Chapter 45 Zhuri
forty-five
Zhuri
“Fuck, these pancakes are good,” Bodhi practically moans as he stuffs his face with another bite.
Cameron looks at him in disgust. “Why do equipment managers have to travel with the team again?”
“Because we’re the ones that get your gear ready, dick.”
“Be nice to your brother, Cameron,” Isla says, pointing her finger at him.
He groans. “Why are you taking his side, Icy?”
She shrugs. “Someone needs to be nice to him, or he’s going to think all hockey players are dicks like you.”
“Too late,” Bodhi smirks. “I already know you are.”
Isla rolls her eyes and laughs while Marissa walks up beside us. “Good morning. How’s everyone feeling today?”
“Feeling great,” Nico smiles. “Two and O to start the season is enough to make anyone happy.”
“Nico,” Cam says, “you’re never not happy.”
He just shrugs.
Marissa now directs her attention to Cameron. “You had a great game last night, Kovacic. Well, except for—”
“I know,” he sighs. “Not really how I wanted to start my season on a new team, but I can’t really change it now.”
“What happened? I know you and Jack went to college together, but you rarely fight on the ice.”
I can sense Cameron’s discomfort over making sure he doesn’t say the wrong thing. “Like I said, he said something about one of my teammates. I wasn’t going to let it slide.”
Marissa looks at him curiously, and Cam lets out a sigh of relief when she seems to let it go. “Well, don’t make a habit of it then.” She looks at the rest of the table now. “We fly back to Denver at four. Make sure you’re all at the airport on time.”
Everyone agrees, and Marissa walks off to join Nils at another table.
“Take a breath, Cam,” Sidney says, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t slip.”
“Right,” he says, but his tone isn’t convincing. It seems like something else might be bothering him, but I don’t know what it could be.
The sound of vibrating grabs my attention, and I see both mine and Cameron’s phones light up. We reach for them simultaneously, reading a text from an unknown number.
Instantly, my heart falls into my stomach.
Because this message has a picture of me walking into Cameron’s hotel room last night.
Gotcha, it says.
Cam and I exchange terrified looks across the table, and every bit of optimism I was feeling has been replaced by pure, unadulterated fear…
“Fuck!” Cameron yells as Bet shuts her hotel room door behind us. We showed our friends our phones before Sid and Bet hurried us away from the table and upstairs so we could talk about it without prying ears.
“I need to call Nia,” I say, pulling my phone back out and loading my sister’s contact. While it rings, I go to sit before thinking better of it. “Bet, which of these beds is safe to sit on?”
She rolls her eyes but still glances between them before pointing at the one farthest from her. “That one is good.”
Wes throws his head back and laughs. “Nice job last night, Sid.”
“Shut up,” Sid groans. “We aren’t here right now to talk about my sex life.”
“Whose sex life are we here to talk about then?” I hear my sister say, because of course, now is when she decides to pick up.
“No one’s,” I chide before taking a deep breath. “Something happened, Nia.”
“You sound nervous, Z. Is everything okay?”
“Not really,” I sigh. “Someone caught me sneaking into Cameron’s room last night.”
“Get it, Z!” Nia cheers.
“Nia!”
“Fine,” she laughs. “Sorry. How do you know someone caught you?”
Cameron speaks up. “Because someone texted both of us a picture of her walking into my room last night.”
“Shit. Who could’ve done that?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “We haven’t done anything to make anyone suspicious.”
“About that…” Cameron says, tapping his leg nervously while refusing to make eye contact.
I stare at him. “Cam…”
He lets his head fall back and sighs. “I, uh… might have insinuated to Jack last night that we’re together.”
“Cameron!” I yell, heart racing in my chest. “Why did you do that?”
“I wasn’t thinking,” he groans. “I didn’t intend to tell him. It just came out after he kept talking about how you were in bed.”
“We broke up a decade ago.” I sigh. “Why did that bother you so much? You know he was only trying to get to you.”
“Well, he fucking did.” Cameron leans forward, elbows to his knees, and palms pressed over his eyes. “I’m sorry. I fucked up.”
“Do you really think Jack would do this?” Bodhi asks.
“I can’t think of anyone else that would,” I admit. “It has to be Jack, doesn’t it? I mean, we’re in LA. He might not have been staying at the hotel, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have shown up anyway to get something to blackmail us with.”
“Why would he do it, though?” Bet looks between us. “Does he really hate you that much?”
“He hates me at least,” Cameron says softly. “I know Zhuri’s his ex, but I doubt he hates her as much as he hates me.”
“It’s still out of character, though,” I add. “I know a lot can change in a decade, and he may have been an asshole before, but stooping low enough to blackmail us isn’t something he would have done.”
“I’m so sorry, Zhuri.” Cameron sounds so broken right now, and I can tell he regrets what he did.
I take a seat beside him and rest my head on his shoulder. “I know you are.”
He looks over at me in surprise. “Are you not upset with me?”
“I mean, I’m not happy with you,” I reply.
“I wish you hadn’t said anything, but we can’t change the past. I know you well enough to know you wouldn’t have said something purposely that would get both of us in trouble with the league.
You’re just as involved in this as I am. You wouldn’t do that to either of us.”
He swallows past the lump in his throat. “Thank you, Z.”
“All we can do is move forward.” I take his hand in mine, and he lets out a deep breath.
“What are you going to do?” Sid asks us.
“Let’s go talk to him,” Cam says. “I got us into this mess, so I need to be the one to get us out.”
“We don’t know where he lives, though,” I state.
“Girl,” Nia chuckles, “addresses are public record. He might be a professional athlete, but his address will still be available online, just under some additional security measures. Give Ty five minutes, and I guarantee he’ll have it.”
“Plane doesn’t leave until four,” Isla reminds me.
“Okay then.” I stand up and dust myself off. “Guess we’re going to pay my ex a visit.”