Page 73 of Hard to Break

Helping the people I love matters more to me than managing my own brand. Which is why this failure hurts more.

“Wow, Brooke Ellis. I would’ve thought you’d do something different with your hair now that you’re dating a celebrity.”

The familiar voice slices into my thoughts.

Disbelief washes over me as I spin to face the alley. “Caroline?!”

My sorority sister closes the distance between us, her black wool coat flipped up at the collar against her white-blond hair.

“I debated whether to come to you about this. I wanted to leave you in the dirt, but I saw what happened to your boyfriend.”

The surprise at seeing her is gone. “You mean you saw him and the rest of the Kodiaks crush Boston,” I say.

“No,” she says plainly. “I mean his recent downward spiral that’s been spectacularly covered by the media.” I’m about to shut her down when she continues. “I wanted to forget you ever existed, but Elise told me what you said about me in New York. That you did me a favor. So I’m about to do you one.”

My protests die in my throat. I wait her out.

“I saw someone on the bench at the Kodiaks game a few weeks ago, a man who met with Kevin.”

“Kevin,” I echo, feeling a step slow. “Why would Kevin meet with someone on the Kodiaks?”

“There’s only one reason—he thought he could use them.” She lets that sink in a moment. “He wanted to get to Miles.”

Kevin.

He was behind this.

My head is pounding. “Kevin tried to get Miles in trouble with the team… for revenge?”

“So, I haven’t seen Kevin a lot lately, on account of the whole calling off the engagement thing.” She shifts delicately on her feet. “But I did go to his offices to pick some of my things up, and he was already two drinks in. Turns out the trainer was supposed to get Miles’s phone. Kevin thought he had pictures, evidence of something he’d done in school, but the trainer chickened out and didn’t get the phone.

“Anyway, once the rumors went around about the drugs, he thought it would look like Miles was a victim if the phone was gone. So, Kevin figured it was working out better this way—Miles would be discredited, and anything he said would seem unreliable.”

I’m trying to catch up, but there’s an important piece missing.

“Do you know which trainer?”

Caroline laughs.

“Brooke, do you not remember when I memorized my entire economics course without attending half the classes on three hours of sleep after the Kappa spring mixer?” She blinks at me as if I’m being purposely dense. “I have a photographic memory. Of course I know which trainer.”

The pieces are falling into place in my mind, a plan taking shape. “I have to talk to the assistant trainer.”

He might still be at the training facility. I can’t exactly call him up and demand the truth, but I can surprise him in person.

Caroline grabs my arm as I move toward the door. “I’m going with you. We might not be friends, but Kappas don’t let Kappas put themselves in that kind of danger.”

I makemy excuses to Miles and the others at the bar. I say I’m tired, and he offers to come with me, but I insist I’m fine.

The drive to the arena passes in a blur of streetlights and nervous energy. By the time we pull into the parking lot, my palms are slick with sweat.

I throw the car in park in an empty spot with a view of the lot.

We sit there for five minutes. Ten.

“He’s probably not coming,” Caroline says.

“Thanks, Scooby Doo.” There are still a couple of dozen cars with company parking passes—enough that I want to stick it out a bit longer.

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