Alle Kapitel von The Ice Between Us : Kapitel 31 – Kapitel 40

DERICK'S POVThe moment I saw the red mark blooming across Ciel's cheek, something inside me went very still and very cold. The kind of cold that comes before a storm, when the air turns sharp and every instinct screams at you to take cover. Only I wasn't the one who needed cover. I was the storm."Derick." Ciel's voice cut through the haze, soft but firm. "Look at me."I couldn't look at him, I couldn't look at anything except the bruise forming on his pale skin, the small cut at the corner of his lip, the way his gray eyes held more resignation than pain. He'd been hit before. That was the worst part. He'd been hit so many times that his body knew how to absorb it without flinching."She's still in the office," I said, my voice low and dangerous. "She's probably still standing there, thinking she won.""She didn't win." He stepped in front of me, blocking my path to the hallway. "I told her no. For the first time in my life, I told her no.""And she hit you for it.""Yes. And I'm st

DERICK'S POVThe folder hit the desk with a sound like a door slamming shut. Jess stood over it, her face carved from ice and fury. The rest of us didn't move. We just stared at the thick manila folder, its edges worn."Three years," Jess said. Her voice was steady, but I could hear the crack underneath. "Three years of documenting every violation, every bruise, every late-night practice that went too far. I thought if I gathered enough proof, someone would finally listen."Ciel stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the folder. "Why didn't you tell me?""Because if I'd told you, she would have found out. And she would have destroyed us both." Jess looked at him, and for the first time, I saw something raw in her expression. Not the fierce protector, not the sharp-tongued bodyguard. Just a girl who'd been carrying an impossible weight alone. "I wanted to protect you, Ciel. But I didn't know how without becoming a target myself."Leo moved to her side, his hand hovering near her arm like h

DERICK'S POVThe plan was simple enough to be dangerous. We would stage a fight, a public one, loud enough to draw attention and messy enough to be believable. The blackmailer wanted to see us fracture, so we would give them exactly what they wanted. Two hearts breaking in front of an audience. Two souls splitting apart under the weight of everything we could no longer pretend to hold together.Ciel had suggested it first, his voice steady but his eyes full of something fragile. "If they think we've turned on each other, they'll get sloppy. They'll send a message, something to gloat. And when they do, Leo can trace it.""Or they'll see right through it and escalate," Jess said."Then we make it convincing." Ciel looked at me, and I saw the fear beneath the determination. "We use the truth. The real cracks. The things we've said to each other in the dark."And so we did.The cafeteria was full when I walked in. Students huddled over their trays, whispering about the police, about the b

DERICK'S POVThe note hung from the hoodie's sleeve like a flag of surrender that wasn't surrender at all. It was a challenge. A dare. The words burned into my vision even after I looked away.Now come find me before I finish what Eli started."What does that mean?" Leo asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "What did Eli start?"Ciel hadn't moved since we'd entered the room. He stood near the bed, staring at the photographs on the wall, his face pale as the moonlight spilling through the open window. I watched him, waiting for him to break, to scream, to do something. But he just stood there, frozen."Ciel," I said softly. "Talk to me."He turned slowly, his gray eyes finding mine. "She knows about Eli. About what my mother did. About what your father did. She knows everything.""Then she's more dangerous than we thought.""She's not just blackmailing us," he continued, his voice hollow. "She's building a case. Evidence. Photos, videos, documents. She's going to expose everyone, an

DERICK'S POVThe darkness in the rink was absolute. Not the soft darkness of a bedroom at night, but the thick, suffocating kind that pressed against your eyes and made you doubt your own feet. I reached for Ciel and found his hand already reaching for mine. Our fingers locked together, cold and steady."Nobody move," Leo whispered. "The ice might be unstable.""Unstable how?" Jess asked."I don't know. Just don't move."Tracy was still on the ice somewhere ahead of us. I could hear her breathing, ragged and uneven, the sound of someone trying not to panic and losing the fight. She'd said the man had been waiting. That this was a test. And now the lights were gone, and we were standing in the dark with a girl who'd been used as bait."Tracy," I called softly. "Where are you?""Here." Her voice came from my left, small and shaking. "I'm still here.""Good. Stay where you are. Don't move.""You think I'm going anywhere?" She let out a broken laugh. "I can't see my own hands."Ciel squee