Page 18 of Royal Rising

Kalle had been away practicing with the team, but came home for Christmas, a few days before the holiday dance. When he came to see me, I was in tears because I had just broken up with Greg Kaan.

I wasn’t crying over Greg, or the fact I didn’t have a date to the dance, but because Greg turned out to be the type of guy who had no qualms about laying hands on women.

Women being me.

I had never felt so stupid—for caring about someone who was capable of that, for not seeing the signs, and for letting things get that far. I never told anyone in my family because telling one of my sisters would have been the same as telling my parents and the rest of the town—and I’d rather lick my wounds in private than have everyone know.

But I told Kalle.

“Stop crying,” he demanded. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

“I don’t deserve anyone if I’m that stupid to fall for a guy like that.”

I wanted Kalle to say something likeyou deserve mebut instead, he just pulled me close. I’ll never forget the scent of him that day.

“You’re not stupid,” he said into my hair. “You’re brilliant and beautiful and no guy will ever touch you like that again.”

The next day, Greg Kaan had a broken nose and Kalle missed the first game of the series because of two broken fingers.

“She’s been trained by the best,” Dillon chimes in from his seat at the bar, pulling me back from the past.

Kalle notices me staring at the picture and gives me his half-grin. I give my head a shake and turn back to the conversation going on about me because Mathias is like a dog with a bone and isn’t letting this go.

“And what kind of security team are you when you sit back and let something like that happen?” Mathias rounds on Dillon, who shrugs.

“I step in when it gets out of hand. They’re just blowing off steam.”

“Blowing off steam? There was a broken chair.”

Dillon frowns. Most of the date/kiss/bar fight adrenaline has vanished and all I feel is annoyance at Kalle.

And Mathias.

“I’m a newbie to the town but even I know that’s how things go down around here.”

I glance over in surprise. Fenella Carrington stares at Mathias with a mix of disdain and disgust. “Instead of fussing about it, why don’t you see that she has a drink, because she looks like she needs one,” she adds in her contemptuous drawl.

I never could have imagined I would ever feel gratitude toward Fenella Carrington.

6

Kalle

Isee how Mathiaslooks around the bar.

Like it’s beneath him to be there. His eyes flick past my sports memorabilia without interest or the admiration I usually see. I’m the third Laandian who has played professional baseball, part of the only Laandian team that has won the Worlds, and curling wasn’t even a serious sport here before I started.

I’ve created a generation of athletes who know that even though they’re from a tiny country on the edge of Canada, they will be able to compete on a professional level on the global stage.

I’ve done more already than Mathias ever will, but still, the way he looks around brings me right back to twelve-year-old me, overhearing how I won’t ever amount to anything.

I finish my beer and try to control my breathing: inhale for four, hold, exhale. Edie made me watch this meditation stuff she found online to help with my “ball of anger that won’t go away.”

That’s what she calls it. I’m not angry. I’m just mad some of the time.

Tyler makes Edie a gin and tonic before pouring me a second beer. “Care for a drink, cousin?” I ask Mathias, trying for polite but it ends up more scornful.

Polite scorn.

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