Chapter Five: The Walls Have Ears

Marcus laughed. “The audio leaks from the locker room you renovated, so you search the players' tablets?” Sloane's gaze hardened. “Be careful with your contract.” “Your doctors already erased half of it.” It was Marcus's first public act of defiance, but the room did not heal. Against the Gray Bay Hounds, line calls arrived half a beat late. Receivers stopped sharing what they felt in coverage. Every player feared that an honest sentence would fuel Kai's next miraculous adjustment. Kai tried to replace trust with power. He listened deeper and forced the quiet field. Two touchdowns in the first quarter. In the second, teammates and opponents began to blur. In the third, Mountain's voice merged with Kai's father's. *Don't let me fall.*