“What? No! Why do you want my mum’s phone number?”
He huffed impatiently. “So I can ask her to make those fucking delicious swirly fried things. You know, the ones we had at the barbeque at my uncle’s house,” he said, spreadinghis arms as if it should be obvious why he wanted my mum’s phone number.
“You mean jalebi? I’ll ask her, and no, you’re not having her phone number. Fuck’s sake, Dan.”
“Whatever. Are you gonna spot me, or what?” Like he hadn’t been the one delaying his little weightlifting session. I rolled my eyes but took my position, my hands hovering over the bar as I counted his reps for him. When he was done, he took a quick water break and then switched places with me.
I tapped out when my muscles were burning and beginning to shake and lay back on the weights bench with a groan. “Fuck. I overdid it with that last set.”
“Me too.” He lowered himself to the floor next to the bench, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Banks—I mean, Jay?”
“Yeah?”
“I was thinking about the game. We’re playing Birmingham, and there are those two players that always go straight for Worthy because they know they can get him to react, and he’ll end up with a penalty. Do you think we can sweet-talk Coach Lazovsky into benching him?”
I rolled my head to the side so I could see Dan. “With him being one of our best players? Unlikely.” He did have a point, though. Kane Worthington was getting to be a liability, and the other teams were using it to their advantage, trying to rile him up on the ice so he’d inevitably snap. It wasn’t only on the ice, either. I’d heard his studies were going downhill too. “Hey, do you know why he’s here?”
“Here?” Dan twisted around, scanning the gym. “Where?”
“Nothere. I mean, here at Cranham. He’s not one of us.”By that, I meant that he wasn’t involved in the crime families.
“Punishment, I heard.” Dan’s voice was disinterested, but then his eyes widened. “What if he’s here because hemurderedsomeone?”
It was disturbing how excited he was by that thought. Lowering my leg, I kicked his thigh. “You have serious issues.”
“Yeah, probably.” Unconcerned, he shrugged with a grin. “Anyway, back to the game. You’re right, Coach won’t bench him. How do we get him to stay out of the game?”
“The problem is, we don’t have enough decent players if he’s out, so it’ll affect us all. I guess the only thing we can do is try to talk some sense into him. Or get King to. He’s the captain, so it’s his duty.”
We exchanged glances. We both knew Ryker wasn’t the captain out of choice. It was only thanks to his father’s machinations.If I were honest with myself—and I’d never say it to his face—he did the bare minimum expected for his captaincy. Not that I blamed him at all.
I pulled myself upright, tipping my bottle to my lips. “Come on. Let’s do another set each, then get some food before our next lecture. We can talk to Kane back at the house.”
My chest was growing tight, and I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. I stared down at the screen, reading the words over and over again.
Priya:
Police came to the clinic. They questioned Dad and they’re coming back to question me and Mum, and the other staff. I’m scared, Jay
“—Jay? Jay!”
Awareness rushed back in, Dan’s concerned face filling my field of vision. Wordlessly, I handed him my phone and slumped back on the changing room bench, taking deep, deliberate breaths.
He scanned the message, his jaw tightening as he read the words. “Shit, Jay. We need to meet up with King. He needs to know what’s happening. I’ll go and see Neil tonight.”
“Yeah…” I rubbed my hand over my mouth. “Fuck. I’ll go to the clinic. I need more information.”
“Me and King’ll come,” Dan said instantly.
“No.” Rising to my feet, I threw on my clothes as quickly as possible. “You two need to stay away. The police know who you are. It won’t look good if they find you hanging around.”
“True.” His mouth turned down. “Fuck this shit. We’ll get it sorted, okay? I’ll meet up with Neil, get King to come with me, and we’ll work out a plan of action. No one will touch the clinic, not if I have anything to do with it.”
“Thanks, Dan. Really.” I was so lucky to have loyal friends—friends who would stand by me unquestioningly, who had my back no matter what. Not everyone got to have that.
“Yeah.” He patted my shoulder. “Fuck our next lecture. Wanna find King and get out of here?”
His stomach growled in tandem with my nod, and Icocked a brow at him. “New plan. Let’s grab lunch to go, then find King.”
