Page 169 of Wicked Dreams

He grins. His teeth are tinted red.

“Caleb,” Eli warns.

“You don’t touch her,” I say to Ian. “You don’t look at her. You don’t?—”

“This isn’t really about her,” he wheezes. “She’s just your soft spot, Asher.”

I dig my fingers into his neck.

“By the way,” I say, leaning down. “You’re off the hockey team.”

His eyes bug out.

I’m not myself.

His face turns red, and I still don’t let go.

I can’t, when he’s staring at me with a fucking challenge in his eyes.

He’ll have bruises around his neck… much worse than Margo’s, I’d reckon.

His eyes flutter shut. Theo and Eli grab my arms, pulling me away from him.

I struggle for a second.

“Any more and you’ll kill him,” Liam admonishes, shoving me away. He kneels next to a now unconscious Ian.

Theo drags me to the door, shoving me against it. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

I try to clear my head. “I know.”

“You lost it.”

“Iknow.”

He grunts. “Go. We’ll take care of the rest of this.”

I roll my eyes. “You lost it, too.”

“Nah, he had it coming.”

I shake my head. Yeah, Ian has a lot coming.Had. A broken team won’t bring championships, and we were screwed the moment Ian went against me. There’s still time to bring up one of the backups into his position.

I go to my car and slide in. Skipping isn’t something that I push often, but no one ever says anything. A few other students indulge in the same luxuries. Theo could mail in his final and still get straight A’s.

Lenora is at work, and Robert is at school, which means Margo is alone.

My phone rings halfway to her house. One glance at the caller ID, and I frown.

“Yes?”

“What a lovely greeting, nephew. Are you not in school?”

I shake my head. “Had to run an errand.”

My uncle is silent. “We heard about your old friend’s unfortunate incident.”

Now I’m quiet. How the hell did my uncle hear about Margo? I’ve taken care not to mention her.

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