Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
ariana
Boston’s green eyes snap upward. He scans the room as if he’s searching for a threat, his phone still hanging between his knees.
I don’t know why my heart sinks, but it does. Whatever information he’s sitting on is bad. That much is obvious. The whole room can feel it. Every single one of us. Whatever he says next is going to shake things up, and not in a way that anyone wants.
“What?” Saltzy asks carefully, being the first to brave the silence.
Boston swallows, dropping his head between his shoulders.
He lets out a little breath and makes a feeble attempt to regain his composure, but fails.
When he finally lifts his head and pulls his shoulders back, he looks somewhat ready for battle.
Acts it, too. But by the way his leg is bobbing up and down, I don’t think he’s as calm as he’s pretending to be.
“Lemmy,” he announces. He sighs, glancing down at the phone again. When he looks up, he looks right at my brother. “She found the leak. About Irina.”
Carter immediately straightens, brow furrowing. “It wasn’t Irina?”
Boston runs his hand over his jaw. He shakes his head.
“No. Lemmy had a field day with that journalist, and now she’s too scared to publish anything about the team all together.
Her media company just got another tip from the same source, but since they don’t trust it anymore, they sent it to Lemmy instead. ”
The room is so quiet, I can practically hear his heartbeat across the room.
Irina Coasta has an obsession with the Pittsburgh hockey team.
She used to follow them around, and then she went on a podcast to claim Arden was a mistress and she was the one who was actually dating my brother.
It was a nightmare. Easily proven to be a lie, but she tried it and I still want to drag her face along the concrete for it.
Nobody speaks. Boston keeps his hand over his mouth, but says nothing.
“What the fuck, Boston?” Carter bites out. He sits up and places his beer on the table. “Who was it?”
There’s one beat of silence. A moment where we all pause, knowing that things are going to be very different the moment this information slides from Boston’s mouth and lands in our laps. It’s somebody they know. Someone that wanted to hurt my brother and their team. This is a game changer.
“Morgan,” he blurts out, swallowing heavily as his eyes dart around the room. “It was fucking Morgan.”
The balcony falls silent. I don’t know who Morgan is, but everyone else seems to.
I slowly take in everyone’s reactions, not comprehending the enormity of that name in this group of people.
I glance at Carter, whose jaw is set, fists tightening by his sides.
Arden slowly reaches over and places her fingers around the back of his neck, attempting to smother out his rage before it grows.
Penny is rigid in her seat, her eyes burning into the side of Boston’s face. She stares at him like she’s waiting for the punchline, but it doesn’t come. I don’t think she’s blinked since that name slid from his tongue.
Declan rubs his hands over his face beside her, letting out a long, drawn out breath.
“What a fucking bitch,” Penny mutters, finally, her tone pure ice and fury.
Boston is still staring at his phone.
Carter is about to implode beside Arden, shaking out his hands the way he usually does when his temper comes on too strong, too quickly.
“It’s okay,” Arden says quietly to him. “She didn’t get what she wanted. We’re fine.”
Carter doesn’t register what she’s saying. He’s staring out at nothing, blue eyes burning.
“Who is Morgan?” I ask. Maybe not the time, but I have to know who is being added to my kill list, and things are getting more and more tense on this balcony the longer nobody speaks.
“Tom’s wife,” Arden says, glancing at me. There is worry and anger in her eyes, melting together into a perfect, fatal storm. “Their teammate.”
Danford. Right. I remember his name.
Well, shit. Their teammate’s wife?
I fall back against the couch. Oh, this is bad.
Morgan once tried to ruin my brother’s reputation and failed.
Now, she’s tried again, with the same result.
She didn’t learn her lesson. She ran to the same journalist and tried to sell yet another story to stir the pot, not realizing that the men she was trying to destroy had Lemmy.
She should know better, her husband is on the team.
A million questions run through my head. Does Tom know about this? What would he think if he found out? Are the other wives aware? Are they in on it?
Boston stands abruptly, ripping me from my thoughts, and clears his throat. He glances toward the couch beside him. “Saltzy, a word?”
Callum and Wyatt both glance up at him, their expressions sinking deeper. Boston looks at him for one, pointed second, and whatever Callum sees in his eyes has him flooded with concern.
