Hockey With Benefits

We were in the locker room. My phone was blowing up, but I wanted to shower and change before heading out. Coach had given us the congratulations talk and a reminder that we’d all signed off, saying we weren’t the university’s responsibility tonight.

“What the fuck?” Labrowski was reading his phone before he hit a button and put it next to his face. Whoever he was calling, they answered and he said, “What happened?” He listened for a second before looking right at me. “Hold on.” He dropped the phone, saying to me, “Mara called Angela, said something about her recanting her statement.”

“What?”

He shook his head. “But she didn’t. She broke down crying to her roommate and mentioned that she might do that. But she didn’t mean it, it was a thing where she was saying she just wanted everything to go away. Then Mara called her a little bit ago, asking about if she was taking back her statement. Something about a fraternity asking about her too.”

Atwater exclaimed, standing by his locker, “Holy shit! Daniels’ mom tried to off herself?”

I twisted around to him. “What?”

He held his phone up, showing me the screen. “That’s what that blogger is saying.”

I took two steps and ripped the phone from him. “What the fuck?” I skimmed it, cursing by the end because there was a video of Mara’s mother. I wasn’t even wondering how the fuck that happened. Carrington. That’s how it happened. Only he would have the motivation to set all of this up.

The fucker had been busy.

I tossed Atwater his phone and started to grab my things. A shower would have to wait.

“What are you doing?” Atwater asked.

Labrowski yelled, “You going somewhere?”

Barclay came out of the shower, a towel wrapped around himself. “What’s going on?”

“Heads are going to roll.” I hit the button to call Mara, but it went straight to voice message. That meant her phone was off. That was not good. I growled, calling Miles first. He picked up right away. “Hey! We’re at the hotel and freaking out. Have you heard from Mara?”

“That’s why I’m calling you.” I dressed quickly, aware of the guys hurrying around me. “Where is she?”

“We don’t know. She took off right before the end of the game. Her and Allen were in some convo, and yeah. She just zapped out of there. Her phone’s off.”

“What’d she and Allen talk about?”

“I don’t know. He took off too, linked up with some of his boys and they’re looking for her.”

I grabbed whatever I needed. Shoved my wallet in my pocket. My bag had everything else, and the rest was at the hotel. Grant West wasn’t paying for our rooms tonight, so my bag and a lot of the guys’ were checked at the hotel. The plan had been to get another room, one on the same floor as Mara and her roommates. We just hadn’t checked in yet.

I slammed my locker shut and began heading out.

Three other lockers shut right behind me, and I glanced back, seeing Atwater, Labrowski, and Barclay trailing behind me. Labrowski was on his phone. Atwater and Barclay were solely focused on me.

I asked Miles, “Are Tasmin and her boyfriend with Allen?”

“Yeah. They took off with him.”

Solid. I had Race’s number. “Thanks, Miles.”

“Wait. What are you going to do?”

“Find Mara.”

“Cruz, another article came out today…”

“Another one?” I stopped abruptly, right outside the locker room. There were a lot of people around, a lot of eyes on me. I ignored them. “A second one?”

“Yeah. This one was saying something about Mara’s mom–”

“Wait. That was the second one? What was the first one?”

“The one about you and her being official, and there were definite slut shaming themes in it.”

“About me?”

“About Daniels.”

Fucking hell. “Same writer?”

“Yeah. The one who’s obsessed with you.”

Christ. I’d need to deal with her, but first things first. “You got a question about the mom one?”

“It’s saying her mom is that con woman who showed up, and she–”

I knew what it said. I didn’t need to read it to know exactly what was inside the story, based on Atwater’s reaction. “Listen, Gaynor. Don’t believe shit from that article.”

“But that woman is the same woman who came–”

“Then think about that. Think about how we had to concoct a whole lie to get that woman out of Mara’s place. Think about the look on Mara’s face when we left, when that woman was following us out. Think on that shit, and while you’re doing that, I’ll be looking for Mara.”

“But if her mom really tried to kill herself–”

I wanted to tear out of there, and rip some literal heads off their shoulders. But I couldn’t because what was alleged, via Atwater’s reaction and what I was hearing from Miles, this was a serious issue. “Article says her mom tried to kill herself?”

“Yeah. And that Mara wasn’t there for her.”

“That’s a lie. Mara was there. She drove three hours to be there, and when she got there—” Crap. I stopped myself because I was spilling Mara’s personal life. “You need to hold off judgment and wait to talk to Mara if you really want answers. The only thing I can say is to do that.”

