38
FELIX
“Get your head in the game, man. Those assholes from LA are in the next changing room and deserve some fucking revenge,” Pierre says, slamming his hand into my helmet as if to try and knock some sense into me. He’s right, it’s going to be the first time I see Stephen, Dave, and Aleksander and I’m going to fucking make them pay.
“We have your back,” Emmett Black says as he walks past, and a couple of the other guys mumble the same sentiments, too.
“Envision annihilating them.”
It’s hard to do when I’m trying to work out if Harper is going to turn up. She wasn’t there when we went out for warmups, as I skated around and checked but no one was in her seats.Traffic. You know how bad traffic can get in New York, and on game day it’s going to be even worse.True.
“Felix,” my brother knocks our helmets together, “nothing matters more than beating those assholes. You hear me.”
“Yes.”
“Good, now let’s get out there and fuck their shit up.”
We walk out of the changing room and wait in the tunnel until we get called out. The adrenaline has kicked in, my heart isracing, my palms feel sweaty, you can hear the crowd going crazy outside, and the music is vibrating through my body. But my brother is right, I need to put everything out of my mind because I need to decimate my old team. One by one, they call our names out and the crowd goes wild.
“Welcome to The Mavericks, Felix St. Pierre,” the announcer calls out my name. I step out onto the ice, and everything vanishes, all my anxieties, all my worries, nothing but the goal of beating LA’s ass is in the forefront of my mind until I spin around and see the seats empty where Harper should be.
Fuck!
39
HARPER
“What the fuck!” I scream as a Google alert for my name appears, and within second, it starts going off. I click the first link, and I think I’m going to throw up. There are images of me naked on the internet, the only thing is, that is not my naked body. I know my body and it is not that one.
Fuck.
Moments later, my phone rings and it’s Jackson.
“They’re fake, he’s AI-generated them.”
“I know, it’s not my body,” I tell him.
“They are fucking good fakes. Don’t worry, I’m working on trying to get them down,” he tells me.
“It’s too late, they are everywhere. There are hundreds of stories already hitting online.”
“Get your lawyers to do up a quick cease and desist and start sending them out to everyone,” Jackson says.
“I’m texting him now.” My fingers fly over the screen. “That fucking asshole, he knew he didn’t have my nudes anymore, so he created these. He was going to try to destroy me either way.”
“I’ve got you, Harper. I promise we will take him down and he is going to regret touching you. Do you hear me?” Jacksons says darkly.
“Yes.”
And with that he hangs up and I fall into a heap.
“Who’s ready for game day?” Camryn screams as she walks into my home with Nate, Kimmy, Sam, and Meadow. They gasp when they see me in a heap on the floor.
“Are you okay?” Kimmy asks.
I shake my head. “He did it. He called my bluff and made up his own fucking photos.”
“Babe, I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Kimmy says.