Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SINCLAIR
"You're organising what?" Wren laughed silently, her hand pressed to her chest. Tears poured down her cheeks.
"I know, I know," I said. "A dance-off is silly, but it'll be a lot of fun. We'll raise a ton of money for charity and get a good laugh in the process."
Elenna eyed me doubtfully. "You really think I can convince Aidan and Orion to dress in a tutu and unicorn horn?"
"I'd like to think you can, but we can dial it back for their male egos," I said.
"Team jerseys and track pants should be perfect.
The guys who want to go crazy with their outfits can.
" At the end of the day, it didn't matter what they wore as much as whether they participated.
People would pay to see them, regardless. Especially if it was for a good cause.
Wren wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Where's the fun in not having them all dressed up in tutus? I'd love to see Tiger and Bray dressed up like that. I can just imagine the expression on their faces right now." She started laughing again.
"That's exactly why I don't think I can twist Aidan or Orion's arms to wear that," Elenna said regretfully. "Neither of them would appreciate if they weren't taken seriously afterward." She gave me an apologetic look.
"That's exactly why they should," Wren said. "Life is too short to be taken too seriously."
I lowered my voice so no one else in the café could hear. "Coast thinks it will lure Sawyer Mancini into acting against us, thinking we're distracted with this."
Wren stared at me for a moment, then started laughing even harder. "I'm sorry," she said between breaths. "I'm just picturing our guys, dressed in tutus and unicorn headbands, chasing Sawyer's minions down the street."
Elenna put her hand over her lips to suppress a laugh. "I have to admit, that would be funny. I might have to put that in a book."
Wren tipped her head back. Her whole body shook. "I'd read the hell out of that. Please write it."
"I think I might, but I'll have to change the names to protect the… Is innocent the right word?" Elenna smiled.
"Hardly," I snorted. "But we get you. Can you make the tutus, pink, purple and blue? Maybe one or two yellow."
"Absolutely," Elenna agreed. "Rainbow pastel, with matching horns. One or two could wear some angel wings as well."
Of course the mention of the word angel made my brain go in a completely different direction.
"Javey said he loves me," I blurted out.
Wren wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and smiled. "That's terrific. Isn't it?" She cocked her head and frowned.
"It is," I agreed. "I… I said it back." Heat rose up my face.
"Awww, I'm happy for you." Wren leaned over and gave me a hug, almost knocking her coffee off the table. She pulled back and grabbed the handle of her mug at the last second.
"Me too." Elenna put a hand on her own mug and leaned over to give me a squeeze. "What about Coast and Phoenix?"
"I care about both of them too," I said. "The guys are starting to get along with each other better and they all seem to like me. I'm hoping we can survive long enough to make it work."
Elenna sat back in her own chair. "That's the tricky part, isn't it? I mean, relationships are difficult enough without having to worry about attacks from all angles. Are you doing okay, after the thing with the car?"
"Yeah, mostly," I said. "I'm nervous to let anyone else drive me, if I don't already know exactly who they are. I may never take another taxi or rideshare again. For all I know, they could all work for the Fiorellis or Mancinis."
"It wouldn't surprise me," Wren said. "Given the way the family is dropping like proverbial flies, their employees are probably looking for other ways to make money."
I snorted a laugh. "That wasn't what I meant, but you have a point. Having your bosses dying can't be good for business."
"Excuse me if I don't have much sympathy for them," Wren said. "They should have gone into a different line of work to start with. Something more honest than hired muscle. Or hired gun, for that matter."
"To be fair, that's a side hustle for most of them," Elenna pointed out. "They usually have normal day jobs. Or night jobs, in the case of hockey players." Aidan must have told her about Coast's phone call.
"Did he say what he's doing about Tank and BJ?" I asked softly.
Elenna glanced around surreptitiously. "Nothing more than 'we're keeping an eye on them.
' Finley said he thought they were as suspicious as fuck the moment he met them.
As you can imagine, Orion thought he was full of bullshit.
Finley has been as friendly to them as he has to any of the other players. "
"It's his job to be friendly," I said. "The same as it is mine and yours."
"Yeah, but Orion thinks if Finley suspected them, he would have said something sooner. Which is true. Finley has never kept secrets from Aidan." She ran the tip of her finger up and down the handle of her mug.
"It sounds like they give each other shit the way Coast and Phoenix do," I said. "And Javey too, to some extent. It must be a guy thing."
Elenna smiled. "Very much so. The truth is, Finley and Orion adore each other. As much as they adore me. They may not show it in public, but it's there. In private, they're different."
"It didn't take much for them to admit that about themselves, did it?" I asked carefully. "I mean, they didn't fight it."
