Page 80 of Passing the Red Line
By the time I reach the door to the ice, I’m out of breath, but I don’t care. I power through as I push open the doors and step into the rink.
I let out a sigh of relief when I see a figure at the other end of the rink, shooting pucks into a net.
Just as he was doing all those weeks ago back in California. And just like it did back then, my heart soars. Who knew that this man would turn into my everything in such a short amount of time.
“Christian!” I yell out, hoping that he doesn’t have earbuds in.
Right away, he turns though and finds me standing at the edge of the ice. I don’t know if he can tell but I’m shaking. I also feel like I can’t catch my breath. I was right about feeling a panic attack coming on.
Christian abandons his stick on the ice and skates over to me right away.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, as he gets closer to me, frantically looking me over. The second that he sees the tears in my eyes, his face and whole body turning into stone.
I don’t even have to tell him who might be the cause of me crying. He already knows.
“What the fuck did he do?”
I push down the lump in my throat and tell him what I should have told him last night. “He’s threatening me with nude pictures of me from when I was eighteen.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Christian
If I didn’t havean exhibition game tomorrow or even the season opener two weeks from now, I would be taking Eliana to California, to the beach house, to the place that calms her, right now.
But of course, timing isn’t on our side right now.
We got home about an hour ago.
After she told me what Bradford had against her, she told me everything else that has come along with it.
With tears in her eyes, she told me about the threats that came her way right before Bradford was drafted. About how when she got the job with the Knights he reached out to her and then he reached to her again a few weeks ago and threatened to use the photos again if she didn’t do what he said.
Apparently this all the night that she walked in on Adrian. Not only was she a mess because she thought I was cheating on her, she had Kalen contacting her and trying to use her position and his blackmail to his benefit.
Thankfully, she told him to fuck off, just like I thought she did.
She apologized for not telling me. She also blamed herself for everything that Kalen had done and that includes how he facilitated his trade. She said the team is now paying for her mistakes.
That pissed me off. Whatever Kalen is doing now is not her fault. She decided to do something for her boyfriend when she was eighteen, nobody could have known that he would go this far with it. This falls on Kalen and Kalen only.
As she was telling me, all I wanted to do was go find the motherfucker and beat the shit out of him.
But my girl needed me more, so after her tear-filled confession, I brought her home. We had lunch and I was planning on distracting her for the rest of the day, but she ended up falling asleep about fifteen minutes ago.
Me on the other hand, I’m wired. I have way too much information that I shouldn’t be keeping to myself. There are other people that need to know.
Is it going to be enough to get Kalen traded a day into his contract with the knights? I highly doubt, the fucker probably put it a no-trade clause and no other team would be able to touch him for awhile. but at the very least key individuals in all of this should know.
As soon as Eliana was asleep, I texted Liam, Blake and Logan to meet me at the arena. I also texted Anderson and they all agreed to meet me there.
I don’t want to leave Eliana when she needs me, but this shit is too much for her to handle on her own.
If she gets mad at me for getting involved, then so be it. I can handle her being pissed off. What I can’t handle is her being hurt or some asshole wiggling nude photos of her over her head all of her life.
I don’t wake her as I leave to head to the arena, I didn’t see the need.
The whole way there, Eliana is not far from my mind. When we first met, it bothered me that she would lump me with the hockey players that had wronged her. But now that I know the huge asshole her ex-boyfriend is and how her dad basically abandoned her during some of her moments in nerd, I understand.
I would hate hockey players and hockey in general too. Especially if it has only hurt me or didn’t give me a whole lot of good memories.
Pulling into the player parking lot, I spot Liam, Logan and Blake standing by the entrance. I pull into an empty spot and I walk over to meet them.
All three of them give me confused looks as I approach them. When I texted them, I didn’t tell them what was going on, I just told them to meet me here.
Not a single one of them has to be here for this, but they are my family away from home. And since this involves one of our teammates, they should know.
