Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SINCLAIR
"They're all staff who work here at Demons arena?" Wren whispered.
"Staff, one coach, and a couple of second string players." I glanced around the team's private box, but no one was paying us any attention. Not openly, anyway.
I leaned over to Elenna. "Are you sure none of these people are on the list because they pissed off Aidan at some point?"
She kept her eyes on the ice, where Orion was warming up with the rest of the team. "It's possible, but not likely. I mean, we both know what he's like, but this goes beyond his ego."
I made a sound in the back of my throat.
She turned to look at me. "I know it seems implausible that anything is beyond his ego, but I promise you, it is."
She smiled and turned back toward Orion. It wasn't often she got the chance to watch a game with us instead of working. She was determined to enjoy it, which I couldn't blame her for. Hockey in general, and Orion, in particular, were good to look at.
Not, in my totally unbiased opinion, that he was as attractive as Javey, Coast and Phoenix.
They were also warming up.
Phoenix was doing the groin stretches that mesmerised hockey romance lovers all over the world. And me. There was something compelling about a guy who looked like he was humping the ice.
In my mind, I saw the way he looked when he fucked me, and my face warmed.
How would it feel to wake up with his cock in my pussy?
I was both intrigued and aroused at the idea.
That he would want me so much, he wouldn't be able to wait until I woke before fucking me.
If that was wrong, I didn't care. It turned me on to think about him parting my legs, sliding into me, while I dreamed.
Taking me because he wanted to, needed to. And me doing the same to him.
I cleared my throat. "If you say so, I believe you. I know Aidan's put a lot of work into putting this list together." How did he have time to do his actual job? Trying to find a mole was a job in itself.
"I've lost count of the amount of times I've gotten up in the middle of the night to find him at his desk, reading over information and trying to figure out who it is before something happens again.
There isn't a single person who works here, or anywhere near the Demons, that hasn't been under consideration. Including me."
My eyes snapped back to her in surprise. "Even you? Why would he think you had anything to do with it?"
I'd consider him before I considered her. Yeah, okay, I'd consider him before I considered a lot of other people too, but especially her.
"I work here," she said softly. "He'd be negligent if he didn't think there was a possibility I might be involved in something. However slight."
"He'd be crazy if he thought that," Wren said firmly. "He knows you better than that."
"For a while, they thought my brother was working with the Fiorellis," she said. "If they thought that, they'd at least take a moment to assume I was as well."
"Yeah, I guess so," I said, reluctantly. "But he knows you're not, right?" Things might get really ugly if I had to kill Aidan on her behalf. I knew he loved her, but sometimes love isn't enough. Not where loyalty is concerned.
"Definitely," she said. "The point is, no one is above suspicion. Not even Aidan. But the chances are, whoever betrayed us is on that list." She nodded toward the phone in my hand.
"Can we rule out any straight off?" Wren had her face almost pressed against the glass, her breath misting it before it cleared and misted again. She sat back and turned to us.
"I'd like to rule out all of them." I admitted. "But not yet. Javey is feeling out the players and coaches. We're going to keep an eye on the staff."
I was slightly surprised, but relieved at the same time, that Coast's name wasn’t on the list. I heard him talking to Aidan down in Ice's work room. Torture chamber. Whatever you wanted to call it.
To begin with, threatening the head coach wasn't necessarily the best career move a player could make. Doing it where Caleb might overhear, could have easily ended up with Coast dangling from those chains. Or worse.
Either way, it was a quick way to end up on Aidan's shit list.
It occurred to me he might have more than one list. One for us and one for— I didn't know who else. He might want to distract me and my guys. The more I thought about it, the more I didn't think that was the case. If that was, Elenna had no idea.
Of all the things I might accuse Aidan of, I didn't think keeping secrets from her was one.
"I'm surprised Bray isn't on that list." Wren grimaced down toward her stepbrother.
Braylon Ellis seemed nice enough to me, if a bit of an asshole at times. He and Wren never got along. From what I gather, they'd both been violently opposed to their parents getting married. Naturally, their parents did it anyway.
Now, Wren and Bray barely spoke to each other, except to glare within intense dislike. And a fuck ton of repressed sexual tension. Which Wren would deny with something bordering on horror and disgust.
