If You Dare: A Hockey Bully Romance
If You Dare: Chapter 38

Violet

A Devil in a white hockey mask pins me against the door with his arm across my throat. Four of his teammates line up behind him, all of their faces masked.

But there’s nothing Trey can do to disguise his eyes. I’d recognize them anywhere.

Terror pools low in my belly.

A swift glance across the Devils with sticks in their hands tells me Wes isn’t among them. Two whose names I don’t remember, juniors. Then a familiar pair of brown eyes—Brody. The final player shorter and ganglier than the others—Mason, the freshman who needs to prove himself.

“Wes!” I shout, praying he’s just outside the locker room or stepping out of the showers.

Trey snickers, his arm digging harder against my throat. A clear warning. “He’s not here.”

“Let me go. I came to talk to him.”

Last time Trey had me cornered, I didn’t dare fight back. But this time, I’ll go down swinging.

He’s not going to intimidate me or terrorize me anymore. That chapter is over. I don’t deserve any of this, and I’m not putting up with it for another second.

I know I can’t take down five huge hockey players single-handedly, especially not without a weapon, but I’ll be damned if I go down without a fight.

“Wes doesn’t want to see you,” Trey snarls, the mask distorting his words even as he leans closer so we’re eye level. “When are you gonna get that through your thick head?”

I claw at Trey’s arms, but he doesn’t budge. “Let me go, Trey.”

He snorts, and the guys behind him chuckle. “We don’t follow your orders,” he tells me. “You follow ours, sweetheart.”

“No, I don’t.” I spit at him and it splatters across his mask.

A horrifying smile crawls across his face through the cluster of holes in his mask. “So she finally wants to play.” His finger travels down my cheek, every cell in my body recoiling. “We have plans for you, pretty girl. You’re coming with us.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He drops his arm from my throat, and my hands instinctively fly to my neck. “You will if you want to save your friend.”

My stomach turns to lead.

Aneesa. Trey did something to Aneesa. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t want another roommate’s blood on your hands, do you?” He slaps his palms above my head and leans in, hot breath curling across my cheeks from the tiny holes in his mask. “The first one might not look like an accident anymore.”

“You’re lying.” But the words tremble. I wouldn’t put it past Trey to do something to Aneesa to get to me.

I haven’t seen Aneesa since this morning. Who knows where they took her.

He can do whatever he wants to me. But I can’t let him lay a finger on her.

Trey laughs. “Would I lie to you, sweetheart?” His hand slithers around my hip. “Wasn’t exactly hard to replace her.”

I can’t let anything bad happen to her because of me. I won’t.

“So what’s it going to be? You coming with us willingly? Explain to your friend why she’s there.” He leans in, mouth curdled like rotten milk. “Or are we dragging you?”

Fear like I’ve never felt grips my throat and crushes my windpipe. But I lift my chin and meet Trey’s malevolent stare through the holes in his mask. “Let’s go.”

In the car, they hold me in place and blindfold me. Once we lurch to a halt, three different pairs of hands drag me out of the car so hard, my shoulder nearly pops out of its socket. Too many to fight them off or tear at my blindfold.

I scream and someone claps a hand over my mouth while the rest of them tug me into a building, our shoes echoing, dust filling my nose. I have no idea where we are.

I manage to shake off the hand. “Aneesa!”

But her voice doesn’t come. Did they gag her? Put her in another room?

Is it already too late to save her?

“Where is she?”

Someone pulls my blindfold off right before they shove me to the ground.

Trey looms over me, a hideous smile beneath his mask. The other Devils hold their hockey sticks like bats. “You’re just as stupid as your little boyfriend.”

She’s not here. He manipulated me into coming here of my own free will. He’s the worst monster I’ve ever met, but at least she’s safe. He would’ve brought me here either way—quietly or kicking and screaming.

But at least I don’t need to worry about Aneesa.

Only myself.

