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Needing to open his car, his hand falls free from my mouth, and I instantly scream out, which only makes him smirk a little more. Tears of pain stream down my face, but I don’t get a chance to look around to see if anyone’s coming before he puts his other hand on the back of my head and slams it down into the metal frame of his car.
My head spins, and despite struggling to stay awake, darkness forces its way around me.
Chapter 20
JAXON
Coach Harris stands in the center of the room, giving us his usual pre-game pep talk. His words have the boys riled up and ready to go, but for the first time, the effect isn’t the same on me. Something feels . . . off.
I can’t put my finger on it. But whatever it is, I don’t like it.
I try to tune the feeling out and concentrate on Coach Harris. After all, we’re more than halfway through the season and we’re in the top position to take this thing out. Semi-finals and finals are quickly approaching, and I need to have my head in the game—now more than ever.
Some lady with a clipboard knocks on the locker room door, letting us know the start of the game has been delayed by ten minutes due to the ice rinks Zamboni breaking down. I can’t help but think this is a sign that something bad is going to happen, and my guess is that it’s this game. Bad things always happen in threes. First, Cass is running late, though she should be here by now. Second, the Zamboni breaks down, so what’s going to be third?
Maybe I’ll miss a shot or fuck something up. There are most likely scouts in the audience who are watching me, waiting to see if I’m the kind who will crack under pressure. I don’t know what it is, but my gut tells me something’s up.
It could be nerves, but I haven’t been nervous before a game since I was a kid. This shit is as natural to me as breathing. It has to be something else, but what?
Coach knocks over the trash can at the end of the room and tips out a bucket of pucks at the other, instructing us to take some practice shots to help keep us warm while we wait for the ice.
Our helmets come off, and I stand in line to take a few shots. My aim is perfect as usual, and I take a backseat from shooting to help the guys with their aim, but that sinking feeling continues to grow until I can hardly concentrate.
Not long after, the lady comes back to tell us it’s go time, and I quickly race to my locker and grab my helmet. I rip off my gloves and check my phone. There’s a text from Cass telling me she’s here, sent at least twenty minutes ago. But that one text from her eases me just a bit. I can handle fucking up one game as long as Cass is there afterward.
I jam my phone back in my locker, pull my gloves and my helmet on, and take my position at the door to lead the boys out. They all fall in line behind me, but my head is out of it. My eyes stray to the ground as I go over all the possibilities.
“Jax,” Coach hollers, a clear annoyance in his tone. My head snaps up to him, and I notice everyone is waiting on me. “Where’s your head, Payne?”
“Sorry, Coach,” I mutter as my eyes revert back to the ground.
Bobby slaps me upside the back of my head, and I turn around with a scowl. “Dude,” he hisses as he gives me a wicked nudge to get out the door. “Pull it together.”
I reluctantly lead the boys out of the locker room and my stomach sinks further as I come out of the hallway and enter the stadium. The noise from the crowd is deafening, but I push on. As soon as we turn the corner, my eyes flick up to Cass in the crowd, but I don’t find her there.
My brows furrow. She hasn’t missed a game all season, and she sent a text saying she was here. I look over to the food lines, even though she has never eaten stadium food in her life. Just as expected, she isn’t there. Could Brianna have gotten worse and she had to go? If that were the case, she would have texted me again.
I turn back to Bobby. “Have you heard from Bri? Is Cass with her?”
He gives me a strange look, probably wondering why the hell I’m thinking about his twin sister at a time like this, but I know he sees something off in my eyes as he answers, “She’s fine, just got some bug. Last I heard, she was starting to feel a bit better. Cass was coming by herself. She should be here,” he says, casting his eyes up at the grandstand. “Where is she?”
