prologue
PACKY
Traverse City, Michigan: Lake Michigan State University
Seven Years Ago
I heardmy jaw crack before I felt it. My knees buckled as stars exploded behind my eyes, and I grabbed the edge of my stall. Before I could steady myself, he spun me around, his arm already cocked for another punch.
“Nico.” The word came out as a grunt. “What the hell?”
His fist smashed into my nose. “I’m gonna kill you, motherfucker.” He drew back again, dripping with my blood.
Before he could hit me, our captain grabbed him. “The fuck, Nico?”
Nico thrashed, elbows and teeth everywhere. He cursed and spat, and it took two more guys piling on to hold him back. Even then, he fought.
His eyes burned into me. “Wasn’t it enough to fuck her?” He strained against the guys holding him. “Why did you tell her to stay away from me?”
“What?” My voice croaked, blood running down my throat. “Who?”
Not that I didn’t know, but admitting the truth would only make it worse.
“You know who.” He growled like a cornered animal. “And it wasn’t about fucking her. It was about screwing me over. Did you even want her?”
They say the best defense is a good offense, so I lunged forward and punched him as hard as I could, flattening his nose.
“Goddammit, Packy!” Our goalie ran over and grabbed me, but I elbowed him in the ribs and broke free.
Nico tore away from the guys holding him and launched himself at me. We went down hard, rolling and trading blows. I landed a punch to his jaw while our teammates yelled, some calling for us to stop, others cheering us on. Nico roared, rolled us over, and head-butted me.
The hit nearly knocked me out. I tried to fight back, but I was too dazed to do more than grunt while he hammered me.
All at once, a wall of ice water crashed down. Nico froze above me, his arm pulled back, ready to strike again. Water streamed off his hair onto my face before he collapsed on top of me.
I craned my neck and saw a bucket dangling from the captain’s hand. “You threw water on us?” I shouted.
“Fucking idiots,” he snapped. “I had to do something before you killed each other.”
The guys hauled us to our feet. I tried to break free while Nico strained to get at me again, but we were spent. Instead of throwing punches, we locked eyes and fired death rays at each other.
“I’m gonna kill you!” he yelled.
“Yeah, you already said that, tough guy.”
“Fucking Kayla was the biggest mistake you ever made. I loved her.”
“Come on. You dumped her a month ago.”
“We had problems, but we were working it out.”
I spat blood at his feet. “Not what she told me. She said you wouldn’t leave her alone.”
“Bullshit!” His voice cracked. “Now you’re a liar, too? You’re the lowest fucking scumbag…”
I waited until he ran out of breath, then spoke quietly. “Didn’t the guys next door have to drag you out of her apartment?”
While the boys hooted, Nico went still. “No,” he said. “Well, yes, but that was a misunderstanding.” He lowered his head. “Why’d you do it, Pack? I loved her.”
