"Turn right here," Evelyn instructed from the passenger seat. I did as she said and kept driving straight.

After receiving Veena's call, Evelyn had gone into panic mode, our argument from minutes ago all but forgotten. She didn't tell me what the situation was or why Veena was crying but I figured it was something serious. I insisted on driving her to wherever it was she wanted to go and although she was hesitant, she agreed.

"There! Stop there," Evelyn said, pointing at a figure standing on the sidewalk on our right. I pulled up the car right where Veena was standing. The car had barely stopped when Evelyn opened the passenger door and flung herself on the petite girl. "Oh God! Are you okay?" she asked.

I briefly wondered if it would be wise of me to sit inside the car to give them privacy but then quickly decided otherwise. What if Veena was in danger? What if someone was after her? At least I could save them if someone tried to attack them.

Nodding to myself, I got out of the car and was immediately pinned by two sets of wary eyes. The girls stopped talking and stared at me intently as if they wanted to make me disappear into thin air. Man, they should join the FBI or something. The intimidation tactics were no joke.

I gulped the nerves and awkwardly raised my hand. "Hi!"

They looked at me, then at each other before focusing back on me. "I didn't know you were with him. Oh, God, this is so embarrassing!" Veena squeaked as she ducked her head, wiping the tears that were still rolling down her cheeks.

"No, no. It's okay. My car broke down so Atlas was giving me a ride here," Evelyn explained, rubbing Veena's back. "He's leaving."

I was? Maybe I had caught Dylan's nosy bug but I didn't want to leave. Not when Evelyn had just had a meltdown, Veena was crying on the sidewalk and I still didn't know what the hell was wrong with either of the two.

"Well, technically I should stay in case you need a ride again. Neither of you has a car," I said, leaning on my car and patting its top.

They stared at me again for a beat before turning away from me. "Are you okay if we take a lift from him?" Evelyn asked Veena in a hushed tone.

Was I eavesdropping? Maybe. But as long as they didn't realize it was okay right?

"I'm fine as long as we go from here. I don't know if that guy followed me here," Veena whispered back and my body tensed at the mention of a guy. I looked around us, checking if the said guy was still lurking somewhere close by.

"Okay, let's go then. I'll ask him to drop us at my apartment."

Evelyn turned around to face me but before she could repeat what I already knew, Veena grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Wait! We can't go to your place. Everett knows your address and he also knows you're the only one I'll go to. He'll come searching for me and I have no desire to see him today."

Everett? As in Everett Miller?

"What the fuck Miller has to do with this?" I asked, momentarily forgetting they weren't supposed to know that I could hear them. "And why the fuck does he know where you live Rosy?"

They both flinched at my voice, their eyes wide in shock. But Evelyn was quick to recover as she narrowed her gaze on me. "You were eavesdropping?"

I waved my hand in dismissal. "My ears are sharp. But that's beside the point. What's going on here? How is Miller involved?"

"That's none of your business!" Evelyn retorted. "You shouldn't—"

"Can we leave from here please?" Veena interrupted as she looked around nervously.

Evelyn's shoulders slumped and she shut her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. "You're right. Let's go to Tyler's place. I'll call him on the way there. Hopefully he's home."

"Or you could go to the one place Everett would never suspect," I said.

"Where?" The girls asked unanimously.

I couldn't help the grin that split my face. "My penthouse."

Miller wasn't the criminal type but clearly, he fucked up bad this time for whatever reason. And was I even me if I let go of an opportunity to mess with him further?

The girls looked skeptical as they met each other's gazes, doing that silent eye-contact chat again. That's when I decided to pull out the big guns. "It has unlimited room service."

The trick worked because an hour later the three of us were sitting on the living room floor of the penthouse with blankets, pillows, and enough junk food to give a dietician a heart attack. Evelyn and Veena had changed into the extra pair of clothes Evelyn kept at the penthouse for when she stayed the night.

