Chapter 19 Noah #2
Ava, sweet, angelic Ava, pinches Hannah. “Shh. I told you that in confidence when I hated him.”
War buries his face in his wife’s neck. “You never hated me, Vicious. But keep telling yourself those lies. You know I love it.”
Hannah gives a dismissive wave. “He couldn’t keep it a secret from the guys anyway. They literally see each other’s balls daily.”
“Not quite, dream girl.” Her husband squeezes her hip, trying to tame her. It’s a fruitless endeavor.
Hannah grins up at him. “As I was saying, what about a clit piercing?”
“And as I was saying,” I grumble, hanging my head, “why am I here?”
“Team-building opportunity,” Hannah chirps. “You’re all on fire this season, and now that you have a new boss, it’s time to celebrate.”
New boss? With a frown, I snap up straight again. “What?”
Brooks grins. “It hasn’t been announced yet, but Beckett and Gavin appointed Sienna to the head of the hockey division yesterday.”
A lead weight settles in my gut. “Sienna, as in your sister, Sienna?”
Brooks nods. “Have the two of you met yet?”
I work to keep my expression neutral. Sienna is my new boss? This can’t be…fuck.
“Not formally,” I force out.
Shit. I can’t exactly tell him that I’m familiar with his sister biblically.
That I know every inch of her body and the sounds she makes when she comes.
And I definitely can’t admit that I’ve been dreaming of the day I can do all those filthy things to her again for longer than most of these guys have been with their wives.
“I saw her at the wedding, though. And a game or two, I think.”
Hannah’s eyes light up, and instantly, I know I’ve made a terrible mistake. Same as I did the day of Brooks’s wedding when I spotted Sienna and admitted that I felt like I’d seen a ghost. Fortunately my sister was too caught up in Daniel that night to notice when I disappeared.
I threw up the second I hit the parking lot. Then I got wasted, alone, at a bar down the street. I missed the dinner and the cake and the dancing, but if I’d stayed another minute and had to watch Sienna in the arms of another man, I’d have lost it.
I’ve avoided looking her up since then. Though I earnestly hope she’s happy, I can’t stomach the idea of witnessing how good her life is without me in it.
The wheels are still turning in Hannah’s mind when the door to the tattoo shop jangles open and Lennox appears. “Are you guys ever coming in here?”
Relieved as hell and more fond of Lennox than ever now that she’s saved me from my sister’s scrutiny, I stride in first. I’ll tattoo whatever these idiots want on my body if it means steering the topic of conversation away from Sienna.
“Are we doing this?” Hannah asks as she steps in behind me. “Or are you gonna chicken out again, Baby Hall?”
He chuckles as he brushes a kiss against her shoulder. “Not nervous, Mrs. Hall. And of course I’m coming. I always do when I’m with you.”
With bile rising in my throat, I take a giant step away from them. “Why the fuck am I here?”
They’re too caught up in one another to pay me any mind. Brooks passes me, slapping me on the back on his way, and Ava steps into the shop next.
War is the last to enter. He stops beside me and grasps my shoulder. “You okay?”
I blink, my mind still spiraling. “What does Sienna Langfield know about hockey?” I ask stupidly.
“She’s a Langfield. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t need to know anything.” He frowns, his brows pinch together. “Why do you care anyway?”
I blow out a breath and shove my hands into my pockets, going for casual. “Just strange, don’t you think?”
He lifts one shoulder in an easy shrug. “If one of my kids was struggling, and I ran a business like Beckett and Gavin do, I sure as shit would offer them a job. And if Bray was the one running things, I’d hope he’d do it too. It’s what siblings should do.”
“She’s struggling?” The words slip out before I can think them through. I’m showing too many cards. Fortunately, War’s attention has caught on his wife, so he doesn’t notice how bothered I am by the idea.
With a heavy sigh, he drags his hand through his dark hair. “Yeah, more fucking fallout in the Xander saga.”
“As in your stepbrother? What does he have to do with Sienna Langfield?”
War blows out a breath. In college, he hated the guy with every fiber of his being. And that was before the asshole dated Ava. Though, last I heard, Xander was awaiting trial, and if I remember correctly, he was remanded in custody because he was a flight risk.
My stomach sinks. Fuck. Did Sienna get caught up in the Ponzi scheme? Is that why she moved back from Paris?
“The short story is that Beckett introduced them when he still thought Xander was a family friend. You know how Beckett is. He’s always trying to bring people together.
He thought he was doing me a solid by helping out my brother.
I guess Xander and Sienna hit it off, and her company invested a ton of money.
Then Xander lost it all.” He shakes his head, his fists clenching at his sides.
“Shit.” It’s the only word that comes to mind.
When I met her, she was so eager, so excited about what came next in her career. I didn’t know the specifics, but I knew she was taking a big step.
Now that I’ve found her again, now that I know she’s a Langfield, I’ve done a little research. In Paris, her design company flourished and her reality show was a huge hit. When I discovered that little tidbit, I cursed myself for not being the kind of person who watches TV.
She had a few successful years, though I haven’t found time to research what happened from there. I’m sure she’s devastated. I can’t imagine what I’d do if I lost hockey. Before Ollie, it was all I had.
“So if you see her,” War says, his head lowered, his body angled in, “just congratulate her on the job. There will be more than enough haters out there calling her a nepo-baby. Don’t be one of them.
She built that company of hers from the ground up.
I have no doubt she can handle the business side of things.
And she’s got Gavin and Beckett to help her along the way. ”
With that, he strides away. Apparently the conversation is over. What more is there to say anyway, since he has no clue who she is to me?
Correction: who she was.
Now she’s my boss. My friends’ sister. Nothing else.
With her new role, she can’t be anything more.
“Do either of you have change for a twenty?” Aiden asks. “I want to get a soda.”
I reach into my pocket, but before I can pull out the ones I shoved in there earlier, the attendant behind the counter says, “I can break change.”
Aiden whips around and hands her the twenty.
As if my mind and body have been taken over, I edge closer to the counter, my eyes zeroed in on the money in the attendant’s hand. When she hits number eleven and the ink on the dollar bill catches my attention, I reach across the desk and pull it from her grasp.
“Hey!” she yells, stepping back on instinct.
War waves his hand. “He’s got a weird thing with writing on bills. Just keep counting. He’ll give it back.”
His voice fades out, along with the rest of the sounds around me, as I hold the dollar bill with shaking hands. There’s no way in hell she’s getting this back.
Because I’m staring at a one-dollar bill with the name Sienna scrawled across the front of it, complete with a heart above the i and a ten-digit number beneath it.
At the top of the bill is another message. One that sends me reeling back and changes everything.
For Noah.
Don’t forget to come back for me. Until then, I’ll soar.