Page 107 of Slapshot Obsession
“I believe you.” I fight the urge to cry. “I love you, Jo-Jo.”
Andy’s hand comes down as swiftly as a slapshot traveling at record-breaking speed. My face snaps to the side, my cheek and jaw burning and throbbing with pain.
“Shut up! Both of you, shut the fuck up!”
I don’t say anything, but I glare at him. This asshole. I know he’s crazy, but if he thought he could come between me and Jodie, he’s completely delusional.
And like every psycho, he craves attention.
“What?” he yells. “Why aren’t you saying anything, huh, bitch?”
I probably shouldn’t provoke him, but I know he plans to hurt us. If there’s one chance in hell for us to survive this, I need to buy us time. I need to keep him talking. “You just told me to shut up.”
The hit I was bracing myself for never comes. Instead, Andy brings the flat side of his knife flush with my face. “I hope you know that Tim’s death and all this is all your fault, Taryn.”
“Why?” I fight the shudder that wants to work its way down my spine. He wants to scare me. Whatever happens, I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“All you had to do was give it up. Go out with me when I asked. I gave you a second chance after I broke up with Jodie, and you kept turning me down. And no one, NO ONE, turns down Andy Masters. I had to have you one way or another.”
He moves the blade down, tracing the line of my neck, all the way down to my collarbone. It’s like a caress, but there’s nothing loving about it. His eyes are cold, and what I see in them is pure, blinding obsession. “I had a perfect plan the night of the party. My dealer had some really good stuff that would make you unable to say no. All I had to dowas slip it into your drink and wait for my chance. But Jodie got involved again.”
“So it wasn’t Tim who drugged me?” The picture is starting to become clearer in my head.
Right now I would give anything to wipe Andy’s smirk off his face.
“Nope. That douche should have fucked one of the puck bunnies or a drunk Zeta like always. But he set his sights on you and your wingwoman got involved and introduced you to him.”
He says wingwoman like the word leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
“So I had no choice but to give him some of what you had, too. At that point, all I had to do was wait. I watched you and Tim dance, and when you followed him upstairs, I was right behind you. Or should I say ahead of you? I snuck ahead of you and waited in Tim’s bathroom.”
Cold dread makes it hard to breathe. The question is on the tip of my tongue before I can even decide if asking it is a good idea. “Was it you? I know that night I had sex. But I can’t remember anything about it. Was it with you?”
“No.”
I have no business feeling as relieved as I do right now with a blade against my skin.
“I should have given that motherfucker more to make sure he couldn’t get it up. Do you know how pissed off I was? I was stuck in the bathroom while that idiot got to fuck you.”
Andy’s fury is almost a palpable presence in the utility room under the arena.
It isn’t hard to imagine the rest of what happened. “So that’s why you killed him?”
For a disconcerting moment, the mask of anger slips offhis face. His smile is almost sweet, even though his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “See? I knew I should have dated you. You’re way smarter than Jodie. Yes, that’s why I killed him. He took what was mine. Even jerking off in the bathroom while he was inside you didn’t take the edge off. The fucker had passed out on top of you. I had to roll him over before I could get to work.”
There is something I don’t understand. If Andy killed Tim for fucking me, why not take what he wanted while I was unconscious? A part of me doesn’t want to know, but I ask anyway. “So you killed him and left?”
“No. I was so fucking mad that after I stabbed him, I hacked his head off. Do you have a clue how much strength it takes to cut someone’s head off? Afterwards I was exhausted. I took a little nap to get my strength back so I could fuck you. I had been waiting over three years; I wanted to enjoy it.”
God, this guy is even sicker than I thought. “You slept on the floor with a dead body in the room?”
“Don’t be daft, Taryn,” Andy chuckles. “I expected a stupid question like this one from Jodie. You’re smarter than that. No, I got into bed next to you and held you in my arms.”
What would happen if I puked all over him? “You could sleep with a headless body in bed right next to you?”
Andy’s smile widens. “No, it was quite disturbing to be honest. That’s why I kicked the head down toward Tim’s feet. With it out of the way, I slept like a baby. Your tits are so soft, best pillows ever.”
“Fucker!” Nash yells. He’s been quietly listening to his former teammate’s unraveling. “Only a lowlife has to resort to drugging a woman to get her into bed with him.”
