Chapter 10
brOOKS
“How come Matty never gets involved in the fights?” I asked, my elbows resting on my knees as I studied the ice. Not that I wanted to see Matty get slammed against the boards or swung at, but since that seemed like the most fun part of the sport, I was curious.
My knowledge of hockey was . . . limited. Admittedly, most of it had come from romance novels. None of that was relevant when it came to a bunch of high school kids, obviously, so I was pretty lost. But I was trying to learn more now since Matty loved it so much, and a lot of it went over my head.
“He’s the goalie.” Maverick threw his arm over my shoulders, bringing me close.
He smelled like mangoes and aftershave since he’d ended up taking a second shower after he and Skye had had an afternoon delight.
I wasn’t jealous, it was important for our dynamic to include one-on-one moments, but I had felt some serious FOMO when I’d walked into the office and seen them cuddled on the floor, all fucked out.
Especially because I’d spent my afternoon slogging through an insane number of documents and footage that Diego had found.
“It’s an unspoken rule, especially at this level: don’t mess with the goalie.
If anyone did, the whole team would go off on them. ”
I liked that. Matty needed that kind of support after all the bullshit.
And from the little bit I understood about the rules, he was great at his position.
This team seemed to be gunning for the goal.
Matty’s team, the Phantoms, was struggling to keep the puck away from the opposition.
They must’ve taken at least 1,000 shots at the goal already and Matty hadn’t let one in. It was fucking awesome.
“Can someone move the camera? I can’t see the goal anymore,” Luca complained, his voice intense.
He would get so into these games, even when he couldn’t be here.
He knew every single one of Matty’s stats from the last year, even including the exhibition games.
He knew all the players’ names, their strengths, and weaknesses.
He even knew which ones were planning on playing at the college level and had professional goals.
Yet, I didn’t think Matty had a clue. Luca was trying, but his lack of communication was still his biggest flaw, and a lot of that seemed to fall on his relationship with Matty these days.
It bothered Luca that he wasn’t as close to him as the rest of us were, but he also seemed to struggle to express that whenever he had a chance.
So, he picked up the slack in the best way he knew how.
Skye leaned over from where he was sitting on the other side of Mav and adjusted the camera.
“Better?” he asked, leaning into Mav’s side.
“Yeah, thank you.” That was Wes.
By unspoken agreement, nobody asked them about Everett. We’d learned a lot about all that bullshit, but this was Matty’s time. Work could wait. Tomorrow, once I was home from my job, we’d all start fresh and come up with a real plan.
It was a given that Everett was coming back to the Castellano estate.
Well, at least to me. He wouldn’t be safe anywhere else.
That had been proven when even the FBI and marshals had struggled to protect him.
Ramirez had done a good job, but that wasn’t sustainable.
It only made sense for him to stay with us until the situation was resolved.
We still had to tell Matty, but I didn’t think it would be an issue. He was a damn good kid.
And a damn good goalie, as he managed to block and clear another fucking shot.
“Why do the offense people suck?” I whined. It was stressing me out seeing so many of the opposing team crowding Matty.
“They’re kids, sweetheart,” Wes admonished gently through the phone.
I shrugged. I stood by my sentiment.
“The other team has a really strong offense,” Diego commented for the first time since the game had started.
He had never shown any interest in sports growing up, except the occasional MMA fight, but he seemed to really get into hockey.
And not just at the NHL level, where we could admire the pros’ asses and flexibility.
Not that Diego paid much attention to that kind of thing.
Finally, the period ended and the team skated off. Thank fuck, I needed a break.
Mav kissed the side of my head roughly. “Anxious, brat?”
“Yeah. You ever see the videos of parents of Olympic athletes in the stands and they’re freaking the fuck out while their kid performs?”
“I don’t think so, but I get what you mean.”
“That’s how I feel. I’m like freaking Aly Raisman’s parents in that TikTok.”
Mav didn’t get the reference, but he still hummed in agreement. “It is nerve-wracking, but our boy is amazing. He’s got this.”
Yeah, he did. I just wished I did too.
The next period went a little better. The Phantoms ended up losing after a wild puck slid in past Matty’s defenses.
I was devastated, but Matty seemed to lock right back in, blocking every other shot.
His team had a few runs on the goal, but they never managed to score, and the final was 1-0.
It sucked, but as Luca reminded me, it was only the first game of the season and the opposing team were the state champions last year.
They had five seniors on their starting lineup, including the goalie, so Luca anticipated that next year would be a struggle for them.
That didn’t matter much to us, though, since Matty would’ve moved on by then.
I was contemplating if Matty would want to switch teams when he strolled out of the locker room with his best friend, both of them smiling.
“Hey.” He beamed when he saw us.
I immediately went over, my arms open for a hug. Matty rolled his eyes but indulged me. “You did fucking awesome. The NHL should draft you now.”
Matty scoffed, but Harley chimed in, “See, bro, told you. It’s not your fault we couldn’t score.”
Harley was a defenseman. That was all I knew about his position.
“Yeah, I know. Coach said I broke the record for most blocked goals.”
“That’s amazing, Matty,” Wes praised. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be there in person.”
Matty grinned at the camera and waved, Harley peeking in behind him to say hi. “That’s okay. You still made the effort. That’s all that matters. My parents—Lewis and Michelle, I mean—they never came to my games.”
Whenever he talked about those assholes, it pissed me off.
Michelle had moved to the other side of the country to live with her family.
She had pulled Matty’s sister, who was actually his aunt, but he never called her that, out of her boarding school and had enrolled her in one in California.
Michelle was currently getting a divorce from Lewis Covington and was busy suing him for emotional damage or some bullshit.
She hadn’t reached out to Matty at all, willingly signing over her parental rights and walking away.
