Bad Intentions: Chapter 15

Coach prowled the locker room. I could feel his intensity radiating across the space. This was it. First game of the season. I meant to start like we would go on. I caught the other Ice Gods’ eyes. This was our team, our night, and our victory. This year, we’d go all the way. I wouldn’t settle for anything less. The team we were playing shouldn’t be a problem, but we had yet to test our teamwork against others.

He gave us a pep talk that I barely heard. Inside my head, I could already hear the roar of the crowd, the swish of my skates on the ice, and the sound that the biscuit made as it hit the net. It was chaotic. I followed the team out of the locker room, toward the rink. The colors of the Hellions were black and purple. The opposing team was green and blue. The rink was split evenly in half. We hit the ice and started to warm up.

My eyes searched the crowd for Lily. She was sitting with her mom, just behind where Coach was standing. Perfect seating. When her eyes collided with mine, she jerked as if I’d physically touched her. Good. I wanted her to feel my presence. I wanted to crawl inside her head, like she’d crawled inside mine.

I watched her as I skated, stretching my legs and warming the muscles. If her eyes left mine, they quickly returned. I held her gaze. I wanted her eyes on me this entire game. I’d play even better if I knew she was watching.

We took our positions for the start. I looked away and at the opposing team for the first time. Tonight, we were going to win, and we weren’t going to stop winning until this season was over. Tonight, I was going to get everything I wanted, and if I didn’t get it, I was going to take it.

The buzzer sounded, and I smiled.

“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” Coach’s shout rattled the windows of the locker room after the game.

It had been a swift victory in the end. The Pucks hadn’t been able to keep up with the Hellions by the first intermission. We’d destroyed them, and this was only the beginning. The team was in high spirits as they stripped off their jerseys and padding. I hung back, like always, waiting to get the showers to myself.

“If you guys keep this up, Nationals are ours. I’m damn proud of you, and hell, I’m damn proud of myself!”

The players clapped as Coach laughed.

“Now, I know you’re all going to party. I don’t care. Just don’t get so messed up that practice on Monday is a bust. Happy birthday to Cayden—what a great way to celebrate turning eighteen!”

The cheering was thunderous at that. I felt oddly humbled by it. My birthdays usually consisted of getting shitfaced with Uncle Jack and avoiding the hookers he tried to press on me to “celebrate” with. Having friends, ones who actually wished you well, was a foreign concept to me.

Marcus caught my eye and headed toward Coach. I‘d asked him for a favor, and he seemed certain he could deliver. Initially, I’d been fine with letting Freckles hide at home during parties, but not anymore. If I had to be there, so did she. She was the only interesting person in Hade Harbor. She was the only interesting person anywhere, and I wanted her close. Tangling with Lily was the highlight of my life, and I was already addicted. It was too late for me.

“Coach, you know that Selena and Beckett are throwing a little party for Cayden and Lily tonight, right?”

Coach frowned, clearly surprised to hear his daughter’s name in the same sentence as the others. “No, I wasn’t aware. She hasn’t said anything.”

“Well, you know how she is. She probably doesn’t want to upset you by coming, seeing as you don’t trust any of us with her,” Marcus teased. He was the only one who could get away with talking to Coach like this. “But we all know the rules for Lily. You don’t have to worry. You should let her celebrate her birthday with her friends. Eve will be there looking out for her, anyway. The whole school is coming,” Marcus lied. Only a select few from the school were coming, those that Beckett could tolerate, which wasn’t many.

Coach considered his words, rubbing at his neck. He turned to pin me with a look. “Will you be going, Cayden?”

“Of course. I can watch out for her, if you want. I won’t be drinking, sir, and I’ll bring her home by midnight, if that’s good with you.”

Coach blew out a breath, his fatherly concern warring with the need to make his daughter happy. He had no idea that she’d be happiest to go home with him and avoid the party altogether. Sadly, for the birthday girl, that wasn’t an option.

“Let’s say 11:30,” Coach said finally on a pained exhale.

Satisfaction curled through me.

Marcus grinned. “Great, she’ll be so excited. Asher will take her and Eve over there, so I guess you can just go on home and celebrate tonight with the missus.”

“Watch it, Marcus,” Coach Williams warned but smiled, nonetheless.

Marcus ambled over as our teammates headed into the showers. “Well, how was that?”

“A master class in bullshit. Well done.”

He smirked. “Well, I didn’t do it for free. Put in a good word with Selena for me tonight, remember?”

“I doubt you need it. As far as I’ve heard, she has a weakness for Ice Gods.”

Marcus nodded and shrugged at my judgmental look. “Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game. Why work hard for it if you don’t have to? Not all of us like to live on the wild side, like trying to get the coach’s off-limits daughter alone. Are you sure you know what you’re doing playing with Bug?”

“No,” I answered truthfully, taking a long swig of water from my black-and-purple Hellions bottle. “But I’m going to do it anyway.”

Marcus laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. “I’ve gotta respect that dedication to a goal. If we ever make it to Nationals, you’re the guy to take us, I have no doubt. I’m gonna hit the shower. You coming?”

I smirked at him. “Stop trying to see me naked. You’ll only feel bad about yourself.” I was used to deflecting any and all conversation about why I didn’t like to shower with the others.

Tossing his jersey and padding to the side carelessly, revealing his unblemished torso, Marcus smirked at me. I’d long ago stopped feeling jealous of guys who could walk around without their shirts and not worry about people staring. My body and my past had shaped me into the driven person I was today. Those scars were what fueled me to get the fuck out of Midnight Falls forever. I couldn’t hate them, but I could and would hide them. I didn’t need to be the subject of cruel gossip. Only one person had ever seen them besides Uncle Jack, and that was my little Ladybug.

I hadn’t been kidding when I’d written in her new journal. I’d shown her mine, unwittingly, and then I’d seen hers. We were connected, me and her, by our dark secrets. The ones we never wanted the world to see.

Fight it as she tried, the truth was undeniable. I’d seen inside her pretty, twisted head, and now, she was mine.