Page 36 of Vicious Desire (Fallen Royals 4)

I spare a glance back at Riley. She’s using the trees to pull herself up the hill. She’ll be fine—maybe come in last and disappoint the hell out of Coach Lennon, but she’s not broken and bleeding.

I leave her there.

In the end, I do manage to get to the front. Well, almost the front. Skylar and one other girl cross the line ahead of me. But I’m able to fake it to Coach and I hit my finishing time just a few seconds over. Not exactly what I had in mind, sprinting and a brief tumble, but it’ll do.

Riley finishes almost a minute behind me, crossing the line and breathing hard. There’s blood on her knees.

Coach beelines for her. “What happened?”

I lift my chin, expecting her to point to me.

Instead, she says, “I fell. It reopened wounds from the other day.”

Coach grunts. “Go clean up. Make sure they don’t get infected.”

Riley doesn’t so much as glance at me on her way by, but I don’t miss the way her muscles tense.

My blood is singing—both from the race and the feel of her under me again.

“Eli,” Coach snaps. “Go check with Marzden and then go home.”

I nod. I snag my water bottle from where I left it against the fence and take a long gulp.

“You were really good,” a girl says behind me.

I glance at her. She seems young—when did underclassmen start looking like babies?—and her cheeks turn pink under my attention.

“I just wanted to see if you had any tips?” She shifts. “You know, for, um, running…”

“Keep running until you puke, then run some more,” I offer.

“Oh, yeah, okay—”

“I gotta go,” I mutter.

I head to the track field where the football players are packing up their shit. Some I know—now-seniors who squint at me like they’re seeing a ghost—and others are complete strangers. They don’t look twice at me.

“Anything else, Coach?” I ask.

One of the guys stuck around to help him pack up.

“Grab that water cooler and bring it in,” he tells me. “Then you go home. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

I dump out the water and heave it up, balancing it on my shoulder. I put it in the storage room and then grab my keys from his office, thoroughly exhausted. And yet, I still have to go home and break the news to my parents: in only a few days, I secured a job.

Riley leans against the front of my truck in the parking lot.

“What do you want?” she demands.

I ignore her, opening my door and tossing my bag onto the passenger seat.

“Eli. Why are you here?”

I sigh and turn around. “This has been fun, but I’m not really up for an impromptu interrogation.” I climb in and slam the door, leaving her staring at me.

We watch each other through my window for a moment, then I smirk. I start the truck, the roar of it causing her to step back.

She lifts her hand, and I choke on my laugh.