Page 70 of Ruthless Game

Fuck.

Well, Emma was worth it.

“No.” Emma pushed against my chest like she was trying to get down. I just gripped her harder. “You aren’t leaving the game for me. I’ll be fine. I deal with flare-ups all the time. You have to play.”

“I am not leaving you here to go through this alone.”

“The girls can take her home,” Jack said quietly. “They’ll look after her.”

I shook my head. “Absolutely the fuck not. I’m⁠—”

“Lawson. Max,” Emma said, stronger this time. But it was her calling me Max that made me still. “Please. I’m asking you. Finish the game, for me. Win, for me. I’ll be okay, okay?”

I stared at her. Everything in me knew she wouldn’t be okay.

“Emma. No.”

“Max, please,” she begged.

How the fuck could I resist that please? I released her, carefully lowering her to the floor, making sure she could stand on her own.

“For you, I will,” I vowed. “But the second the game is over, I’m coming for you.” I looked at our coach. “Got it? No post game anything.”

There was a small, almost indiscernible smile on his face. “Got it.”

Jack pulled his phone out, sending a text. I sat on the bench, pulling Emma into my lap and rubbing her stomach for her. It didn’t matter that my teammates were watching me, some curiously, others knowingly. We might as well have been in our own world. And even though there were so many reasons why she shouldn’t let me hold her, she lay back against my chest with a sigh, shutting her eyes. Like she still trusted me to take care of her, after all this time, and all I’d done.

It humbled me.

Finally, Tovah came into the locker room, beelining straight to us. Isaac wrapped her in his arms, nuzzling her hair.

“Aviva and Maya are pulling the car around,” she said softly. “Emma, do you think you can walk with me to the entrance? We’re going to go back to the hockey house and will take care of you while the Kings make sure they win this damn game.”

“They’d better,” Emma murmured, and I could hear the exhaustion and pain in it.

For a moment, I reconsidered my position on agreeing to go back out on the ice. Yeah, she’d told me to finish the game, but I wanted to overrule her and take her home. I was the one who took care of her. I was the one who protected her. I was the one who fed her soup, seltzer, and saltines and wrapped her tight in my arms to relieve some of the pressure in her belly. I was⁠—

“I can hear you thinking, Lawson,” she said as she tried to wriggle away from me. Damn it, we were back to Lawson. “You aren’t taking me home. I’ll be fine, but I’ll be really fucking pissed if you don’t get out there.”

Isaac smirked. “Never expected you to be with such a bossy little thing. I like her.”

I growled, even though I knew he meant nothing by it.

Emma lifted my arm from around her waist and stood. I pulled her around, kissing her forehead, breathing her in, before finally, finally, letting her go. Tovah guided her out of the locker room and out of sight.

Coach cleared his throat. “I’m glad you’re the man I thought you were,” he said to me. Raising his voice he said, “Alright boys, let’s win this thing.”

There was a chorus of grunted agreement and cheers, and we headed back out onto the ice.

The buzzer sounded, the puck dropped, and then Jeffrey was skating toward me with it, fire in his eyes. Had he even noticed his sister had left? Did the asshole even fucking care? He shot the puck at me, and I caught it. I’d promised Emma a win, and I was going to give her that goddamn win.

“What the hell did you do to Emma,” he spat, even though he should’ve been skating back toward his team’s goal.

“Took care of her,” I growled. “Which is more than you can say, you selfish ass.”

Jeffrey raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m selfish? You blackmailed my sister to drop out of Oxford and move back here, miss out on the internship of a lifetime, and hurt her, all so you could get your rocks off. But I’m the selfish one.”

His words doused me in ice water, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe. He was fucking right. For the most part. I’d told myself I was doing it for hockey, but really it was for revenge.