Page 80 of The Puck Player

“She just went to the bathroom, she should be back any second,” she tells me, and I nod, relaxing a little, as we all gather round to wait. One minute turns into five, then into ten, and a heavy feeling starts to settle in the pit of my stomach, but Evie places a soft, reassuring hand on my arm. “We’ll go get her,” she offers, gesturing for Maddie and Hallie to follow her, and all of us guys watch as they head down the hall in the direction of the bathroom.

It’s another five minutes before they return, without Aubree, and I know what they are going to say before they even open their mouths. “She’s not there,” Maddie states, looking as panicked as I feel, and I force myself to try and inhale a deep breath.

“What do you mean she isn’t fucking there?” I snap, and Nova steps up behind his girl in warning, but my mind is too far gone to fucking care right now.

“The bathroom is empty, and we just tried to call her but there was no answer,” Hallie cuts in, and Josh rushes to her side with a frown of confusion.

My hands shake as I pull out my phone and call Duchess. “What’s up, rich boy, what do you need now?” she greets me, and I can’t even let myself smile at her snarky tone.

“I need you to track Aubree’s phone, she’s missing,” I force out, and there is a long pause as she digests my words.

“What do you mean she’s missing?” she questions, and I feel myself going blind with rage.

“Exactly what I just fucking said, she is missing, we can’t fucking find her,” I snap back, and I hear her typing in an instant, as I try and fail to catch my breath. All the guys gather around me, and I see the girls trying her phone again and again, while searching the surrounding rooms along the hall.

“Her phone is pinging in the same place as yours, you’re at the arena, right?” Duchess asks, and I nod mindlessly, as the girls head back to the bathroom and then return a minute later with Aubree’s phone in hand.

“Fuck,” I curse, taking it from them and finding it littered with missed calls from the girls. “Her phone is here but she isn’t,” I add, and we both know what that means, as I tighten my fist around the phone in anger. “Fucking find them,” I grit, before cutting off the call and storming back inside the changing rooms until I find Coach, all the guys hot on my heels. When he spots me his face drops, and just like I knew, he knows it too, but still I whisper the words that I know are going to slice right through him. “She’s gone, Coach. Ben has her.”

Two hourslater we’re all sitting round the dining table in Coach’s house. Me, Nova, Archer, Daemon, Jake, even Josh. All of them are watching me cautiously except for Josh, who has been typing on his phone meticulously ever since Aubree went missing. The girls are all sitting on the sofa, and Duchess is working silently on her laptop in the corner. We all spent almost an hour searching every inch of the arena trying to find Aubree, and when we came up empty, Coach wanted to call the police. I had Duchess intercept the call, knowing they won’t do jack shit in order to find her, not when it’s only been a couple of hours. So instead, she pushed the call to her team of people and they dealt with it.

Was it a shitty thing to do? Probably.

Do I care? No, we are handling this my way.

I’ve got Duchess tracking Ben’s entire life and everyone he has ever met. She is raking through his life with a fucking fine-tooth comb and I have no doubt she will find him. The call we intercepted, meant for the police, was given to one of her trusted team members, who advised Coach they would start looking for them. Thankfully that was enough to satisfy him, especially once we got back to his house and Duchess showed up.

It’s only then that everyone here truly learned how deep this thing with Ben really goes. I’ve kept it pretty under wraps, especially with her dad, and though the guys knew Aubree needed someone with her at all times, I don’t think they truly understood Ben’s obsession with her. I know the girls feel guilty now for not going to the bathroom with her, but no one could have anticipated he would do something like this.

Coach is pacing back and forth between the two rooms, and I know the rage he is feeling, I feel it too. It’s running through my blood like an energy I can’t contain, and when I get my hands on that fucking pastor, he will feel my wrath. I can’t stop looking at the pictures on the mantel, there are three in total, all featuringAubree at different moments of her life. She looks beautiful, happy, content, and if that piece of shit hurts one hair on her fucking head I am going to end him.

A sentiment that is clearly shared by her father, because out of nowhere Coach stops pacing, picks up one of his trophies from the cabinet, and smashes it into the shelves, breaking them completely. Yet he doesn’t stop there, he does it again and again, obliterating every shelf and trophy, until the one he is using breaks apart as well.

“Oh shit,” Archer grumbles, eyeing him keenly. “Daddy is mad.” Daemon elbows him harshly, glaring at him, and Archer rubs his side. “What? He looks hot hulking out like that,” he mutters, and now it’s Nova’s turn to give him the death stare.

“Shut the fuck up, Arch,” he snaps, and I push away from the table, unable to listen to them for another second.

I begin my own pacing, my fingers flexing in anticipation of what I’m going to do when I find him. I fucking knew, I knew he was a piece of shit, and now he has my fucking girl. I’m not surprised Coach is smashing things up, he’s her father, he’s known her for her whole life, loved her, protected her. I’ve only known her for three months, I’m just her boyfriend, and I feel like I’m losing my god damn mind, so I can’t even imagine what he must be going through.

“That’s weird,” Duchess mutters to herself, but I am striding to her side in an instant.

“What is it?” I demand, getting Coach’s attention, and he finally drops the trophy in his hand and storms toward us.

“Nothing, I just,” she clicks away on a few buttons, pulling up a few other screens, none of which make any sense to me, and she’s moving too fast for me to keep up anyway, but she pauses and turns to Coach. “Sir, your ex-wife's house, who lives there now?” she asks, and I see him blink back a little in confusion.

“No one lives there, I bought it for Jodie and Aubree, when I signed with the NHL after college, and now that she’s gone, well, it’s just sitting there,” he explains, looking between us before he adds, “Aubree moved in with her grandma after Jodie passed, so she packed up all her personal stuff, and then we covered everything else up and locked the house down until Aubree graduates, why?”

Duchess looks between him and me before she replies, “Because someone just ordered a delivery of daisies to that address.”

Coach is already shaking his head. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” he replies in confusion, but the wheels in my mind are already turning.

That prick took her home thinking he could hide her from me.

Well, game on pastor. I’m fucking coming for you.

My body feels like I am sleeping on a pile of clouds. The bed is warm and cosy, and familiar in a way I can’t quite describe, and I feel like I could stay here forever. I try to open my eyes, but they're heavy with exhaustion and all I want to do is fall asleep. When they finally manage to flutter open, I smile at my familiar purple bedroom walls. I still remember when I picked this color out, my mom said it was too bright and ridiculous, but she didn’t have the heart to tell me no. Just like I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was right, but it’s okay, I loved it all the same.

I can hear the gentle melody of her favorite song spilling from down the hall, and I smile into my pillow as I snuggle down into it. It feels like forever since I’ve been here and I want to hold on to this moment, to savor this feeling and remember it, butsomething deep inside of me doesn’t feel right. It’s like my heart feels at home, but my head is screaming at me to snap out of it. The thought has me trying to move, but I can’t.

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