“Why are you doing this? Wes told you to leave me alone.”

“Wes was the mastermind. He planned all of this. He’s just too much of a little bitch to follow through.” Trey bends, twisting his fingers in my hair and nearly ripping it from my scalp. I cry out. “An idiot who fell in love with a little pussy.”

My guts turn watery. Wes planned this ambush back when he was still plotting his revenge against me. If it’s anything like the night of manhunt, I need to start running.

But I’m too late.

Trey is already aiming a kick at my stomach.

His foot collides with my abdomen so hard, I think my intestines explode. I scream, the pain the only thing I can feel, consuming my entire mind.

He circles me, letting the pain settle deep while he figures out where to land his next blow.

“Tried getting him kicked off campus so we could have a little more fun with you, but you spoiled that, didn’t you?”

My mouth falls open. “You?” I gasp, amazed blood isn’t pooling from my mouth. “You were the one who reported Wes to Dean Forrester?”

I can’t believe I blamed Aneesa, even after she swore to me that she didn’t say anything.

“Yep. But thanks to you, Novak’s still here,” he snarls. “Even after everything he did to you, you didn’t send his ass packing. All because you liked riding his cock.”

“Why would you try to get your own captain kicked off campus?”

“Novak never deserved to be captain. And you never deserved his protection. With him gone, guess who would be captain?” I can practically feel Trey’s sneer as he leans down and whispers into my ear. “Guess who would have you all to himself?”

He stops in front of me, and I don’t even have time to flinch before his foot rushes at me, replaceing its mark between my ribs.

I scream, the sharp pain ripping through every fiber. My vision flashes once, twice.

I try to scramble back but don’t get far before I bump against someone’s shoe. They kick me forward, nearly splintering my spine in two. My scream echoes in the empty building.

“Shame you didn’t get to ride my cock at the party,” Trey croons. “We would’ve had so much fun. You never would’ve thought about Novak again.”

My head is spinning, but I still manage to taunt him. “I was already having plenty of fun with Wes before the frat party.”

Trey crouches in front of my face. “I wasn’t talking about that party.” He reaches out and sweeps a strand of hair behind my ear. How he can kick me one second and touch me tenderly the next sickens me. “The one at Novak’s. The one where you drowned your little friend.”

My eyes scramble to replace his face, still masked and lips twisted in wicked amusement. “Did you roofie my drink at that party too?”

I never actually drank a drop that night. I started to, but Chloe made me sputter before I could.

“Yep. Amazed you two stayed upright.”

You two.

The blood in my veins hardens to ice.

You two.

The way Chloe was slurring and stumbling shortly after she started drinking. I called her a lightweight, accused her of pregaming without me, when really—

“You spiked Chloe’s drink?”

He pats my cheek before hooking a finger in my mouth. “I told you. That threesome would’ve been mind-blowing.”

Trey roofied Chloe’s drink. That’s why she looked so out of it while we stood by the edge of the pool, after I dared her to jump in.

I’m the one who pushed her. But maybe she wasn’t able to swim because of the drug Trey gave her.

Even if it didn’t cause her death, he still drugged my best friend. He planned to take advantage of her that night. Of both of us.

I wrap my lips around the finger he still has in my mouth, his eyes lighting up before I bring my teeth down as hard as I can.

He howls, lurching back. “Fucking bitch!”

I scramble up and try to keep my feet under me, aim for the tiny opening out of the empty warehouse, but someone strikes me down from behind.

I tumble to the concrete, scraping my hands and elbows and just narrowly missing a strike to the chin.

A hockey stick comes down on my head, the pain nearly splitting my skull open.

I curl up in the fetal position as all five of them surround me. Brody lands a kick to my back. Someone else strikes my legs with a stick.

Snot dribbles out of my nose, mixing with my tears. When Trey aims a punishing kick at my stomach again, blood sputters from my mouth.

His venomous words rattle in my head. “You’re fucking dead.”