All Chapters of Second Chance on the Rink: Rebirth of the Ice Queen: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

109 Chapters

Chapter31 I'm Coming For You

Preston’s POVI got my assistant Marcus on the phone before I was even out of the conference room."Scarlett sent me two letters," I said. "SO. That's it. Find her.""Could be an accidental text," he said."You don't know Scarlett." I moved down the hallway toward my office, and the people I passed got out of the way without me having to ask. "She doesn't make accidental anything. If she sent that, it means she was in the middle of something and got cut off. Which means whoever cut her off probably knows she was trying to reach someone."Marcus was quiet for a second."Where was she headed this morning?" he asked.I thought back. She'd left around noon. She'd mentioned something about meeting her mother, and she'd been heading east when she pulled out of the driveway. I told Marcus all of it."Focus east," I said. "Whatever resources you have, point

Chapter32 Sweetheart, You're About to Die

Scarlett's POVI was still working on a counter-offer when the leader's fist caught me across the jaw.Everything stopped.When I opened my eyes again, I was in a warehouse. The lights were off. The only reason I could see anything at all was a thin strip of pale light coming in under a metal door somewhere behind me.My wrists were zip-tied together behind my back, pulled tight enough that I could feel my pulse in my fingertips. Rope went over my chest and looped around the chair back three or four times, pinning my arms flat against the wood.My ankles were taped to the chair legs separately, duct tape layered over rope, wrapped so many times there was no flex in it at all. Someone had shoved a rolled-up cloth into my mouth and tied another strip around my head to hold it there, knotted hard at the back of my skull. I couldn't spit it out. I couldn't do much of anything except breathe through my nose and take stock of where I was.One guard. Sitting near the door with his arms cross

Chapter33 And Just Like That, He Was Gone

Scarlett's POVI didn't give her anything. Not a word, not a sound.Madison kept talking anyway."Your mom is literally crying right now," she said. Her voice had that soft, pleased quality it got when she thought she'd won something. "She's been running all over the place trying to get the money together. She's so desperate to buy you back. It's honestly a little sad." A pause. "She has no idea that even after she pays, you're still going to get blown to pieces."My chest locked up.Mom.I thought about her face. The way she would look when she found out. The way she'd been running around all day trying to save me, pouring everything she had into getting the ransom together, not knowing it didn't matter. Not knowing the outcome was already decided."You used her contact information," I said. My voice came out flat. "You faked her messages to get to me. You actually went after my mother.""It worked," Madison said simply.I couldn't let myself sit in it. If I started thinking about my

Chapter34 It Was Preston Who Saved Me

Scarlett's POVTen.Nine.Eight.The countdown ticked off the wall of the warehouse like a metronome counting down to nothing.Seven.Six.I closed my eyes.Five.Preston is in a wheelchair. He can't walk. There's no one coming.Four.Three.I'm going to die in this room.Two.Then the window exploded inward.Glass came first, a burst of it, catching the last red light of the sun and scattering across the concrete floor like something out of a movie.Before I could process what I was seeing, a body came through after it, fast and deliberate, and then arms were around me and the rope snapped and we were moving, crashing through the secondary panel on the far wall, and then we hit the ground.Hard.Both of us, together.The explosion came a half second later.The shockwave rolled over us like a wave of solid heat. I felt it in my teeth.The back half of the warehouse folded in on itself with a sound like the world caving in, and the person on top of me pressed their hand over the back of

Chapter35 Kiss

Scarlett's POVThe first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Preston.He was sitting right there, next to the bed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his eyes fixed on my face. The lines around his mouth were tight.His jaw was set. He looked like a man who had been sitting in that exact position for a while and had no intention of moving until he got some kind of confirmation that I was okay.My head was killing me. The fluorescent light above the bed was doing me no favors.I blinked a few times. The ceiling. The railing on the bed.The IV in my arm. Hospital. Right.Preston.I turned my head and looked at him properly for the first time, and the thing that jumped out at me all over again was the same thing that had knocked me sideways back in that rubble.He was standing when he came for me. Running. He had sprinted through a window frame at full speed with me in his arms.The man sitting next to me right now was not supposed to be able to walk.I pushed myself up on

