Sworn Enemies - Rebel Hart Page 0,3

friends since elementary school and had a sixth-sense with one another. Their ability to predict an opponent’s play had saved us more than once.

Gria and Hollie were our running backs. They were utility members who could do almost anything on the field. They’d joined the team with no particular position in mind and fell into the running back position because their slight height and heft gave them an advantage.

Georgia and Maxine rounded out our team as the tight-ends. They preferred their short-hand names, George and Max, and were closest to Lila, as she’d brought them with her from her college team. Though they didn’t cause half the trouble she did, when they got together, they could wind each other up until I had to shut down practice while they debated over which female journalist would do a better job than Anderson Cooper. I kept them away from one another as much as I could, but down-times always had them huddling together, and once they were off on some tangent, they were difficult to drag back.

Were my Black Widows the toughest team in the country? Not by a long shot. Could they scrap with the best of them? Ask all the faces we’d put in the dirt.

“Quinn!” Kris threw her hand in the air. “Double-football Wednesdays!”

I pumped my fist in the air. “Yeah!”

Hollie bounded over, her bob cut flipping all around her head. “Is Alec on tonight?”

“Of course.” I set the barrels of pads down and held out the arm I had all the jerseys hooked on as Hollie and Kris flipped through them.

Lila set the things she was carrying down and walked over to my arm, as well.

“Hey, Lila,” Hollie greeted.

Lila didn’t respond, and Hollie didn’t try again. The team was used to her attitude now. They all pulled their jerseys free and moved over to collect some pads. I’d love to get my ladies their own pads someday, but our resources were limited, so we had to share. I had enough sets for everyone, but they weren’t specified to any particular player and were just about the right size to fit everyone. Some of the ladies, like Jansen and Beck, were always swimming in whatever pads they ended up with, but they were troopers and made it work.

Once the high-schoolers had cleared out and the entire team was present, we suited up for practice. The adrenaline I felt when I was about to go on the field, even for practice, was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. They say that nothing feels quite like true love, and if that was true, football was my one and only.

2

Quinn

“That was stupid,” I growled at Jansen as I set a piece of gauze on her cheek to catch some of the blood that was pouring out. “I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want anyone going toe-to-toe with Lila.”

Jansen rolled her eyes and smacked my hand away. “I don’t give a shit about her. At some point, someone has to knock her down a peg.”

Practice was over twenty minutes earlier than it was supposed to be because our scrimmage turned into a pissing match between one of our largest and one of our smallest players. Jansen was taller than average but still didn’t come close to Lila’s size, and Jansen was a hundred pounds soaking wet. When Lila stood her ground while Jansen was trying to run the ball, despite that I’d ordered her to do a moving play, Jansen decided to try and run straight through her. People didn’t run through Lila. There were two-hundred-fifty pound, seven-foot-tall men who had tried and failed, let alone a twig-like Jansen. Lila dug her feet in and lowered her shoulder, and Jansen crumpled against her like paper around a rock.

“You’ve gotta cut her,” Kris said, taking the gauze from my hand and returning it to Jansen’s face. Jansen tried to resist again, but Kris gave a motherly glare, and Jansen calmed. “She’s a danger to our team, and people are sick of having to get through her first to play some fucking football.”

“Even if we had enough people to cut her, she’s our powerhouse. She’s literally been the difference between a win and a loss for us on more than one occasion.” I looked up at Hollie, who was sitting cross-legged on the grass. “Back me up.”

“Sorry, cap,” Hollie replied. “Lila’s trouble. I’ll admit she’s got something special when it comes to the sport, but this team isn’t only about football. It’s about