Page 148 of Off-Ice Misconduct
I raised a brow. “Isn’t the NHL taking me away?”
“I’m allowing the NHL to borrow you for games,” he said in a dark voice. “You’ll be under my jurisdiction, on my leash the whole time.”
Jesus fucking Christ—the delicious shiver that gave me.
So, yeah. He’s with East and Dad, temporarily, but he’s looking forward to getting on the road with me.
March
The number of people in this massive arena’s fucking insane. North Point Military Academy is one of the largest schools included in the NCAA, and their arena holds fifteen thousand people. Roar doesn’t begin to describe the sound coming from the crowd. The building shakes. Thousands of screaming voices vibrate through my chest as I step onto the ice, taking that first glide, and being swallowed by the overhead lights.
Dad, East, and Luke are somewhere in the crowd, but I won’t be able to spot them. That was a whole debacle. They could have had seats near the bench, but besides a little caution—being anonymous in a crowd of thousands—Luke still can’t do watching me from up close.
It’s a tad endearing—not that I say things like that to his face, unless I want to start a little fun trouble.
He was willing to sit alone, but Dad wouldn’t have it and decided to try an outing with crutches for the first time. He’d been crutching around the house, but blood loss tends to weaken you, so he’d use the wheelchair for longer outings. If he brought it here, he’d need to sit in the accessible seating area, which is closer to the ice.
East wasn’t happy. A fight ensued. But somehow, Dad won that one.
Across the rink, North Point stretches and warms up, mocking us with their glares, chirping insults as they skate by. This game is gonna be fucking brutal, and I’m kinda glad Luke’s way up in the nosebleed section. Whoever wins this game, winsthe Pacific Conference Quarter Finals and gets an automatic spot in the Frozen Four Faceoff. Both teams are hungry for it, hungrier than I’ve ever seen two teams, and neither of us is leaving here without pieces of us missing.
Teeth, skin, our humanity—gone.
Spoiler alert, in hockey that means there are gonna be a lot of fights.
Ryan skates over, spraying me with ice like a bad boy greaser on skates. It doesn’t matter that off the ice, we’re practically family now, he’s here for one reason only—to be a dick.
“Hope your daddy’s watching, princess.”
Oooooh he fucking did not. But I knew that day in the office was gonna come back to haunt me. Hard to say if princess was a lucky guess or if Tate overheard us and spilled during pillow talk.
But Savage is barking up the wrong VanCourt bitch. I have some experience. I know what VanCourts are like.
“Where is it?” I ask.
“Where’s what?”
“His mark.”
VanCourts are territorial as fuck. Coach probably won’t even like us talking this close.
But the thing I tried to rile him with does the opposite. He smiles like he’s already won, pulling up the sleeve of his jersey where?—
Holy shit.
A cuff. Leather. Brown with a big fat “V” embossed into the center.
How come Luke never gave me one? Great, now I’m jealous, and thrown. So many questions fill my head.
“Can’t wear my ring on the ice.” Or anywhere until they announce it. He winks and shoves me, totally unaffected. Ryan waggles his brows as if he likes it. He can’t like it, can he? Now I wanna know, but it’s so not the time for coffee talk.
Well, that backfired. But we’re on the ice, I can rip his helmet off and mark his smug jaw.
Before I can go after him, Coach is yelling at me. “McKinnon!” He points to where the rest of the team’s doing warmups. “Shoot pucks in net.”
Whatever. I’m totally punching the shit out of his secret husband as soon as I get the chance.
North point comes out cocky—shoulders loose and mouths running. Savage opens with a smirk and a shoulder check so hard it echoes across the boards. Show off.
