Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
WREN
"Fucking dog's balls." Tiger looked up from his phone screen. His face turned towards the door, irritation etched on his face.
"What is it?" I sat up, my palms pressed hard against the butter soft leather of the couch. Every centimetre of me was tense, ready. The moment he gave the word, I'd grab a gun and join in the fight.
"We have visitors. They're on their way up." He looked like this was the last thing in the world he wanted.
The guys all had a rare day off and, so far, we'd almost managed to relax. The window was a constant reminder of what happened. Tiger would get it fixed when this was over. We couldn't risk having no glass in the windows, even for a short time.
"I got the same message," Lex said with slightly less annoyance than Tiger displayed.
"I'm starting to feel out of the loop." Bray checked his phone and shook his head. "Nothing. Just annoying spam I keep responding stop to, but they never stop."
"I didn't get one either," I said. I forced myself to relax back down, and not feed off Tiger's irritated vibes. "Who—"
I was interrupted by a rhythm of knocks on the door.
"Since when did we have a secret knock?" Bray asked.
"We don't." Tiger rose reluctantly and stalked over to the door like the big cat he was nicknamed after. It suited him better than Tiberius.
He unlocked the door and opened it slowly.
"Tige, dude!" A man in his early twenties, dressed in black jeans and a dark red Henley, stepped inside. He was followed by an identical man, dressed in dark blue jeans and a dark green button down.
"Hunter fucking Brantley," Tiger said as he was pulled into a hug. "Parker."
I'd met the Brantley twins, or as they were affectionately known, the evil twins, a couple of times before, but not recently.
"Long time no see," Parker said. He rubbed a couple of fingers over his crooked nose. "The only man we know who dislikes his brother as much as we do. Maybe more." He hugged Tiger once his twin stepped aside.
"Lex," Hunter greeted. "How's it hanging?"
Lex grinned. "A little to the left, as always. Still works as well as ever."
"That's what I like to hear." Hunter's gaze grazed over Bray and me. He was young, but he took in everything, clearly making mental notes for later. Only a silly person would underestimate the twins. From what I understood, they more than lived up to their nickname.
"This is Wren and Bray." Tiger gestured to us in turn. "Keep your fucking hands off my girlfriend."
Parker smirked. He didn't take orders from Tiger and obviously wasn't going to start now.
Hunter grinned and stepped towards Bray. "Braylon Ellis." He held out his hand. "I'm a big fan. We've been trying to talk Caleb into handing the team over to us, so we can hang out with all of you more. So far, he's holding out. Luckily Parker and I are patient."
Bray shook his hand, still cautious. "Why are you here?"
"This." Hunter moved over to the window and inspected the bullet holes. "Reuben isn't impressed that people shot at the building. He wants to know why anyone would do that and what we need to do to end them."
He turned around and leaned his back against the glass. "Not in those exact words. You know Reuben, he likes to sound educated, like somehow that makes him more legitimate. But he really wants to know what the fuck is up with this." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, tapping the tip on the glass.
Tiger explained in a handful of words. He concluded by saying, "If Reuben wants to help, he can find Fiorelli and put an end to his breathing."
"Reuben doesn't consider Nicholas Fiorelli a threat anymore," Parker said. "Something about him being as big as an ant. Metaphorically speaking. Nicholas is about as tall as we are."
"I think they guessed you didn't mean it literally, Park," Hunter said.
"Evidently he is a threat," Lex said. "Enough of one to hire someone to shoot at a building and enough of one for Reuben to send you two here."
"Yeah, this changed the game a little," Hunter agreed. "He's not a threat to Reuben's business, but he pissed Reuben off. That doesn't usually end well. I'm sure you won't be surprised at how little sympathy I have for dear Nicholas."
"About as much as I do," I said. "I think we're all on the same page on that."
Parker stepped over to sit down beside me. He draped his own arm over the back of the couch. "We heard a rumour about drugged baked goods."
"You heard right," I said. "Nicholas started subtle and then escalated to that." I tilted my head toward the window.
"That tends to be how it goes," Parker said. "It starts with harmless drugging and ends up with gunshots and car crashes."
"Harmless drugging?" Bray snapped. "She could have died."
"In my experience, if someone wants someone else dead, then they give them something worse than what he gave to Wren. They don't mess around with hallucinogens." Parker spoke casually, unconcerned about what might have happened.
Bray bared his teeth. "If it was your girlfriend—"
Parker's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he didn't stop smiling. As though he was talking about the late autumn weather, he said, "They'd end up fucking dead. Just like Fiorelli will."
"What Parker said," Hunter agreed. "We don't condone the drugging of innocent women."
I wondered if his emphasis on the word innocent had anything to do with the competition between the twins’ girlfriend Lila and her sister Chloe.
