Evelyn’s POV

When the sobbing faded and the poor man was completely gone, I un-froze, whipping around to Tyler and punched him in the shoulder hard. “You fucking dumbass!!” I kicked him in the shin next. “And you wonder why I hate you!!”

“Shit!”

“Yeah, you are a piece of shit!! Don’t you dare cross paths with me again! You hurt Valeri, you hurt your friend! You don’t think before you act do you?”

“Bitch!”

“Oh, I’m the bitch? Really? You forced yourself on me! If anyone is the bitch, its you!” I wound my fist up again and this time, I was able to punch him. My fist made contact with his nose and instantly he began to bleed.

“What’s your problem?”

“My problem? What’s yours?”

Tyler started to get to his feet, but I stomped hard on his foot and sent him backward, back to the ground.

“Look--I just--”

“Just what? Do you really not see what you’ve done here?”

“No, all I see is a gorgeous bitch!” he got to his feet again and pressed his lips to mine. I instantly shoved him back off of me and smacked him across the face. “Heal tigress!”

I smacked him again. “Shut up!”

But he continued to irritate me and get under my skin. He had picked up a thing or two from the Bruin pest in Boston...I was sure of it. He wasn’t shrinking away and he enjoyed my assault on him.

“I won’t shut up...the only way to--”

I glimpsed some rope sitting on the table and I had a scarf on. It gave me an idea. “Would be to tie your sorry ass up and put tape over your noisy mouth!”

“I was thinking more so of you kissing me again.”

“Hell no!! Screw this, I’m tying you up!” I snatched the rope up and a stray stick. I tripped him up and he stumbled backward, perfectly landing in a chair. I jumped on him and bound his arms to the arms of the chair. Then I took my scarf off of my neck and wrapped it loosely around his head, gagging him. I wasn’t out to hurt him, no matter how mad I was. But I needed him to shut up and stop making me want to pound him into oblivion.

He thrashed in the chair unhappily and emitted muffled grunts of distress and displeasure. I rounded him and brushed myself off and came to stand before him. I reached out and took ahold of his chin.

“Listen to me Tyler, you hurt Nichy by making out with me. You hurt him.”

He wasn’t cooperating and continued to struggle against the bonds. I smacked him across the face yet again. This time he stopped.

“I always hear things about how great you are…how you’re such a great kid, and yet, I don’t see it. All you are is a big jerk. You don’t care about anyone, only yourself and what you want. If you even had one ounce of niceness in you, you wouldn’t have hurt one of your friends. I don’t care how “hot” I am to you, I fell in love with Val and you have to realize that. You need to apologize to him and set things right.”

He suddenly gazed at me, into my eyes, and his gaze was soft and warm. I thought I was getting to him. I hoped that I was, because if not, well we were going to be there for a while. And I wasn’t releasing him from the chair.

“You can apologize to me and Val and set things right and behave, or, I can leave you bound and gagged here. AND I’ll tell Jamie what happened.”

He shook his head. I pulled the scarf from his mouth and let him speak.

“I-I-I...I’m so sorry...please let me go. Let me find Val and make things right. You speak the truth about me.”

I backed away a few feet.

“I’m such a Flynn Rider-type guy. I’m nothing but the thief of hearts and no feelings. I’ve never had a girl turn me down before and I was so caught up in my own selfishness, that I hurt my teammate. I’m a horrible, terrible person!”

I saw him starting to shed tears. It was genuine. I stepped back up to him and squatted down to his eye level. I took his chin in my fingers once more. “This is the Tyler Seguin that I could learn to like. Can you promise to behave from now on?”

“Yes. I promise. Val’s a lucky man. I really couldn’t be prouder of him and his choice...even if his girlfriend ties me up.”

“It was for your own good.”

“You’re right,” he sighed. “I’m glad you did.”

“Thank you for finally listening. I really didn’t want to knock you out.” I laughed a little.

“Like you could.”

“I almost did.”

“Then I would have had to restrain you!”

“Right, that’ll be the day. Now, I’m going to release you and I’ll help you clean yourself up, but I want you to go find Nichy and apologize.”

“I really broke his heart, didn’t I?” He looked really ashamed of himself.

“You did.”

“What did I exactly do? I mean, I was so fired up and in the moment, I know I had to be cocky and make out with you, but I didn’t…” he trailed off.

I snorted and rolled my eyes playfully. “You groped me and massaged my breast in front of him.”

“I’m sorry about that.” He was staring into my eyes, there was no ounce of the previous “flirty” Tyler. He didn’t dare put his eyes anywhere else. I smiled at him, unable not to.

“I forgive you. But let’s get this straight, only Val can touch me there from now on, okay?”

“Right, right, of course, that is fair.” He dipped his head and his eyes instantly returned to mine. He was being so nice and considerate now...it almost made him...attractive. “Almost.” But he didn’t have the looks Val had. Valeri was my man, but I’d gladly take this Tyler Seguin second.

“I’ll be right back with a cloth and then I’ll let you go and we’ll go find Val.” I smiled larger at him and drew a smile from him back.

He leaned back in the chair and didn’t struggle or do anything. He just sat there. “Okay. And, Evelyna, I really am sorry.”

“I know you are sweetie.” I turned on my heels and went to fetch a damp cloth from the room. They had a stack of toward and a sink in the room, so I grabbed one and dampened it.

Then I walked back and found Tyler still sitting them. I passed the cloth to him, stuffing it into his hand and released it, untying the knot. He raised the towel up to his face and wiped off the blood. I apologized for the assault, but he only blamed himself. He said that it was all his fault. I released his other hand then removed my scarf from his neck. I put that to the side and would grab it later. I didn’t want to put back on my neck.

Tyler finished cleaning himself and then set the blood-stained towel next to the scarf. I helped him from the chair and we both smiled at once another.

“Let’s find the Russian!” he exclaimed.

“Yes. Oh, by the way, figured you should know this, but my roommate’s actually a huge fan of yours. Maybe you can go after her - respectfully and behaved of course!”

“Of course. I’d love to meet her.”

“I’ll let her know and try to hook you two up.”

“Sweet!”

And with that we both left the equipment room and searched for Val.

Notes

Seguin, Seguin, Seguin..........tsk tsk tsk
Poor Valeri....


Next up: Recovery Time for Valeri (Why did this go exactly like Corey Perry's injury??)