Page 100 of Cheap Shot
“I got an email,” he barked, cutting her off. “From Jensen. Apparently, he’s not just a slimeball. He’s also got a knack for catching people with their pants down.”
My stomach drops, knowing that’s why Jensen was at the arena yesterday. I originally thought he was itching for a fight by bringing up Michele again, and he was. Just not in the way I was expecting. He didn’t want to just lash out at me; he wanted to take her down with him.
Coach inches closer to her, but I step between them. My shoulders square without thinking as his lips curl in disgust. “I told him he had the wrong girl. Because there’s no way my daughter would be that reckless. That’s goddamn stupid.”
Michele doesn’t even flinch at her father's words, but I do. He is her father and demands a certain level of respect, but I can’t let this slide. “You’re going to watch your mouth around her. If you can’t be respectful, you are going to need to leave, whether it be on your own or with help.”
“I wasn’t speaking to you, boy.” He turns on me like a viper ready to strike. “You don’t tell me how to speak to my daughter.”
“You’re damn right I do if this is how you treat her. She is not your verbal punching bag.”
Michele reaches for me, a hand on my arm, her grip trembling. Her eyes plead with me to keep my cool, but I can feel her trembling through her fingertips. She’s scared. Not of me, but of the storm her father’s bringing in with him.
“I care about her,” I said, leveling my voice. “This isn’t a one-night thing. I’m not some reckless kid trying to screw the boss’s daughter.”
A humorless laugh bubbles in his throat as he takes another step toward me, blinding fury curved in every part of his face. “You’re a walking headline, Hendrix. Hothead. Benched. Traded. Suspended. Want me to keep going?”
“Back up, Coach,” I growl, my voice low and strained as I fight to maintain control.
“You’re throwing away everything forhim?” He stabs a finger in my direction, his eyes remaining focused on my Michele. “You worked too damn hard to get where you are, and now you’re shacking up with a guy who can’t even keep his nose clean long enough to make it through a season.”
I freeze, my eyes widening in horror as she turns toward me, her eyes wide. “Cole…?”
“You didn’t tell her? That’s cute. Did you leave out the part where you can’t stop popping painkillers and Lord knows what fucking else like Tic Tacs? How Cooper begged for him to get a second chance without knowing the whole truth? That his brother is a fucking junkie?”
“It’s not like that,” I breathe, the words sticking in my throat. “I need them to keep focused. To keep my cool on the ice and deal with the pain. I’m not a junkie. I can stop whenever I want. I can!”
Coach turns his ire back to Michele, his voice bitter. “This? This is what you’re throwing it all away for?”
And that’s it. The last straw that causes me to fucking snap. The rage doesn’t explode all at once. Itbuilds. First, behind my ribs. It feels like a pot boiling over, the lid rattling as it boils faster and faster before it explodes. Then it spreads, my jaw tensing as the heat spreads up my spine, my fist shaking with it. My heart pounds so hard it feels like it's going to burst from my chest. The pounding in my ears is loud enough that I can no longer hear his hateful words. I feel like I’m outside my body, watching the slow, dangerous rise of something I can’t hold back anymore.
“She didn’tdeservethat,” I growl, stepping toward him. “She didn’t deserve any of this!”
He doesn’t even flinch, his entire frame vibrating as he takes a swing at me, his fist barely missing my chin. “She deserves to know who she’s lying with.”
“She knowsme,” I hiss, ducking beneath his right hook. “Better than anyone ever has.”
“She’s making the same mistake I did, falling for her mother. Ruining everything she’s worked her whole life toward for someone who can never put her first. Who will always put the pills before her until the day she finds him dead on the floor. Just like she did with her mother.”
Michele’s breath catches, a sharp sound like glass cracking.
“She’s scared,” I bite out. “Can’t you see that? Look at what you’re doing to her.”
But he doesn’t look at her. He doesn’tseeher. He keeps speaking. His words slicing, word after word, until I feel the rage boil over like lava spilling from a broken dam.
“Youson of a bitch!” I roar, and then I’m shoving him—hard. He slams into the wall by the door, stumbling.
“Cole!” Michele’s voice cracks, but I can’t stop. Not after watching him unravel her piece by piece.
“You don’t get to walk in here and tear her apart!” I bellow, my vision turning red as the last threads of my control disappear. “You don’t get to make her feel likeshe’sthe shameful one! She’s everything good and right in this world. The only person on this planet that gives a fuck about a useless sack of shit like me. Now she has someone who actually sees her—loves her—and that scares the hell out of you!”
“You’re done,” he spits. “You’reoffthe team.”
“Good!” I yell. “I’d rather be jobless than spend one more second tied to you!”
I throw the door open. “Get out!”
He glares at me, then Michele, but there’s something smug in his face, like he thinks he’s won. She’s standing frozen in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around herself, eyes wide and unfocused. He storms out, and I slam the door so hard the frame shakes.
