“You realize what this means?” Reaves asked in a hushed tone.
“Yup,” Dane said, and the two men almost …smiled?
“What? What’s it mean?” Austen asked. The adrenaline was making her sick to her stomach. “Did I really just end your hockey career?”
“It means we gotta get to the hospital,” Dane said. He turned to Austen. “And you’re gonna drive me.”
“Me?” Austen blurted out.
“Yeah,her?” Reaves agreed, and he glared at her. “You sure she won’t try to drive off the road to kill your ass? Seems like she’s hell-bent on ruining you—”
“Shut up, Reavo. She didn’t mean to do it. It was my damn fault for sticking my hand in the doorway. Besides, you were drinking.”
“But—”
“Don’t argue. And look, I need you to stay behind and make sure everyone gets home safe, alright?”
Reavo begrudgingly agreed.
“And mop all this water up, will ya?”
Chapter 33
Dane
The thought of driving the Maserati scared Austen—“What if Reaves is right? What if I lose control of that thing and hurt youworse?”—so Dane handed her the keys to his Mercedes instead.
“Where am I taking you?” she asked as she started the car.
“Parkland ER.”
Dane pulled out his phone and made a call to his agent. The call went to voicemail. “Hey, Pierre, it’s Dane. Just had a little incident at my house, got the ol’ claw slammed in the door. I’m heading over to the ER right now to get my hand checked out, but from what I can see, it doesn’t look or feel all that great. I’ll update you as soon as I know more, but uh, you know what to do. Okay, later.”
He hung up and looked at Austen. Her upper lip trembled, her brow heavy. The poor girl was upset. Hell, she was far more upset than he was.
“I can’tbelieveI did that!” she said, pounding her hand against the steering wheel.
“Easy. Don’t need you to break your hand, too.”
“Sorry …” she muttered.
“So are you going to tell me what you were so upset about now, or what?”
“It seems so stupidnow. I don’t even deserve the right to say. I’m an idiot. I hurt you and I’m an idiot, a monster, a horrible—”
He touched his hand—the goodone—to her shoulder. “Stop it. Look, it happened. No sense beating yourself up over it.”
“How can I not beat myself up? I keep fucking your life up! First with that interview, and now by breaking your hand! Who knows if you’ll ever play again?!”
“Listen. You’re going to take a couple of deep breaths, and then you’re going to tell me what the hell’s gotten into you.”
She took a few short, rapid breaths.
“Thayer,” was all she said.
“I figured that, but what did Thayer do?”
“Andyou.You were both right about each other. He’s a creepy sleaze and so are you.”
