Hockey With Benefits(29)

Another burst of shots rang out and I looked at my vest.

Leander was dead, but he took Labrowski with him.

Carrington was left.

I was waiting when Cruz and Barclay came back. They looked up and I pointed where Flynn had gone.

They kept going. Three more hockey guys were on the other side of the maze going in the same direction. I kept waiting, expecting to hear a similar sound of shots any second, but it was just quiet.

Then, I felt a ping and rolled more out of instinct than at understanding what just happened.

Someone got me!

I kept moving back, hurrying along the edge of the room. I’d been out on a cut-out section, so I had more room to lay flat, but since I was moving back, it was narrower. There was less room, so I swung my gun around and I started shooting at my equal height. It wasn’t until I got to another corner, and moved in, that I was able to stop and scan my surroundings. Flynn had figured out I had a vantage point, and he’d jumped up too somewhere.

I waited, my breath quiet and even, but then looked at my vest.

He was still alive, but so was I. He hadn’t gotten his second hit in.

I was toward the end of our side, and I saw Cruz and the rest still alive, looking around, but they were waiting back. As Barclay moved around a corner, he was shot dead.

Middle!

He was in the middle, and that meant he couldn’t follow me. He was on a stationary position.

I waved, getting Cruz’s attention, and I motioned, giving him three positions. Right. Middle. Left. He nodded, following me, and I held two fingers up, indicating he was in the middle.

Cruz got it, patting two of his teammates and pointed, but to the other side. They helped him up. I almost started laughing, seeing Cruz trying to be inconspicuous so high up. It was small for me, so it was tiny for him. But when he motioned at me to move forward, I got his understanding. We were going to flank him, and I began edging out, but trying to keep pace with Cruz, who was moving surprisingly fast and stealth at the same time.

Flynn wasn’t looking my way. He was watching beneath him, so we got closer than I thought we could. He saw Cruz first and swung. Cruz began shooting. I joined in.

Ding, ding, ding!

We got him.

My vest lit up, declaring my team the winner.

“We’re done!” someone yelled from the back.

“Victory to the hockey gods!”

I watched as Flynn got down, and Cruz jumped right afterwards, coming over toward me. He held his arms up, and I slid down. Once he had me, I let go of the side and he eased me down to the floor. He didn’t say anything, neither did I, but Flynn was watching us. His head was tipped to the side, his laser gun raised next to his head too, and he had a slight frown on his face.

Cruz didn’t double down. He could’ve eased me ahead of him, a hand on the small of my back, but we both walked side by side.

“Yessss. Hockey rules.” Atwater was going around, fist bumping his teammates. He came to me, holding his fist up and I met it with mine. “Our secret sniper got half those guys for us.”

“We playing again?” Flynn had followed us to our end. Some of his Alpha Mu brothers were with him. Gavin was on the end, his gaze locked on me.

Cruz stepped farther away, moving so it looked like I was standing next to Atwater and not him.

If we played again, my secret was out. They’d be looking at the top for me.

“I’m down. Let’s switch places. You guys come in from the east.”

It was one of the Alpha Mu guys who spoke.

Labrowski jerked his chin up. “We’re down.” He hollered behind him, “We’re switching it up.”

I started trailing after them when Flynn spoke up again. “How about another trade?”

They came to a stop, looking where Flynn was looking. At me.

Labrowski’s eyebrows went up. “You want Mara?”

Flynn’s grin was sly, and his eyes flashed, darkening. “Be nice to have our own little sniper this time. How about it?” His gaze scanned over Labrowski, who was the team captain, but rested on Cruz.

This officially got not-fun.

If I chose the hockey team, I knew rumors would swirl around campus that Cruz and I were a thing. I didn’t want that. But if I chose Alpha Mu, I did not want to see what Carrington would do.

When all eyes went to me, I reached up and undid my vest. “How about I take off because I have a quiz tomorrow?”

“What?” Atwater grumbled. “Stay.”

A couple other guys tried getting me to stay, but I flashed a grin and waved my gun in the air. “It was fun, folks, but this college girl needs to go.”

I headed back through the maze, sidestepping around some of the Alpha Mu guys who were doing the switch. They saw the target was off me, but no one said anything. I headed over to the counter, handed it back, and laid my gun next to it.

The front desk clerk came over, beginning to sterilize it, but her eyes trailed behind me. “Hey.” She leaned forward and indicated where I had just come from. “You know Cruz Styles?”

“Yeah.”

She bit down on her lip, an almost shy look coming over her. “He single?” Her eyes came back to me, sharpening. “I mean, it didn’t seem like you and he were together, but if you are, hands off for me.”

My teeth clenched together. “As far as I know, he’s not attached.”