"Should he be?" I picked up my phone and held my finger over the screen, like I was about to tap in his name and add it to the list.
"Only because he's an asshole," she said. "But for all I know, he's up to his helmet in whatever Sawyer Mancini is into."
"I'll tell Javey to keep an eye on him," I said. "You never know, you might be right. I mean, whoever it is, they're going to do their best to stay under the radar."
"That's true. Aidan might not even have them on this list." She frowned.
"We can't worry about that now," I said. "We need to deal with who actually is.”
"It might be more than one betraying us," Elenna pointed out. "It might be everyone on the list."
"That's a disconcerting thought." I wrinkled my nose. "But you're right, it could be."
I’d watch my back, no matter where I went. The whole arena could be full of people ready to turn on us.
No, if that was the case, they would have succeeded in killing us all when Geneva attacked the place. Right?
Shit, what if they started working here after that? What if Geneva was so convinced she'd succeeded that she left them out of it?
What if…
I was going to drive myself crazy with the speculation.
"I can see it on your face, you're thinking what I'm thinking," Wren said, in a stage whisper. "If we keep thinking it, we're going to jump at every shadow."
"Wren is right," Elena said. "Be careful, but not paranoid. Don't forget, you're here for the game tonight. You're meant to be enjoying yourself."
I grinned and laughed like she told me a joke. "I am enjoying myself. What could be more fun than sitting with my two best friends, getting ready to watch the Demons kick some pucking ass?"
"And look good doing it," Wren said, with a jerk of her head toward the rink, where the guys were getting into position, ready for the starting whistle.
"I can't argue with that." I sat back, looked down and caught Coast's eyes.
He gave me a wink and a cocky grin before he skated over to say something to Javey.
Javey scowled, but looked up at me and nodded. He turned away quickly like he was awkward. Like a guy looking at a crush he knew he'd never get.
My heart skated a breakaway in my chest and scored a goal of its own.
It beat even harder when Phoenix skated over to stand in front of the goal and gave me a salute with his glove.
I gave him a finger wave back.
He nodded and turned his attention to the ice.
If anyone was watching the exchange, they'd think Coast was flirting, and the other two barely knew me. They probably wouldn't guess we all shared each other a couple of mornings ago.
I blushed at the memory. All the pants, moans and groans were tattooed onto my brain. My clit throbbed. If I lingered on it too long, I was going to have very wet panties.
I was so lost in thought, I missed the puck drop, but Coast got possession and drove it in front of him, before the opponent's power forward closed in on him, stick snapping out to knock it away.
Javey was right there, blocking the winger and taking possession from Coast. He sent it back, right before the opposition's leftwinger took it from him.
Coast was about to slam it back when the opposition's power forward crowded Javey, pounding him into the boards.
He hit hard, pushed himself off and gave the other player a filthy look. He looked like he wanted to punch the snot out of him. In keeping with his shy guy persona, he skated backward and away, keeping his eyes on the player and the puck.
Bray, the Demons’ enforcer, who had an eye on the puck and another on the player, returned the favour a few moments later, complete with an elbow to the other guy's face. That got him sent off for five minutes in the sin bin. Bray grinned, clearly not regretting a moment of it.
Wren groaned, her forehead pressed against the glass. "I wish I didn't find that so fucking hot. He's a dickhead and he's my stepbrother. What the hell is wrong with me?"
I patted her on the back. "The clit wants what the clit wants."
She looked over at me sideways, and made a face. "That's not what this is about. "
I raised my eyebrows.
"Okay, maybe it is what it's about, but I'm not going there," she said.
"No one would judge you if you did," I said.
"I'd judge me," she said. "I'm the worst at judging myself."
"I feel that deeply," I said. Weren't we always worse at judging ourselves than other people were at judging us?
She sighed and turned back to the game.
I exchanged glances with Elenna. She shrugged and so did I.
Life was too short to deny yourself what you really wanted. I knew she felt pretty much the same way. We never knew when life might come to a screeching halt. We might as well live our best lives as much as we could for as long as we could.
If that meant spending time with three hot as fuck hockey players and having lots of orgasms, then I was here for it.
For every precious moment of it.