Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PHOENIX
"So then, I drove my skate into the asshole's throat, and shoved it in, nice and hard until he was nice and dead." Coast grinned.
Prick was going to dine out on the story for as long as he could. Why the fuck not? It wasn't every day you killed someone with an ice skate. Not even for us.
I'd personally used several different methods, but never an ice skate. I wouldn't let on that I was envious of his creativity. I was creative in my own way.
Coast did what he had to do at the time. That was all. Not all that impressive, when you think about it. That’s what I'd tell him anyway, if he bothered to ask my opinion. His ego was fucking big enough as it was.
"They were definitely sent by the Fiorellis?" Aidan asked. He didn't look particularly impressed either. Not like he was going to condemn Coast for his methods, but he was more interested in what, who and where, than in the how.
"That was what they said," Coast agreed. "Who else would come after me?"
I snorted softly.
He flipped me the finger. "I'm not so unpopular that I have dozens of people who want me dead."
I gave him a sceptical look, but didn't say anything.
Coast Riggs was good at getting into trouble. I'd be surprised if it was only the Fiorellis after him. There were probably a bunch of angry husbands and boyfriends too. Granted, it wasn't his fault if women decided to cheat with him. For some reason, they seemed to find it hard to resist him.
Yeah, okay, I understood why. He was tall, attractive, confident, muscular, and a fucking good centre.
For all of those reasons, except the last, I should be fending women off as hard as he was.
Being a goaltender should make me twice as appealing as being a centre.
All he had to do was get possession of the puck and keep it away from the opposition.
I had to stop the fuckers from scoring goals. It’s definitely harder than it sounds.
"Where did you dispose of the bodies?" Aidan directed the question at me.
I wasn't just a goalie, I was also one of the go to guys for disposing of evidence. As a DiMarco, I had contacts, including my brother, Ric and my cousin Rose.
Between the three of us, I could make anything or anyone disappear. Was it something I was proud of? Not always. I wanted to spend my life on the ice, defending the bucket.
On the other hand, if I didn't help Coast, he'd be fucked more often than not. Not in that way, I was totally not thinking about fucking him. No way.
He was like a brother to me. I didn't want to screw things up between us. So I talked myself out of any attraction when it tried to rear its ugly head.
I had a feeling that was going to be more difficult with Sinclair involved. She was the sort of woman who’d encourage us to embrace all our inner shit, no matter how difficult it might be to face.
She'd be shit out of luck if she thought she could force me into anything I wasn't ready for, no matter how amazing her mouth was. The memory of coming down her throat made me hard. I wanted to be in her pussy next time. There would definitely be a next time, I'd make sure of that.
"Returned to sender," I said, with a smirk. "Celine Fiorelli would have had a nice wake up call this morning."
"You didn't put dead bodies in her bed again, did you?" Coast seemed amused at the idea.
I grinned. "No. I didn't have time on this occasion. Shame, because waiting outside to hear people scream is pretty fucking fun."
Aidan gave me a look like I was sick in the head, but he would have enjoyed it, just as much as I would.
He liked to pretend he was slightly more civilised than the rest of us, but he was one of us at heart.
If anyone tried to do anything to Elenna or her other partners, he'd do a lot worse than putting bodies in beds.
I gave him a look back that said I had his measure. Whatever he might do or say, he wasn't fooling me.
"Coast is crashing at my place for a while," I said. "Between us, we'll keep the fuckers away."
Aidan nodded. "Good. Make sure you keep an eye on each other. I'm trying to gauge what the Fiorellis-slash-Mancinis might do next. Until we worm out who's telling them our every move, our hands are more or less tied. We can't do anything without them knowing about it."
"I assume we have someone on the inside with them?" Coast said. "Someone telling you their every move."
"Why would you assume that," I asked. "Aidan didn't know they were coming after you two nights ago."
"That's true." Coast looked at Aidan through narrowed eyes.
Aidan looked back at him, unflinching. "Even if I have someone on the inside, they won't be privy to every piece of information.
Obviously, I had no idea that was going to happen, or I would have warned you.
The fact it did has pissed us both off. As does the fact I didn't hear about it straight after it happened. "
"We had it under control." Coast raised his shoulders. He dropped them down again, and cocked his head at Aidan as though daring him to contradict him.
Aidan granted. "You're missing the point. We're a team. I'm not just the head coach. I'm also the one watching out for you and trying to keep you alive. I can't do that if I don't have all the facts."
He pointed accusingly at Coast. "Next time anything like that happens, I want to hear about it straight away. If I don't, it better be because you're dead. But don't fucking be dead."
