Page 116 of Out of Bounds

I unfolded the paper from Kassie’s envelope and showed it to her.

"Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea—" Her eyes scanned the words and she took a moment. Her mouth fell open. "What the hell,Ryan?How did you—?"

"Please."

With a sigh, she nodded, and took the envelope from me. I pulled out the jumble of wrapping paper and tape that I’d attempted on my fifth go and she stared in disbelief.

"What the hell is that?"

"My fifth attempt to wrap it."

She held it up to the light and inspected it. "Ryan, how did you tie tape like this? Did you drunk wrap this?" She took the other piece of wrapping paper from me and dug around for supplies in her purse.

"Could you move?" a voice interjected and I glanced down to see one ofGianna’stables, a good six inches away from me.

I grabbed the end without thinking about it. "Sorry, man."

"No problem."

It took me five seconds to place who that was. Of course, Zariah’s twin brother would be at her party.

Elijah Contractor, known as Ruthless, had his sister's same curls, same nose, but the similarities ended there. One look at him and I knew he could’ve tried out for defense on the Romans, if Ihadn’theard how he played hockey. The man was a damn dirty player. He lived for riling up anybody on the ice.

"Four-A-Cross." Elijah smirked.

"It's just Ryan."

"I heard about that off-limits tag."

We both understood the rules of the game, but I wasn't agitated. If he knew about Kassie's off-limits tag, that meant the entire hockey team did too. When I told King that I meanteverybody, I meant everybody. I could consider his comment a success.

"And I heard you got somebody from RWU to throw an ice skate at your head," I replied.

A grin crossed his face. "Five stitches. The penalty was worth it."

"Was it?"

"We won the game."

I could never trust loose cannons, and I never allowed them on my field, but Elijah wasn't a loose cannon. He was a firecracker stand held up by a line of oil barrels.

"That's a pretty funny picture of you two," he said with that same grin.

The two of us sized each other up, but I wouldn’t say anything. He was Kassie’s best friend’s brother. I needed to keep it friendly at best, and uninterested at worst. All we needed was for everybody to keep their cool and keep their distance.

"Hey!" Adam’s voice rang out from the open door. "It’s motherfucking Ruthless!"

Goddammit.

Elijah stretched back. "Hey! It’s the Marrs Manwhore!"

The smile disappeared off Adam’s face. But at least it was someone outside of hockey.

"Hey, captain!" Adam clapped me on the back and held out the girl on his arm, a pretty brunette I didn’t recognize. "Larissa’s an RA and a friend of Zariah—"

"It’s Lisa." The girl frowned.

"Lisa, that’s what I said." He laughed. "Captain, I can’t believe you’re at a party."

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