Page 67 of Break the Ice
The water in my hand is growing warm while I thumb the perspiration misting the glass bottle. Like our coach when we played in the junior league together, Ryker has the kids skating laps around the rink, playing tag, to wind down.
“I would have warned you,” he tells me, breaking the clammy silence as he comes to stand beside me, “but you didn’t stay in touch, so…”
“I didn’t stay in touch?” My body spins with the indignation firing in my gut. “You disappeared.”
“Do you blame me?” When I meet his dark stare, Ryker slinks back, lowering his gaze to the ground. “After?—”
“No.” I cut him off before he can say anymore. “Keep your mouth shut, Ryker, and we won’t have a problem.”
Anger fuels my stride as I walk away as fast as I can with the past chasing after me. The ghost that’s haunted me for too long bites at my heels while I rush to my car.
“Sylkes,” Ryker calls after me. “Elijah!”
Fuck.
While I yank my door open, I spin on my heels to find him closer than I expected.
“It was all so fucking toxic and painful and?—”
“You gaslighted me.” I cut him off with a sharp bark.
At least he has the decency to flinch back and give me space.
“It wasn’t my intention,” Ryker whispers down at the ground.
“Bullshit!”
“You don’t know—” he takes a slow step forward that I square up to.
I’m not the same kid he conned into believing he was his friend. I’ve gone over what happened that night more times than he’s thought about it since.
“I know.” His eyes flash wide. “I know whatyoudid.Youset me up.Yougave himyourkey…”
“It was just a game… everyone was playing.”
I don’t know what causes me to snap—the blasé tone or the superfluous shrug—but before he can say any more, I get in my car and slam the door.
After the start to the season and with all the shit going on, I can’t afford an assault charge right now.
Who will protect Finley if I’m not around?
Jayden.He would protect her and love her, and he would give her everything I can’t.
Even so, I can’t leave her again. Ever.
My hands are clenched around the steering wheel as I breathe through the urge to ruin Ryker. To fucking destroy his happiness…
Meanwhile, Ryker remains glued to the spot with his pinched stare boring through the window.
It’s so goddamn hot in the cab that it takes me several attempts to maneuver out of the corner parking space. I’m breaking out a sweat by the time I’m hightailing it out of there. My eyes are firmly stuck to my rearview mirror. Making sure that Ryker continues shrinking into the distance before I open the windows and allow the cool breeze to bluster through the space. The sound as tempestuous as the whirlwind inside my head and my chest.
Ryker is still the same asshole now he was back when we played together. When I believed we were friends.
He’s still the same kid that turned my life upside down with his nonchalance and need to fit in. Me on the other hand? I know better. I’ve learned that there’s no such thing as ‘just’ in this world.
A game, as ridiculous as it might be, is notjusta game.
There is always a winner and a loser.
