Page 74 of The Players We Hate
“Don’t.” My voice sharpened. “Don’t lie to me.”
She flinched, and it was all the confirmation I needed.
“You planted the puck in Kade’s truck.”
Her face froze.
“What—”
“Don’t bother denying it,” I said. “I recognized your handwriting on the note. I saw you slipping back in before the second period, ducking into the tunnel before the team hit the ice.”
Her jaw clenched, color draining from her face.
“You’re a terrible liar,” I murmured, leaning in until my chest brushed hers. “In fact, you fucking suck at it.”
Her breathing faltered, uneven, and I could feel it against me.
“So tell me,” I said, voice low and rough. “What are you mixed up in? Why leave a marked puck in his truck? What the hell are you trying to prove?”
Her throat worked as she swallowed, and when her eyes finally met mine, something was different there. Something that looked too much like guilt.
“Don’t you ever wonder why Gavin really left?” she asked, her voice low.
I didn’t answer, but I didn’t need to. She could see it on my face. I’d asked myself that same question.
“You think he just got benched and gave up?” she pressed. “That he walked away clean?”
The words hit hard, sharp, like a puck slamming against the boards.
I held her stare. “You know something.”
She hesitated, and for a second, I thought she might swallow it down. But then she said, “I saw things. Things I couldn’t explain. Gavin is meeting people after hours. People who didn’t belong anywhere near the locker room. His sneaking out of film sessions. I told the assistant AD. They brushed it off like it was nothing.”
I folded my arms. “So you took matters into your own hands.”
She gave a short nod. “Not because I wanted to screw anyone over. In fact, it’s the opposite. I wanted you to know someone else was paying attention. I also didn’t want it on my conscience that Gavin’s reckless choices could actually injure someone.”
“And you thought leaving a warning in Kade’s truck was the way to do that?”
Her lips parted, like she was about to defend it, then closed again.
“I didn’t think you’d believe me,” she said finally, voice raw. “Not after everything.”
“You mean after your brother ruined my sister’s life?”
The silence that followed stretched thin.
But she didn’t look away.
“If I’d come to you and told you I thought something was wrong with Gavin, would you have listened?”
I didn’t answer because we both knew the truth.
Not when all I could see back then was her last name. Her polished smile. Her family’s wreckage trailing her.
And now?
Now, I was staring at someone who didn’t look anything like the girl I thought I knew. This wasn’t the governor’s daughter with the perfect smile. This was someone who had been watching, listening, trying to clean up a mess that wasn’t even hers.
