All Chapters of Crossing The Blue Line: His Forbidden Puck Bunny: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONERILEY'S POVThe ceiling came into focus slowly, I saw unfamiliar tiles blurring into their proper form above me.I blinked multiple times, trying to piece together where I was, and how I had gotten there. Fragments of my memory floated up out of the fog clouding my mind.I recalled being in the arena, and then the crowd, and a voice saying something about Jax being gone for days, and then nothing. A completely blank memory where the rest should have been."Hey." Logan's voice, which sounded a little too quiet for someone like him, came from a chair pulled close to the bed."What happened?" I asked weakly, my own voice came out even worse than his."You collapsed at the showcase." He leaned forward slightly, with both hands clasped between his knees. "You don't remember?""I can recall a few pieces, just not everything."He was quiet for a moment, studying me carefully with a funny expression. "You were talking while you were out. You said a couple of things."My st

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREEJAX'S POVTrex, the assistant coach didn't say much for the first ten minutes of the drive, he just kept glancing over at me every time we hit a red light, as if he was waiting for me to volunteer for something he clearly wasn't going to get by staying quiet."You gonna tell me what actually happened?" he finally asked."I told you. I got into acar accident and got robbed after.""Jax." He said my name. "You've got bruising that doesn't come from a fender bender. And you wouldn't let me call an ambulance back at that gas station. People who actually got robbed after a car accident don't usually refuse an ambulance.""I'm fine.""You don't look fine. You look like someone worked you over pretty methodically."I stared out the window instead of answering."Okay," he said, after a long pause. "I'm not going to force it out of you. But I covered for you today, told Coach you had a family emergency out of state. I can maybe stretch that one more day. After that, you nee

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOURJAX'S POV"How," I finally managed, still gripping the back of the chair, "how did you do it? All of it? Alone?"Mara sat down slowly on my couch, like she'd been waiting years for someone to finally ask her that question properly."However I had to," she said. "I worked two jobs through most of the pregnancy. Waitressing during the day, cleaning offices at night until I physically couldn't anymore.""Mara—""Let me finish." She held up a hand. "I gave birth alone. I had no family in the delivery room, because I didn't have any close enough to call. There was just a nurse holding my hand who wasn't even supposed to be in there, but she stayed anyway because nobody else would."I could hear my heart breaking into multiple pieces as she spoke. "I should have been there.""You should have," she agreed, and there was not an ounce of bitterness in her voice. She was just stating the plain fact. "But you weren't. So I figured it out.""When was he born? What day?""March

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIXSCARLETT'S POVI hung up with Logan and sat there for a second with the phone still warm against my ear.He actually thanked me. Twice.I got up, crossed to the drawer where I kept the second phone, and pulled it out. I put in a different SIM to the phone, with no name attached to it anywhere, nothing that traced back to me if anyone ever went looking.I typed the message out slowly, choosing each word carefully.I want a wire transfer of $200,000. Account details to follow. You have 72 hours before I take this to the press instead.I read it twice before hitting send, watching the little delivered notification pop up a few seconds later.There. Now he had a number and a clock ticking down. Fear works better with specifics attached to it. Vague threats let people talk themselves into believing it might not be real. But the number? Oh, they make it real.I wasn't lying when I told him I had people who could trace it. I did. I just wasn't going to point them anywhe

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHTJAX'S POVI woke up on my own couch the next morning, my neck had gone stiff, and I was still fully dressed from the night before.Mara was gone. A note sat folded on the coffee table where she must have left it before letting herself out.I didn't want to wake you. We'll talk soon about Elias, I mean the arrangements and all of it. Take care of yourself. -MI sat there staring at it for longer than I probably should have, the aching in my ribs was nothing compared to the ache sitting deeper in my chest.I was still trying to process that I had a son, that he existed, and that he had been asking about me for years while I had no idea any of it was happening. “Elias.” I said the name out loud once, quietly, just to hear how it sounded coming from me.I didn't have too much time to sit with it properly. Practice was meant to start in two hours, and the assistant coach's cover story only bought me so much runway.The rink was already rowdy with the usual pre-practice