CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Karlie
I wasn’t sure what to think. On the one hand, everything football-related was resolved. The letter from Jimmy retracting everything set the ball in motion, and Colt and Cain were cleared after a hearing.
We’d been at the NCAA’s local office, sitting in a chilly conference room as an inquiry took place. Jimmy was being questioned by officials and it was the twins’ right to observe, to confront their accuser.
“So you made all this up?” asked a dude in a slick suit, his hair combed back. I hated lawyers but evidently one was necessary, and my brothers had retained the best in the business.
“Yeah,” answering Jimmy nervously, his voice trembling a little. I noticed that he hadn’t looked at the twins since entering the room, that half of the room off-limits, his head turned at a forty-five degree angle the entirety of his testimony.
“Why would you do that?” asked the attorney. “Please speak to the panel, the allegations are serious.”
Jimmy shook even more, his narrow shoulders visibly trembling as he looked down at his hands.
“I wanted to date their sister,” he said in a small voice. “She was so tempting and I figured that if I blackmailed them, she’d go out with me.”
“And who is this girl?” continued the lawyer.
“Kar-Karlie Jones,” stuttered Jimmy.
“Is she here today?” asked the lawyer.
“Yes,” said Jimmy, pointing to me.
“Please note that the defendant has pointed to one Karlie Jones, seated to the right of podium,” intoned the attorney.
And my heart curdled as a roomful of observers turned to stare at me. Not only were our parents present, but there were coaches, recruiters, reps from different athletic departments, anyone who might be interested in Colt and Cain’s football careers. This was serious business.
I was dressed in a somber navy suit, my hair pulled back in a tight bun, but I dreaded what was sure to follow.
“And what did this plan for blackmail consist of?” asked the attorney. “Remember, you’re under oath.”
I took a deep breath. Here’s where it would all come out. My escapades as a Donkey girl would be revealed, my penchant for dancing nude, displaying my body for dollars. Here’s where everyone would find out on the record that I’d had sex in public, and with my brothers to boot.
But Jimmy committed the equivalent of perjury.
“I figured she’d do anything for Colt and Cain, she’d date me if I helped them win, so I deflated footballs pre-game thinking that she’d like me more,” he mumbled.
“And that’s it?” asked the attorney skeptically. “What was all that about the … let’s see here, ahem, the so-called Donkey Club?”
Silence for a moment.
“It was fake,” Jimmy mumbled.
“Excuse me?” asked the attorney. “You made it up? Why would you do that?”
“It was all fake, okay?” Jimmy said, his jaw clenched. “I made it up so that Karlie would be humiliated. She wouldn’t go out with me, she wouldn’t even give me the time of day, so I made it up to hurt her. That she was a stripper, that she made money on the side dancing, that she took off her clothes for money. To humiliate her, to humiliate her brothers.”
“So there is no Donkey Club?” asked the attorney.
Another pause. What was he going to say now?
“I mean, yes, there’s a Donkey because I looked it up on-line, the place exists,” said Jimmy tightly. “But whether Karlie danced there, I can’t say,” he said.
“So she did?” asked the man again. “I’m sorry, please answer the question.” Man, my head was already spinning with confusion from the web of questions and answers, being a lawyer isn’t easy.
“She didn’t,” said Jimmy again, looking down. “At least, not that I know of.”
And that was that. The attorney led Jimmy through another series of questions, this time about whether the balls were deflated, and of course Jimmy said he’d made it all up. The whole story had been a hoax, he’d been looking to hurt me via my brothers, and had succeeded in the worst way.
“So in conclusion,” pronounced the lawyer to the Commissioner and assembled panel, “Jimmy Long is a misguided boy, someone who needs help. He did this all because of a woman, but is that really so surprising? Troy fell because of Helen, and here, our equivalent femme fatale is Karlie Jones.”
My heart sank again, this ordeal had been painful and I hated the comparison, the allegation that I was some kind of seductress. But all things considered, I was getting off easy. My secret life as a dancer was still secret, my brothers’ football careers were still intact, and most importantly, no one knew I was sleeping with my steps.
