Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
The clip is everywhere right now.
I never really see the fight, though. No matter how many times they play it, all I see is Sutton on her feet behind our bench, horror stamped all over her face when the camera pans past her. All I hear is the way she screamed Jamison’s name when he hit the ice…
He deserved what I did, but losing her because of it still haunts me. So I’m not really in the mood for Diego’s bullshit. I’m not in the mood for anything.
I just want to go the fuck home and pretend that I’m not still messed up in the head over a girl who slapped my face and told me to go to hell five years ago.
Apparently, that day isn’t today.
As soon as I step into the hall, River shouts my name.
I sigh, watching him jog down the hall toward me.
“You’re needed in the conference room.”
“Why?”
“How the fuck should I know?” He scowls at me. “I’m not your assistant. I didn’t ask for details. I just told Alice I’d deliver the message. The message is delivered. Get your ass to the conference room.”
Fucking great.
“Thanks,” I mutter, stomping that way with my bag slung over my shoulder. I shake my head when I pass a supply closet and hear Emilia Lariat, the coach’s daughter and our new shrink, giggling from inside. I’d bet my left nut that Nash Whatley is in there with her, doing shit that’s going to get his dumbass kicked from the team when Coach finds out.
But that’s not my business, so I keep my mouth shut and stride on by, pretending I didn’t hear anything. The less I know about what my teammates are doing, the better.
I learned that shit the hard way. Every man on the Bucks knew why Jamison and I got in that fight. And all but one pretended they didn’t have a clue what he did. Pablo Gutierrez was the only person who spoke up in my defense. Everyone else acted like I was some fucking monster. They threw me to the wolves to protect their precious captain. And management believed them. Why wouldn’t they, when the evidence was long gone by that point, deleted as if it never existed at all?
My teammates now are different…but trust is damn hard to come by when you’ve been burned like I have.
“You couldn’t just call me with whatever you have to tell me?” I growl to Alice, the conference room door slamming against the wall when I push it open. But our publicist isn’t inside as expected.
“What the fuck?” I mumble, rocking back on my heels as Sutton Peters spins to face me, her gorgeous brown eyes locked on my face. Shock rips through me, wiping my mind clean.
“Um, hi,” she whispers, tucking long, glossy strands of hair behind her ears.
I don’t say anything for a long moment. I just…stare.
What the fuck am I supposed to say, anyway? It’s been five years since we were last in a room together, not since the day I was booted from the Bucks for attacking her brother. Attacking. As if the prick didn’t deserve it.
She was mad as hell that day. Sometimes, I wake up thinking I still feel the sting of her palm against my cheek. Her fiery, tear-filled eyes haunt me.
They aren’t blazing with fury now, not the way they did that day. They’re full of nervous anxiety, like she’s worried I’m going to tell her to get the fuck out of my face or something. As if I’ve ever been capable of that.
I would have done anything for her…but that was then.
Now, just looking at her hurts.
Christ, she’s still the prettiest little angel I’ve ever seen, with stunning doe-eyes, curves for days, and acres of gorgeous olive skin I’ve been dying to taste for six fucking years.
But that ship sailed into an abyss when she watched them cart her brother off the ice. When he woke up in the hospital, he sank the remnants. Filled her head with lies.
And I let him do it.
“What do you want?” I ask, my tone borderline hostile. I don’t want to hurt her. I just want her gone so I can go back to pretending I didn’t set my entire fucking world on fire for her. But that is what I did. Just so she didn’t lose her brother.
She flinches at my tone, seeming to draw in on herself. “How have you been?”
It’s a loaded question I have no interest in answering. “What do you want, Sutton?”
“I…” She glances around her, spotting the camera in the corner and huffs out a breath. “Is there somewhere we can talk privately?”
“Nope.”
She huffs again, the same way she always used to huff when something was pissing her off. I used to love that sound. Turns out, I still do. More than I should.