Page 103 of Ice Bet

There was a quick movement of something on his face. He pulled his helmet down in an attempt to cover it. “Not sure what you’re talkin’ about.”

My voice strained with a gritty noise. “You think I don’t know that you were the one to spread the rumor that I beat up Gray at the party? He told the press that he had been jumped. All fingers pointed to me. Except, I wasn’t there that night. You were.”

Naturally, after Coach showed up at my apartment that morning, I dug into the accusations that flooded around campus. There was zero proof that I had touched Gray, and with Riley’s admittance that I was with her that night, Coach made sure to send the right message to every news article that inquired a response.

It had Graham Sullivan all over it.

He was throwing a hissy fit because Riley and I had played him at his own game.

Our feud ran deep, but he needed to drop it before I ruined his career.

“So where were you that night? Tryin’ to win your own bet?” he asked, knowing very well where I was. He was an asshole, but he wasn’t dense.

“You think I won’t throw you under the bus? Because I can march right into Coach’s office and tell him that you made a bet with the underclassmen on this team to see who could fuck his daughter first.”

He threw his head back and laughed, slipping on his gloves to hide the marks from his tiff with Gray. “And how ironic is it that you’re the one fucking her? I can throw you under the bus too, Aasher.”

“Does our rival runthatfucking deep that you’d ruin this team’s chances at winning, Sully? Just let it go and tell your little fuckheads to let it go too, or I’ll take them down with you.” I’d tried being patient, but my patience was running very fucking thin.

He smiled, and I pictured ramming my fist into his face and knocking his teeth out all over this goddamn floor.

“I don’t know, Matthews. You tell me. I called dibs on her first, and you just had to swoop in and beat me. Like usual.”

There was a big difference between us.

I didn’t give a shit about our feud.

And my interests in Riley had nothing to do with him.

It had everything to do with her.

“See you on the ice. Make sure to steal the puck from me too. God forbid you let me score for once.” Sully stomped away.

Emory popped around the edge of the lockers and stood beside me to watch him leave. My blood rushed with so much anger I shook. A few seconds passed before he leaned in. “Take that shit out on the ice. Pretend the puck is his face. Do whatever you have to do, but don’t stoop to his level and fuck us all.”

My teeth ground against one another with frustration, but I planned to do exactly what Emory said.

After all, Sully could threaten me all he wanted.

He couldn’t take me down without going down too.

* * *

The Hawks were lethal, and their student section was even rowdier than ours. Their goalie gave Emory a run for his money—both of them blocking pucks left, right, up, down, and every other direction you could think of.

I hadn’t forgotten about the conversation with Sully, but I did let it fuel me with swift speed on the ice. Coach pulled me aside at one point and asked if I needed to sit, but I brushed him off, slipping past Sully while managing to keep my stick to myself.

There were only two minutes left to go, and we were tied.

One to one.

Theo zoomed past me, ice slicing up in his wake. “I don’t know what has gotten into you, but keep it up and pay attention. Coach wants us to do thewhip.”

Sully tapped his stick against the ice before taking off after Theo. We’d practiced this drill so many times, but I had a feeling that Sully was about to fuck it up because of me. I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t stoop so low because his future rode on this team’s back too, but I also didn’t know him as well as I thought. We had unresolved issues, but I thought we were both man enough to keep it off the ice until now.

“Fuck,” I mumbled, skating toward center ice. Riley crossed my mind for a brief second, and I could see her now, pacing back and forth in front of the TV as she watched us strive for our last win of the season.

“Whip!”Coach yelled from the side.

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