Page 78 of Callous Shot

Liana:

It’s going well then? Still telling yourself he’s your enemy?

Me:

he IS my enemy

Liana:

It’s sweet how in denial you are. Does this go both ways? Does he also think you’re his enemy?

Kane nudged me, hard. “You texting my girl?” he hissed.

My brows flew up. “Your girl? Does she know that?”

“Keep your nose out of my fucking business.”

“You need anger management, bro. We’re friends. Me and her, and you and me. Remember that, yeah?”

Once again, he growled under his breath, proving my point about him needing anger management. But eventually, he deflated with a sigh. “Yeah.”

Okay, that was probably as good an acknowledgement as I was going to get from him. I returned to my text conversation with Li.

Me:

we hate each other. we’re just working out some of our shit in a more productive way

Liana:

T O X I C

I sent her a middle finger emoji, and I noticed her stifling a laugh.

Liana:

You’re so in denial, Daniel. In fact I’m going to refer to you as Denial instead of Daniel from now on. It only involves switching two letters of your name

Me:

you’re a cruel cruel woman

She replied with a kissing emoji. “Liana’s a sadist,” I said to Kane. He should be aware of this fact.

“Shut up, Hoyton.”

Rude. Glancing over to my right, ready to recruit Jay to my side, I discovered that the lecture had ended while I was engrossed in my conversation, and Jay was now leaning forwards in his seat, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend from behind and kissing her neck. I pulled a face, leaning around his back to meet Ryker’s impassive gaze. “King. You seeing this PDA from Banks and your sister? Gross.”

“Jealous?” Jay raised his head, smirking.

“No.” Maybe I was, a bit. Kissing Lincoln in private was one thing, but to actually be able to— Whoa. Stop right now. Lincoln bellend Bellingham didn’t factor into this. Not even a little bit. I had a great life, packed full of sexy times with many, many beautiful women, and I…

Fuck. I dropped my head to the table, groaning. Why wouldn’t he get out of my mind? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him every fucking second of every fucking day? The only times I ever had a reprieve were when I was on the ice—unless I was playing against him—or doing less-than-legal shit with my family or my boys, or when I was asleep. That was it.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, then buzzed again. And again.

“Arson.”

All thoughts of Lincoln instantly wiped from my mind as I took in Ryker’s darkened eyes and clenched jaw, his fist tightening around his own phone. “What?”