Page 76 of The Jester and His Outlaw: Part 2

“So, all of them?”

I huff a laughing breath, tugging my ball cap down. I don’t really need to wear one now that I don’t have a helmet to fuck up my hair, but Charley likes the cap on me, and I love it when she steals them. Plus, it’s turned into a bit of a security for me.

“Not as many as I’d like. The weekend was annoyingly busy and after everything last night… I wouldn’t have asked that of her.”

“You’re a better man than I am, that’s for sure.”

“I highly doubt that, J. I know for a fact you would never take advantage of your partner. You may be a man whore and need it all the time, but you’re respectful. Plus, I think Foxy would hand you your balls if she needed to.” A smirk ticks up the corner of his lips and his cheeks flush.No shit.Jensen knows how to blush? What has the world come to? “That adventurous? Wait! No, don’t answer that, please.”

Jensen tosses his head back and howls, snagging Foxy’s attention. I throw my hands up as if to say I have no idea what he is laughing at.

“Charley, get your fucking head up!” Kai calls out before springing to his feet. He shoots down the bleachers, pushing onlookers out of his way to get to his sister. I barely register what happens when the boards shake, the glass swaying and the sounds of a collision fill the air.

A grunt that no human should make registers, ripping my attention to the person laying splayed out on the ice.

My body drains of all feeling in an instant.

The world around me stops.

“Charley! Fuck, Charley!” Kai dashes to the entrance and rips the door open, bolting across the ice to get to her as the refs call a stop to the play. The crowd falls to near silent whispers and a few gasps.

I descend the stairs, moving on autopilot to make it to the door and out on the ice. I’m not nearly as graceful as Kai was, or Jensen, even Foxy, but I make it to her in one piece and drop to my knees, sliding the last distance.

Charley lays sprawled out before us.

She’s not moving.

I can’t tell if she is breathing.Fuck!I can’t tell if she is breathing.

“Back the fuck up!” Kai roars, shooing away the other players, unable to control himself. It’s not their fault what happened. No, the bitches that cross-checked her into the boards are sitting pretty on the bench, acting like nothing happened.

Charley doesn’t respond to the volume his voice carries. I close my eyes, tossing my head back and taking a deep breath. My girl needs me right now.

When I’ve collected my thoughts and stored the nagging ones away, I place my eyes back on her. She’s pale and sweat is trickling down her face as it always does when she’s skating.

She’s not moving.

Kai leans over her from the opposite side as me, pressing two fingers to the pulse point in her neck. The air around us falls deathly still when a monumental sigh expels from his lungs as he looks to me, but his relief is short-lived. It has to be. There could be several things wrong with a hit like that.

They’re not even supposed to hit.

“Sis,” Kai says quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Charley, I need you to wake up now.”

“Charley, baby,” I murmur as I run my fingers over her cheekbone, just below the visor covering almost half her face.

Nothing.

Still, nothing.

She’s alive,I remind myself. She has a pulse and is knocked out. That’s it. It has to be.

“Call nine-one-one!” Kai hollers, lifting his head to find someone, anyone, looking as calm and collected as anyone who wasn’t standing over his baby sister after a hit as serious as that one. But his eyes reveal the truth. He’s freaking out.

“On it,” the coach calls back. “They’re already on their way. Everyone else, we’re done for the day. Get your asses to the locker room. Kareford, Adams, in my office when you’re done.”

Kareford and Adams.The two responsible for this. Two names I will forever store in the back of my mind for when I have time to talk to Mr. Tucker and possibly the police. Let’s hope Jonas doesn’t find out about this. He will not view them as innocent until proven guilty.

They’ll be guilty.

---