Page 83 of Stick It
“Griffin knows, doesn’t he?” I already know he does. It explains the unicorn tape that Kyle’s normal one was switched out for. The glitter bomb in his locker. The other shit he’s been grousing about. Not to mention his public shaming in the cafeteria.
Dylan hesitates before giving a jerky nod.
“Do you think they were the ones to attack you last night?” I ask carefully, watching her closely for any reaction.
Her face scrunches, something flashing across her face, there and gone before I can make heads or tails of it.
“I didn’t see their faces,” she admits. “And none of them spoke.” A deliberate act, I imagine…because they knew Dylan would be able to identify them? Lifting her gaze to mine, Dylan swallows. I can see she doesn’t want to admit it out loud, but her eyes say it all anyway. “I wasn’t mugged. They didn’t take anything. It was a senseless act of violence.” Her free hand lifts to her chest as she presses her palm over her heart. “I can’t prove it was them, but I know the truth in here. There’s no one else it could have been.”
Fuck.
I exhale heavily, sagging back against my chair. “This shit stops now. If anything else happens to you, no matter how small or insignificant, you tell me.” I pierce her with a hard stare until she nods. “One of us will be with you at all times when you’re on campus.”
She scoffs at that. “I don’t need babysitters.”
I arch a brow, slowly lowering my gaze over her battered form. “Clearly, you do.”
She glowers at me, and something settles, seeing that fire back in her eyes. “I would think the better solution would be to deal with Kyle and the others.”
“Yes,” I agree heavily. “But without any proof, there’s not a whole hell of a lot I can do.” I eye her curiously. “You could report it to the police.”
Her head falls back against the headboard, as though it suddenly requires too much effort to keep it upright. “You said it yourself, there’s no proof. What are they going to do?”
I swallow. “Either way, you need to let one of our trainers check you out.
She exhales, sinking deeper into the pillow. “I’m not playing in Friday’s game, am I?”
I hesitate, hating the disappointment in her voice. “That’s Coach’s call, but I wouldn’t think so. You’re pretty beat up. It’s going to take a week or two for all of that to heal.”
She nods, quiet for a moment.
“First, you need to eat.” I push to my feet, looking down at her.
Dylan blinks up at me, looking exhausted but amused. “You cooking for me, Captain?”
I smirk. “Only because I need my best left wing back on the ice.”
26
DYLAN
The trainer’shands are careful but firm as he presses along my ribs, feeling for anything more serious than bruising. I wince when he prods at my side, a dull ache radiating through me.
“Careful,” Ethan snaps from where he stands a few feet away, arms crossed, watching everything with a hard-set jaw. The trainer tenses, glancing from me to him and back to me.
“You good?”
I nod, before flashing Ethan a hard stare. He simply meets it with a glare of his own until I roll my eyes and focus back on the trainer. While he completes his assessment, my mind drifts back to this morning. The way Ethan looked at me in the soft light filtering through my bedroom window. The vow he made.I’ll be someone you can trust.
I don’t have many of those—people I can trust. AndGod, I want to believe him. Iwantto trust in Ethan. I could see how torn up he was that he didn’t see what Kyle and the others were doing, even though that was the whole point. They deliberately kept their attacks subtle enough that no one else would notice.
Griffin was the only one who did, and I’m pretty sure that’s only because the psycho watches my every move. He’d probablyknow if something was wrong with me before I did,that’show closely he pays attention.
But trust isn’t something I give easily, and no matter how much I may want to trust in Ethan, I need him to show me he’s not another Lucas.
I already know he doesn’t have Lucas’s hateful intent. That he doesn’t view me the same way, but I need him to prove to me that he won’t just turn a blind eye. That he won’t let Kyle and the others get away with what they’ve been doing.
The door to the training room slams open, cutting through my thoughts.