"They did a little bit at first," she said. "But I think they were relieved to explore how they felt with me and with each other. The attack on the arena made us all realise how short life is and that we should grab it by the balls and enjoy the hell out of it. Sometimes literally."
"I love that for all of you," I said. "I'd prefer we not have another full on attack like that just so the guys can feel free to be who they want to be."
If it didn't take an attack on Coast's apartment, and the driver trying to abduct us, then I didn't know what it would take. Maybe it was just a matter of time and maybe it would never happen at all.
Either way, I'd be there for them whatever they wanted to do.
"I'd prefer not to have another full on attack no matter what," Elenna said. She took her hand off her coffee mug and started to wring both of them together.
"You're still having nightmares?" I asked as gently as I could.
She glanced down at her hands, pulled them apart and rested them on the table.
"Not as much as I was. But sometimes I dream about standing there in front of Geneva and all of those armed people.
All of those guns aimed at me and the team.
It's always so vivid that when I wake up I'm surprised I'm not there. "
I pushed my cup to a safe distance and leaned over to hug her. "That must have been terrifying." It could easily have ended with her death and that of a whole bunch of others. Thanks to Coast, Aidan and the other guys, it hadn't come to that.
Of course not, Aidan wouldn't let anyone kill Elenna. Not unless he was dead first.
"It wasn't the highlight of my life." She squeezed me back, her head resting on my shoulder briefly. "But almost being driven off a cliff would have been a thousand times worse."
"I'm not sure how useful it is to compare trauma," I said frankly.
"On a scale of one to absolute bullshit, they both suck.
" I didn't think I could have stepped through the doorway and faced Geneva the way Elenna did.
All I did was grab the steering wheel and put the car into neutral.
It was pure survival instinct, not bravery.
Elenna should be given a medal. Not that she'd accept one. She preferred to keep a low profile.
"I admire both of you," Wren declared. "You've both been through horrible things and you're both still standing, smiling and planning to put big, manly hockey players into tutus. Both of you have bigger balls than any guy I ever met." She nodded to punctuate her statement.
"Even bigger than Bray's?" I teased, to cover the fact I was blushing like crazy.
She gaped at me for a moment. "What makes you think I know anything about his ball size?"
I grinned. "Just a hunch. Are you going to answer the question?"
"Not a chance," she said lightly. "I plead ignorance on the matter. Also, I don't want to think about my stepbrother's balls."
"Sure." I exchanged glances with Elenna.
Wren swatted me on the arm. "I'm serious. Bray is a massive asshole and I have no intention of going there, no matter how hot he is or how big his balls might, or might not, be."
Elenna leaned over and put a hand on Wren's. "Whatever you do, or do not do, we support you. We would never judge your choices."
"No, we wouldn't," I agreed. "We love you and want you to be happy and have lots of orgasms. Whether they're given to you by Tiger, your stepbrother or whoever."
Wren closed her eyes and exhaled. "I know you wouldn't. I love you both too. Maybe I should fix him up with one of you, to put him out of temptation's path."
"Three is enough for me," Elenna said.
"Me too," I said. "But honestly, if you're that tempted, maybe he's not so bad after all."
Wren rubbed the heel of her hand against her forehead. "He really is that bad. To me he is. He basically hated me on sight and he's treated me like shit ever since."
"I'm sure you give it back just as hard," I said.
She smiled. "Of course I do. And then some. He deserves every bit of it."
"I almost feel sorry for him," I said. "He clearly doesn't know what he's missing. Or does he?"
Wren scooped up a napkin from the table and threw it in my direction. It travelled a few centimetres before fluttering back down to the table top. "That was very unsatisfying," she complained.
"Maybe we should try paintball or laser tag next time," I suggested.
"That would work," she said, perking up. "I could cover you in orange paint."
"I thought you loved me." I grimaced. I couldn't stand the colour orange. Or the fruit, for that matter. There was something about it that made my skin crawl. Yeah, I know that's weird. It's just a colour, but I stand by my dislike for it.
Wren grinned. "I do love you, but if you tease me about Bray any more, then you deserve to be covered from head to toe in as much orange paint as possible. Right, Elenna?"
She raised her hand to either side. "I'm staying right out of this. The last time we played paintball, it took a week to get all of the paint out of my ears." She mimed scraping it out.
"I'm sure it wasn't that bad," Wren said.
Elenna arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. "I should get to work. Finley wants me there for the morning skate, to help keep an eye on Tank and BJ."
"I should get to work too," I said. "There's a couple of staff in the office I need to watch."
I hoped like hell I wouldn't see anything suspicious from either of them, but there was little reason to expect they were innocent. The Fiorellis were getting desperate. If I was them, I'd infiltrate us as deep as I could.