Page 50 of Rule Breaker

Kayden: Where are u?

Maddox: Back at the dorm

Kayden: Me and Dane are coming over

Maddox: Don’t

Kayden: I want to make sure you’re okay

Maddox: I’m responding to your message, aren’t I?

“Ugh, he’s driving me crazy,” I grumbled as I showed Dane the texts. He rolled his eyes.

“Let’s go. He’s on the second floor, right?”

I nodded. I’d ferreted out Maddox’s room number. Or, he’d given it to me after I asked a bazillion times.

When we arrived at room 222, I knocked twice.

Waited. Knocked again.

Dane’s phone buzzed. “It’s Jackson calling. I’ll be back in a sec.”

Dane answered his phone and walked down the hallway.

When the door finally opened, Maddox looked like his usual self, in worn jeans and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. But when I glanced at his face, I knew he was anythingbutokay. His eyes were red and swollen, and he was still pale. Something was really fucking wrong.

“Just you,” he mumbled and opened the door wider.

I nodded, texting Dane to let him know, and entered Maddox’s room.

“What really happened out there?” I asked him.

Maddox sighed and ran an agitated hand through his hair.

“The past caught up to me.”

CHAPTER 19

MADDOX

Physically, I was fine. Mentally, I wasn’t great.

The logical part of me knew that getting hit in a game was inevitable. And an accident. One of those things. It’s hockey after all. It’d happened to me before. And when six-foot guys weighing over two hundred pounds are barreling down the ice at full speed, it’s expected. Not so much for goalies, but yeah, it happens.

Probably another reason why I gravitated toward the net.

But it wasn’t just being hit. It was witnessing the fight that ensued. I had a visceral reaction to watching someone get punched. Immediate panic. Sickness, dread. Flashbacks. Horrible memories that never faded.

Brawls didn’t happen often at this level, but fights weren’t unheard of. And I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was.

“Can I sit down?”

Kayden’s question snapped me back into the present, and I stepped aside, motioning for him to take a seat. My room was a standard one, with a twin bed, a desk and chair. That was pretty much it. Thankfully, Kayden took the chair, and I stretched out on my bed.

“You asked me about my tattoos,” I started, crossing my arms, rubbing my hands over my shoulders, then gripping them as tight as I could.

Say it.I didn’t know that I could. Not all of it.