Page 74 of Never Bet Against A Hockey Player

Soft whimpers drifted through the cracked window. I pressed my fist against my mouth and bit down, trying to keep my delta under control.

I’d called out to her the first night. She’d quietly closed the window and I couldn’t hear her then. I hadn’t tried again since that night.

She knew I was here and that was what mattered.

The money disappeared every day. That was enough.

For now.

This house was a prison she’d convinced herself she couldn’t leave. I understood why. She believed she had no choice. But every single one of us would give up our careers tomorrow if it meant keeping her and Gavin safe.

We had enough money. We’d disappear with them somewhere no one would ever find us. But until she let us, our hands were tied.

We were keeping watch over every move her mother made. Every purchase, drive, word spoken outside of these walls, was recorded.

She’d slip eventually. All we needed was for her to step over a line she couldn’t come back from.

And when she did, we’d be there with everything we needed to prove she was an unfit parent once and for all.

Chapter

Twenty-One

Dhara

There was one thing my mother wasn’t delusional about, and that was controlling me. She had effectively forced me to quit my job at the arena, stolen Gavin’s chances at a bright future, and kept me under lock and key.

She’d even changed my hours at the diner. Lydia and her pack were powerless to help. They could either fire me and lose the ability to keep an eye on me, or let her have her way.

Lydia said it wasn’t even a choice. She needed to know that Gavin and I were okay. But it was just another way my mother won.

I worked evenings now. Most of the shifts were the exact same time the guys had games or practice. Anything to make sure I couldn’t contact them.

Now I walked around with a constant ache in my chest. The pain of having my pack ripped away, all the hope I’d finally had dwindling away into nothing but cold embers, was unbearable.

I could feel my mother’s stare every second I moved around the diner. She sat in the corner to have her dinner, eyes trained on me with a small smile on her face. As much as I preferred her here than home alone with Gavin, I hated every second of this.

She was thriving in my pain. The psycho loved that I was forced to serve her while she watched my every move.

The fact that not one person in town intervened made my blood boil. I knew I shouldn’t blame them. I was a grown woman. There wasn’t much anyone could legally do.

But it would only take one person embarrassing her and blowing everything wide open to change our lives.

No such luck.

She still drove me home after every shift and watched my every move. The pile of tips I’d earned was taken straight from my apron and pockets before we even left the parking lot.

There was no hiding anything from her now.

Gavin had retreated into himself. He barely smiled now, not even at me. That hurt more than anything else.

Well… almost anything.

August was still outside my window every single night. I heard him the first night. I’d had to close the window before I ran out to him.

Every night he was there, leaving me money and little notes. Then when the sun started to come up, just before he walked away, he’d quietly whisper, “I love you.”

It was soft enough that only I could hear. I wrote my response in a journal every single morning, too. I couldn’t risk saying it out loud.