39. Mason
MASON
The six-minute drive to Galen’s house stretched on like the slow-motion chaos before getting wiped out on the ice. The kind where my brain scrambled to come up with scenarios that didn’t end on an ambulance gurney.
Calder messaged me that Ryker had showed up at his place, losing his shit looking for me, and sucker punched Erik. We’d deal with that later, but right now all I cared about was Lilah was at Galen’s house.
Trapped at the gala, I’d been frozen, trying to find the threaded needle of the path of least destruction. So many lives hung in the balance of my decisions. No matter what I did, the fallout would be massive.
My only goal was to lessen the size of the crater. Smooth over some of the jagged edges, even if that meant falling into the abyss myself.
I parked beside Ryker’s piece-of-shit clunker.
I cleared the stairs in two bounding leaps and rushed through the partially closed door.
Inside, Ryker’s voice boomed from the back of the house along with Lilah’s quieter, pleading tone.
Galen followed me to the back. “He’s lost his fucking mind. What’s going on? Why wasn’t Lilah with you at the gala?”
I ignored him and ran through the open wall of glass leading to the pool.
The second my foot hit the bottom steps, Ryker released the door to one of the changing rooms and charged from the other side of the pool.
Lilah tried to ward him off and got in front of him. She stumbled, wearing her prom shoes. The ones I’d given her. There was a second of relief before it registered—she’d have chosen to wear them before the gala. Before she found out our future wouldn’t be what I promised.
He shoved past her hands on his chest.
Rage flared in my mind when she teetered on the edge of the pool.
“You!” Ryker lunged for me, but Lilah ducked under his arm and got between us.
“Rye, no!”
Everyone at the party had stopped to watch this unfold. There were at least fifty people in the pool, and the patio and pool deck were filled, with even more flooding out from the house.
“Stop him,” I called out to no one in particular, but proving they were still unwavering teammates, Calder and Galen grabbed Ryker.
I hooked an arm around Lilah’s waist and pulled her toward the guest house overlooking the pool.
She squirmed in my hold. “Let go.”
Behind us, Ryker raged and struggled.
“Stop, Mason.” She shoved at my arm locked around her and wouldn’t meet my eye. “I need to get Rye out of here.”
I closed the door and locked it behind me. “No, we need to talk.”
“Oh, now you want to talk?”
I dragged a hand through my hair. “I know things are fucked right now, but I can explain.”
“You’ve had days, possibly weeks, to explain to me, Mason. What the hell was tonight?”
I scrubbed my hands down my face. “You weren’t meant to find out this way.”
The door vibrated with pounding and Ryker’s muffled voice.
“So you are going to Rhode Island.” Her voice cracked, and she wrapped her arms around her waist, shoulders rounded.
I reached for her hand. “Yes. I didn’t have time to tell you.”
She jerked her hand away.
A raw, mangling crunch crushed my heart.
Then the locked door I’d put between us and everyone else burst open.
Bits of wood, glass and metal sprayed all over the floor. Rye barreled in, channeling an enraged bull, and charged me.
Lilah locked her arms around him. “Rye, stop!”
“You don’t need him and I won’t let his bullshit poison you again.” He spat the words like darts.
“You just can’t handle that she’s not in love with you and she loves me.” Rage coursed through me. He’d been lying in wait for another fuckup from me to tear us apart. He’d had years to make a move. I didn’t miss the way he always found an excuse to touch her, tried to sow doubt in her mind.
Lilah’s head whipped around to face me. “What? No, he doesn’t. This has nothing to do with Rye. It’s about you lying to me about Seattle.”
“It wasn’t a lie!” I shouted.
“That’s not all he’s lying to you about,” Ryker yelled at the same time, spittle flying. Close to breathing steam out his nostrils, he jabbed his finger in my face. “Why don’t you tell her about that woman waiting in your hotel room? After the championship.”
That stopped Lilah’s struggle. She jerked and raised a hand to the center of her chest like Ryker had punched her. “What?” She stepped back from him, the wounded chords of the single word radiating her pain through the air.
Ryker’s rage faltered, and he looked at her, then took her by both arms. “I saw her in his hotel room after the game.”
I grabbed Lilah’s shoulder. “I didn’t know she was there.”
She snatched herself away, eyes jumping from me to Ryker like we were strangers. “And you didn’t tell me? Instead, you invited me out to the gala knowing he’d be there.” A slicing glance at me before turning back to Ryker. “To what? Humiliate me?”
Ryker turned to her. “What? No, that’s crazy, Lilah.”
I shoved him hard enough that his shoulder slammed into the wall and left a hole. “Like fuck you didn’t.”
He recovered, yanking away from the drywall. “I wanted to show you what a piece of shit he was. You didn’t know he was going to Rhode Island. He was screwing around on you.” The hard-edged pleading in Ryker’s words drummed at the base of my skull.
I clenched my fists at my sides, trying to hold myself back—even if what he said was true. I’d fucked this all up and almost ruined Lilah’s life.
“I wasn’t screwing around on you. And I wasn’t lying to you.”
Lilah dragged her gaze to mine. “Then what happened? All you talked about was us in Seattle, all these plans. I told you you didn’t have to, but you kept telling me you wanted it more than anything, and then in front of hundreds of people, they announce you’re going to Rhode Island.”
