Page 4

Chapter 4

Aiden

“Sit down, Aiden, you’re making me nervous,” my best friend Cameron says as I pace in his game room.

I stop, throwing a glare at him lounging on the futon couch. “How can you be so calm at a time like this?”

“Because he’s a bleeding heart,” Noah grinds out from his place by the pool table. “He pities that bitch. I bet he wants to fuck her.” He grins. “You have a thing for charity cases, don’t you, Cammy boy?”

Michael, Odean and Simon, our other teammates, burst into a raucous laughter.

“Fuck you, Noah,” Cameron snaps, red-faced. Noah blows a kiss at him. Cameron rolls his eyes, then directs his attention to me.

“You’re overreacting,” he says, getting up from the couch. “I told you that in March and I’m telling you now.”

“Or maybe you’re just still na?ve; have you ever thought of that? I find it odd that she picked our department for her internship. She’s not even into sports,” I reply.

“How do you know that?” Cameron asks, raising a brow.

As if I’m going to tell him I spent hours learning everything there is to know about Scarlett, searching for the reason she ratted the team out that night. I know what she’s studying at Hempton, where she lives, what her parents do for a living—even the balance in her bank account.

A measly forty dollars as of a month ago. For some reason, that moved something inside me.

“How do you know Scarlett’s not into sports?” Cameron asks again.

“Does she look like someone who’s into sports?”

He raises a brow at me. “Are you body-shaming now? Is that what you’ve gone to?”

“What? No!” I know darn well Scarlett’s got quite a figure under those baggy clothes. To explain how I know that would make me look like a stalker, which I’m not. I was simply gathering intel. “She’s a double science major and on the honor roll. People like her usually have no time for sports. Besides, I’ve never seen her at any games,” I explain.

“I’m still curious how you know all that. Also, it doesn’t mean she has an ulterior motive for the intern—”

“Can you quit taking her side? Fuck!” I snap. “I get it, you can’t relate to why I’m pissed off, because you’re only playing hockey for fun but empathize with me . Shit.”

Cameron sighs. “I’m not interested in a hockey career, but I do understand how badly you want this. Still, I can’t deny it has made you paranoid. Or obsessed. Maybe a little of both. Either way, it’s fucking with your head. Like I told you, I don’t believe Scarlett called security on the team. How would she benefit from the outcome? She’s a Hempton girl.”

I open my mouth and he points at me sternly. “Don’t give me that bullshit about Scarlett wanting revenge.”

“You talk like it’s that farfetched,” I reply.

“It doesn’t make sense, Aiden. Scarlett taking out an entire team because of a simple incident? Nah.”

Well, it wasn’t quite a simple incident, although it started that way.

Sitting in Calculus III, waiting for the lecture to begin, I shouldn’t have been staring at her like I was. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have spotted the thread dangling from the back of her sweater. I moved behind Scarlett to bring the issue to her attention before it unraveled further. As I touched her shoulder, she startled, bumping a guy carrying a tray who tried squeezing past her. The tray turned over on her head, the gooey contents running down her shoulders. Scarlett got up, lost her balance and went rolling down the stairs amid a chorus of heavy laughter.

Even now, remembering the incident, my insides burn with shame. I can’t imagine how she must’ve felt in that moment. I even understand why she blamed me. Which is why I reached out so often to apologize. She didn’t want my apology. Scarlett was hellbent on ruining me.

Cameron is still shaking his head. “She’s been in a few of my classes and she’s smart as hell. Quite focused, very serious. Yet, she doesn’t strike me as someone who’d go that far because of something so innocent. Especially since you apologized.”

“Maybe that’s not it,” I concede. “Maybe she’s got a boyfriend on a rival team and wants to sabotage us. I don’t know, but what I do know is that I saw her that night. No one else. So, unless I got proof that someone else fucked with my chances, I’ll keep placing the blame on her.”

“And that’s doing wonders for you, my friend,” Cameron says dryly. “You’re so pleasant to be around these days that I can’t stand it—hey!” he calls after Simon, who just took his late dad’s photo off the wall to hang a dartboard. “Put that back!”

Simon frowns, glancing around at the eleven other photos of Cameron’s dad hanging in the game room. I know what he’s thinking, but he knows better than to say it. Finally, he shrugs, then returns the photo to its rightful place, making Cameron’s shrine to his dad copacetic again.

Noah throws his arm around my shoulder, sneering at my best friend. “Go be the voice of reason somewhere else, Cammy boy. Find a hot girl and get that celibacy over and done with. Aiden and I are about to plan some satisfying revenge.”

Cameron clamps down on his lower lip. I’m pretty sure he regrets telling the guys he’s been celibate after ending his fling with a mystery girl a year ago. They rub it in every chance they get and as much as I want to stop them, Cameron hates when I fight his battles for him. He’s been that way since middle school, even more after his dad passed two years ago.

“Just let her be, guys,” he says wearily. “Even if she did call security, the fact is, if we weren’t up to no good, we wouldn’t have gotten into trouble. This is our fault, not anyone else’s.”

“Easy for you to say when you’ve got a cushy corporate job lined up for you,” Noah snaps. “For some of us, hockey will be our bread and butter.”

“You’re all talented players who will get drafted next year. Whatever Scarlett did or didn’t do, it won’t stop you.” Cameron shakes his head in disgust, backing away from us. “Tossing around someone half your size isn’t a macho thing to do.”

“Oh come on, Cameron. No one’s going to lay a hand on her,” I call after him as he makes his way to the other side of the room.

“We’re not?” Noah asks, chagrined, then bursts into a laugh when I slide him a hot glare. “I’m kidding! Jeez. Saint Cameron is rubbing off on you.”

“Just some simple pranks to get her out of there, Noah and I mean it. Touch a strand of her hair and we’re going to have a serious problem.”

“Heard, Captain,” he mocks, throwing up a salute. I watch him go, frowning a little. Noah can be a loose cannon sometimes. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

Yet, I can’t consider another alternative. I’m not comfortable with Scarlett being so close to us without knowing what she’s really up to. I haven’t found evidence that she’s dating anyone, much less someone from a rival team, but her actions scream sabotage. Cameron might think she’s not cut-out for revenge, but she’s up to something. I’d rather get her out by any means necessary, than have her ruin what I’m trying to achieve.

I made a personal promise not to harm her and I won’t. That doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy putting fear in those beautiful blue eyes.