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Fuck. This is not the way I planned on him finding out. Truthfully, I didn’t have a plan since I seem to have lost my fucking mind when it comes to this girl, but him overhearing it in the locker room wouldnothave been my first choice.

Bringing a towel to the back of my neck, I wipe away any remnants of his rage and then turn to him.

His face is exactly how I pictured it would be—beet red. His eyeballs are practically bursting from their sockets, and he clenches his jaw so tight that it’s likely getting a better workout then the rest of his body has in weeks.

“You’d better be so damn straight with me right now, Morgan. Tell me you aren’t taking my girlfriend to the gala.”

“Ex.”

“What?” he replies, too enraged to process my response.

“I said, ex, Tyler. She’s yourex-girlfriend.”

With his jaw still tighter than the deke I pulled off earlier in practice, he drops his head to the floor and huffs out a laugh.

The uppercut he lands on the underside of my jaw is painful, but not exactly surprising.

I bring my palm to it; it hurts like a motherfucker, but I keep my eyes glued to his and rub at it lightly. It’s clear he only knows about the gala and not where she’s living. If he knew both, I’m pretty sure I’d be nursing more than a sore jaw.

“Still working on lifting three sixty on the bench press then, Ty.”

He rears back to hit me again when Sawyer steps in front of him, catching Tyler’s fist in his palm. “Hit my winger again, and this will go a whole lot further than these four walls.”

Tyler maintains eye contact with me as he drops his fist down and Sawyer steps away.

The first drops of blood land on my chest and make their way down to the waistband of my shorts.

Tyler steps even closer, his eyes burning into me. “Have you fucked her?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business, do you?”

“Have you fucked her, Morgan?” he repeats.

The entire locker room is deathly silent as at least a dozen guys look on intently. I could easily claim I have, if only just to wind Tyler up further. But Kendra means way more to me than that. She isn’t a pawn in some game.

“No,” I breathe out. “Things only just started up, and I want to take it slow since she just got out of a toxic relationship with an asshole.”

His lips curl into a filthy sneer. “Story of your life, isn’t it, Jack? I mean, first you get shipped to the farm team for a season. Then you’re fighting for your place on the third line. And now you’re biding your time, waiting for Kendra to let you put your dick in her when, for years, she was only too desperate for mine.”

I swipe at the blood on my chin. “Sloppy seconds never felt so good.”

Tyler throws his head back and laughs darkly. “You think she’s dating you for real? Here’s my best guess.” He gets fully in my face, our eyeballs near enough to touching. “This is one of two things: She’s using you to get over me. Or this is all just a ruse for her to piss me off and you to finally get one over on me since you can never do it on the ice. I don’t believe for one fucking second that you dating Kendra is real. She barely looked your way in college. In fact, I’m not a hundred percent sure she even knew you existed.”

The locker door bangs against the wall, and Jon strides back in. “I walked out of here, leaving calm and order, and walk back into shouting.” Scanning the room, he finally lands on me and Tyler, and his eyes drop to my jawline. For the briefest moment, they flash with concern before he blinks it away and thumbs over his shoulder. “Morgan, Bennett. My office.”

“But I was ab?—”

Jon cuts Tyler off immediately, “Don’t give a shit. Put your shirt back on. I want you both in my office, stat.”

The door crashes against the wall once again, and Tyler waits for Jon to leave before he looks back at me. “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

He spins on his heel and makes for his side of the room.

Grabbing my shirt, I pull it overhead.

“Here, take this. The bleeding has almost stopped, but it’s gonna bruise up good,” Sawyer says, holding out an antiseptic wipe for me to use.

“Thanks,” I say, swiping it across my chin and throwing it into the rubbish bin next to me.