Page 41 of Break

“What happened to Jared?” I ask as I hop out of my car. Before I can even turn, Dimitri already holds my back and has the car door closed.

“Nothing to worry about, sweetheart,” he says, a cocky grin plastered on his face.

He walks ahead, and I’m not sure what else I can ask as I’m sure I won’t get a full answer.

Every staff member we pass, every player doesn’t look twice as there’s nothing wrong, or at least nothing they know about.

“What about my office?” I ask as I step up to Dimitri.

He says nothing until we reach my door. His hand clutches the handle before he meets my gaze with his light grey ones. “What about it?” He opens the door with a swing, and I peek inside.

The ravage I saw last night is… gone.

Everything seems to be replaced, even my laptop.

Shock renders me speechless at first as I blink my eyes a few times, making sure that I’m not imagining things. How is this possible? Everything was broken. How did they pull this off in a night?

“Wait,” I start, but Dimitri tosses my bag on my desk and almost leaves.

“Dimitri, please,” I say as I reach out and grab his arm, an electric current passing between us. I quickly release him and pull my hand back, my fingertips tingling from where I touched his warm skin.

“We leave after practice,” is all he says and truly leaves me in my office.

There isn’t a drop of blood anywhere. It’s spotless. It even smells clean.

How the hell did they do this?

Without lingering too long, I set everything up and check my laptop to make sure everything is on there.

“How did they do this?” I whisper as I scroll through my calendar. Everything is there, every appointment. Even the pictures of my work trip are still there.

I scroll through the pictures, slowing on the ones with Jared. My stomach lurches at the sight, and memories of last night crawl over my body like ants, making me squirm in discomfort.

How could he do what he did? He was always so… nice.

At this point, I should have a sixth sense for guys who don’t like being told no, who don’t listen to anything else but their own desires. How did I not see this coming?

A knock on my door makes my heart stop. I look up toward the doorway, expecting to see one of the guys or even Jared, but it’s none of them.

“Hope? Do you have a minute?” Head Coach Carpenter asks.

I close out of everything on my computer and nod, forcing my eyes not to widen in concern. “Of course.”

Tension crawls through my body, fearing what he’s here for. Perhaps he knows what the guys did. Perhaps they found Jared’s body.

He walks inside, standing by my desk at the same spot Jared tried… I blink away the memories and focus on Coach’s worried glance.

“Jared,” he sighs. “His shoulder.” He shakes his head.

His shoulder was good until… “What? Did something happen?”

It seems I’m going with it and keeping my mouth shut about last night.

He rakes his fingers through his dark grey hair. “He got in a brawl last night at one of the pubs. His shoulder is… destroyed.”

I blink, forcing myself to act surprised. I saw the state that Jared was in last night. Destroyed is probably an understatement. “Destroyed?”

He nods. “He’s in surgery now, but we’re sending him back home to recover.” He straightens slowly. “You did good, Hope. But we can’t protect them from being stupid boys off the field.”

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