"I have no intention of being dead any time soon," Coast said. "Next time, I'll shoot you a text. For the record, I had a date. Excuse me if my personal life is important to me."
"No pussy is worth risking your life for,"Aidan said.
Coast scoffed. "First of all, that's bullshit. Every pussy is worth risking my life for. Second of all, you don't believe that for a fucking minute. You'd risk your life all day every day for Elenna, and we all know it."
"She’s more than just a pussy," Aidan growled.
"So is Sinclair," Coast argued. "Look me in the face and tell me you disagree. She's one of Elenna's closest friends. What would she think if she heard you call her that?"
"She'd be surprised a woman like Sinclair would go on a date with someone like you," Aidan retorted.
"Because I'm not good enough for Sinclair?" Coast's face was slightly pink now. Anger flashing in his eyes.
"Elenna will never think anyone is good enough for any of her friends," Aidan said. "She's very protective of them. But we all know what you're like. You'll get bored soon enough and move on to another pussy."
I grabbed Coast before he could take a swing at Aidan.
"Arguing amongst ourselves won't help anyone," I said. "I know we're all on edge, but didn't Aidan just say we are supposed to be a team? No wonder we keep fucking losing."
Coast shook me off. "We've been winning," he snapped.
"Yeah, so let's keep on winning," I said. "Being a pair of fucking dickheads won't help anyone."
Aidan looked ready to take exception to me calling him a dickhead, but he pressed his lips together in a tight line instead.
"Enough," he said. "I don't give a fuck where you stick your cock, but if you get her killed, I won't be responsible for what my wife does to you. Chances are, Finley and Orion will happily hold you down for her."
"I might help them," I said lightly, hoping to diffuse the anger in the moment.
"It would take more than three of you to hold me down," Coast said with a grunt.
"I'll help them," Aidan said darkly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I appreciate your confidence, Coast, but if you get too arrogant, you're going to make a mistake.
If you think the Fiorellis or the Mancinis won't be there to take advantage of it, think again.
You can never get too fucking complacent.
If you do, it will get you killed, and I, for one will be fucking pissed off if that happens. "
"So will I," I agreed.
"No one will be more fucking pissed off than me," Coast said. "I have no intention of—"
"It has nothing to do with intention," Aidan snapped.
"Do you think Geneva came in here with the intention of dying?
Or Jamison? Or any of the people with them?
No, they came in here for one reason. They intended to take us all out and walk away.
They had a plan, they had the numbers. They had the element of surprise. And they still. Fucking. Failed."
"Because I was here to take out Geneva," Coast said, smugly.
"And if I hadn't, Phoenix would have." He jerked his head towards me.
"And if not him, then Tiger or someone else.
Because taking care of shit is what we do.
If someone comes after me again… When someone comes after me again, I will fucking deal with the shit they throw at me.
Me and Phoenix and whoever else is with me.
Including Sinclair. She's just as much a badass as Elenna, or even you. "
"At least you acknowledge I'm a badass," Aidan said with a grunt.
"Of course you bloody are," I said. "How many head coaches are there in the AIHL who know how to kill a man, and wouldn't hesitate to do it if they needed to?"
"Probably more than you imagine," Aidan said flatly. "But we’re the exception. Most of them have no idea what it's like to be involved in any sort of mob activity. Unless you're talking about the kangaroo kind of mob." He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and half smiled at his own joke.
I snorted a laugh. "Sometimes, I think they're the lucky ones. It must be nice not to know about all the shit that goes down."
I wished I didn't know about half of it.
Some days, all I wanted to do was walk away.
I could ask to get traded to another team where I could live my life playing hockey and not having to worry about dead bodies, and solving other people's problems. I could focus on, stopping fuckers from scoring goals.
Why didn't I? Partly because my life was too embedded here, partly because of my attraction to Sinclair.
In the back of my mind was a very faint admission that part of it was because of my attraction to Coast as well.
Even if he never returned the sentiment, I wanted to be around him.
He was like a magnet or a flame. Between him and Sinclair, I'd be lucky if I didn't end up burnt to a crisp.
If that happened, while her mouth was around my cock, at least I'd die a happy, satisfied goalie.
"You'd be bored if you lived like that," Coast told me. "At least our life is never dull."
Aidan and I both gave him a look, like maybe he was the unhinged one. Once in a while, dull didn't sound so bad.
"You boys should be getting ready for practice," Aidan said. He stepped aside as the rest of the team started to roll into the locker room.
Grateful to have something else to think about, I started to pull on my padding.