From what I gather, things got ugly between them.
When people had few boundaries to start with, they tended to come out swinging hard, and often didn't mind who got caught up in the crossfire.
"So are you here to help us, or ask questions?" Lex asked. "Better yet, give us an address for Fiorelli's present whereabouts."
"We gratefully accept the location of a shallow grave," Tiger said. "I don't have to kill the fucker personally to feel satisfied."
"As far as our sources know, he's alive," Hunter said. "Alive and well somewhere here in Dusk Bay. Congratulations on such a good season, by the way. Although, that may make it harder for us to convince Caleb to give us the Demons."
His sudden change of topic was almost swift enough to give me whiplash.
"Where in Dusk Bay?" I asked.
Hunter ignored Tiger's warning look and sat on the coffee table. "If we knew that, we wouldn't be sitting here having this pleasant chat."
"No, we'd be tearing Nicholas a new one," Bray said.
Hunter slowly swivelled around to face Bray. "If we were inclined to tell you. Which would depend on a lot of factors, including Reuben."
"Still haven't learned to think for yourselves," Tiger said.
Parker chuckled. "There's that Pennington wit."
Tiger glared at him. "At least I don't share a brain cell with my brother."
His tone suggested he liked the twins more than he let on. Maybe because they didn't like his brother either. I had no idea what the story there was, but nothing bonded people as much as mutual dislike for someone else. Okay, except maybe mutual love. In this case, it was definitely dislike.
"At least Parker and I have a brain cell between us," Hunter retorted. He grinned and offered his twin a fist bump.
Tiger rolled his eyes. "You guys are dickheads. I guess this is all the help Reuben is sending."
"We're all the help you need." Parker looked as smug as any of the guys ever did. "If we and the whole Dusk Bay Demons ice hockey team can't deal with one little Fiorelli, then we suck. And I know we don't suck."
"There's more to this, isn't there?" I asked. "More than one little Fiorelli."
"Ding ding ding, give the girl a prize," Parker said. "I bet you'd love a pack of Kink or Drink cards." His smile faded slightly. "There's always more to it. Geneva Mancini had a greater reach than we suspected. Reuben tried to step in and claim her assets and connections once she was dead."
"Nicholas got to them first," I guessed.
"First, or they maintained their loyalty to the Fiorellis," Hunter replied. "Nicholas has a lot more resources than we thought he did. In fact, the muffin and shooting this place are small acts compared to what he's potentially capable of."
"He's trying to distract us," Tiger said. "Make us think he's desperate."
"You think he's planning something big." A feeling of dread started in my stomach and quickly grew. "Like the attack on the arena."
"Asshole better not do that again," Hunter said. "Parker and I were cranky as fuck when we heard about it. We almost got Caleb to give us the team before that, but then Reuben said he needed Aidan to take care of the Fiorellis and he wanted Caleb to keep that connection."
"Those of us who could have died that night weren't too happy about it either," Bray said.
"No, we weren't," Tiger agreed. "The team wouldn't have been much good if either of us were dead."
Parker leaned over to pat Bray's knee. "Lucky for all of us that didn't happen."
Bray shifted his knee away. "Sounds to me like Nicholas is a lot bigger than an ant. Is he big enough to rival Reuben?"
"Maybe we should step out of the way and let Reuben deal with him," I suggested.
"I like that idea," Lex said. "All of this is starting to seem like a Reuben problem."
"He's not that big," Hunter said. "Reuben wants him dealt with before he is. That means all players on the ice."
"Why aren't you having this conversation with Aidan?" Tiger asked. "He's the one who reports to Reuben, not us."
"Just following orders," Hunter said. "Reuben wanted us to assess the damage to the building.
Also, we're friends. We want you to know what you might be up against. You already know not to let your guard down.
This should drive it home, if you didn't. We'll talk to Aidan after this and tell him what he needs to know.
Between us, we'll make a plan. Something that will end this once and for all.
Parker and I have spent too much time cleaning up after shit caused by the Fiorellis. "
"What happens after that?" I asked carefully. "Are Reuben and Samuel Bell going to fight over what the Fiorellis left behind?" Since they were dating Samuel's daughter, they'd be caught right in the middle.
Hunter and Parker exchanged glances. "Hopefully not, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it. We have bigger fish to fry in the meantime."
They were clearly not going to elaborate on that, so none of us asked.
"So we're supposed to sit tight and wait for someone to tell us what to do?" Tiger asked.
"No, you're supposed to get on with your daily lives," Hunter said. "Play hockey. Make goals. Focus on winning the cup, but just stay alert for threats. We'll keep working on which direction they'll come from."
That didn't sound like much of a plan to me, but they were right. The guys couldn't stop playing until all of this blew over. For all we knew nothing may happen again for months.