Page 82 of In the Danger Zone
I had never actually been inside the Wolverines’ locker room before. I had stood outside it plenty of times as I waited for Evan to come out, but going inside was a whole other story. Coach Murphy didn’t like having girls in the locker room – before a game, at least. But the Wolverines had won and Evan had texted me, specifically asking me to come inside and see him.
Maybe he was mad at me. He had looked absolutely furious when he was playing. Evan always wore his anger for everyone to see. That wasn’t something he hid, and I had seen it clear as day as he thumped his shoulder into player after player.
I had missed the start of the game. Evan had probably seen that I hadn’t turned up until the first period was over. But that was only because I had been so startled by Asher cornering me like that. It was like I was right back in high school, like I was all alone with no one to help me. The whole moment had made me dizzy. My head hitting that wall certainly hadn’t helped either. All I knew was that when I was in the closet, I had the horrible feeling I was about to fall into a trap.
But what was the trap exactly? I wasn’t sure. I had been in a daze as I finally moved from the closet and back to my dorm to dump all my school stuff. Then it had been a slow, daunting walk to the rink. Nobody tried to hurt me. Nobody even seemed to look twice at me.
That didn’t mean the fear had gone away.
Asher had left me alone since the semester started. Well, mostly. He seemed to back off after Evan got involved. But something or someone had angered Asher. I hadn’t told his coach a thing. Why would I? That was a story I knew I had to keep close to my heart.
Asher hadn’t been out there on the ice. Some other player had taken his place for the night. Maybe he really did get kicked off the team. I had been convinced that Asher was confused, that he must have misheard whatever Coach Murphy had told him. But Asher didn’t play. He wasn’t even sitting on the bench.
I did my best to remove those thoughts from my brain. I hated thinking about Asher.
Knocking on the locker room door, I smiled when I saw Tanner open up. There was almost always an approachable look on his face. But that wasn’t present. He just raised his eyebrows up at me before looking over his shoulder.
“She’s here,” Tanner announced before stepping aside.
When I moved into the locker room, I was fully expecting to see the other girlfriends there. But all I got was a room full of angry looking hockey players with half their gear taken off. They had no reason to look so upset since they had just won. Even Hudson looked oddly disappointed despite the team having such a good game. My eyes quickly scanned the room, searching for my boyfriend.
“Hi,” I said softly, my cheeks red. There were too many pairs of eyes on me. I was already on edge and that certainly didn’t calm me down. “Evan asked m-me to m-meet him here.”
“They know.”
I jumped when I heard Evan’s voice from behind. He normally sounded so warm when he spoke to me, but those two words he let out felt like they were laced with pure, unfiltered venom. Turning around, I saw Evan dressed in just half his gear. His hair looked a little darker since his locks were all wet.
“You guys were great tonight,” I said. “Congrats on your win.” But despite my kind words, everyone stayed suspiciously quiet. It was beyond uncomfortable.
Evan approached me slowly. “You weren’t there for the first period.”
“I was… b-busy.”
“With?” There was a sharpness in his voice. There was an edge that I didn’t like to hear.
I didn’t want to admit to him that I had been crying in a closet for twenty minutes thanks to Asher. And how I had just gone into numb mode. The fresh memories hurt more than I wanted them to. It felt like I had been transported back intothatmoment. But I couldn’t explain that in front of Evan’s teammates.
“M-My class ran a little late,” I explained.
“She’s lying again.” There was a voice in the doorway. A voice I knew far too well. I jumped again, my eyes widening as Asher stepped into the locker room.
My heart raced as I took some steps away from Asher, moving closer to Evan. I didn’t stop until I felt his broad body against mine. “E-Evan, can we go?”
“Why? You just got here,” Evan said with a low chuckle.
I eyed his face closely. Why was he looking at me like Asher did? “Y-You know why,” I said softly. “Can we please just leave?”
“You wanna tell everyone why Asher got kicked off the team?” Evan asked, his voice booming. “Why one of our best defensemen – and one of my best friends – is no longer allowed to play for the Wolverines?”
I frowned at that. “What do you m-mean?”
“Don’t do that,” Asher said from behind me. “You know what you did.”
“B-But I don’t—”
“You told Murph that Asher attacked you,” Evan told me lowly, his eyes darkening with each and every word. “You told me the same thing.”
My head shook. “I didn’t tell your coach that. I didn’t. Why would I do that? You know… I n-never told him anything about that. Why would I, Evan?”
