Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
WREN
"Isn't this fun?" Parker gestured around the dressing area and grinned.
With Elenna working tonight, Sinclair and I opted to stay behind the scenes with her and the team. We were happy to help wheel hampers of towels and jerseys back and forth from the laundry, while she and Finley dealt with broken skates, sticks and padding.
The atmosphere was different to the one in the stands. As electric, but more tense.
Like before every game, it was also a lot quieter back here. The guys were all lost in their own thoughts. Each focused on pre-game mental warm-ups and rituals.
Tiger put on his skates right foot, then left, before lacing them up.
Bray chugged a full bottle of water to make sure he was hydrated.
The rest of the team had their own rituals.
As far as I knew, none of the guys dipped their hockey stick in the toilet, but that was a thing at least one player used to do. Once they did a thing and then won, it was difficult to let that superstition go. Even something as gross as that.
"Why do you want to own the team?" I asked. "Seems like a lot of hassle to me."
"I think it’d be fun," Parker said. "It's super handy for smuggling shit." He leaned in and lowered his voice. "Don't tell anyone this, but part of it is because we think the Demons deserved better than someone like Caleb, who doesn't give a shit."
"You'd give a shit about the team?" I asked. Neither he nor Hunter seemed like the kind of guy who’d bother with a sporting team.
"I'd like to think we would," Parker replied. "We're not as evil as we let on. Owning the team is a business opportunity, and a way to give back to the community. You know, encourage kids to play and all that stuff." He winced. "Now I sounded like a do-gooder."
I snorted. I didn't think anyone would mistake them for honest, decent citizens. Not for long anyway.
"There's nothing wrong with being a do-gooder. Not everyone in the world has to be an asshole."
"I keep telling Hunter that, but he just laughs." Parker shrugged and smiled.
I doubted he’d ever said anything like that to his twin in his life. I wouldn't trust either of them as far as I could throw them, but it was difficult not to like them. Parker in particular. He seemed to roll with the punches, so to speak.
"It would be nice to have someone in charge who actually cares if the team wins or not," I said. "I get the impression Caleb doesn't, one way or another. As long as the team does what he needs it to do." Smuggling and laundering money, for example.
"Exactly," Parker agreed. "Hunter and I have been to more of the Demons games than he has. And more Wolf Venom concerts."
"Right." I'd forgotten one of their older brothers was the lead singer in the same band as Tiger's brother played keyboard. The drummer, Asher, was the cousin of Phoenix, the Demons' goalie. If I thought about all of that for too long, my brain would hurt.
"Could you convince Wolf Venom to play at a charity concert here?" Sinclair walked up to us and playfully bumped her hip against mine.
I grinned and bumped her back.
"I can't claim to have much influence with Zeke or the others," Parker admitted.
He looked pained to have to say that. "Try asking Abbie.
She'll probably like you. But don't mention me or Hunter, or she'll hang up on you before you even ask.
She has a grudge against us for some reason. " He shrugged.
"Okay, I will," Sinclair said.
Abbie Hart, the singer, was dating all of the members of the band, and their manager. The idea of seven boyfriends also hurt my brain.
"You work in PR, right?" Parker asked Sinclair. "When we convince Caleb to give us the team, we'll have to sit down and have a chat."
Sinclair looked nervous. "Okay," she said slowly. "Why?"
Parker chuckled at the expression on her face. "Because we don't want the team to look bad. Whatever Hunter and I need to do to make them look like the poster boys for Australian ice hockey, we'll happily do."
"Because it's much easier to get away with illegal shit when your image is squeaky clean?" Sinclair suggested.
Parker grinned. "Exactly. You can make more money with a good reputation than a bad one. More than one person has fucked themselves by screwing someone else over. So Lila says anyway. She's studying business, so I guess she'd know."
"She sounds smart," Sinclair said.
His expression softened. "She's crazy smart. And a complete badass. There's no one else in the world like her." He was clearly a man head over heels for his woman.
"You better not be trying anything with my girlfriend." Tiger stomped over on his skates.
Coast Riggs wasn't far behind, a similar expression on his face. He snaked an arm around Sinclair's waist and pulled him to her like she was his possession and how dare Parker even be this close to her?
Parker held up his hands. "I was just talking to these two lovely women about business. They were both very interested, right?" He looked from me to Sinclair, and back to Coast. Of course his words were carefully chosen to be just provocative enough.
"Literally business," Sinclair said. She put a hand on Coast's chest to stop him from lunging at Parker.
I grabbed Tiger's hand to do the same thing. "If he and his brother own the team someday, we're all going to see a lot more of them."
"Whatever, but if he touches you, I'll rip his fucking arm off." Tiger kept his gaze on Parker.
"He won't," I assured him. Parker was more interested in stirring up trouble than he was in me or my friend. He was definitely more into Lila than he was into anything else.
Parker held up a hand. "I really won't. Scout’s honour."
