Page 88 of Voices

“Forget something super-”

I stop as my nightmare stands in front of me.

“Hello, Charles.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Shane

Iturn and almost run into a man in a business suit stepping off the elevator.

“Sorry,” I say sidestepping him.

He ignores me and walks down the hall as the elevator doors start to close.

O-kay then.

The elevator reeks of cigarettes as the doors close and starts to move down. It feels like it takes twice as long to get to the ground floor and when the doors finally open, I suck in a deep breath of fresh air.

Goddamn, how many cigarettes does that guy smoke?

I shake it off as I head outside and see a black Rolls-Royce taking up three parking spots right in front. Pretentious prick. I glance over my shoulder and look up at Charlie’s floor. He doesn’t have a window that faces this way, but something feels off.

I shake my head at myself. He’s fine, I’ll see him in a few hours. I need to get my head in game mode.

I get in my truck and make the short trip to the athletic building. I meet the guys in the locker room and we all head to the bikes to get in a few miles before we meet up with the rest of the team. We have a tradition -not a superstition- that we don’t talk about the game while we warm up. Matt brings up the houses from the party last night and we go back and forth on who was the best and who had the best drink.

Afterwards, we head to the GU Stadium, home of the Irish Knights hockey rink. We go our separate ways to do our pregame rituals. I have a hockey stick that stays in my locker all season, no one is allowed to touch it except me. After I get my gear on, I rub the tape on the blade with my thumb and pray to the hockey gods for a good game. Then I put my headphones in and blast nineties rock until Ryder bumps my knee for on-ice warmups.

I stand at the entrance to the tunnel and wait for the guys to gather around me. We make a small four-person circle, tapping the ground with our stick then the guy’s shin to our right. We do it three times then raise our gloved fists together and yell “LET’S GO!”

We skate out onto the bright ice as the home crowd cheers. I take a few quick laps around our half of the ice before looking up to where Charlie and Lily sit. But it’s Lily bouncing her knee nervously as the seat next to her sits empty. She’s stretching her neck looking behind her, up the stairs towards the entrance.

“Hawkins, keep moving!” Coach Q yells from the bench.

I skate to the boards and drop down to stretch my hamstrings while keeping an eye on Charlie’s empty seat.

Why wouldn’t he be here? I know for a fact that he doesn’t walk around the stadium alone with all these people. Maybe he had to use the bathroom? But Lily would have walked with him, not stayed at the seats. This doesn’t make sense.

I go through the rest of the warmups in a daze trying to figure out where he could be. The horn sounds letting us know to return to the locker room before the game starts. I skate to the bench and quickly step over to the low wall, waving my arms and calling Lily’s name.

She sees me and walks over to where we can talk without yelling.

“Where is he?”

She looks up the stairs and then back down to me. “I’m not sure. I called him when I left my place, but he said that he had already left and that he’d meet me outside. I waited by the ticket booth, but he never showed up. I figured maybe he got cold and came inside to sit before it got too crowded. But-”

“He’s not here,” I finish for her. “Have you gotten in touch with him since you’ve been here?”

She looks at her phone and blows out a relieved breath. “He just texted me. He’s not feeling well and won’t make it to the game.” She bunches her brows as she looks up at me. “But he said he had already left. Unless he got sick on the walk here?” She looks back down at her phone and smirks as she turns it to show me a text from Charlie.

Jax: Tell Shane I said good luck and that he should still score a goal tonight.

She stands back up and looks even more relieved. “Looks like I’m your cheer squad tonight, Sticks! You better listen to our boy and score a goal!” She spins around and sits in a seat next to a bunch of students and starts chatting away.

I walk down the tunnel as my mind spins. Charlie was okay when I left. He was even playful, which he doesn’t get very often. I sit in front of my locker and listen as Coach Q starts his speech, but I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying. I debated turning my phone on and sending him a text to make sure he’s alright but that would be breaking Coach’s number one rule.

No cell phones once our gear is on.

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