My Hockey Captain Ex is Now the Ruthless CEO

The View from the Audi

Chloe’s POV

The heater in my Audi was blasted on high, but the chill in my bones had nothing to do with the October rain beating against the windshield. I gripped the leather steering wheel so hard my manicured nails dug into the leather, staring through the blurred glass at the gym exit.

"He did not even look at you," Sienna said, snapping her lip gloss shut with a little pop. She adjusted her mascara in the vanity mirror, not even bothering to sound sympathetic. "He walked right past your locker before the rally, Chloe. Like you were a ghost."

"I was looking at my schedule," I lied, my voice tight. "I did not notice him."

"Right. And that is why you have been staring at the back parking lot for twenty minutes." Sienna turned in the leather seat, crossing her arms over her silver puff jacket. "Face it. Daniel lost his mind the second his dad took away his credit cards. Now he is running around in dirty flannel shirts with Director Vance's charity-case niece."

"Emily is not a threat," I snapped, turning my head so fast an earring caught on my collar. "She wears shoes from three seasons ago, Sienna. She has a scholarship review next week. Daniel is using her to get under his dad's skin, and everyone knows it."

"She was holding his coat in the west hall," Sienna countered, raising a perfectly penciled eyebrow. "And she did not look like a fake girlfriend. She looked like she owned him."

My throat felt tight, hot, and dry. Daniel had belonged to me for two years. We were supposed to go to state together, take the summer photos on his dad's boat, and move to Chicago for college. Now he was suspended, sitting in dark hallways with a girl who lived in a house that smelled like old lemon cleaner and cheap carpet.

Across the lot, the driver-side door of a black BMW opened. Tyler Vance stepped out into the rain, holding a massive golf umbrella over his head. He adjusted his varsity jacket, his eyes scanning the empty bleachers before settling on my car.

"There he is," I muttered, unbuckling my seatbelt.

"What are you doing?" Sienna asked, grabbing my sleeve. "Tyler is toxic, Chloe. Even for you."

"Tyler has the keys to his uncle's office," I said, shaking her off. "And he hates Daniel more than I do."

I stepped out into the pouring rain, popping my pink umbrella open before my hair could catch the damp air. The gravel crunched under my boots as I cut across the parking lot toward Tyler's car. He did not move to meet me. He just stood there with that arrogant, lazy posture he always used when he thought he was the smartest person in the room.

"You are getting wet, Chloe," Tyler said as I stopped three feet away. "Your dad will kill you if you ruin those boots."

"My dad is the head of the athletic board," I said, tilting my umbrella back. "Which means he decides who takes the co-captain spot while Daniel is on suspension."

Tyler's lips curled into a slow, sharp smile. "Is that a threat or an offer?"

"Depends on what you are looking at on your phone," I said, nodding toward the device tucked into his palm. "I saw you sitting in the bleachers during the rally. You were not watching the team."

"I was monitoring my investments," Tyler said smoothly. He shifted his weight, leaning against his hood. "Your ex-boyfriend is getting sloppy, Chloe. He thinks because he has Emily trailing behind him like a stray dog, he is invisible."

"What do you have on them?" I demanded, taking a step closer. The rain was splashing up against my jeans, but I did not care. "Tell me, Tyler."

"Why do you care?" he asked, his voice dropping into a low, mocking whisper. "You broke up with him two months ago. Or did you think he was going to spend his suspension sitting on your porch begging for forgiveness?"

"He replaced me with a nobody!" The words burst out of my mouth before I could stop them, loud and shrill against the sound of the storm. I clenched my jaw, my face burning with embarrassing heat. "She is taking up space that belongs to me. She sits at my lunch table. She talks to my friends."

"She is a bug," Tyler said simply. "And bugs get squashed. But right now, she is a bug with a camera."

"What does that mean?"

Tyler reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out a small, secondary phone, cold and black in the palm of his hand. He did not hand it over. He just held it out so the dull light caught the casing.

"Daniel and Emily were under the bleachers during the rally," Tyler said, his eyes glinting with quiet cruelty. "They think they found something out about Coach Miller. They think they are clever."

"Did they kiss?" My voice was barely a whisper. My stomach felt like it had dropped straight through the asphalt.

Tyler laughed, a short, dark sound. "Does it matter? They are trapped, Chloe. I hold the file on Jesse's injury, and I hold the frame that puts Daniel in a cell if he tries to play hero."

"Give me the phone," I said, reaching out. "I will show it to my dad tonight. He will pull Emily's academic standing before the first period on Monday."

Tyler pulled the phone back, tucking it just out of my reach. "Your dad is a coward, Chloe. He covers his eyes every time Miller buys a new set of golf clubs. If I give you this, you do not take it to your father."

"Then what do I do with it?"

"You take it to the regional team dinner on Thursday," Tyler said, his voice flat and cold. "You let everyone sit down. You let the boosters drink their wine. And then you play the file on the projector."

"The whole school will see it," I whispered, a sudden wave of nausea hitting my chest. "It will ruin Daniel's entire recruitment season. He will never play college hockey."

"He ruined his own season when he put his hands on my teammate," Tyler said, stepping closer until his umbrella overlapped with mine. "Do we have a deal, or are you going to keep crying over a guy who does not even remember your phone number?"

I looked at the black phone in his hand. I thought about Daniel walking past my locker without looking back. I thought about Emily standing next to him in the dark wing, wearing his old jacket, looking like she belonged there.

"Give me the phone," I said.

Tyler smiled, sliding the cold metal into my gloved hand. "There is a file pre-loaded on the drive. Do not open it until Thursday."

"I am not stupid, Tyler," I said, turning on my heel and walking back toward my car.

I slid back into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut to block out the rain. Sienna looked at the phone in my hand, her eyes wide with sudden fear.

"What did he give you?" she asked.

"Our ticket back to the top," I said, my thumb hovering over the screen.

My curiosity got the better of me. I tapped the screen, opening the hidden media file despite Tyler's warning. It was not a clip of Daniel and Emily under the bleachers. It was a scanned document from three months ago, stamped with an official notary seal.

At the bottom of the page was Jesse's signature, and right next to it, authorizing the illegal sports pool payoffs, was my father's signature.