Page 27 of Iced Out
I skidded to a stop, the scrape of my blades loud in the stillness. My pulse spiked, breath catching as I turned. Lukestood just off the ice, arms folded, his posture tight. Like he was holding something back. Or barely holding on.
“Clearing my head,” I said, flatly. I didn’t mention the key I’d kept from working here sophomore year. “Didn’t realize I needed a permission slip.”
His smirk was all ice. “Everything here belongs to me.”
I scoffed. “Sure. The rink. The school. The whole damn town. Your kingdom, right?”
He stepped onto the ice without hesitation, like the cold bent around him. Each stride was smooth. Controlled. Dangerous.
“No,” he said, low and lethal. “Just you.”
My heart stuttered. But I didn’t flinch. “You’re delusional.”I used to be his.
He kept coming. Calm. Calculated. “And you’re reckless. Breaking in here in the middle of the night?”
“Maybe I needed to get away from your bullshit.”
Something shifted in his eyes. Not anger. Something worse. “You think it’s that easy to escape it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” My voice was thin. Tight.
Luke ran a hand through his hair, exhaling hard. For a second, he looked like the guy who made me laugh on this very ice. The one who let me forget the world for a minute. Then the wall snapped back into place.
“Your mom’s a thief,” he said flatly. “It’s gonna catch up with her.”
The air left my lungs. “What?” I barely recognized my own voice.
He moved closer. I didn’t back away.
“You heard me.”
“That’s not true.” My head shook before the words even formed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His jaw clenched. “I know exactly what I’m talking about. My dad told me. The embezzlement. Your mom. Darren Langley—the VP she was dating. He vanished right after the money did. Then your mom ran. Do the math.”
Suffocating cold spread through my chest. “You think she had something to do with that?” My voice cracked. “With his disappearance?”
“I think she saw an opportunity—and took it.”
“No,” I whispered, but it didn’t sound like a denial. Not anymore. Because I remembered. Her panicked whisper—We can’t stay. We saw too much.The metallic tang of blood thick in the air. The duffel bag, stuffed with cash. Her hands shaking so badly she could barely zip it. I never asked who killed him; I never pushed if she was more involved.
Luke’s gaze never left me. “You didn’t know.”
I shook my head, slower this time. All he referenced was the money. And yeah, I knew about it, but that it came from Darren—that was what I knew. His death? That wasn’t public knowledge. The certainty over where the cash came from drained out of me like the warmth in my fingers. He skated even closer, his presence a wall I didn’t know how to get around.
“You think you’re safe here?” His voice was all edge, lethal. “You have no idea who you’re playing with.”
My temper snapped back into place like a shield. “Then tell me.”
He blinked.
“What happened between our families?” I asked, stepping toward him. “Why do you hate us so much? What aren’t you saying?”
Because this—this fear curling in my stomach—it wasn’t new. Mom had been hiding things my whole life. Codes and cover stories. Whispers behind closed doors. Things she used to share with me—and me only. But lately, there was too much silence. I’d always thought she was the smartest person in the room. Now I wasn’t sure I even knew who she was.
Luke’s face closed off so fast it almost hurt. Whatever truth had flickered there vanished.
“Go home, Mila.”
