Page 16 of Undone

Snap out of it.

“Finish up here. I’ll wait,” he offers, before nodding at me with a quick, polite smile.

Toren waits barely a moment, eyes a storm of amber, before starting down the hallway after him with a speed that breaks my hold.

“Hey!” I shout, tripping after him. “Wait— We’re not— We should talk—”

“No need. I don’t even think I’m legally allowed to, Lily.” His taunting smile is as sharp as his incisors. “Or have you forgotten that?”

My stomach drops, but I stop following him. Toren leaves and I stand there for too long—long enough that someone taps my shoulder to scoot past me.

A tall boy, golden blond hair and nice eyes with a smile that makes me a little calmer almost immediately.

“Heyyy,” he says, dragging out the y. “You don’t look like you’re supposed to be here, pretty girl.”

I feel like he’s flirting, but I’m too unsure to do much other than blink at him.

“You okay?” he asks, when I don’t respond. Or move.

“Um . . . yeah. I’m fine.”

He laughs, all bright and open. “Yeah?”

I nod.

“I’m Holden,” he offers then, reaching out his hand. His giant hockey bag starts to slip off his shoulder, but he muscles it back up with a lopsided grin.

I mimic the movement and shake his hand, tucking a loose hair behind my ear. “Lily.”

“Do you need help finding something?” Holden asks. A door shuts in the background and we both look toward the source of the noise. Toren is standing there, watching Holden with his arms crossed. His eyes are incredibly careful to not even graze over me.

“Hey, Kane—I thought you quit,” Holden calls, but his eyes are sparkling, and his grin is almost brazen. “Glad to see you couldn’t keep away from me that long.”

He’s . . . joking with Toren. Being nice to him. It makes a warm feeling in my heart grow for the golden-haired boy still standing at my back.

“Yeah.” Toren shakes his head, eyes still narrowed.

“You ready to warm up?” Holden asks. “The new coach wants us to run some drills prepractice, I guess.”

New coach. My dad—it’s a reminder that he is definitely here somewhere and that I need to be away from Toren Kane before he senses us. Still, a thousand questions swirl through my mind over why he might’ve taken this job. He had to know that Toren was here.

“Of course he does.” Toren snorts beneath his breath. “Yeah, c’mon.”

Holden takes my shoulders in his large palms and moves me carefully out of the middle of the hallway. “See you around, Lily?”

I nod. “Okay.”

“Good. This arena’s full of ugly bastards like that one—” He points at Toren. “Need people as pretty as me and you to keep up morale.”

He’s flirting, I think. But I’m not completely sure. Before I can ask him to clarify, he heads toward the locker rooms on the heels of Toren Kane.

Like a golden retriever puppy following a Doberman.

Chapter 6

Toren

“Again.”