Page 100 of Break the Ice
Throb.
CHAPTER 30
FINLEY
It’s been almost an hour since Jayden and I arrived at the hospital. The last time we saw Elijah he was barely conscious and the EMTs had him tied to a stretcher as we were told to make our own way here.
I had to watch them take my heart away, and even though it went against every fiber of my being to do it, I had no choice.
Wehad no choice.
Now, we’re pacing the waiting room with no update on what’s happening with Elijah.
My chest hurts so bad. An echoing, endless ache that throbs and throbs and throbs.
“Stop,” Jayden says, his arm coiling around my waist, bringing me to a standstill when I almost trip over my feet. Bringing his mouth to my temple, he murmurs again, “Stop, Lucky.”
“You’re doing it too.” I sink into his chest allowing him to wrap his thick arms around me.
He makes me feel safe and grounded in a place that’s different to all others I’ve ever been touched. Not in my chest or in my head. Someplace else deep in the marrow of my bones, the darkest pit of my stomach.
I don’t know.
It’s so encompassing that I can’t help melting all the way into him in spite of the other men around us. Their coach, Elijah’s agent, Dylan, and Matheo.
“You boys should head on home. I’ll keep you updated,” Bobby tells them while Elijah’s agent keeps busy on his phone.
Aside from asking Jayden and I what happened, Lex has remained quiet and detached from everyone in the room.
So when he turns his attention on Matheo and Dylan, all their arguments stop.
“Leave out of the private entrance. You don’t stop to talk to the press. You say nothing to nobody. I’ve got my team silencing rumors and dealing with the media.”
“What rumors?” I ask, turning in Jayden’s hold to face Lex.
Dylan and Matheo look down at the floor while Bobby lets out a grumbled curse. Meanwhile, Lex focuses on me, like he’s trying to get some kind of measure of me before he zeroes in on Jayden.
“I know your agent’s told you what’s being said out there.”
Jayden stiffens. “It’s bullshit.”
“All of it?” Lex’s gaze drops to my waist and Jayden’s arm coiled tight around it.
My throat swells with the cock of Lex’s brow. Like he’s goading Jayden to implicate himself somehow for something I don’t know.
“What’s happening? What is being said?”
“Nothing, Fin,” Jayden replies quickly. “It’s nothing. Just the usual bullshit of the media trying to stir shit.”
Lex scoffs, focusing back on his phone as he turns and paces back to the other end of the room.
“Hey!” Jayden calls at him, releasing me with a gentle squeeze to my side before he stomps after Lex. “You don’t get to say shit like that and walk away. I don’t give a fuck who you are, you don’t look at her like she’s the trash you take out.”
His hulking frame looms over Lex.
The tightness in my throat clenches around my windpipe, making it impossible to tell him it’s fine. Whatever Elijah’s agent thinks of me is the least of my concerns right now. Except there’s a needling in my chest that keeps going back to the way his stare bore into Jayden’s arm when he was holding me.
“You know it’s all lies.”