“Okay. Regardless, I’m here for her.”

“Good. Then tell her after I find her.”

“We’ll look for her too. Skylar already mentioned grabbing the vehicle and driving around, see if we see her walking somewhere.”

“Thanks. That’d be helpful.” I hung up, started walking out to the parking lot, and I dialed Race Ryerson’s number. He picked up after one ring, and I said in lieu of his greeting, “Tell me you know where Mara is?”

“We don’t. She doesn’t know Cain, and we know people who know people who find people. Taz is wondering if she should loop them in. They could probably find her.”

I needed to think about this.

It was Cain. Her phone was off, so she wasn’t using a car service to get anywhere. Miles was at the hotel, and she wasn’t there. She wasn’t with Allen and their group, so she was on her own and walking, and I started looking around, seeing what was in the nearby area here.

I saw it.

A laundromat was tucked away on the corner across the giant intersection before people turned into the hockey arena.

“I think I know where she is.”

“Where is she?”

“I’ll call you later.” I motioned to my guys. “I gotta go over there.”

“You need to clean some clothes?” Atwater scratched his forehead, frowning.

Labrowski was back on the phone.

I asked him, “That Angela?”

He nodded to me. “She didn’t know Carrington threatened Mara, and she’s livid. Not at Mara, at Flynn. She also thinks it was Bianca and her roommate who let everything leak about Flynn first being arrested and now this. She found out that Bianca has been talking to Flynn all week. Confronted her and the roommate folded, told her everything and showed her all the emails, DMs, and texts. Apparently Flynn was using Bianca to get close to Angela’s roommate. Angela hadn’t been talking to B since this happened, so she buddied up to the roommate. There’s a lot of bad shit Flynn was saying about Angela. I have to go back. Angela’s going to move in with us until we can figure out a new rooming situation for her.”

“Score. Cupcakes every day!” Atwater pumped his fist in the air.

Labrowski shot him a grin, but added, “I’m sorry, Cruz. I–” He motioned to his phone. “I gotta go.”

I nodded. “That’s fine.”

“Here.” Barclay tossed him his keys.

“What are these for?” Labrowski caught them before tucking them into his pocket.

That was our way home. One of his buddies drove it here, and we were going to drive it back.

Barclay waved at him, nonchalantly. “So many people drove here. We’ll figure a way home tomorrow and if not, we’ll rent a vehicle. Take it. Go back and help your girl move.”

Labrowski stilled, hearing that terminology.

He only blinked a few times before jerking his head up. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” He indicated the parking lot. “Is it here?”

“It’s at the hotel. Shit. I didn’t think about that.”

“It’s okay.” Labrowski started moving toward some student we knew. “I’ll get a ride. Go.” He waved at me. “Go and get your girl. I’ll be good.”

“Fill up the tank of gas!” Barclay yelled at him.

Labrowski held a hand up in acknowledgement, taking off.

Atwater raised an eyebrow at me. “One crisis fixed. Another on deck. Let’s go and take care of Daniels.”

Shit just got heavy, real heavy, but I led the way to the sidewalk, then the intersection. We waited to cross. I kept waving as vehicles were leaving, saying congratulations to us, and to me. A few paused to see if we needed a ride somewhere. Atwater took care of them, and then our walking light went on. We hurried across and had to wait one more time. The same thing happened on this way, but it was more Cain people. I was guessing this street led to the student housing. But then the walking light went on again, and we crossed.

Going into the laundromat, I saw one woman in the corner putting clothes into a washer. Another woman was reading a book behind a plexiglass and in a back office. She looked up our way, stared at me, before pointing in the far corner.

I looked but didn’t see anything.

I walked forward, holding a hand back to Atwater and Barclay to wait by the door.

I kept going until I could see a mat was in the corner. There was a tiny section between the wall and dryers. It wasn’t enough room for them to fit in another set of dryers, so it was left, but on that mat, was Mara.

She was slouched down. The top of her back was resting against the dryer. Her butt and half her leg was on the mat, and she had a foot wedged up against the wall. She was staring ahead, because there was a narrow window by the corner of her wall and next to a washer. The window ran all the way to the floor and to the ceiling, and she was gazing out, a set and distant expression on her face.

I dropped down next to her.

She didn’t look at me. I didn’t know if she knew I was there.

There was no reaction on her face, or body. Nothing. It was like she was a statue.

I murmured, “Mara.”