Marshall was still in jail for tax evasion and fraud, but he’d be out soon.
Personally, I wanted to deal with the asshole myself.
I was convinced he’d known more about Matty’s captivity than he’d let on, but we couldn’t prove it.
Matty rarely talked about them, and when he did it was always a little awkward. I wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t like to or if it felt weird since we were his guardians now. Either way, this time was no different, and he quickly changed the subject.
“I’m starving. Can we get pizza?”
I grinned. I was always down for pizza.
“Sure,” Maverick replied, ruffling his hair.
We all said goodbye to Wes, Luca, and Diego and then headed out to Skye’s Jeep that had become the family car somewhat.
Harley came with us—his dad had been at the game but had to leave for duty right at the end, and we had promised him we’d drop him off after dinner.
We ordered several pies, mozzarella sticks, and wings, oh, and garlic knots, then brought it home so Diego could join.
Being with him was still one of my favorite things in the world, so it was no hardship.
He’d told us it wasn’t necessary, but it always felt wrong when he wasn’t with us.
He had been improving on leaving the estate, but it was a work in progress and probably always would be.
While we ate, there was a lot of joking around and bantering.
No one talked about the hockey game or work.
I mostly peeped Harley and Matty, trying to figure out whatever was going on there.
It was impossible not to notice how close they sat to each other and how Harley hung onto every word Matty said.
I hadn’t picked up on anything more than friends before this, but now I had questions.
Ones I would absolutely be asking Matty the first chance I got.
Maverick and Wes would probably tell me to give him privacy, but I was a nosy bitch and could be invasive as fuck. Lord knew I was with Diego.
After dinner was cleaned up, Maverick and Matty left to drive Harley home, and I made my way to my room to prepare for my job.
It was an easy one. A woman had divorced her shitty husband so he’d refused to give her back her family heirlooms. She’d tried to go the legal way, but the husband never turned them over, claiming he didn’t have them and that the woman was lying.
So, she’d turned to less-than-legal methods to get them back, and I was happy to oblige. I didn’t have many burglary jobs these days and I missed it.
I hopped into the shower in the en suite Diego and I shared. I rarely used it anymore, but I kept all my work gear in this room, so it was the easiest.
I cleaned up quickly, then wrapped one of the purple, fluffy towels around my waist before padding barefoot into my room.
I wasn’t totally surprised to see Skye there, lying across the bed Diego and I shared when we slept in here. He often came to help me get ready when I went on these types of jobs. A lot of the time, he went with me, but this was a solo effort.
“Hey, sunshine.”
“Hey.” I flopped down on the mattress next to him, my wet head resting against his stomach.
He was still in the clothes he had worn to Matty’s game: his signature ripped jeans, on the baggier side but still fitted around his ass, and a T-shirt with one of those old-timey covered wagons on it with the saying, Get in, losers, we’re going to die of dysentery.
I hadn’t gotten the reference, which had Skye, Mav, and Diego all dramatically offended, talking about kids these days. Apparently, there was some old-ass computer game called Oregon Trail, which had been a Millennial staple back in the day.
Skye ran his fingers through my hair, not caring that I was soaking his shirt.
“Ready for tonight?” he asked after a minute or so.
“Yup. Easy peasy. Honestly, it might be a little boring.”
Without warning, Skye rolled us over so that I was on my back and he was on top of me, pinning me down. There was a glint in his eyes that had me shivering with anticipation. What was he planning?
“Boring, eh?”
Um, I sensed I’d made a mistake, but . .
. “Yeah? I mean, kind of. I don’t expect there to be any issues.
It’s not like this guy is a mastermind criminal, and I was even given the old code to the safe.
It might’ve been changed, which would at least make the job kind of exciting, but our client didn’t think that would be the case.
” I hoped my target wouldn’t be so dumb as to not to change the code to the safe that stored a family heirloom he’d stolen that was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I didn’t have my hopes up.
Skye grinned and nuzzled my jawline with his nose. “How do you feel about making it a little more exciting then?”
I raised my eyebrow, intrigued. “How?”
Skye pecked my lips. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Then he was gone, running out of the room and leaving me alone with questions.
Before I could do much more than pull myself up to a sitting position and stare at the door, Skye was back. He was holding something in his hand but was careful to keep it out of my eyesight. He closed and locked the door behind him.
It wasn’t until he was standing in front of me, in between my spread knees, that he showed me the object: a butt plug.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “That better be for you, Skye.”
He laughed. “How would me wearing a plug make your job more exciting?”
I made a face at him. “I don’t know. I’ll get to listen to you moan through the comms?”
“Hmmm. That’s not a bad idea, but no, that wasn’t what I had in mind. I think I need a night to recover before sticking anything else in my ass.”
“Ha. Fair. But what exactly do you have in mind then?”
Skye pulled out his phone and pressed a button. The plug began to move in his hand, vibrating. Fuuuuuck.
“It’s remote controlled. You wear it, and I’ll be watching you through your body cam and controlling the plug. Let’s see how easy the job is when you’re distracted.”
I wouldn’t lie, I was intrigued. I’d never done anything like this before because I had limits when it came to play while I was working. But Skye wasn’t my dom, so it wouldn’t be the same. It would just be us messing around, right? Still.
“Do you think Mav and Luc will be okay with this? We’re not supposed to engage in anal without permission.” It was one of my new rules. We could make out and fool around all we wanted. I could even give Skye blow jobs, but no anal unless one of them said it was okay.
He seemed to think about that for a minute. “We can ask Mav. As long as you really do want to try it?”
I fiddled with my collar, thinking. This really would be easy. And if it did end up being too distracting, Skye would stop playing with the vibrations. I was caged, so I didn’t have to worry about accidents that would leave my DNA anywhere.
I looked up at him. “Yeah, ask him please.”