Puck Princess (Houston Scythes Hockey #2)

41. Owen

41

OWEN

“Bro, where are you going?” Dax’s voice rings out as I skate off the ice.

Something is wrong. I can feel it.

It’s weird enough that Callie isn’t sitting in the stands. But the fact that Santos is nowhere in sight? That has me worried. Even if she did just get up to go to the bathroom or something, where is he ?

Callie said something about not staying quiet that had both Santos men looking uneasy, but I shoved it aside. I assumed she’d be safe for the duration of a hockey game and took the ice. But I should’ve stayed there and demanded answers. A few seconds ago, winning this game meant everything to me. Now, with Callie and Spencer both MIA, nothing else in the world matters.

“Sharpe!” Coach barks at me as I rip my skates off in a panic. “What are you doing? We’re on fire out there! Why are you taking your gear off?”

“I need to find Callie.”

“You need to find— Are you fucking kidding me? Get your head in the game, Sharpe!”

If Coach knew what I did—if he felt it—he’d understand. He loves Callie.

“It’s not like that. I think she’s in trouble.” I jog towards the door before he can say anything else. None of it matters, anyway.

I knew me taking the ice instead of Spencer was going to cause problems with Rodger Santos. I was prepared for Spencer to retaliate against me. I was prepared to lose my job the second Rodger had any say at all in my future. But I didn’t think they’d go after Callie. I thought I was digging my own grave; not hers.

I need to find her.

When I get to the PT room, I nearly knock the wind out myself as I slam into the door.

What the fuck?

It’s locked. It’s never locked. Even after hours, the lights will be dimmed, but the door still opens.

My adrenaline is pumping like battery acid, every alarm in my system telling me something is wrong. I hear voices on the other side of the door. And what sounds like crying.

I back up and run at the door, ramming into it with the full weight of my hockey-geared body. And the lock snaps against my weight.

The door swings open, and I see them.

Both of them.

Spencer has Callie pinned against the wall. She’s crying, clearly terrified and in pain. Spencer looks like a rabid animal, rage contorting all of his features. He’s got his hands all over her.

“Santos!” I charge across the room at him, having no plan other than to rip him apart limb from limb.

I don’t need to know what is happening here. There is no amount of context that would ever make it okay for Spencer Santos to be that close to my fiancée. There is no reason she should be crying.

Spencer springs away from Callie, eyes wild. Then he sees me, and he has the gall to look annoyed with me. Like I’m interrupting. He puffs himself up like he’s going to square off with me, but my only goal is to get him as far from her as possible. I don’t slow as I close in on him, slamming my body into his and forcing him back against the wall.

I drive my forearm into his chest, itching to let it slide up to his throat, to watch him sputter and turn blue. “You are never going to touch her again.”

He chuckles around a gasp. “That’s up to Callie to decide.”

“She’s my girl.”

“Yeah, well, she was mine first.” His words are smooth, his head cocked to the side slightly. I’d love to knock it clean off his shoulders. But then, all at once, a Christmas tree worth of lightbulbs illuminates in my head. One by one, they flicker on, connecting all the dots I should’ve put together months ago.

Callie has slid down the wall to the floor. She’s crumpled in a heap, gripping her stomach and crying. She looks up at me, and I see the horrible truth painted there.

She lied to me. She’s been lying to me. As she looks from me to Spencer, I can see that she doesn’t know what’s coming next. She doesn’t know what I’m going to do now.

The fear in her eyes breaks me.

I turn back to Spencer. “You’re her ex.”

He smiles, and I can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier.

He’s the one who ran her out of her last job. He’s the one who has been following her, hunting her, threatening her.

All this time, he was right here. And she didn’t tell me.

With each realization, I feel the wind knock out of me.

“Like I said,” he shrugs, “I had her first. If you hadn’t walked in, I might have had her again.”

She didn’t tell me who Spencer was, but… Callie would never want him. She would never choose him.

“She was practically throwing herself at me,” he continues. “Just like she did when we were in school.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, the jumbled pieces are clicking together.

Callie is terrified of Spencer. She has nightmares. When he was following her, she ran in the opposite direction, trying to escape him.

She locked herself in a bathroom and called me to save her.

Whatever past Spencer is alluding to, the only thing I know is that it has to be so, so much darker than he’s making it seem.

And that is all I need to know.

“You hurt her,” I snarl.

Spencer’s lips actually have the audacity to tip in the corners, threatening one of those infamous Santos smirks I’ve grown to hate. “Only a little…”

And I hit him.

My fist connects with his jaw, and whatever comes for me because of this—it will be worth it.

