The Publicity Stunt

24. Chapter Twenty-Three

Video of Bri performing her newest single and breaking down at one of her concerts in Cincinnati plays on repeat on Kace”s phone. It already has over twenty million views, and it”s hit the top ten on the charts. He can”t help but wonder how many of those twenty million views are from him alone.

Bri”s fans still scream at him every chance they get, and he doesn”t even argue. He deserves everything they think of him, and he can”t refute much. Not that anyone would believe him if he told them he actually does love her.

Rudy goes out of his way to be accommodating, but Kace still wants nothing to do with the man off the ice. On the ice, he doesn”t even look at him, only the puck. The fact he thought he could become friends with him again makes him angry. He should have broken his jaw, so Rudy couldn”t continue to try and talk to him.

Kace shows up at the stadium in Moose Jaw early, which has become his new normal. If he comes early, he misses the reporters and mobs of people wanting his head on a stick. Because of this, Rudy has also come to the stadium early in an attempt to talk to Kace.

When he gets to the locker room, he finds Sasha waiting for him. She rarely came to the games in Canada, let alone showed up early enough to see him. It”s also February in one of the colder parts of the continent. She never would come this time of year. Never.

”What are you doing here?” Kace asks.

”I was hoping to talk to you,” Sasha says.

He looks at her and shakes his head. Her strawberry blonde hair sits in tendrils like he always said he liked, but she never wore, and she wears tight jeans with a well-fitted black jacket. Peeking out from the collar is the unmistakable orange of their jersey, and she even wears light orange eye shadow. She really went all out.

”No, thanks.”

”Please, Kace?” she asks, her arm on his to stop him as he tries to walk past her and into the locker room. ”We were together for almost two years.”

Turning, he laughs. ”And the last six months, you were fucking someone I thought was a friend. I don”t think our time together has the leverage you think it does.”

Her body stiffens, and her eyes cast to the ground. The same eyes he used to love, but the sky blue looks nothing like the sapphire shade of Bri”s.

”I know.”

”Are you here to apologize? Because I don”t need that. And I don”t want that.”

”Were you going to propose to me?” she asks and looks back up at him.

”Does it matter?”

”It does to me.”

Looking at the wall, he twitches his nose. ”Yeah, I was. I planned to surprise you with the VIP tickets I bought for the opening night of Bri”s tour, and I was going to propose when she sang Two Lovers. All the stars aligned because she didn”t play the song after the shit Easton pulled on her, so I wouldn”t have been able to do it the way I wanted anyway.”

”I only hooked up with Rudy because I was hurt about you hooking up with Amanda.”

Rolling his eyes, he looks away. ”That”s bullshit. And I still can”t figure out why neither of you bothered to ask me instead of being the shadiest fucking people I”ve ever met in my life.”

”Kace-”

”I never have, and I never will, cheat on a woman I”m committed to. You should have known me well enough to at least talk to me before hopping in Rudy”s bed and riding his cock out of retaliation.”

”You”re right,” she says, flinching at his crass words.

Rudy walks up and stops short when he sees the two of them talking. ”Hey, guys.”

”Rudy,” she says and gives him a small smile.

Kace looks at Rudy and then Sasha before laughing. ”Let me guess... you two aren”t together anymore?”

”No,” Rudy says. ”I realized how wrong it was, especially as everything came to light. We should have talked to you instead of doing what we did.”

”No, shit,” Kace says.

Sasha looks at Rudy, and Kace sees the longing there. Wait, did she fall in love with Rudy?

”I”m gonna change for warm-ups,” Rudy says and walks into the locker room.

”Sucks, doesn”t it?”

”What”s that?” Sasha asks, her eyes moving from the closed door.

Sighing, Kace shakes his head. ”Realizing you were just a pawn in his game. You were the pawn he used to hurt me, and when it didn”t hurt anymore, he discarded you like last night”s leftovers.”

”You really wanted to marry me?”

”At the time, I thought I did.”

”Do you think we could ever give this another try?”

His eyes widen. ”Do you think I”m stupid or blind? Or maybe you think I”m both.”

”I don”t think you”re either.”

”You didn”t love me, Sasha. You loved what I could give you, but you were never in the relationship for me. And I made excuses and thought I was so in love that I convinced myself I wanted to marry you. But we don”t work.”

Nodding, she looks at the ground. He”d expected some type of argument, but even she knows the only time they ever truly got along was in bed. Even then, he knows it”s lacking in comparison to what he had with Bri.

”Don”t think I didn”t catch the little look you gave him. You may not have loved me, but I can see you love Rudy.”

”He doesn”t want me anymore. His friendship with you means more to him than I do.”

”That”s a stupid reason because I couldn”t give two shits if you two decide to be together. He and I will never be friends after what he did to Bri.”

”Did you love her?”

It”s Kace”s turn to look at the ground. ”The relationship we had wasn”t fake, and that”s all I”m telling you. I need to go change.”

He walks into the locker room, and Rudy avoids eye contact. His locker remains rows away from his, and Kace just shakes his head as he walks by.

”What”s that for?” Rudy asks, but for the first time in almost a year, there”s no attitude or hatred in his tone. It sounds more like defeat.

”If you love her, go to her. She loves you,” Kace says and sets his bag on the bench.

Rudy walks around the corner and looks at him. ”It”s not that simple.”

”She says you ended things because your friendship with me is more important than your relationship with her.”

”It is.”

