She senses it immediately, pulling back to look at me. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." The lie comes automatically.
"Hey." Her eyes search mine. "You're doing it again. Pretending."
"I'm not—"
"You are." She sits up slightly, her hand on my chest. "What happened?"
Everything. Theo's warning. The realization that I’m somehow putting her in more danger. The growing certainty that I can't protect her from what's coming.
"Just tired," I say again, hating myself for the lie. "Long practice."
She doesn't believe me. I can see it in her eyes, the way her expression shifts from concern to something harder.
But she doesn't push.
She nods and settles back against me, and the silence between us feels heavier than it should.
I leave around ten, kiss her goodbye, and promise to text her tomorrow.
In the parking lot, sitting in my truck with the engine running, my phone buzzes.
Theo: Keep her close.
I stare at the message, my blood running cold.
Three words. Simple. Direct.
But devastating in their implication.
Because they confirm what I've been afraid of since the moment I woke up in her bed this morning.
Theo is using her.
He always has been.
And now that I've gotten close to her, now that I've crossed lines I can't uncross, he's not just using her against Cody or Judge Ravenshaw or whoever else is on his revenge list.
He's using her against me.
And I have no idea how to protect her from what’s to come.
I don’t know his fucking plan.
I delete the message and drive home, the weight of what I've done and what I'm still doing settling over me like a shroud.
This was always going to end badly.
I didn't realize how badly until now.
Chapter 23: Theo
Beckettisstillslowon the ice.
I notice it during the first drill — a simple breakout pattern we've run a thousand times, muscle memory that should flow without thought. But he hesitates at the blue line, just a fraction of a second, his eyes tracking the play instead of anticipating it.
That fraction costs him.
