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“Leave the Devils alone,” someone hisses in my ear before a deep male’s voice yells. “Fuck, Mr. Paver is coming. Run!”

My head drops to the ground with a thump and I whimper in pain. I can hear people yelling and talking as I drift, and catch that they’re calling the ambulance. My body doesn’t even feel like it belongs to me, and my nerve endings are screaming in delayed response. As someone drops to their knees beside me, I welcome the silence that finally comes as I pass out.

Chesterfield Prep is already a place I want to avoid. A trip to the hospital is probably for the best.

CHAPTER

SIX

ALASTAIR

I’m outside with Draven doing homework after practice when my father comes looking for me. All anyone wants to talk about is how the new girl was beaten up at lunch time.

I have an alibi, as does anyone else who was asked. I was in the cafeteria eating lunch, despite rarely eating in there. I knew Kelsie was going to do something and wanted to be ready for it.

“Did you know that the new girl is living with Rachelle Denton?” Dad asks. I shake my head, not even sure who that is.

“She’s the therapist at school, isn’t she?” Draven asks carefully. He doesn’t typically say anything when Dad comes to talk to me, but this helps nudge my memory.

“Her,” I mutter. “Doesn’t she have something else to do with the school?”

“She’s the founder,” Dad growls. “Broken Brothers Enterprise LLC actually started it, but she’s the bleeding heart in control. She is the one who has pushed for the hockey rink you practice in and the best coaches available.”

“Tell me more, please,” I say respectfully. I’m trying to figure out why this is so important. “Is Noor her daughter? They don’t have the same name.”

“No. I just found this all out. I can’t expect you to have known,” he says, sitting across from us. “Rachelle decided to take in a foster bitch, and enrolled her at Chesterfield. She’s livid that Noor is currently at the hospital after being badly beaten. Rachelle and her odd little harem have been too wrapped up in their toddlers to worry about how the school runs.”

“Until now,” I mutter under my breath. “If she pulls Noor from the school, then this all goes away, right?”

My father plays the board at Chesterfield Prep like a fiddle. As far as I know, the founders of the school aren’t very involved. As long as the kids are getting a good education, no one complains too much about bullying, and everyone is excelling, then the founders let Dad run shit.

This could change the autonomy he’s used to. Fuck.

“No one heard the girl scream, Alastair,” Dad murmurs. “It was almost a perfect execution of dominance. I don’t want this girl to fuck things up. It’s your senior year, and the principal wants to lean into school spirit. The more attendance to games, the more buzz there will be with universities to recruit. Some of your teammates will go straight into the NHL, but I would prefer that you go to college first.”

I nod in agreement, as this is a conversation we’ve had many times. Too many players injure themselves, and he wants me to have a back-up plan.

“What do you want me to do?” I ask. “Should I tell the girls to back off?”

“I already spoke to Kelsie, and she told me everything that happened today. She can continue to play her little games. I also want Noor to be forced to see more of you,” he says to my surprise.

“How?” I ask.

“All students need to have an extracurricular activity. It can be anything as long as it’s within the school.”

“Wasn’t Coach saying that he needed someone to clean our gear?” Draven asks, grinning.

“Our gear stinks,” I say with a chuckle. “I think he’s tired of yelling at us to clean it. Noor is fucking tiny, there’s no way that she’ll be able to pick any of our gear up. Can she ice skate?”

“What are you thinking?” Dad asks.

“What if we make her the new mascot for just the hockey team?” I ask. “Sure, we could try to rope her in to do social media management or something, but that’s fucking boring. As our mascot, she’ll need to be in close proximity to the team.”

There are several people who act as the Devil for our school, because there’s too many games happening during the school year for one person to handle it all.

“Hmm,” Dad mutters. “That could work. I’m not sure how bad her injuries are. We’ll have to play it by ear and see. I’m not letting this girl fuck things up if she plans to stay.”

What Dad isn’t saying is that he’s laundering money at Chesterfield Prep. He’s a very good businessman, but not all of his endeavors are legal. Sitting on the board allows him to move money through the school through donations, and then he uses his contracting business at the school for any repairs to get paid.