Page 8 of Break The Ice

His alpha bark that he seldom uses pushes heavily on me, trying to make me obey. I fight instinctively, and then give in and untie her.

She stands up with a groan.

“Look, Ryann-”

I look up just in time to see the fist coming for my face. She hits hard for a girl. Hard enough that everything fades to black, and I fall into the abyss.

I wake a secondtime this morning in my bed with a doozy of a headache. I look around in confusion and jerk when Callan shoves something at my face.

I put up a hand to protect myself and catch the wrapped bag of ice.

“You are an idiot sometimes, but I’d love to be inside your brain when you do these things so I can figure out what’s going on with you and how to stop it.”

I sit up and put the ice on my face.

“Do you know-”

“Yes, we know that she’s Ryann Smith, your bloody coach’s niece. What the actual fuck, Raider?”

I wince and hunch down. “I didn’t think, I just panicked.”

“But why? What happened that you went from I’m-happy-I’ve-got-a-wonderful-game-to-play to holy-hell-I-think-I’ll-nuke-my-life-and-commit-a-fucking-felony?”

I close my eyes. “My uncle.”

“Your uncle? What uncle? Wait, you don’t mean Typhor? That crazy bastard who runs Alpha Labels? Ryn’s father?”

I nod my head. “Yep, that one.”

“What about him? He hasn’t hurt Ryn, has he?”

Lia had sat on a video chat with us and told us in very graphic detail what has happened to Ryn a few weeks back. No one knew Typhor was that violent with his daughter or wife. I knew he was trying to sell her, and that was bad enough that I was trying to reach out to Mirakill MC to see if they could kill him, discreetly, but everything happened too fast, and then I thought she was gone, safe.

“No, he hasn’t hurt Ryn.” I drop the ice on my bed and drop my head in my hands.

Callan sits beside me and waits. He always has this ability to just wait and get the words out of me.

“He threatened my coach.”

Callan stiffens. “What?”

“I overheard them speaking. He’s offered the coach a lot of money to bench me. Or conversely, an entire world of pain if he refuses.”

Callan exhales roughly. His fingers bite into my thigh. “Oh, Raider.”

“Stop saying that!” I shout and get up and start pacing. “I didn’t know what to do, and she was there, and I was just meant to bring her home and talk to her, ask her for help, and it just all went pear-shaped. I just started drinking to give me courage and to calm down, and thenI woke up.”

Callan pats my thigh. “All right, let’s speak to her, tell her what’s going on. Maybe she will be reasonable.”

“Do you think so?”

“No, but I want to try, anyway.” Callan sighs. “And then we need to call Kelly.”

“No!” I burst out.

“Raider, he has to know. If not him, then your dad. They are the only ones who can stop Typhor.”

“No, absolutely not! I don’t want them in my life, and I don’t want them to know anything.” Panic turns my blood sizzling, and I see spots. I spit out the words frantically. Hell, I’m aware I’m overreacting, but the combined blast of shame, guilt, fear, and rage I get when I think about my family has me feeling even worse. “Callan, I will handle this.”

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