He put his hands on my future wife. He’s trying to lay some kind of sick claim on her, and I’ll fucking kill him before he takes another step towards her.

His head cracks to the side and it throws his balance. It’s enough for me to take him to the ground. I fist my hand in his jersey, nailing him to the floor hard enough it makes his eyes rattle.

“You’re never going to touch her again,” I say again, trying to make sure he understands. If he touches her again, I’ll fucking kill him.

Spencer goes perfectly still for a second. Then, he drives his leg up and rolls until he’s on top of me. He punches me in the eye and Callie screams.

“I don’t need to touch her again,” he pants, hitting me again. “I already got her pregnant.”

No.

Callie gasps. “Owen, no?—”

But whatever she says is lost as I flip Spencer over, slamming him against the thick wooden leg of a table. The air whooshes out of his lungs, and I pin him back to the ground, snarling in his face. “The baby isn’t yours!”

I’ve lost so much. So many things have been taken from me. This baby— our baby —was mine. It can’t be his.

Blood dribbles from his lip and down his chin. “Do the math.”

Math, science, time-traveling witchcraft—it doesn’t matter what I do, the facts don’t change.

“I don’t need to. I remember the day, the moment, my baby was conceived!” I hit him again. And again.

“Stop it! Both of you!” Callie cries out, her words strangled.

Sharpe laughs around the blood in his mouth. He looks deranged. “I told you I had her first.”

I stand up, breathing heavily, my ears ringing.

Spencer knew Callie first. They have a history. For the first time in his miserable life, he could be telling the truth.

But then I realize… I don’t care.

I reach down and yank him off the ground before slamming him into the wall. “I don’t give a shit. Even if your blood runs through that baby’s veins, the child is mine .”

My arm is barred over Spencer’s neck. He is struggling to inhale, getting only enough air to comprehend what I am saying. If I press my forearm any harder, it’ll be lights out. But I want him to be awake for this. I want him to hear me.

“You’d raise a bastard just to spite me?” he rasps.

I lean in, my face hovering in front of his. “None of this has anything to do with you. I’ll be a father to that child because it deserves one. It deserves better than you.”

Spencer gives me a smirk as a Hail Mary before spitting blood into my face. I hit him again.

I could do this all day. I could beat the ever loving shit out of him until he is just a bloodied, unrecognizable piece of meat. But then I look over at Callie. She’s leaning over the counter of the PT table—still sobbing, still scared, and still in pain.

I’m going to stop. For her. For the baby. And because this is not who I am.

I take a step back, letting Santos fall to the floor. The doors fly open with security guards marching towards us. I have no idea who called them or why they’re here, but I’m sure they’re here for me.

I step back, prepared to be hauled away, but they hustle past me and go straight for where Spencer is still slack against the wall.

“Why are you grabbing me?” he bellows. “He did this!”

They haul him to his feet by his armpits. “We heard everything you said on the walkie.”

“What walkie?” He looks at me, but I’m wondering the same thing.

“This walkie.” Callie holds it up with one hand, bracing her stomach in the other. While Spencer and I were going at it, she must have grabbed it off the table.

“Things aren’t looking so great for you,” the other guard says.

They haul him out of the room, kicking and screaming. “This is bullshit! I’m going straight to my lawyer! You’re going to be in so much shit by the time I’m done with you, Sharpe! This isn’t over.”

I ignore him. The second he’s out of my sight, he’s off my mind.

I rush over to Callie. She’s trembling from head to toe. As soon as I’m close, she falls into my arms.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs. “I am so sorry.”

I stroke her face, scanning her for injuries. If there’s even a bruise on her, I’ll hunt down Spencer. He’ll be begging for the security guards to haul him away by the time I’m done with him.

“What’s wrong, Callie? What hurts? Did he hurt you? Tell me what he fucking did.”

Callie shakes her head. “It wasn’t him. It feels like a knife in my stomach. Owen, I think I’m having contractions.”

Fuck.

“It’s too soon for that.”

The desperate sheen in her eyes tells me she knows that, but it doesn’t change the reality.

“Owen,” she hiccups, clinging to me. “I’m scared.”

And just like that, the last puzzle piece snaps into place.

I don’t care who the biological father of this baby is. I don’t care about Callie’s past.

This woman is mine. The baby she’s carrying is mine.

And I’m not going to let anything happen to either of them.

“It’s okay,” I whisper, bending down to scoop her into my arms. I cradle her against my chest. I can feel her warm, shaky breath against my neck as I carry her to the door. “I got you, Callie. Everything is going to be okay. I’m going to make sure it’s okay.”