The Debt 12 (Club Alpha) Read Online Free PDF

anything—what a coincidence--but he assured me the
team was investigating the incident.”
    Faith went and sat down on the couch
beside him.   She put a hand on his
shoulder—his muscles felt as tense as a coiled piece of steel.
    “So they’re denying the whole thing,” she
said.   “Is that it?”
    “That’s what they do, Faith.”   He turned his head and met her
gaze.   “That’s what they did for me,
and that’s what they’ll do for all their star athletes.   They can’t afford for the public and the
media to know the truth about the league and how it’s infested with
criminals.   Then people might not
want to pay big money to watch us run around and throw balls and celebrate in
the end zone like overgrown children.”
    His eyes looked bloodshot, glassy and
jaded with everything he’d seen in his life—not to mention, the last
twenty-four hours.
    Faith felt terrible, and she was also
useless, because she didn’t know what to say or how to help him.   All of her anger had dissipated.   She just felt low and depressed and
slightly afraid for the future.
    “At least you tried,” she finally said,
but the comment felt lame after everything that had done on between them.
    “I tried and I failed, as usual,” he
said, leaning back against the couch cushions.   “And the one thing I should’ve gotten
right—I blew that too.”   He
looked at her with his dark eyes and she saw his pain, as if magnified.   “I should’ve come home and told you
everything, and been with you.”
    “I wish you would have trusted me enough
to do that,” she told him.   “Instead
you just didn’t tell me anything.   You left me alone.”
    “I couldn’t face you.”
    “Why?   What was so bad about coming home to
me?”
    “You know me.”   He smiled, and it was a real smile this
time.   “Looking into your eyes and
telling you that I failed again was too much to stomach.   I just couldn’t do it.”
    “So you’d rather hang out with that
asshole, Boogie?”
      “Boogie’s safe, because I don’t have to
worry about him holding me to account for anything.”
    Faith smiled sadly in return.   “You knew that I’d see how much you were
hurting.”
    Chase nodded.   “I suppose, in the end—I’m just a
coward.   Big tough football player
who doesn’t want to look his girlfriend in the face and admit that he folded
because he was protecting his own ass.”
    She reached out and put her hand on his
hand.   “You’re not a coward.   You’re one of the bravest people I
know.”
    “Don’t believe the hype.”
    “Chase,” she said, shaking her head.   “It’s a tough situation you’re in.   Anybody would get discouraged.”
    “And the worst part is, I know what
Monique’s going through.   I watched
my mother get smacked around by different guys when I was growing up.   Until one day, she was gone because one
of those guys killed her.”
    His entire body shuddered as he took a
gasping breath and seemed to almost collapse in on himself.
    “You’re just a man,” Faith said, caressing
his hand.   “You aren’t
superhuman.   You can’t take on the
world.”
    “I’m losing games, I’m losing every
battle.   And now I’m losing you on
top of it all.   And you’re the one
person I care about.”   He looked in
her eyes.   “Only you, Faith.”
    She smiled, her other hand reaching up and
gently touching his forehead near the cut by his hairline.   “Tell me about this cut you got,” she
said, not quite touching the bloody scab that was forming over the fresh wound.  
    Chase laughed.   “This is Boogie’s fault.”
    “He did this to you?”
    “No, he didn’t do it.   But it’s his fault, because he ran his
mouth—as usual.”   Chase turned
his body to face her and he put his hand on her leg, while draping his other
arm over the side of the couch.
    “So who hurt you?”
    “Oh, about six or eight guys,” Chase
said, grinning proudly.
    “Are you