“And he will, Annie.” Hawk kisses me softly. “He’ll want eyes on Jackson, and he has them there.”
I release the pressure that had been trying to suck me under. I won’t be the reason he doesn’t follow his dream. It won’t be me that ruins his future.
Damon
There’s a routine to this life that I like. It’s similar to the routines I built for myself. Workout, eat, class, eat, class, practice, eat, workout. Our schedule is based on our roommate’s, but mine had a bit too much to drink on Sunday night and decided to skip class.
Axel shakes his head when I show up at his door. “If Ivan keeps up this shit, he’s going to be off the team. Coach is serious when it comes to class and practice.”
I actually like Axel better than Ivan, but unfortunately, that means I’m also with Jackson most of the day. We’re just leaving a freshman seminar when my phone dings. I glance at it and see a message from Cam.
“The cafeteria is where we take most of our meals, but there’s also a special cafeteria for athletes. We’ll go there for lunch today.” Axel glances my way. “Everything okay?”
I open my phone. “I’ll know in a minute.”
The message from Cam includes a link to a social media account with the username Hockey Wh*re. I click on it.
“Fuck.” Pictures of Evan with us in various places. Her on the back of Hawk’s bike. Me kissing her that night after practice against my car. Cam dragging her into a closet at school. Private moments put online. As I scroll through them, heat burns through my veins.
Cam:
I’ve got someone working to take it down, but wanted to keep you informed
It’s stalker type pics if you don’t have time to see it
Don’t read the captions
I won’t read the captions right now, but I take a screenshot of a few to look at later. Hopefully, by then the guys will have the account down. I glance up at Jackson. If this was him...
“Hey,” Axel touches my arm. “Whatever it is. You need to breathe.”
The timing of this. I’m gone. Evan’s mostly healed from the rose. But this might have been around for months just waiting for us to stumble on it. So why push it out now?
Axel glances around. Then nods toward a building. “Come on. You too, Riordan.”
We follow him through the crowds of students into a building and head down into some tunnels beneath it. The walk is long and the tunnel is cool, but eventually it opens up to a larger open space.
“This isn’t on the official tour.” Axel grins back at us. “But if you need a place to blow off steam, this is it.”
It’s set up like a boxing gym with bags hanging from the ceiling and a few mats thrown on the floor.
“What is this place?” Jackson asks.
“The Devils wanted a place on campus to have fight nights and to work out.”
For a second, I’m confused, but then I remember the fraternity Delta Psi Lambda are also called the Devils.
“Their house is packed, and there’s always an adult monitor there. So they decided to use this space.” Axel looks at me. “If you need to hit something, this is preferable to damaging a wall or some guy or shit and potentially hurting your hand. Fighting is frowned upon at Crowne Mawr. At least in public. Automatic suspension.”
I look at my phone, and there’s no signal.
“No reception down here. Most of the underground tunnels don’t get reception.” Axel drops his bag in the corner.
Jackson and I follow suit. Our bags have our workout clothes in them for later, in case we don’t make it back to the dorms. The team has lockers to keep their workout gear in, but it’s a different building than the rink lockers.
I want to text Evan to see if she’s okay, but she may not even know about this. Cam didn’t mention, but if it were me, I’d want to get it down and tell Evan when it’s taken care of.
Is this an attack on her or us? Both?