Chapter36 When They Meet

Scarlett's POVI put both hands on Preston's chest and pushed.He didn't move immediately."Preston." I kept my voice at barely a whisper. "Get up. Right now.""You know," he said quietly, "this feels a lot like sneaking around.""Bathroom. Go."He raised an eyebrow."I am not kidding. If Pierce sees you here everything falls apart. The whole arrangement, everything we've been building, all of it. Go."Something shifted in his expression.He read my face for a second, then he stood up smoothly, without any visible urgency, picked up the thermos from the side table, and walked to the bathroom door like he had all the time in the world.He glanced back at me once before he went in.The door clicked shut.I pulled the blanket up, took one breath, and wiped the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand.Pierce stepped fully into the room.He stopped when he saw me and his whole face did something complicated, relief and guilt and something softer underneath both of those.He looked exhau

Chapter37 Preston Plays Hockey

Scarlett's POVAnd then I saw what was standing in the bathroom.A hockey player.Full gear.Padded jersey, the kind that made a person's shoulders look twice their actual width. Pants, skate guards, gloves still on. And a helmet, face cage down, completely covering everything above the jaw.I had no idea how he'd gotten any of that.I had no idea when. I had no idea where he'd found a full set of equipment in a hospital bathroom in what could not have been more than four minutes.I stared.Madison stared.Pierce stared.The hockey player stood there holding a water bottle like this was perfectly normal.Madison recovered first.She turned around and looked at me with an expression that I recognized immediately, even through the shock, because she'd been making it my whole life.The slightly parted lips. The eyebrows pulled up in exaggerated disbelief. The performance of being scandalized."Are you serious right now?" she said. "Scarlett. Is this why you didn't want me going in there?

Chapter38 Hello, Ma'am

Scarlett's POV"You're a hockey player," I said."I was. And then I was again.""That's not an explanation."Preston leaned back in the chair and crossed one arm over his chest, resting the other elbow on it, like this was a perfectly ordinary conversation to be having in a hospital room while he was still wearing full hockey pads."I played in high school," he said. "Seriously. It wasn't just a hobby, it was everything. I was good at it."He said it without any particular pride, just as a fact. "Then I went overseas at eighteen to play at a higher level, and about five years ago there was an accident during a game. My leg took the damage. The doctors said I wouldn't walk right again, so I came home and I built the company.""I know that part," I said."Right." He nodded. "What you don't know is that two years ago, the leg was fine."I looked at him."Fully healed," he said. "Took longer than it should have, different approach to the treatment, but it worked. I didn't tell anyone.""Yo

Chapter39 You Have Terrible Taste

Scarlett's POVPreston gestured toward the guys crowding the doorway. "These are my teammates. The ones who brought the gear over."There were six of them, all somewhere between eighteen and twenty, standing there with big stupid grins on their faces. One of them was still holding his helmet under his arm.They looked more like kids who'd gotten caught sneaking into a movie than professional athletes."Hi," one of them said, waving awkwardly at me."Hey," I said.That seemed to break the ice. Suddenly all of them were talking at once."You're way prettier than the boss described.""He talked about you literally every day, no joke.""We're so glad you're okay, he was losing his mind when you got taken."Preston shot them a look that could have frozen the entire rink. They all shut up immediately.I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing.Preston cleared his throat. "Anyway. The reason I asked them to come." He turned back to me, his voice settling into something more businesslik

Chapter40 He Could Never Afford This

Scarlett's POVI walked right past Pierce like he wasn't there.Not a glance, not a pause, not even a shift in my pace. I pulled out my chair and sat back down and picked up my water glass like the most interesting thing in the room was the menu.Pierce didn't leave."Scarlett." He stepped closer. "I'm talking to you."I took a sip of water."Come on." His voice dropped, trying to go somewhere softer, more private. "Can we not do this right now? I just want five minutes. That's it. Five minutes to talk like two adults."I set my glass down and looked at the guy across from me, one of Preston's teammates, a nineteen-year-old named Jake who had a piece of bread halfway to his mouth and was watching the whole thing like it was better than anything on TV."What did you think of the training schedule I mentioned earlier?" I asked him.Jake blinked. Then he caught on. "Oh. Yeah. I think it's a great plan. Really thorough."Pierce put his hand on the back of my chair. Not touching me, but cl

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