not comfortable, we’ll find another place. But right now, I just want you to give it a chance.”

Casey looked at Nat, who gave an encouraging nod, and finally, she let out a sigh. “Alright…just for a few days. Until I can figure something else out.”

A small victory. I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her close. “Perfect,” I murmured.

My phone buzzed at that moment, and I pulled it out, smirking when I saw the text from Jace.

Jace: We are definitely in our villain era, QB.

Maybe we were.