Boston gestures toward the house, shaking out his shoulders, and storms inside.
Saltzy stands, not sparing any of us a glance, and wordlessly follows him.
My gaze slides to Wyatt, now alone on the couch. He stares after them, preemptive pain laced through every inch of his face. Eventually, he tears his eyes from the door that his boyfriend just walked through, and looks to his anchors.
Declan and Penny are already watching him.
The three of them shift in their seats. Something in the air changes, just enough for it to be tangible. There’s a nervousness. An anger. It’s brewing and it’s coming fast.
Penny’s fingers curl around the edge of the couch, her knuckles going white.
There is an entire conversation between the three of them, even though not a single word is spoken.
But I’m listening. I read between the lines as well as they had. This storm is a category five, and it’s about to hit the city with a vengeance.
Morgan just tried to out Callum Saltzman and Wyatt Caulfield, and Eleanor Lemon outed her instead. To their fucking battalion.
I hope that woman has a will in place.
Callum reemerges with Boston in tow. He doesn’t acknowledge the stares or expectant eyes, he just walks right up to Wyatt, running a hand over his jaw as he does. I don’t know what Wyatt sees in his face, but he jumps to his feet just in time for Callum to storm right into his arms.
Wyatt’s eyes flutter shut over his shoulder, his hand gliding up Callum’s back until it rests on the nape of his neck.
It clicks for Carter then, and the contents of the coffee table go flying.
Not the best temper, but if there is anything worth getting so angry about—it’s this.
Chaos follows.
It takes three people to physically calm Penny down.
Declan has to pry her phone from her hand to stop her from calling Morgan.
Her eyes are full of pure and unrelenting rage, something that Carter is an expert in.
Her panic seems to snap him out of his own fury, which is truly an unexpected surprise.
He kneels in front of her and grabs her face, forcing her back into her body.
Even Declan’s attempts to ground her were futile.
Sometimes, I think Penny and my brother have more in common than they realize.
Callum turns in Wyatt’s arms, dragging a hand over his face, a heavy breath leaving his chest. His eyes land on Penny, practically being restrained, and heartbreak devastates his face.
“Look, it’s fine,” he says weakly. He clears his throat, sounding very un-fine. “It’s not like it’s a secret. I’m not ashamed of anything, especially not…” he glances beside him, his eyes flickering over Wyatt’s face, his expression softening. “Especially not you.”
Pure concern pours from Wyatt’s soul and floods the room. He reaches for Cal, placing his hand on the back of his neck again—an act of comfort that has always seemed to help Cal relax, but it does nothing for Penny, whose eyes fill with even angrier tears.
“I just didn’t want this to become a fucking spectacle, you know?
” Callum says, breathlessly. His voice hitches.
Declan winces at the sound. I glance down at my hands.
This isn’t something I should be in the room for.
“I know what I signed up for, but god—I wanted to be able to have something that belongs to us. With no public opinion. He…” he glances at Wyatt again, “you don’t deserve this, Wy. ”
Wyatt smiles gently, pretending like this will be no big deal. But it is. It feels like it is. No matter what they wanted or intended, Morgan should have never been a factor. She is not a part of their story. She has no right to believe she is.
“I love you. That’s all that matters to me,” Wyatt mumbles. “The rest of it is just the rest of it.”
Boston stares at the phone in his hands, clutching it tightly, his thumbs working a mile a minute.
I reach over Arden to take my brother’s trembling hand in mine as he sits back down. He shakes his head, like he can’t talk right now. He doesn’t have to. None of them do. This is a nightmare and I’ll sit here with them until they decide what comes next.
Arden places her hand on top of ours.
“Lucky, take a breath,” Dec begs.
I glance over at her. She is seconds away from exploding, and I don’t think anybody will like what happens when she does.
“It’s not your fault, Boss,” Callum says, the very second that Boston buries his head in his hands. “You’re just the one who got the text.”
My heart breaks looking at him. I can feel his guilt, the belief that he started all of this, and not for the first time do I realize how big of a heart that giant grump carries in his chest. He loves his people. Deeply. Even if he doesn’t say that part out loud.