"As if you were ever a fucking scout," Coast said.
Parker chuckled. "Fine. Mobster’s honour then. Is that better?"
"More accurate," Tiger said.
"Get out there," Aidan called out. "Warm up.
" He'd been off to the side, talking to Hunter.
Whatever he thought about the conversation, I couldn't tell.
He usually looked angry about something, so his expression was no different from normal.
As far as I knew, he only ever smiled around Elenna, even when the team won.
Tiger kissed my mouth, then reluctantly slipped his hand out of mine and stepped out to the ice.
I didn't tell him good luck. One of his superstitions was that if someone said that to him, the team would lose. So I said nothing.
I stepped back and kissed Bray as he too passed me. "Have a good game."
He didn't have the same superstition as Tiger, but I didn't like to say ‘good luck’ to him either. If it was bad for one, it might be bad for all of them.
It wasn't just players who had their superstitions.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked over to see Lex standing beside me. He watched the guys walking onto the ice, his expression intense and focused.
Of course, part of his job was making sure they warmed up properly and weren't going out on the ice with an injury they'd tried to hide.
Ideally, the coaching team wanted to prevent injuries before they happened. Lex helped them to do that by running them through exercises to build their strength in a variety of muscles. That way, a player wouldn't put too much strain on one in particular.
"The vibe in here is good tonight," I said softly. I didn't want to break his concentration unnecessarily.
He didn't take his eyes off the team. "It is. They're going to smash the opposition."
"I'm in the wrong line of work," Parker said. "I should have done something that let me beat the shit out of people and get paid for it."
"Isn't that what you do?" I asked.
He looked surprised for a moment, then grinned. "Oh, yeah. I guess it is. We don't get to do it as often as they do though, and we don't have an arena full of people to cheer us on."
"You missed your calling," Lex told him. "You should have been a Roman gladiator."
Parker laughed. "I'll remember to discuss that with Reuben. He might be interested in bringing back a blood sport like that. Just for shits and giggles."
If that was Reuben's idea of fun, he was fucked up in the head.
"Just out of curiosity," I said slowly, "you're interested in business ventures to invest in?"
"You might say that," Parker agreed. "Why?"
I told him about Danglies. "I could ask the guys to invest, but I think they're biased. I'd prefer to have someone who really thinks the business can get off the ground. But I only want a silent partner and a short-term loan. Five years at most."
"Sounds interesting," Parker said thoughtfully. "You'll have to show me your pussy sometime." His eyes shone with mischief.
Lex pushed his chest forward, towards Parker. "You want to reword that?"
"I should have said pussies," Parker said unapologetically. "And cocks. If we're investing in anything, we need to see what we're investing in first." He patted Lex on the chest.
"What are we investing in?" Hunter asked.
"Cocks and pussies," Parker told him.
"Two of my favourite things," Hunter said. He grinned as Parker elaborated. "Even better. I'll take three cocks. Lila will get a kick out of having little gold representations of me, Parker and Slade." He added, "Slade is Lila's other boyfriend. He teaches at Brutham Academy."
"If you make one bigger than the other two, that's mine," Parker said.
"What is it about men and dick size?" I asked Sinclair.
She laughed. "It does seem like an obsession with dicks, doesn't it?"
"I might have a thing for them too," I said. I wouldn't make cock-shaped pendants if I didn't like the way they looked and felt.
"Who has a thing for what?" Elenna asked. She approached us, Finley behind her, pulling him along by his hand.
"They were just expressing their appreciation for penises," Hunter said.
"Seems we arrived at just the right time," Finley said with a grin. "I'd hate to miss that conversation."
"Speaking about missing things, we're going to miss the game if we stay here and talk about dicks," I pointed out.
"We don't want that," Hunter said. "Parker and I are going to watch from the owner's box. Practice for when we actually own the team." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
I still wasn't sure I fully understood their interest in owning the team, but it seemed to be something they wanted very much. Guys like them tended to find a way to obtain the things they wanted, when they wanted them that much.
"We'll talk to you later about your pussy," Parker said, casting a teasing eye in Lex's direction. "Pussies. I meant pussies." He stood just out of reach of Lex's fist. "See you all later." His eyes on Lex until the last moment, he turned and followed his twin away.
Lex grunted and watched them carefully as they walked away. "That's exactly why they call them the evil twins."
"Because they flirt with girls like us?" I asked. As pastimes went, it seemed harmless enough to me, except that sooner or later someone may have a fist planted in their face.
"Flirting with danger might be more accurate," Finley said. "Judging by the expression on Lex's face right now, they might be lucky if he doesn't arrange for them to be run over by the Zamboni."
Lex snapped his fingers. "There's an idea."
I slapped him lightly on the centre of his chest with the back of my hand. "They're on our side, don't forget. Save the violence and testosterone for Nicholas Fiorelli."
"I'd consider it a practice run," Lex said easily. "Don't worry, I won't really do anything to them. We might need them yet."