Elliot talked to Hastings. It’s not good. Also, I told Elliot about us.
The “Read” receipt sat there mocking me for five agonizing minutes. Then the typing bubble popped up, disappeared, and a single text came through:Where are you?
My room,I typed back.
I paced the room, surrounded by silence. If Aleksey was already in his room, I would have heard him moving through the thin drywall, but there was nothing.
Ten minutes later, I heard boots hammering up the wooden stairs.
He didn’t bother knocking. The handle jerked down, and Aleksey shoved his way inside, kicking the door shut behind him. He looked like he had sprinted the entire way back, his eyes locking onto me, wild with panic.
“You told Elliot? Why the hell would you do that!?” Aleksey paced a tight circle in the middle of the small room, rubbing a hand over his short hair. His boots scuffed the floorboards with every turn.
I tried to deflect. “If you keep pacing like that, you’re going to put a hole straight through to the second floor.”
“The floor.” Aleskey ran a hand over his face as a humorless breath punched out of him. “You’re worried about the floor.”
“This house is already one bad snowstorm away from collapsing.” I shrugged. “I’d rather not speed it up.”
“Karter.”
“Aleks.”
His jaw jumped. “You told Elliot. Your brother. The captain. The guy who always reports directly to Corby.”
“I know who Elliot is. I’ve met him a few times.”
That joke landed wrong. Aleksey stepped toward me, closing the distance until I had to tilt my chin up. The heat rolling off him cut through the attic’s chill. “This isn’t funny.”
“Good. I wasn’t joking.” I held his stare and let the smirk drop. “Besides, I was done lying to him about us.”
“Are you actually stupid? Elliot is going to walk straight into the AD’s office and hand you over.”
“He already talked to Hastings,” I said, keeping my voice level as I leaned back against the door. “Before I even walked in. He told them you were aggressive.”
Aleksey’s expression flickered, the anger breaking for half a second into something rawer. “So he gave them the hazing angle.”
“Without knowing what he was handing over.” I held his gaze. “I set it straight in the hallway. Told him the truth.”
“And?”
“He walked away.”
Aleksey let out a harsh, breathless laugh that carried zero humor. He stepped toward me, stopping inches away. “You’re a Johnston. I thought you were supposed to know how to play the system. Yet you just nuked your family rep and your spot on the roster. And for what?”
“Guess I must have taken one too many hits to the head,” I joked.
He didn’t smile. “I am already suspended, Karter. Corby benched me. They are building a case to expel me right fucking now.”
Benched. Friday.The Chicago scouts would sit in those stands and watch an empty slot on the roster where Aleksey should have been. His one shot gone.
“I know.”
“Then why are you trying to set your own life on fire?”
I stepped closer, forcing him to look down at me. “Because you are not alone in this,” I told him, looking him straight in the eye. “And I am not giving you up.”
Aleksey simply stared down at me. He looked like a guy backed entirely into a corner, trying to figure out how to fight his way out.