“Lemmy’s burying it,” he says, “but we need to decide on how to handle Morgan.”
“Do you want us to leave it?” Declan asks, and all eyes slide to Wyatt and Callum.
Callum swallows, unprepared for that question.
Wyatt studies Callum’s face with careful precision.
I see the anger that he’s harbouring, how he’s trying to suffocate it for his partner, because at the end of the day—this is Cal’s career.
It’s Callum’s teammate's wife. It’s all wrapped up in him and what he needs.
Yet, it’s abundantly clear Callum feels like he’s the one to blame because of all that.
Callum sniffs, looking around the room. “I never want to see her face again. Understood?”
A calmness spreads over this balcony. A unified agreement. This is being handled. Head-on. And it starts now.
“Good,” Penny says with a firm nod. “Because I am going to fucking kill her with my bare hands so you won’t have to.”
Declan says nothing, just pulls her to his chest, kissing her head.
“Dibs on her husband,” Carter bites out, catching Penny’s eye over Declan’s shoulder.
Through the tears, I see a soldier. Someone who is always on the front line for her friends.
That rage is different. It’s overpowering.
She dips her chin as she and my brother exchange a look. I think they just made a deadly deal.
“I’m never going to make a public statement about this,” Callum tells the room. Wyatt’s still got his hand on his neck. “Ever. My sexuality, my relationship—it’s nobody’s business. Even if the story breaks. No comment. From anyone.”
Penny’s eyes slide to Wyatt, but he dips his chin in agreement without ever looking away from Cal’s face.
“If I leave the stadium with Wy, if I’m spotted with him at a bar, if there are four hundred pictures online, I do not care.
” Cal’s voice is shaking and Wyatt physically winces at the sound, like Callum’s pain causes him pain.
He turns his head over his shoulder to shield his emotion from the rest of us.
“I’m not hiding him. I never will. But he is not up for discussion.
My job is hockey. My job is being your Captain.
I owe the public and the team nothing else. ”
“We got you,” Boston says. “Both of you.”
Carter shakes out his hands again. Arden takes them in hers, bringing them to her mouth and presses a kiss to his fingers.
“Is that okay with you?” Cal asks gently, looking beside him.
Wyatt keeps his face turned away from us. He nods, reaching up to wipe his eyes. Cal’s expression softens. His hands slide to Wyatt’s middle, angling his head so that he can look at him.
“I’m just scared for you,” Wyatt says quietly, clearing his throat. He wipes his face again quickly, leaning down to press a kiss to Cal’s hair. “I know what it’s like. You shouldn’t have to deal with this. I’m angry, Cal. I’m just…fucking pissed.”
“We’ll be okay,” Callum promises. He runs his thumb against Wyatt’s hand. “You think I’m letting Tom Danford’s wife ruin this for me? A guy who can barely skate? Come on.”
Wyatt cracks a crooked smile, huffing a surprised laugh. Shockingly, Carter, Declan, and Boston break into chuckles of disbelief, too. It’s followed by a moment of quiet. A moment where the laughter tapers and we all take a second to absorb what this means. What that woman has done.
Eventually, Wyatt reaches between their bodies and grabs Callum by the chin, his dark eyes cautiously searching for something I don’t think he’ll find.
Cal meets his gaze directly, but doesn’t dare speak.
There is no making this better. Nothing will change what just happened.
Wy smiles, like that look said enough, and presses his mouth to his without another word.
Callum’s eyes flutter shut, clinging to Wyatt like a prayer.
“I need a drink,” Carter murmurs.
“We all do,” Declan says with a sigh, rising to his feet. “I’ll make a round and then we’ll discuss how to handle Morgan. At least we have a month before we have to see either of them again.”
Boston finally stops typing and drops his phone to the table. He lets out a long breath, glancing up at Cal and Wyatt, relief washing over him when he realizes that amidst all this bullshit, they seem to be okay.
His eyes slowly glide to mine, and I smile gently, mouthing the words: I’m sorry.
I mean them.
He picks his phone back up and leans back in his seat. Within a second, my phone vibrates by my side. It’s him.
Boston
Thank you, and thank you for wearing pink.
I smile, locking my phone and looking anywhere but him as my cheeks turn the same colour as my dress.