Page 67 of Checks & Bonds

And I intended to make damn sure we seized it.

We headed to the locker room, the adrenaline from practice still coursing through my veins. I started to undress, peeling off my gear piece by piece. The usual post-practice banter filled the room, but my mind was still on Freya and everything that had happened.

"Mathers," Damien Sinclaire called, sitting on the bench as he unlaced his skates. "What's this I hear about Jensen going to the emergency room last night? Isn't he your friend?"

There was a smirk on Damien's face, insistent that he knew more than he was letting on.

"How the fuck should I know?" I shot back, not bothering to hide my irritation. "I could give two shits about Jensen."

"Strange," Damien murmured, eyes glinting with mischief. "And here I thought he had every intention to claim your fiancée?—"

I stood up abruptly, fury surging through me.

"Shut the fuck up, Sinclaire," Kennedy interjected before I could respond.

Damien chuckled, clearly enjoying himself.

"I suppose you wouldn't like anyone going after what's yours, would you?" Adrian Windsor asked.

"Mine?" Damien raised an eyebrow. "I know better than to entangle myself with anyone."

"Your brother seems happy," Liam pointed out from across the room.

"My brother is fucking an eighteen-year-old," Damien replied, his tone dripping with disdain. "At twenty-eight, who the fuck wouldn't be happy?"

"Isn't she friends with the dean's daughter?" Michael Carter chimed in.

Something flashed across Damien's face—anger replacing his usual amusement. Something about the dean's daughter. Before I could say anything, Coach Morgan's voice cut through the tension.

"Mathers," he barked from the doorway. "Someone's here to see you."

I glanced at Coach, then back at my teammates before heading toward the door, curiosity and apprehension mixing in equal measure.

The tension in the room hit me like a freight train the moment I stepped into Coach Morgan's office. Richard stood there, looking as smug and slimy as ever. My jaw clenched involuntarily. The last person I wanted to see right now was him. After everything he'd done—what he tried to do to Minka, his underhanded attempts to seize control of our inheritance, and the satisfaction I felt removing him from the board—I thought we were finally done with him.

"I'll take it from here," Richard said, his voice oily and confident.

"If it's all the same," Morgan replied, dropping into his chair with a casual air that belied the tension in the room. "I'll stay."

Richard looked ready to argue, but I cut him off before he could start. "What are you doing here?"

"I was contacted by someone anonymous who said you assaulted a fellow student," Richard stated, his tone dripping with false concern. "Not only is it against the law, it's against strict rules you agreed to adhere to."

I knew exactly what he meant. As a member of Ravenwood, I wasn't sanctioned to harm anyone within the Society's bounds.

"Yes, well, he violated the rules," I retorted.

"That's not for you to decide," he snapped back. "There's a board meeting tomorrow. Your presence is required."

"I have the Championship game?—"

"Then I suppose you'll be forfeiting your inheritance," Richard interrupted. He was enjoying this too much. "Tomorrow. At the Regency. Six o'clock."

I glared at him, feeling the weight of my options pressing down on me like an iron vice. The Championship game was everything I'd worked for all season, but missing that meeting could mean losing everything my family had built over generations.

"Understood," I finally muttered through gritted teeth.

Richard's smirk widened as he turned on his heel and left the office without another word.

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