Page 95 of Break The Ice

“We can do that!” Kit promises for us.

“Yes, we can,” Wren agrees.

I want to howl that it won’t come to that. That we’ll stop him beforehand, but I can’t open my mouth. I’m stuck, cold as ice, staring at her.

The lights make her auburn hair shine with the shimmer of rubies. The scent of brownies is in the air.

I think of her gone, and I know that we can’t fulfill that promise. There’s no way I can remember the happy times and not be completely shattered by her loss.

Because I’m in love with her.

Chapter twenty-three

Ryann

Uncle Pat looks morerelaxed than the first time I saw him, but he still looks like he’s going to start yelling at any minute. It’s so familiar that it makes me smirk, which has him cussing me out almost instantly. The guys watch him in various states of shock, while I cackle as I lean on his car. I guess hockey players don’t give their coaches hell.

“All right, inside with you.”

He shoos us inside the house, and once the door’s closed, he turns on Raider. “What are you doing to protect my niece?”

I gape at him. “Hey! I can protect myself.”

They ignore me while I bristle and mentally threaten to stomp precious body parts.

“We’ve changed the locks, secured a trip alarm on every possible entrance to the home. We have emergency personal alarms scattered throughout the house. The house has an alarm that will automatically dial the police, my family, you, and us. And I have my family scanning all her past homes and security footage, searching for anyone who might be the suspect.”

“Good. Very good.”

“Thanks, Coach.”

I pull a face and turn away from the two of them. Raider is clearly wanting to watch me have sex with the pack tonight.

“All right, I went back over the information. I’ve brought it here with me, but I had to have a look because I remembered something. The kid’s name was Rusty Deirnan. He was a troubled alpha, had shitty parents, and just did some strange things, but nothingtoo bad. However, some omega reported him for peeping, and another beta said he was caught in her house late one night.”

Wren hisses. “So, he has a history? That’s not the name that Mirakill gave us. So who is Eli Thompson?”

“Eli?” My uncle frowns, and then his face clears with comprehension. “Eli died, I checked that out too because the name was so familiar. He went missing the same year, just before my brother died. The police thought Rusty had finally snapped and killed him because Eli used to beat him up pretty badly. But they recovered his body a year ago. James Thompson was arrested six months ago for murdering his son, he’s in prison as we speak.”

“And Rusty is the guy?” Kit asks with a frown in my direction.

I scan all my memories, but I cannot place him.

“Well, yeah, I mean, Dave and I went and confronted him a week before my brother died.” Uncle Patrick’s expression folds into a mask of grief. “It was the last time I saw him, but Dave knew it was him. He was sure.”

I stare at my uncle. Electricity runs through my body. A sense of being trapped one foot in the past and one in the present holds me motionless. “Dad knew?”

“Of course, he knew who it was, Rhee. Your dad was sure he could talk him around and get him to stop, though. He had a soft spot for troubled kids. Dave said Rusty had the opportunity. He was hanging around all the time. Watching, being inappropriate. When Rusty was seventeen, my brother gave him a chance to play hockey. He was really good. Not a little good but really fucking good. He could have gone pro.”

“What happened?”

“The charges. It was enough to ruin him, to scare him. The team scout dropped him, the high school wouldn’t let him finish, his parents kicked him out, the whole community just shut him out. I don’t know that he ever recovered. He loved the game so much and worshiped my brother, but after that day, he was never the same. Dave never believed that Rusty killed Eli, but they were all set to go, to charge him with it.”

I gasp, rearranging pieces of my past until they suddenly make sense. I can’t stop staring at my uncle, wondering why I never heard any of this.

“I was too big. I’d just signed on to take care of the Demons, and my face was too recognisable. Once we decided Rhee should leave, we also decided she should go alone. You were meant to go to Sally’s house and live with her,” he accuses me.

I turn on him hotly. “When I got to Sally’s, she was all freaked out, said she never agreed to it. She shoved the money you gave her into my hand and sent me on.”

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