Intercepting Love (Second Chances #5)(52)

“Don’t you think I thought about that?” Cooper snapped. “Believe me, that’s the last thing I want, but leaving her by herself worries me more. That’s obviously what this person wants. Well, they’re not going to get it.”

“It looks like you’re missing the other point,” Luke scoffed. “Whoever is doing this is making it look like I’m the one responsible. They’re trying to pin this shit on me. They obviously want me away from her, too. So the question is … who? What exactly are we dealing with?”

Evan cut in the middle of Luke and Cooper and came to my side. “You don’t think it could be Scott’s family doing this, do you?”

The thought did cross my mind, and Scott’s mother did vandalize my car two years ago, but I hadn’t had any other incidents since then. “I don’t think so,” I told him. “If it was them they would come after me, not the guys.”

Nodding, he agreed, “Yeah, that’s true. Can you think of anyone else? One of the guys on the team maybe?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m completely clueless.”

“Maybe you should stay at my house then?” Evan recommended. “That way if someone does go after Cooper you won’t be in the crossfire.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Luke agreed.

Cooper scoffed. “Yeah, you would.”

“Guys, that’s enough,” I snapped, glaring at them all. “I’m staying here and that’s final. Evan, you know I can take care of myself. I have an arsenal in my safe and I know how to use every single gun in there. I’ll be fine.”

My brother rolled his eyes. “Why are you so stubborn?”

“Because I get it from you,” I teased. “Anyway, the police are going to have fingerprints tomorrow. Hopefully, that’ll help them shed some light on who’s messing with us. It’ll all be over then.”

Deep down, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy.





Cooper and I rode together to practice since his car still sat in my driveway with flattened tires. My stomach was in knots all night because I couldn’t help but wonder if any of those prints on the knife were going to be someone on the team. I didn’t want to imagine any of the guys doing something like that.

“Kate?”

Jumping in my seat, I turned around and Brianna was there, stretching her legs. “Oh wow, I had no idea you were behind me.”

She laughed. “That doesn’t surprise me. You’ve been too busy looking at Cooper to notice. You know, Lindsey was pissed when she found out you two were like seriously dating.”

I’m sure she was, I thought to myself. Over my shoulder, I could see out of the corner of my eye that Lindsey was glaring at me. When I looked at her, she turned her head quickly and pretended to do something else. Why were women so petty sometimes?

“She’ll get over it,” I said.

“Do you want to run with me? It looks like the guys are about to run around the track, too. Maybe we could show them up today.”

Chuckling, I tightened up my laces and joined her. At least if I did something to occupy my time, it would be less stressful than waiting for the phone to ring. Placing my phone in my bag, I zipped it up and set it with everyone else’s.

“All right, let’s go.”

We took off around the track, and before the guys could catch up to us, Brianna blew out a breath and said, “You know, ever since you started dating Cooper I think you’ve become a hot commodity around here. Now the guys know that you’ll date a football player. I’ve had at least two of them this past week ask how serious you and Cooper were.”

I gasped. “And what did you say?”

“Well, it’s not like I could tell them anything,” she scolded. “You haven’t exactly told me how serious you two were.”

The guys were about to catch up to us, so I had to ask quickly, “Who were they, Brianna? Which ones asked about me?”

She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Derek was the first one to ask. I’ll admit I was kind of bummed because I thought he was going to ask me out. We’ve been kind of talking here every now and again, but I guess it was to get info on you.”

“Oh, Brianna, I’m so sorry. I could definitely see you and Derek together. He’s such a sweet guy. Who else asked?”

Derek was definitely not one I would’ve imagined asking about me, let alone anyone else. My brother threatened them all when I started working for the team.

“Let’s see … there was Jaxon. I’m surprised he hasn’t faked an injury just so they could be alone with you.”

Cooper ran up to my side and discreetly smacked me on the ass. “Mind if I run with you ladies?”

“Sure, but don’t get upset when you can’t keep up,” I taunted playfully, blowing out the air in my lungs. My legs were already on fire and I knew without a doubt that he could keep up.

Derek came up and squeezed himself in between me and Brianna. “I know I can keep up. You know, Kate, I’ve been getting this really sharp pain in my calf recently. It’s not that bad, but sometimes the pain shoots up my leg and it hurts like a bitch. Do you mind taking a look at it?”

I snuck a glance over at Brianna and she mouthed the words, ‘I told you so’ to me. Slowing my pace, I looked up at Derek and nodded. “Yeah, as soon as we’re done I’ll take a look at your leg.”