Hail Mary: An Enemies-to-Lovers Roommate Sports Romance(90)

Mary

When I pulled up to the shop, it was too late.

Leo had been too fast, like there were squealing tires under him instead of legs as he raced out of The Pit. I’d gotten dressed as quickly as I could and run across the street to my own car, speeding toward the shop to try to stop him.

But I parked and barreled out of my car just in time to see Nero tossing Leo out, both of them bloody.

“Oh, my God!” The scream ripped from my throat before I had any chance of keeping it in. I ran to Leo, who was dragging himself off the ground with his murderous gaze still pinned on my boss.

Ex-boss.

“Wow,” Nero said on a laugh, spitting blood out of his mouth and onto the pavement at our feet. “Real fucking mature, Mary, siccing your boyfriend on me.”

He didn’t give me the chance to respond before he shook his head and turned back to the shop.

“You’re done in this town,” he said, so low I thought I misheard him. But he whipped around and pointed a finger at me, his nose busted up and bleeding, eyes already turning purple. “Done,” he reiterated. He pointed at Leo next. “And you’re fucking lucky I don’t press charges, you dumb sonofa—”

It happened so fast; I couldn’t register it all.

One second Leo was beside me, puffing like a dragon, and the next, a sickening crack split the air and Nero was laid out on the ground. Leo had connected his fist right to Nero’s jaw, making him spin around like a giant in a cartoon before he fell.

“If you ever so much as fucking look at her again, I’ll kill you,” Leo seethed, grabbing Nero by the shirt. He held him inches from his face long enough to land the threat before he dropped him back to the pavement.

And the sight of him standing over Nero and defending me like that both turned me on and pissed me right the fuck off.

“Leo,” I ground through my teeth.

Nero blinked a few times, groaning as he stood. He spit blood again, and this time?

A tooth.

He picked it up with an amused grin, rolling the piece of white bone around in his fingers before shoving it in his pocket.

Then, he pinned Leo with a bloody grin. “I hope you enjoyed that because you just fucked your girlfriend — and not in the way I could, I promise you that.”

Leo surged forward like he was going to hit him again, but I wrapped my arms all the way around him to stop him, my chest to his back, me hanging on him for dear life.

“I bet you would have been a lousy lay, anyway,” Nero said to me as his final word, and then he was in the shop and locking the door behind him, a manic sort of laugh like he’d won ringing out in the air.

And he had.

He held all the power over me. I wouldn’t stand a chance of landing another job in the city now, and Leo hadn’t proven anything by knocking a tooth out, other than that Nero had enough power to upset both of us.

We’d shown our cards, and he’d played his ace.

For a long moment, we stood there, me wrapped around Leo and him breathing loud, shallow breaths, both of us staring at the door Nero had disappeared through.

When I finally released him, I shoved him hard.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Me?” Leo spun to face me, his eyes still wild. “I should have killed him, Mary. He’s a fucking scumbag and—”

“And I can handle my damn self!” I shouted, chest heaving. “I kneed him in the balls. I walked out of here with my head held high and at least a scrap of my dignity still in place. I don’t need you swooping in like some fist-happy shining knight to defend my honor. I had a plan, which you’ve now shot to hell. Because now I’ll never work anywhere in this city because I have a psychotic boyfriend.”

Leo blinked, taking two long breaths. “Boyfriend?”

I chuffed a laugh, turning and striding to my car. The words that burst out of my throat without permission were immature and hasty, but I didn’t care. “Ex, now.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” he said, catching up to me and taking me by the elbow to spin me toward him. “What do you mean ex?”

“You completely disrespected me,” I screamed through my tears, chest tight. “I asked you not to. I begged you. And you did it anyway.”

Leo’s face leveled out more with every word. “Mary.”

“No,” I ripped my arm out of his grasp. “I can’t believe you.” I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. A short laugh chopped out of me. “Actually, I can. I really fucking can. I should have known better.”

I hated myself before the next words even left my lips, but I wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to feel loss like I felt in that moment.

A small part of me remembered feeling this way before with him, seven years ago, when he hurt me and I was desperate to return the favor.

“You don’t really care about me,” I said. “You just wanted a prize, something to have on your arm and get in fights over. You didn’t stop to think twice about what I wanted, how this would impact me and my fucking dream. I have worked for years for this. Years, Leo. Imagine if I did this to you, if I tore through the stadium and ripped a cheerleader off the top of a pyramid by her hair for ogling you or bragging to her friends in the bathroom how you’d fucked her into the next decade at a party last year.”

Leo had completely sobered now, all the fight gone from him as he rushed me and pulled me into him. He held me tight, brushing his fingers through my hair.