"What exactly happened?" Evelyn asked once we had helped ourselves to burgers and fries. My ears perked up at that but I tried not to look too excited to get the dirt on Miller.

"I returned home after my lunch shift at the cafe and there was some kind of party going on. People were smoking and drinking in the living room. Even the kitchen was a mess." Veena made a disgusted face as she continued. "I was mad at him. We have a rule to not have parties at home or at least inform the other if we are having someone over."

"Wait! What?" I exclaimed. "You live with him?"

"They are roommates," Evelyn said with so much nonchalance as if this wasn't mind-numbing information.

"I went to my room and there were three guys in there. They had rummaged through my dresser and drawers. They were..." Veena trailed off as she lowered her head, her cheeks tinting pink. "They were... messing around with my undergarments. When I tried to kick them out they told me I needed to loosen up and started forcing me to drink with them."

When she looked up again her eyes were filled with tears again. "I...I slapped the guy and shoved him away. Then I ran away."

My hands balled into fists. I hated Miller for sure but I had still considered him one of the good guys in the league. But this... this just made me hate him more.

Veena fiddled with her fingers, averting her gaze again. "I dropped my purse while I was getting away from there."

"Where the fuck was Everett?" Evelyn bellowed, her eyes blazing with rage. She looked so hot when she was mad. Especially when she was mad at someone else and not me.

A cold look appeared on Veena's face. "Eating his girlfriend's face off."

"What about the others there?" I asked. Everyone attending Maple Park was an asshole to a certain degree but I hoped there was at least one person who had his soul intact.

Veena shook her head. "No one listened. They all had this faraway look in their eyes as they stared at me... Some even laughed. It was weird."

Drugs. There was no explanation as to why someone wouldn't help a girl out. What was Miller thinking? Did he want to end his career?

"I'm so sorry," Evelyn said as she hugged her best friend. "I'm going to chop his balls off the next time I see Everett."

I would gladly help.

After they spent some more time consoling each other for having bad days, Evelyn and Veena switched on the TV and turned off the lights, starting our unofficial sleepover. They were watching some sort of gory vampire series where the psychotic male lead kept ripping people's hearts out.

They promised me that it was good and that I would love it but I was out before the first episode ended. When my eyes opened the next time, everything was dark and Evelyn was wrapped around me with her arm and leg thrown over my body. Smiling to myself, I kissed her head before drifting back to sleep.

The next morning, I was the last one to wake up. I craned my neck to search for the girls, wincing at the pain that shot through my back from sleeping on the floor with just a blanket under me. Evelyn and Veena were sitting on the couch, whispering animatedly to each other about something.

"What's going on?" I asked.

They both froze, robotically turning to face me. I propped myself up and leaned against the other couch. "Uh... Everett has been blowing both our phones. I was wondering if we should call him here to confront."

"I have already imposed myself on you. I don't want to—" Veena started but I cut her off.

"Call him here." If there was going to be a confrontation I would rather be in the same room or somewhere nearby so I could punch Miller if needed.

There were no further arguments and Evelyn immediately shot him a text with the penthouse's address. We cleaned ourselves up in the meantime and then waited for him to arrive. He was pretty fast though considering I got a call from the front desk within 30 minutes.

I stood guard in the foyer as the elevator slowly made its way up. A haggard-looking Miller stepped out as soon as the doors slid open. His blonde hair was a mess, his usually annoying bright blue eyes bloodshot, and his shirt crumpled.

"You look like shit," I sneered, gaining his attention.

Miller blinked at me as if he couldn't believe I was here and then his jaw tightened. "What are you doing here?" he asked, stalking forward.

I straightened up, standing at my full height and towering over him. "You're standing in my house you piece of shit. Now, are you going to tell me what the fuck did you do that Evelyn and I had to pick a crying Veena from the sidewalk?"

His eyes widened and his face paled. "Where is she? I need to talk to her."