“My dad—”
“The same dad who’ll make sure you’re entertained on the road during the season.” Her bitter, rage-filled words caught me off guard.
“What?” My head snapped back.
“Oh yeah, he cornered me at the gala and told me all about his sex-doll plans for my future.”
A furnace of hatred for my father was stoked even hotter in my chest. I’d seen him talking to her but couldn’t get to them before she’d run away.
Then my dad had said it was time to go, and I had to follow, determined to talk to her when we got home.
But that had been wishful thinking on my part, delusional coward.
I hadn’t protected Lilah.
She’d been fed to the wolf I’d been stuck in the teeth of for years and had no way of escaping.
“I didn’t want to believe him, but after what Rye said…” she said, almost to herself.
Her pain made the air metallic. Or was it how tightly my jaw snapped shut, nicking my tongue?
“Why couldn’t you just leave me alone, Mason? I was fine before you. And after…why…” Her voice caught and it plunged the knife deeper.
“My father—”
“Is a fucking psycho,” Ryker shouted.
“Shut the fuck up. You don’t understand everything he’s done for me.” It was a reflex at this point to protect him. To cover any and all wrongdoings with the balm of safety for me, Zoe and my mother.
Lilah staggered back, staring at me with blistering betrayal. “This is done. Rye, please, let’s go.” She backed away to the door.
I cupped her elbow. “Lilah, no.”
“Get the hell away from me!” Her shout sliced at me. She shoved my hand away and rushed for the broken, partially closed door.
“Lilah!” I reached for her, but my fingers only caught the draped beading along her back. The thread snapped under the forced of my grasp.
Beads fell to the floor and bounced along the pool deck stone.
She gasped and spun to face me.
Ryker grabbed me from behind and I jerked and twisted to knock him loose.
“Everything’s fucked up. Let me explain.” I struggled in his hold, desperate to find a way out of this. To make it all right.
“Call the cops for the Verona trash,” someone shouted from the patio above.
“Ryker Ferris, we’re leaving or I will call your mother.” She held her glowing phone screen in front of his face.
Then she glanced at me with a shake of her head. “There’s nothing you can say to me to erase any of this. I should’ve been smarter. I should’ve stuck to the plan.”
“Let’s go.” Ryker released me and slipped his arm over her shoulder.
“Get your fucking hands off her.” I grabbed his shoulder and swung at him. The satisfying crunch of my fist against his face was offset by the horror of Lilah being flung from his hold.
Lilah fell to the ground, one of her shoes coming off. Her phone flew from her grasp and dropped into the pool.
I turned toward her.
Pain exploded through the side of my face. My teeth snapped together and copper filled my mouth.
Ryker landed a hit like he’d never been able to on the ice.
“You might live in a big house, but you’re the one who’s fucking trash, and everyone knows it. At least I didn’t have to win a championship for my dad to give me his last name.”
Red flooded my vision. “Fuck you! I’m the one who got the championship, the pro contract in my back pocket and fucked the girl you’ve been too much of a pussy to go after for who knows how long.”
He threw another punch. I dodged it and dropped my shoulder to take him down. Blows rained down on my back.
“Stop it!” Lilah screamed.
Ryker fell over one of the sun loungers, his stumble knocking Lilah to the ground.
There was a sickening crack. He shouted.
I whipped around.
Lilah held on to her chin as blood poured between her fingers and down her arms, all over her dress.
“Shit, Lilah.” I rushed to her, but she evaded me.
“Don’t touch me.”
“You’re bleeding. You need a doctor.” I touched her shoulder.
She shoved me with one hand, tears in her eyes, red streaking across her skin. “Get your fucking hands off of me.”
Stunned, I staggered back, not knowing how to fix this.
“You’ve done enough.”
Ryker dragged his upper body off the ground, grimacing and grunting. “Lilah, I think my leg’s broken.”
I reached for her again, the sick twisting in my gut going straight to my soul.
“Get away, Mason. Please, just stop.”
I backed away from her but couldn’t leave no matter how much she wanted me to. I yanked one of the towels off the stack by the pool and gave it to one of the girls and pointed in Lilah’s direction.
Blood seeped through Ryker’s pant leg.
A compound fracture, then.
Lilah stumbled to a sweating, grimacing Ryker, and I followed behind her. I couldn’t let her go. “Lilah, let me explain.”
She didn’t look over at me, almost like she couldn’t. “There’s nothing you can say to fix this.”
Sirens got closer and then the paramedics were there. A scramble of chaos to get Ryker out of there. Lilah raced along the side of the gurney, barefoot, with the towel pressed against her chin.
I’d fucked things up because I’d been too scared to face the truth.
I couldn’t let her go to the hospital alone. She needed me.
I tried to climb in with them.
Lilah looked up over my shoulder. “Stop him.”
The command hadn’t just worked for me. Calder and Galen grabbed both my arms, and I struggled against them. “Lilah, listen! Please, let me explain!” The frantic terror set in, burning its way through my soul.
The paramedic reached out to close the door.
That’s when Lilah’s eyes found mine. They were still filled with tears and betrayal, and I had no words.
The doors slammed closed in my face. It wasn’t until the ambulance disappeared around the corner, lights and sirens still lingering in the air, that I stopped my struggle and collapsed, locked in fear of what I’d done.
How I’d left us both destroyed.