But I was confused, the whirring in my brain on max because I didn’t know what to think about the twins anymore. On the one hand, I hadn’t protested when Colt and Cain proposed physical harm to Jimmy. It had turned my stomach, but I recognized how important it was to reverse the situation, letting the allegations linger and stew would damage them forever, their reputations, their integrity, their ability to lead the Eagles.
But on the other, what happened made me shrink back with horror, the thought of physical violence terrifying. And the twins … they’d been experts in that little room, I’d heard the screams myself, the dazed confusion of Jimmy once he exited, the flicker of undisguised horror in his eyes. Maybe the damage hadn’t been visible, but he was clearly never going to be the same again.
And so when Colt and Cain had reached for me after that fateful night, I’d drawn back a little, shuddering a bit.
“Brothers, I don’t know,” I said softly.
“Don’t know what?” growled Colt, eyeing me hungrily. If I wasn’t wrong, the beating they’d administered had made their testosterone crest judging from the bulge at his crotch.
Cain was even bolder. He unzipped and whipped out his dong, the full fifteen inches already hard, pulsing with arousal, his glans deep purple and leaking with pre-cum. And god, I was tempted to forget everything, to act like nothing had happened.
“Taste it, sister,” he invited, looking at me with a gleam in his eye, already pressing down on my head with one big hand.
But I squirmed away, squaring my shoulders.
“I can’t brothers,” I said firmly. “Not right now … maybe not ever again.”
That stopped them. Colt and Cain eyed me warily.
“What’s wrong?” ground out Cain. “You love cock. You love our cocks,” he clarified.
“Yes,” I replied slowly, “but after what’s happened, it’s just too much, you know?”
“No, we don’t,” rumbled Colt dangerously. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
I looked at them straight, taking a deep breath, rehearsing the answer I’d practiced.
“I know you had to do what you did to Jimmy,” I said, my voice stumbling even though I’d replayed this scene in my mind countless times. But I had to finish.
“I’m just not sure I’m okay with it,” I said. “I mean, I’m a photographer but I’m not a war photographer. I take stills, portraits, sports, animals, babies, you name it. There’s never any blood or violence, and I … and I’m not sure I know you anymore,” I finished helplessly.
“What is there to know?” ground out Colt, shaking his head. “We’re simple guys and besides, you already know everything about us. You know us inside out, our bodies, our lives, where we’re headed, where we’ve been. What’s causing this?”
God, this was an impossible task.
“I guess I just never thought I’d be dating men who hurt others,” I said slowly. “Jimmy’s never going to be the same, you know.”
My brothers were silent, looking at me.
“Damn right,” said Cain. “That fucker deserves it.”
But Colt was a little more understanding.
“Sister, we get it,” he said soothingly, his hand reaching for mine. I let him hold my hand, my palm swallowed in his giant one. “Take your time. You need to work things out.”
I shot him a grateful glance, thankful that someone understood my dilemma, the way my heart felt like it was torn in two. Because I loved them, Colt and Cain were my everything, but I wasn’t sure I could be with them, not after seeing how they’d beat Jimmy so badly. I guess true love isn’t perfect, there are so many nuances and I wasn’t sure how to navigate this.
“Karlie,” interjected Cain with a dark look, “how long is this going to go on?”
I understood what he was saying. Men like the McKessons are alphas, they didn’t have forever, they wouldn’t wait forever.
But I was only me. I took a deep breath because I wasn’t sure about anything at this point, whether there was a timeline, whether I would ever get over my distaste. But I would try.
“I don’t know brothers,” I said soberly. “I’ll do my best to figure it out, I really will, but I’m confused inside. I just don’t what to think, everything’s jumbled.”
And my brothers gave me searching looks, their bodies still hard even after my confession. Because what could they do? If you love someone, let them go, but would I come back? Or were our lives going separate ways from now on?