Hockey With Benefits

My hand was hurting, but it was worth it. We were at a local police station. Angela was talking to a detective. It hadn’t been what I’d initially thought. I was thinking the worst, but as Mara recorded, Angela told a story about how Flynn had been aggressive, though he stopped when she said no. He just hadn’t stopped soon enough. They’d been at a party at someone’s nearby house, another Alpha Mu brother, and she lost her phone. She went with Flynn because he’d been charming and she thought he was sweet, despite his reputation.

They were making out, and he got too rough. She said no, he pushed. She said no again, he pushed again. He hit her. That’s when she began screaming no, and then he yielded. After that, she didn’t know what to do and they met up with his friends. She thought she’d be safe since his friends were there, but instead of going back to Grant West, they went to the beach.

She said, “We were leaving, but he got a text from someone. Then he said we were going to the beach. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know this area.”

Mara heard that, and her whole face went flat. We were thinking the same thing. Carrington was told we were at the beach.

She came over to me now. “She called her roommate. She’s coming to pick her up.”

I settled more firmly against the wall behind me. “She hangs out at the house. Labrowski was best friends with her brother. And now this? I stopped myself, but Labrowski, he won’t.”

She moved closer to me, her hand resting on my chest, falling to my pants and her fingers tucked in. Holding on. It appeased me a bit. But the thought of what he did? And the worst part: “He’s going to get away with it.”

She moved, turning her back to the police station. It was just the two of us in our corner. I rested a hand on her hip, drawing her closer. I needed to touch her. My head folded down. Hers lifted, and she said softly, “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true, and you know it. His dad is a senator. He’s going to get special treatment, and he’ll have some fancy lawyer come in and then what?”

She held her phone up, her eyes looking almost dead. “Then I leak this.”

My hand tensed over her hip. “I thought the police wanted that.”

“They do. I’m supposed to send it to them, but I’m keeping a copy. I don’t care if it’s wrong.”

“That’s Angela’s recording more than yours.”

“I know.” Some of the dead look lifted, just slightly. Some humanity came back to her. “I won’t do anything without her blessing. I’m not like that, but Cruz, I did this for you too. He’s going to target us. You know that. You and me. He was screaming how he was going to end you. Him? I take that seriously.”

“Cops know that too. It’s documented, and we have proof.”

“Yeah.” She turned and leaned her whole side into me, both of us watching Angela. I moved my hand up, my arm curling around her shoulders and I held her tight.

Then we waited.

Her roommate showed up a little over an hour later. There wasn’t a lot of conversation after that. Mara went over. She talked a little with the roommate before they left.

The detective had come over earlier too, filling us in on what he could. It wasn’t our case, we couldn’t know everything. He did promise that they had already been speaking to Flynn. He sounded genuine so we’d see what the fallout would be, if there was any.

That’s when they questioned me, saying Flynn was claiming I attacked him on the beach. I gave them a full rendition, and they asked, “He threw a bottle at you first? Threatened you and raised his arm, coming at you?”

“He started for me first.”

That went a long way, and they said with the bottle, threat, and bodily movement coming at me, that he incited the violence first. Once I heard those words, a cement truck of stress lifted off me. Then I remembered Angela and it came right back down.

We were free to go after that. Once in my truck, I reached for my phone, bringing up Labrowski’s number.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m calling Labrowski. He needs to know.”

“No. That has to be her decision–”

“Mara.” The emotions about my sister, the phone call with my mom, being with Mara and not being able to touch her, and then Flynn, Angela… I sighed. “I get your loyalty is to her in this situation, but I’m telling Labrowski. I’m on his team. We live in the same house. He’s my boy. If it were you, I would never forgive the roommate and teammate who knew and didn’t tell me.”

She let out her own sigh. “Just–don’t tell him the specifics.”

“Trust me.” I didn’t wait. I hit the call button.

After three rings, he picked up, sounding groggy, “What the fuck, Styles? You better not be calling from jail. You know what time–”

“Shut up for a second.”

He went silent. Then, rustling sounds came over, and he asked, way less groggy now, “What is it? You okay?”

“Listen.” I was staring at Mara as I spoke, “Daniels and I are at a police station, but not in Grant West–” He started to talk. I said over him, “We’re fine. I’m fine, but man, Angela.”

“Angela was there?”

“Listen to me right now, I can’t be the one to tell you, but I’m letting you know, she’s probably almost back to Grant West by now. You need to go to her. Okay? You hearing me?”

“Fuck! Fuck! Yeah. Jesus. Okay. You’re okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“It’s late. Where are you?”

“Don’t worry about us. Call Angela. Okay?”

“Okay. Jesus, okay. Let me know when you’re back.”

I was so tired and sore. My body had stiffened up from waiting at the station.

Mara said, “There might be a small inn here. We could stay here and go back in the morning?”

I gave her a look. “You really think either of us could get any sleep in an inn around here?”

Her mouth flattened, and her shoulders dropped dramatically. “We’ll need coffee then.”

I drove to a nearby gas station, filling up the tank. Mara went inside, but came out and met me as I was going in. She had a bag of food hanging from her arm and her hands were filled with two coffee cups. She raised one. “For you.”

I nodded. “Thank you. I’m going to take a quick piss.”

“I got water as well. Gatorade.”

“Thanks. Here.” I turned and hit the unlock button.

“Thanks.”

I moved past but turned and walked backwards. She did the same, watching me and for a moment, both of us paused. There was no one else here, except one gas attendant inside. We were in the middle of fucking nowhere, had gone through what we went through, and she never broke down. Not once. She stayed and she fought for me. She’d been my anchor when every part of me wanted to go back and finish the job with Carrington. Then she took care of me, thinking ahead, fighting back in her way, and she was there for Angela. She stayed for Angela, the whole time when we went to the police station.

Mara was the one who talked Angela into pressing charges now, not later.

She did that, and even though Mara was saying she did that for me and for Angela, there’d been something about her, like she was too familiar with the whole process.

The thought hadn’t fully formed in my head until now, but it’d been there. In the back of my mind, ruminating. Now I couldn’t let it go.

She saw the question in my eyes. Her chin lifted. Her face cleared of all exhaustion. She knew something was coming from me, and my God, but she wasn’t even flinching. She was facing it head-on.

“That ever happen to you? What he did to Angela, or what I thought he’d done to her?”

She blinked, once. A stricken look flashed in her gaze, but then it was gone after she blinked a second time. “Once, yeah. When I was too young to know anything.”

Everything in my body clenched up. She’d been hurt, and I hadn’t known her then. It was still there. It still hung over her. She was still carrying it.

“What happened?”

She lowered her head, shaking it, slowly. Her fingers tightened around the coffee cups, but then she looked back up, and a whole different expression was there. It looked deep, tortured. “I don’t carry emotional scars from what the guy did. I went to therapy, worked that out of me, but it’s what my mom did that hurt the worst.”

“What’d she do?”

“She made it about her. It’s what she always does.” She rolled her eyes, before looking away. “Can you hit the unlock button again?”

She started walking back, and I hit the button. I waited until she got inside.

Until she got comfortable, turned to face me, and I hit the lock button back again.

People were precious and Mara, I was realizing how precious she was.

Maybe more than she wanted to know.