44. Colt - Tell Me Now

My mind reeled as I sat there with my forehead laid down on the cold interrogation room table.

How the fuck was this happening? Why couldn’t we just catch a fucking break?

I’m not sure how long I stayed there before the heavy door opened and Johnny, my lawyer, finally appeared. Wearing one of his signature pricey suits, clean-shaven, and with his dark hair gelled back, Johnny strode in with confidence. He and I had played hockey together for a year back in Ontario. He never made it to the pros himself, but he now represented a bunch of us that he played with in the past.

Unbuttoning his suit jacket, he pulled out the chair next to me and sat, then frowned. “You smell bad.”

I side-eyed him. “No shit.” I hadn’t seen a shower or bed since practice yesterday in Florida. “Can you just get me out of here? I need to get back to the hospital.”

When Mer woke up, she asked one thing of me, and I failed. I fucking hated that I was forced to leave her there. The fact that she was in the hospital, scared, hurt, and alone, and I was barred from seeing her felt all too fucking familiar. If I thought too much about it, I was going to break down like a baby.

Johnny opened his mouth to say something else, but the door popped open and two detectives dressed in smart black suits walked in the room.

“Stay silent,” Johnny ordered under his breath while he took a seat beside me. “Detectives,” he greeted them with a pleasant nod.

While they talked, I kept my mouth shut, barely listening. I just kept replaying the past couple days, trying to figure out how this could’ve happened.

My mind kept snagging on Andy.

He was the only person I could think of that would want to hurt Mer. While he wasn’t around five years ago when Stella’s brakes malfunctioned, he could’ve easily repeated the accident to frame me.

It had to be him.

“An–”

Johnny slammed the heel of his dress shoe right on my foot, making me crunch forward.

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, his jaw locked, silently telling me to shut the fuck up.

Blowing out a huff, I stayed silent.

When I was finally released, Johnny led the way out of the station.

“Prepare yourself and don’t say a word,” he said, buttoning his suit jacket.

I had no clue what he was talking about until we walked out into the cold, gray day. Flashes went off and a million questions were shouted at me.

One question rang louder than the rest: Did you kill Stella?

They couldn’t print that, could they? Lucy would eventually see everything they wrote. I immediately felt sick to my stomach.

I held my arm up to block my face. “What–”

“Story got leaked. Not a word, got it?” Johnny said. “Keep moving.”

Doing my best to block out the gathering of press people, I trailed after him on shaky legs as he casually strolled toward his Mercedes-Benz.

Yanking his car door open, I folded myself in the passenger seat and slammed the door shut, blocking out the rest of their questions.

Johnny laid on the horn to make the press people move, then he revved his engine before swiftly backing up and tearing out of the parking lot.

“What the fuck is going on, John?” I stared out his back window at the people still snapping pictures of us.

Johnny cocked his head to the side. “When a captain leaves right before a road game, people are gonna have some questions. When a player has a second significant other almost die in the exact same way the first one died, people are gonna have… more questions.” He shot me a look. “Wanna tell me something?”

My eyebrows slammed down. “You think I did it?” I burst out. “I fucking love her.”

Seeing my pissed off face, he started laughing.

“Oh, fuck off,” I told him. “Take me back to the hospital.”

“You were really going to open your mouth and make my life harder, weren't you? Haven't we talked about this before?”

My face cracked. “No? I’ve never been arrested, asshole.”

He shifted in his seat, thinking. “Wait, you’re right, that was Kappy.”

I did a double-take. “Kappy’s been arrested?”

He scoffed. “Uh, yeah. Had to get him and his pretty little girlfriend out of the slammer at like two fuckin’ a.m. once.”

“What?” He didn’t have a girlfriend. “Who? What’d she look like?”

“Uh… Pretty? Tall-ish? Blonde? I think she was a figure skater?”

Piper?

“Wait, don’t turn.”

“Huh?”

Reaching over, I yanked the wheel to force him forward.

His mouth gaped open. “Dude, what the fuck? Have you lost your mind?”

“Go to the Coliseum,” I demanded.

“Why?”

“Just go to the Coliseum. Please,” I added.

Shooting me a wary glance, he must’ve realized I was serious, because he kept driving.

_________

As soon as Johnny parked, I bolted out of his car and jogged through the first snow of the winter.

Behind me Johnny let out a curse, then he was jogging right beside me. His tie whipped up and hit him in the face. “I just got you out, can we not do this right now?”

I ignored him as I pulled the rink door open.

He was standing across the lobby, giving pointers to two skaters who were working on off-ice lifts.

As soon as his eyes landed on me, he gave me his fucking asshole smirk, transporting us back in time to when he’d be touching Mer right in front of me.

“You!” I pointed at him, my body shaking with rage as I stalked toward him.

He licked his lips and grinned. “Me?”

Johnny grabbed the back of my shirt. “Do not hit him.”

Rolling my shoulder, I shoved him off me.

“If you fucking hit him, I swear to God I will hit you,” Johnny muttered behind me.

I stalked right up to Andy, right into his personal space. He didn’t even flinch.

“Did you do it?” I demanded.

Andy’s face split into a slow grin. Then he laughed. He full-on cracked up. His laughter grated on my nerves, making my anger grow two-fold.

Grabbing his shirt, I shoved him against the wall.

He sobered quickly and held his hands up, but then he smirked again. “This is just too good. I knew it was a good idea to come out here.”

“Did you do it?” I demanded.

He sighed. “She was supposed to leave scared when she saw me. I warned her.”

“Warned her of what?” I growled.

“That it’d be in her best interest to leave town,” he said simply.

I was done with this. I slammed him back against the wall. “Did you do it?” I shouted in his face.

Now his laughter died. “No, I just showed up here like I was told.”

“Told by who?” I demanded.

He grinned like this was the biggest delight in the world for him, completely unfazed that I was about to shove him through the fucking wall. “You sure you wanna know?”

“Tell me now,” I demanded in a low growl.

Nothing could’ve prepared me for what came out of his mouth.

My ears rang with shock as I stumbled back. It had to be a trick. Just another sick joke from him. But as my mind sifted through the last couple weeks, a chill ran down my spine.

Andy’s fucking cackles followed me as I pushed out of the Coliseum.

“You don’t believe him, do you?” Johnny asked me, jogging to catch up with me.

I ignored him, because I couldn’t form words. Not until I figured this out.

Crossing the snowy parking lot, my mind was haunted by all the past mistakes– which may not have been mistakes at all.