He signed his death warrant the second he thought he could hurt her.
His loss.
Myfuckinggain.
I don’t realize that I’m clutching my hockey stick so tight until Ezra’s voice cuts through my murderous haze. “You alright, man?” He glances at my grip, then at my clenched jaw with worry in his eyes.
I release my hold and my jaw. “I am,” I nod.
He opens his mouth to probe further, but luckily, one of the staff members calls Oliver, Ezra and me for the press conference.
Fuck, I hate it.
Especially since I still haven’t let go of the foreboding feeling since I saw Henry.
* * *
Facing the press after losing the Stanley Cup is nothing short of diving to your own demise.
They’re a pack of hungry vultures, ready to stir trouble and get a spicy scoop of news any way they can get. It doesn’t matter to most reporters in thisroom if their crass words hurt us.
So as Ezra, Oliver, and I take our seats at the table, the entire room filled with reporters to the brim, it doesn’t surprise me that the first question they ask is with the intent to injure.
“Ezra, my question is for you?” the reporter with the checkered shirt speaks into the mic. His eyes darting to me for a second before shifting back to Ezra.
Out of habit, Ezra leans closer to the mic, nodding for the reporter to go ahead.
“Were you aware that your teammate, Noah Miller, is in a scandalous relationship with your sister, Andie Moore?” The smirk on the reporter’s face makes me want to punch him right off this planet.
Something happens.
My heart stops.
I was blinded.
I never saw this coming.
“Keep her name out of your mouth,” I growl before I can second-guess myself. Fuck, media training. I’m never letting anyone stain her name.
My worried eyes flit to my best friend, only to find him frozen. Years of media couldn’t have trained either of us how to handle this if it ever came outlike this.
He shouldn’t get to know something like this from a fucking stranger.
It should’ve been us. Not like thereisan us right now.
Ezra wastes no time in getting up and leaving right out, the plastic chair flipping behind him.
Fuck.
This is not good.
I’m running after him in an instant. I don’t know what I’ll say, but I need to talk to him. Make him understand.
Understand what? That you broke his sister’s heart.
Goddamnit!
“Ezra, wait!” I call out, chasing after him in the corridor of the arena. “Wait!”