Hockey With Benefits(17)

And the guy himself stepped around the lockers, giving me space, but making it clear he was there. I gave him a small nod. “I gotta go, Mom. I’ll call later tonight unless you’re sleeping.”

“Okay. Yes. Okay. Love you. Oh, I have other news to tell you, but I’ll tell you later.”

She hung up, and I didn’t address my coach right away. These calls, they happened sometimes. They happened more a year ago, but her progress had plateaued over the summer. God. A medication. They were always adjusting her meds, seeing what helped her better, but the problem was that there were always side effects. Real fucking serious side effects. It was a roulette game about which side effect was easier to live with than the other, and after I got these calls, the pit in my stomach came next.

It was there. Tunneling down.

"Everything okay on the family front?” My coach interrupted the usual hole I went down into, filled with anger and hate.

I nodded, feeling scraped raw inside. “My sister’s in the hospital. She was calling to let me know.”

He was quiet for a beat. I didn’t talk about my family, hardly ever. It was easier not to because for one, it was no one’s business, but also because I couldn’t hide the loathing that always came up when I told people what happened to my little sister.

I loved her. I worshiped her, and she shouldn’t be in that wheelchair.

“You good to play?”

“Yeah,” I ground out.

“Get in here then. And, Cruz?”

I looked up, waiting.

He was studying me intensely. “I see your anger. If you’re playing tonight, use it.”

My gut flared, because fuck yes, I would. It’s the only place I channeled that pit inside of me. “I plan to.”

“Good.”

We went back to the other side. The guys listened to the pre-game talk, though I could feel their gazes on me. I knew some would ask me later what was going on, but tonight, I just wanted to rip someone’s head off. Or win the game.

I’d settle for the latter.





10





MARA





The Alpha Mu house was a giant brick building with different sections that led off to other buildings attached. It looked like an odd-shaped brick castle on Grant West’s frat row, but to be fair, it wasn’t just their house that looked like that. A couple others were similar. But the Alpha Mu’s was the biggest.

“Daniels!” Two guys in the doorway threw up their hands at seeing me. “About time you got here.”

“Hey, guys.” I stepped inside, eyeing both as they shut the door.

One was speaking into a walkie.

“Door duty?”

The other gave me a resigned look, nodding. “Yeah. All night. We kinda messed up with something.”

The other one finished on the radio and jumped into the conversation. “It’s better than bathroom duty and there’s worse than that too.”

“I don’t think I want to know what those are.”

“Good call.” He indicated down the hall. “Miller’s in the basement.”

The place was in full party mode. There were people everywhere. Music was blasting, along with neon lighting inside.

“There’s a girl I invited to come with me from my abnormal psych class. It was last minute. I didn’t catch her name so she might show up and give my name.”

“Right on. We’ll ask everyone coming in if they’re in abnormal psych.”

I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but I added, “I told her to come with at least one friend.”

“The more the merrier.”

The doorbell rang so I moved on, hearing them open the door. “Any of you currently in abnormal psychology?”

I glanced back, laughing, and saw they were serious with the question.

“Daniels. What up, woman?” A guy I knew from last semester was in the kitchen, waving me over when I got there.

He was mixing drinks, and handed one over to me. “Drink?”

“Thanks.” Normally, I liked to bring my own booze, but I knew this guy. He broke down crying one night about his family. I knew how much he missed his grandpa and how he went home every Sunday night for dinner with his grandma. When I learned how he doted on his sister, that cemented it. He’d go crazy if anyone slipped something in her drink. I held up the cup, glancing around. There were some Kappa girls here, and some…nope, all were giving me dark looks. Okay, then. Seemed that whole drama with Burford wasn’t in the past. I shouldered through, going into the basement.

Two guys were guarding the doorway. When they saw me, they gave a nod behind them.

I ducked past, seeing a large screen mounted on the wall. It was huge, almost theater size, and was high up on the wall. The game hadn’t started. The guys were still in warm-ups, and I paused before anyone knew I was there. Cruz was doing his thing. He liked to bullshit. It was almost part of his pregame ritual. I’d noticed that he’d either try to converse with someone from the opposing team, the ref, or if none of them were available, he’d stand on the red line and talk with a couple of his teammates. Wes Barclay and he were tight, so it was usually Wes, but tonight he was talking to one of the other team’s guys.

“What’s he doing?” One of the guys gestured to the screen. “He does this every game.”