Brutal Game: A dark college hockey romance (Kings of Reina University Book 1) by Jo Brenner

Brutal Game: A dark college hockey romance (Kings of Reina University Book 1) by Jo Brenner

Author:Jo Brenner [Brenner, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: High Rise Publishing LLC
Published: 2024-10-10T00:00:00+00:00


22

Aviva

Ididn’t hear from Jack after that night. He’d disappeared from my life, like he’d promised. I told myself I was happier this way. I repeated it so many times, I actually began to believe it.

The next week passed by quickly. It felt almost…normal, without Jack threatening me from the shadows. I used the time as best as I could—trying to track down Dave Lawson, who was proving elusive as hell—and digging deeper into that reddit thread to see if anyone else had said anything about Joshua Jensen.

Lucy texted a few times, saying that she’d tried again with Blake but he was still avoiding her. I thanked her, feeling dejected. What was I going to do?

On Friday, I took the train to the city for October break. I hated that I didn’t have good news for my brother, hated even more that I was lying to him, but I was relieved to get to spend time with him. Being this distant from my twin was like an ache in my chest, and I needed to see how he was doing for myself.

Aunt Gladys’ home was a small row house in Kew Gardens. I walked up the broken sidewalk with my overnight bag, staring up at the faded red siding, and pressed the doorbell.

A moment later the door opened, and a moment after that, I was swept up in a familiar hug.

“Hi farthead,” Asher said affectionately, as he gave me a noogie. “I missed you.”

I laughed in relief and swatted him. “Missed you more, buttface.”

He grabbed my bag off of my shoulder and I trailed after him.

The old house was clean—unlike a lot of college boys, Asher wasn’t a slob—but sad. Empty, even. Before, the walls in the front hall had been decorated with photos of Asher playing hockey, or the two of us goofing off. Now, all the hockey photos had been taken down. As I watched my brother drop my bag by my old bedroom and head down the hall, pulling at his frayed black shirt, I had a flashback to the days following my parents’ deaths.

Once again, it felt like we were in mourning. For hockey, this time. For his dreams, and maybe for mine.

Uneasy, I followed him into the kitchen, pulling open the fridge to check the orange juice bottle.

“You must be starving after your flight,” Asher said, watching me.

Goddamn it, was I going to spend this whole weekend feeling guilty for lying to him? I spotted the bottle, pulling it out.

Pulp.

Relaxing, I put it back. It seemed like a small thing, but seeing it back in the fridge filled me with a tiny bit of hope.

“I got something at the airport,” I said.

My stomach grumbled, giving me away.

“What do you want to order in? Shwarma? Thai? Pizza?”

“Shwarma,” I said. We took care of ordering food, and then sat across from each other.

“Tell me how you are,” I said.

“I found a job,” he said.

I brightened. Getting out of the house was good. “Doing what?”

“Coaching middle school hockey at the J.



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