Page 1 of Striker’s Rebel

Chapter 1

June

“Tell me he didn’t do that.”

Eliana stops halfway through tying the black apron around her waist.

For one second, her expression is completely blank. Then her hand lifts toward her left eye, and that tiny, instinctive movement tells me more than anything she could say.

“Do what?”

I stare at her.

The bruise is impossible to miss. Purple has already begun to spread beneath her eye, darker toward the corner, with faint swelling along her cheekbone. She tried to hide it with makeup. I can see where concealer has settled into her skin.

“Eliana.”

“I walked into the bathroom door.”

“You walked into a door.”

“Yes.”

“With your face.”

She gives me the look she always gives me when she thinks I’m being difficult on purpose. Usually, I deserve it.

Tonight, I don’t.

“Can we please not do this, June?”

She turns toward the shelves behind the bar and reaches for the stack of clean glasses waiting to be put away.

I catch her wrist.

“Did Jamie hit you?”

Her eyes snap to mine. They’re dark brown, almost black in the dim lighting of the Red Den, and right now they hold something I recognize too damn well.

Fear.

Fear has a way of settling inside you until it becomes part of how you move through the world.

I know because I grew up with it too.

“He didn’t hit me,” she says.

“Then what happened?”

“I told you.”

“The door attacked you.”

“June.”

“Ellie.”

Her mouth presses into a thin line.