What?
“Attack you? Who attacked you?” I look at her again.
Was she being chased? Is this why she was running and she looked so disheveled?
“YOU!” she yells. “You attacked me, you asshole. You didn’t like me since the second we met. And you hate that I live in your condo. So you decided to get rid of me. You thought you’d use the Zetas’ party game to scare me off. When creeping outside on the deck at night didn’t work, you took it up a notch and tried to choke me. I’m gonna kill my brother for telling you guys about why I left my ex, by the way.”
Fuck. Luke did say that her ex was violent, but he didn’t exactly elaborate. Did her ex choke her?
That’s beside the point, however.
If someone assaulted Bex, that’s really concerning. Especially if she’s convinced it was me.
“Bex, I seriously don’t understand.” I say, struggling to stay calm. “Did someone try to hurt you?”
If a look could kill, I’d be dead right now.
“Stop playing games, Keene.” She snaps. “You made it clear that you don’t like me, and just so you know, it’s fucking mutual. But touch me again, and I promise you aren’t going to be worried about losing your teeth on the ice.”
The idea that she could knock my teeth out would be funny if she didn’t think that I would attack a defenseless woman.
“Violent, I see.” I offer her a glare of my own. “Aside from the fact that I would love to see you trying to hurt me, since you’re the size of a hummingbird, I would cool your fucking jets. I just got here. I have absolutely nothing to do with whatever just happened to you. Or with whatever you think you saw outside the window at night.”
She isn’t appeased by my words.
“Sure. If it wasn’t you a few minutes ago in there, then let’s see what’s in that bag.” She bites out, pointing at my gym bag at my feet.
I roll my eyes. “Have at it. But I expect a fucking apology when you don’t find?—”
“Ha!” she’s been crouching down, rifling inside my bag. “How do you explain this? Huh, asshole?” She shoots back up onto her feet, slapping my chest with something.
A full face hockey mask.
Fuck. I forgot about that. “That means absolutely nothing.” I explain. “This year, the Cove Knights have a new sponsor. And even though those full coverage masks are usually more for the goalies, we all got issued one at the beginning of summer training camp. I guess I put it in my bag when we came back to campus and forgot about it because I never use it.”
She doesn’t believe me. “That sounds very convenient.”
“I’m telling the truth,” I argue. “I don’t know who attacked you, but it wasn’t me.”
“You’re lying.” She accuses me.
I’ve had enough of this conversation. I came to do an act of kindness and I’m not going to stand here and be accused of a heinous act.
“I’m not lying. And if you want to report it to campus security, go ahead. I’ll come with you. But as far as I know, you’re making this up to get me kicked off the team and out of our condo, since it’s obvious that we’re never going to be friends. You’re going to have to prove it was me behind that mask, though, if you think you’re going to get me in trouble. Good luck doing that, since the entire hockey team has identical masks on their equipment.”
Bex isn’t just crazy. She’s also stubborn as fuck. “I know it was you, Keene. You’re even dressed like the guy who chased me.” She points a finger at me.
“Big fucking deal.” I laugh, looking down the length of my body. “The entire hockey team has the same workout clothes. They give them to us during summer training. Your brother and your boyfriend have these clothes. Even Connor has the exact same ones. So you have nothing to accuse me other than the fact that you don’t like me.”
As if summoned by my words, Connor jogs toward us in the same workout clothes I have on.
“See?” I glare at my accuser.
I expect Bex to have some smart ass comeback, but she doesn’t say a word. She’s staring at Connor as if she had seen a ghost.
“Hey beaut—Bex. Are you ok? Jamie and Luke were worried that you weren’t answering your phone. They sent Keene to make sure you were ok, but he stopped answering his phone too. So they asked me to come and see what was going on.”
Bex takes a step back from him, her eyes roving over the length of his body. “Those clothes. You weren’t in those clothes earlier. Why are you dressed like Keene now?”