”That”s just stupid,” he says and opens his locker.

Walking over, Rudy sits on the bench next to his bag. ”Why?”

”Because we don”t have a friendship. I don”t give a shit what you and Sasha do. Before that interview, I was over it all. I thought maybe we could work out whatever issue it was you had with me and become friends again. Not best friends, but not the enemies you decided we were.”

”You really don”t think you can ever forgive me?”

”Nope,” he says. ”The only way I”d even consider it is if Bri forgives me and comes back to me. The chances of that are just as slim. But we are teammates for the rest of the season, so there”s a need to be cordial. On the ice.”

On the ice, Kace finds himself unstoppable. Even though half the world hates him, he finds an outlet for all of the emotions he can”t seem to reconcile within himself off skates. The Bootleggers are up by three points, and the right wing he”s dealing with won”t stop talking about Bri.

”Was she good in bed? She seems like she might be a bore,” Evan Green says. ”And she definitely doesn”t suck cock.”

Kace does everything he can to ignore him, but any chance he gets, Kace checks the man into the boards and takes a little pleasure when it takes a moment longer than it should to recover.

”Hit a nerve, did I?”

”If you don”t shut up, I”m going to shut you up. For the rest of the fucking night,” Kace growls.

”You”re just pissed because she probably never let you find out how she was in bed. It was a fake relationship, after all. And she”s a good girl, not a puck bunny. Shit, I bet I could get my rep to work out a similar deal with her. I won”t be stupid enough to get caught, but I”ll be sure to let you know how good she is riding my dick.”

Slamming his shoulder into him, Evan falls, and Kace grabs the puck. Racing full steam ahead, he needs to slap the puck before he”s ejected for knocking the asshole unconscious. He stops, lines up his shot, and knocks it into the goal on the right side.

The buzzer goes off, and he starts skating back to the line when something from the crowd gets his attention. For a moment, he swears Bri sits there. When he turns back around, realizing his mistake, he sees Evan barreling right for him. It”s the last thing he remembers about the night.

Opening his eyes, Kace flinches at the bright lights and searing headache. His father sits to his left, and he stops him from sitting up.

”Just lay back. You have a concussion,” Victor says.

”What happened?”

”Dirty hit from the other team. When you hit your head on the ice, it cracked your helmet.”

Cracked his helmet. ”Feels about right.”

”I”m just glad you”re awake. They wouldn”t give me any information over the phone. They carried you off the ice on a stretcher when you didn”t get back up.”

”How”d you get here so fast?”

Movement in the doorway catches his attention, and his stomach flutters when he sees Bri in the doorway.

”You”re awake,” Bri says. She stands in sweatpants and a baggy sweatshirt, and he hates how pale and haunted she looks. Even like this, she”s still beautiful. ”That hit was scary.”

”That girl is an angel,” Victor says. ”I couldn”t get a flight out until tomorrow, and Bri calls me out of the blue. Tells me to be ready in thirty minutes, and she and her team came and got me to bring out here.”

Her right shoulder shrugs. ”Tour”s over now, so I was close to Texas.”

”Stay,” Kace says, his eyes never leaving her. ”Please.”

”I can”t,” she says.

He reaches a hand out to her. ”Come here?”

Pausing for a moment, she seems to give in and walks over to take his hand. ”I was worried about you when I saw the hit.”

”You watched the game?”

”It was on where we were at,” Bri says.

Her vague commentary bothers him. Where was she? Who was she with? Why does she look like she hasn”t seen daylight in months?

”Stay, please,” Kace says. ”Bri, please.”

”I can”t,” she says and pulls her hand from his. ”I have a TV appearance and an appointment in the studio I have to get to. My sixth album has a release date, so I have to get it finished.”

As bad as his head hurts from the light, he doesn”t want to close them. Not when she stands right in front of him. ”Can you call me when you”re done? Please, Bri, talk to me.”

Her fake publicity smile appears on her face. ”We don”t have anything we need to talk about, Kace. I need space to process everything that happened, and I”m finally finding some time with the tour done. Please don”t send your friends to bombard me again. It just makes it worse.”

”My friends?”

Walking to the door, she turns and looks at his father. ”Victor, I arranged a hotel room for you. It”s right across the parking lot here, and it”s reserved for the next week. Feel free to change the date as you need, and I also have a ticket for you at the airport when you”re ready to head to Texas. Just call for the date you need, and they”ll take care of it. I know you won”t let me pay for first class, but I did put you in business class. And before you argue, it”s all already taken care of.”

”Bri,” Kace says. ”Don”t do this. Please, baby. I miss you. We need to talk because there are things you don”t know.”

”I didn”t know a lot. But I do now. Don”t worry, I know all about Amanda and Rudy and some girl named Tiffany throwing up on you. It sounds... really gross, actually.”

He needs to come up with something. Anything. ”Bri-”

”Get well soon. I”m glad you”re okay, and I hope you and the team make it to the Stanley Cup. It”s your dream, and I wish you nothing but the best. I really hope you get what you want, Kace. One of us should.”

Nia walks up. ”Bri, sweetie, we need to get going if we hope to make it on time. Hair and makeup are already on the plane, and I have four outfit options for you to choose from waiting.”

”Goodbye, Kace.”

Ushering her away, Nia looks back and glares at him before he has a chance to say anything. His head feels like a dull ache compared to the gaping wound in his chest watching the woman he loves walk away.