Before I could stop him, he pushed past me, entering the living room. I followed after him to see both Evelyn and Veena standing on their feet, glaring at him. Immediately, I stepped aside, not wanting to be in the line of fire.

"You piece of shit! I'm going to kill you!" Evelyn yelled as she threw a pillow at him.

To his credit, Miller let it hit him and didn't even try to dodge. "Vee, can I talk to you, please? I'll explain everything."

We all waited for Veena to respond. I was fully hoping she would change her mind and refuse to talk to him just so I could get an opportunity to throw him out but she agreed with a slight nod.

She then looked up at me with big eyes and I sighed. Of course, they wouldn't talk in front of us. "Down the hall. Room on the left side," I said, gesturing to the hallway to my left.

"Thank you." Veena gave me a small smile as she walked towards the guest room.

Miller was about to follow her when I stopped him by grabbing his arm. "Keep the door open. If you try something here, I'll break your jaw," I threatened, squeezing his arm with enough force to get my point across.

He scoffed and shrugged me off, before disappearing down the hall. Evelyn and I sat on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen as we waited for them to finish talking.

The longer they took the more on edge I got. I had to physically restrain myself from walking down the hall to check on Veena. To make sure Miller wasn't being an ass to her. I could tell Evelyn was on edge as well. Her knee kept bouncing and she glanced in the direction of the hall every few seconds.

At long last they came back to the living room. And they were smiling. Huh, strange.

Evelyn and I got to our feet, our eyes flitting between the two. "So?" Evelyn asked.

"He's on house cleaning duty for the next 3 months," Veena said. "And he's buying us ice cream for a month."

Evelyn scoffed and glared at Miller. "I'm not letting him off the hook that easily. You made her cry and broke promises you said you never would. She shouldn't have to feel unsafe in her own damn house!"

"I know. And I'm so sorry for that," Miller said, his expression pained. "I will keep apologizing and do everything I can to gain your trust back."

I never thought I would say this but he sounded genuine for once. However, Evelyn wasn't convinced. She folded her arms across her chest, holding her head high. "We'll see about that."

She then turned to me. "I have washed the dishes and cleared all the trash. I'm going to go with Veena."

"Okay. Thank you for doing the dishes. You didn't have to," I said, shoving my hands in the pockets of my sweats. Although we had spent last night together in a way, we still hadn't resolved whatever had happened at the shop.

And the look on Evelyn's face told me she wasn't thinking about anything else other than her best friend's well-being. Our situation would have to wait for the time being.

"Thank you for helping yesterday, Atlas. And for letting us stay here," Veena said, beaming.

I returned her smile. "Anytime."

After gathering her bag, Evelyn walked over to Veena and they headed out to the elevator. Miller met my gaze and I wondered if he would say something but he just gave me a curt nod. He turned to leave but at the last moment, I stopped him.

"Drugs? Seriously? You want to end your hockey career?" I asked, not being able to let things go. It left a bad taste in my mouth to say this, but Miller was an amazing player. It would be a real shame if he dropped out of the game and guys like Davidson went pro. "What were you thinking man?"

Miller's face hardened and his blue gaze turned to ice. "You should think about yourself before you start worrying about others. Especially when you know nothing," he sneered. "Bet you didn't know your agency contacted me in regards to a contract."

My blood ran cold. "What?"

A devilish grin formed on his face. "Yeah. You're not the only hotshot in the league. And after the series of failures you displayed in the past few months, I believe your agency is more than ready to move on with someone more deserving."

"Bullshit!" I shot back. Henry wouldn't do that to me. Things were looking good after the talk we had in his office. He told me he was in talks with a few teams.

"Believe whatever you want, Griffin," he said, shrugging. "Just know that your career is far from stable and foolproof. Let your guard down and someone will easily steal your spot."

Miller walked away after dropping that bomb on me. Dread filled my gut as I slumped on the couch with my head in my hands, all kinds of negative thoughts running rampant in my mind.

Was I really going to lose my dream?