Page 40 of Her Player

As I raced around the rink, practicing my backwards sprints with my stick over my shoulder, I watched the entire transaction unfold between Coach and Victoria. The way she trembled pushed an anger through me unlike anything I’d ever felt before. The pale nature of her face told me she had been bombarded by those media assholes just like Coach and I were early that morning when we showed up to unlock Caldwell Arena for practice.

It wasn’t going to stay this way.

Three things I was going to do before the day was out.

One. I was going to find out who from the press had her phone number. Coach said someone had been calling her since five a.m., and that was a number that should not have been in any reporter’s contacts.

Two. I was going to talk to security about her routes through the arena. The press had figured out which entrance she used. That was going to change today.

Three. I was going to find her. Not to comfort her. Not to fix anything. Just to make sure she knew that whatever this was, she wasn’t alone in it.

Three things. Achievable list.

SKADOOOOOOSH!

“Get your head in the fucking game, Stone!” Moose shouted.

“Yeah, Stone!” Jett exclaimed as he rushed past me after checking me into the damned fall of the fucking rink. “Quit staring at those high heels over there and get your ass back in practice!”

I heard the guys barking laughter, and it pushed anger through my veins.

Did none of them know how Victoria and Brynn were practically being tortured by all of this?

I rumbled as I shoved my facemask visor back down. I whipped around, my blades shrieking across the ice. But even as the puck slapped against my stick, tagging me into a game of ‘let’s see how many pucks Moose can take before he pisses himself,’ I still heard the clacking of her heels against the floor.

I slapped the puck toward Moose and immediately let my eyes follow Victoria down the hallway, where she disappeared out of sight.

Jett came whipping around and checked me to the fucking ice.

“Come on, Captain!” he bellowed as he skated circles around me. “Get your head in the game! Let’s get moving! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

I muttered as I shoved myself up onto the ice and ripped my helmet off. I tossed it to the ground as the puck came flying in from my purview and I stuck my puck out with one hand. While I eyed Jett, watching as he came to a skidding stop next to our home bench, I eyed him down as I skated toward Moose. I dodged everyone that came at me without ever having to look at them. Jett crossed his arms and grinned, holding eye contact with me the entire time. I jutted around the guys on the team that threw themselves at me. I shot that puck between their legs, routing around them while I kept my angry eyes on Jett.

And as I slapped that puck into the goal, past Moose, without ever once having to look at it, I pointed my stick toward Jett.

“Fuck! You!” I exclaimed.

He fell apart in laughter as he pushed off the wall, coming to pat me on the back. “There’s our captain!” he said as he patted me on my padded chest. “Now come on! Let’s get these sprints under our belts so we can go die in peace!”

“Die in peace! Die in peace! Die in peace!”

The team chanted, and it made my head fall back with a bark of a laugh before Coach’s piercing whistle sounded three times through the air.

“And since you guys want to stand around gawking at each other’s asses,” Coach bellowed as he slammed his way back onto the ice, “you can do double sprints so that your asses look great! LET’S GET TO IT!”

“Guess you can’t hide the hots you got for Miss C now, huh?” Jett asked with a grin as he brushed past me, his hands clasped behind his back like he was some kind of prima ice ballerina.

“I will bench you, Stone!” Coach exclaimed as he blew into his whistle again. “Get to it!”

The rest of practice moved in a blur. I may have been temporarily distracted by Victoria, but that didn’t last long. Not only did I sprint circles around these fuckers, but I managed to get even Jett winded before Coach finally blew on his whistle and gathered us into the locker room.

It was the first speed Coach made that I didn’t even fucking listen to.

My mind was elsewhere.

“Oh, and one last thing,” Coach said as we all started dressing down.

Everyone groaned while slamming their lockers closed, but I just kept piecing myself together.