The Wrong Quarterback: Chapter 28

“What does the horny toad say?” Jace asked as we walked down the sidewalk in front of our houses.

I grinned tiredly, wishing I was already in my bed. We had Georgia coming up next game, and I was pretty sure that Coach was trying to kill us with how hard he’d been working us in practice. We couldn’t play if we were dead, but he didn’t seem to care about that.

“What?” I responded, pushing back some wet hair that had fallen in my face.

“Rub it,” he answered, his eyebrows going up and down, clearly so proud of himself.

Matty and I both snorted, and Jace smirked proudly.

“I think you’re getting better,” I told him as we got to my house.

“I resent that, QB. I’ve always been good. I think Casey’s just actually given you a sense of humor.”

I scoffed and waved at them as they continued to their place next door. Casey was at a Dean’s Dinner for freshman students, and then she was going over to Nat’s new place to have cake for Nat’s birthday. Somehow I was going to have to survive the next four or five hours without her.

Unlocking the front door, I dropped my bag inside and groaned as I stretched my arms over my head. Fuck. Seriously, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to throw any passes tomorrow. Walking into the kitchen, I opened the refrigerator door to grab a bottle of water…when something shiny on the counter caught my attention.

A dark glass bottle sat on the countertop, labeled only with two words: “Drink Me,” like I’d stepped into a demented version of Alice in Wonderland. Right next to it was an envelope stamped with the unmistakable symbol of the Sphinx.

Motherfucker.

My stomach tightened. The gift they’d left after their last breaking and entering ended up being a good thing, but something told me this letter wasn’t going to be my favorite.

There was also the matter that my fucking cameras hadn’t gone off when someone had broken into the house, yet again. I was going to have to upgrade. Heads needed to roll at the security company I’d hired. Obviously their system didn’t work.

I sighed and then decided to get it over with, grabbing the envelope and tearing it open, my eyes scanning the letter inside.

“This is a test of trust. The Sphinx is a brotherhood beyond any other. To be a brotherhood, there must be trust. To proceed, drink the contents of the bottle. Do not question. Do not share this information. This is a solitary task. Once you’ve done it, wait.”

That was it. No explanation, no hint of what the drink actually was or what it might do to me. Nothing. Just a command to drink it and wait.

These fuckers were really stepping up their game. I don’t know what I’d expected when they’d pulled that bag off my head and told me I was going to be tested…but what I’d experienced so far had been way beyond anything I’d thought of then. I think I would rather dig up another body than do this.

I read through the note again. I’d heard a rumor that a woman had been allowed in their Darkwood College chapter, so they might want to update their whole brotherhood lingo. I also didn’t trust any of them worth a shit…but if I wanted in with these people, I was going to have to drink this.

Grabbing the bottle, I walked to our bedroom, the sheets still messed up from where I’d fucked Casey before practice. I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing her in. I loved that she was everywhere now. That every part of our house smelled like her. I hadn’t known what this place had been missing, but now I realized it’s what every place would have been missing my entire life.

Her.

I took my phone out, propping it in the corner of the room and setting it to record…just in case. Whatever happened, I wanted some kind of record.

With the camera rolling, I picked up the bottle, twisting the cap open. The liquid inside was clear, odorless. I had no idea what it was. Could be water. Or poison. Or anything in between.

What the fuck was I doing?

I moved to my bed, sitting down, bottle in hand. Every part of me was screaming in protest that this was a bad idea. But I’d come this far. At this point it felt like some kind of challenge, like the Sphinx against me. The competitor in me couldn’t let them win.

I just hoped that it didn’t cost me that much to cross the finish line.

I tipped the bottle back, wincing as I swallowed the liquid. The taste was sharp, a slight burn that didn’t give me any hints as to what it was.

I waited. And waited. And nothing happened.

Okay, maybe that’s where the trust part came in. I drank it. And I was done.

That was easy. I breathed out a big sigh of relief and stood up—my head swam, the room spinning around me. My knees buckled, and I hit the bed hard, my vision going black in an instant.

I blinked up at the ceiling, feeling like I’d been out for days, my head disoriented and heavy. My brain struggled to piece together where I was…why my mouth was so dry…and why my limbs felt like dead weight. Had I fallen asleep after practice?

The faint creak of the front door snapped me out of my haze. “Parker?” Casey’s voice called, sweet and perfect. It cut through the fog in my brain. I cursed under my breath, reaching around, searching for my phone—I’d told her I’d pick her up. I must’ve passed out way longer than I thought.

Before I could sit up, she appeared in the doorway, one eyebrow raised in amusement. “Hey, sleepyhead,” she teased, leaning against the frame. “Are you okay?”

I managed a rough smile, fighting the pounding in my skull. “Yeah, just…long practice. I must’ve dozed off.”

As I pulled myself up, a sharp sting shot across my chest. I winced, lifting my shirt out of reflex and froze. There was a white bandage taped across my chest.

“What is that?” Casey asked as she stepped closer, her eyes widening. “You didn’t tell me you were getting a new tattoo.”

“That’s because I didn’t,” I muttered, peeling back the bandage. Beneath it, the unmistakable symbol of the Sphinx was inked deep into my skin, black and intricate, right over my heart. The whole night hit me then, memories crashing against my brain: the bottle, the letter, the way I’d blacked out.

I bolted out of bed, ignoring the ache in my chest, and went straight for my phone, still recording in the corner. Fast-forwarding through the footage, I watched myself slump over on the bed, completely out cold. And then, a minute later, the door to the bedroom cracked open, and two guys in the same masks as what the members had been wearing the night I’d been kidnapped from my room slipped inside, one of them carrying a tattoo kit.

Casey gasped beside me, watching as one masked guy started setting up, his gloved hands precise and clinical, while the other one scanned the room, idly snooping around. At one point his masked face appeared in front of the camera, and he grinned before continuing his perusal.

The guy with the needle leaned over me, adjusting the angle like he’d done this a thousand times before. He started working on my chest while I lay there like a slab of stone, oblivious. The needle bit into my skin, and I watched, sickened, as he carefully inked the Sphinx symbol, marking me as theirs.

The video played on until, finally, the tattoo was done. The guy in the mask pressed the bandage over it, gathered up his supplies, and gave a nod to the other, and within seconds, they were gone. All that was left on the screen was me, unconscious and oblivious, a new mark branded into my skin.

Casey’s hand came to her mouth, her eyes darting from the screen to my chest. “Parker…what the hell was that?”

I ran a hand over the fresh ink, my chest tightening. “That, baby, was my final trial for the Sphinx.”