Page 72 of Make Me Mean It

CHAPTER TWENTY

THEO

I’m tracking the puck up the ice when I’m blindsided.

A shoulder drives into my ribs and takes my skates straight out from under me, sending me sideways before I can get an edge down. My blades tear uselessly across the ice as the fucker keeps driving, until my shoulder slams into the boards, rattling my teeth.

Pain punches through my side, winding me.

I stay pinned against the boards, lungs pulling uselessly for air while a high-pitched ringing fills my skull and swallows the rest of the rink.

I shove the fucker off, sending him back a step, ripping my helmet off and flinging it across the ice before I’m even fully upright.

“What the fuck?” I snarl, squaring up to him as my lungs finally start working again. “I didn’t even have the puck.”

Davey doesn’t bother pretending it was an accident, a crooked grin pulling at his mouth as he gives me a lazy shrug.

“What can I say, Knox?” His eyes slide over me. “Looked like you needed waking up.”

He shoves at my shoulder again, his head cocking. Taunting.

My skates slide beneath me, pain biting through the shoulder I just put into the boards, and whatever was holding me together fucking snaps.

Because I should’ve seen him coming.

That’s what really gets me.

I should’ve seen the hit. Should’ve had my edge down before he got anywhere fucking near me, but apparently I’m still too busy thinking about blue eyes and a mouth I can’t get out of my fucking head to play the game I’ve been playing most of my life.

And now this asshole is grinning at me because he fucking noticed.

My gloves hit the ice, and Davey’s smile widens.

“Yeah?” I’m back in his space before he can reset, close enough to see his grin falter. “You think that’s funny?”

My fist cracks across his face, his head snapping sideways, pain bursting through my knuckles where skin splits against bone.

Fuck, that feels good.

“Come on, asshole.” I crowd him again, barely hearing the roar building around us as everyone with half a brain starts getting the fuck out of the way. “Say something.”

Davey’s fist comes straight for my face.

I get an arm up just in time, taking most of it against my forearm before he plants both hands against my chest and sends me sliding backwards. My blades bite into the ice, and I’m already pushing off again, but Davey meets me halfway, burying a fist in my stomach.

“Fuck-”

I fold around it, air ripping from my lungs, pain taring up through my already fucked ribs.

I straighten with a growl, swinging for him, but Davey beats me to it.

His fist glances off my cheekbone and turns my head, splitting skin as my teeth cut into the inside of my cheek. Blood floods hot and metallic across my tongue.

I spit red onto the ice, turning back to him, a laugh bubbling past my lips.

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, smearing blood across my knuckles as I step towards him again.

“Yeah,” I rasp, grinning through the sting in my cheek.