Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SINCLAIR
"I love this place right before a game. It's always buzzing with people and noise." Wren followed Elenna and I through the door leading from the garage, into the arena. Strictly for staff and players, she was only allowed there when she was with one of us. Or in this case, both.
"It does have a good atmosphere," Elenna agreed. "I don't mind it during the week too though, when it’s quieter."
"It's certainly a lot more hectic like this," I agreed. During the week, the arena was little more than a glorified office. Or not, so glorified, depending on how you look at it.
People seemed to think working for a professional hockey team was glamorous in some way, but it was work like any other. Harder, in some ways, given the egos I had to deal with.
Yeah, it's ironic that I'd want to get involved with any of the players, much less three of them. What could be better than dealing with egos at work and then going home to them? Not to mention what someone like Coast would think he could get up to if I was his girlfriend.
So I got drunk and slugged some guy in a bar; Sinclair will fix it.
That was something I was going to have to address at some point. There was no way he was getting away with shit like that, no matter what we were to each other. If he did, he'd make me and himself look bad.
Honestly, I doubted he gave a shit about making himself look bad, but hopefully he cared about not embarrassing me and making me lose my job.
Yeah, now I was wondering if dating any of the players was such a good idea.
We took the elevator up to the main level, and stepped out into a flood of people making their way towards the rink.
A buzz of excitement filled the air. Most wore Demons jerseys and hoodies, but plenty also wore the Sugar Gliders’ colours: brown and yellow.
Of course, we wore jerseys with the Demons logo on the front.
Elenna's had Orion's number on the back.
Wren, being Wren, had the number sixty-nine on the back of hers, with her last name, Valentine.
Mine had no number or name. Any other choice would have raised comments with one of the guys. I had a feeling Javey would lose his mind if he saw me in Coast's or Phoenix's numbers. I was down for that in private, but in public… It was better not to push that button.
We ducked into the staff area so Elenna could put down her things and get to work.
"I didn't think it was possible for this amount of laundry to exist." She grabbed the handle of a full hamper from outside the locker room and wheeled it to the laundry, and dumped the contents into a washing machine.
"It's a never-ending cycle," I said. "Just think how much worse they'd stink if not for you.
" One of the more unglamorous aspects of being a professional hockey player was how much they stank after a game.
Think of smelly socks, then times it by about a million.
Sweat and testosterone will do that to a guy.
"Not all heroes wear capes," Wren said lightly.
Elenna gave her a look, then cracked up laughing. "I don't think there's much heroic about doing washing. It's not as exciting as sharpening skates." She glanced at me meaningfully.
"Now we have extra reasons to keep them nice and sharp," I said, lighter than I felt. Truthfully, the idea of someone killing someone with an ice skate was both horrifying and hot at the same time.
"Absolutely," Elenna agreed. "I—" She stopped as Aidan stepped through the doorway.
"Judging by the fact you're talking about keeping ice skates sharp, you know what happened to Coast." He regarded us all like we were children caught doing something wrong. Even Elenna, but for her, he had a faint smile and a hand on her cheek.
"Sinclair just told us," she said. "I feel bad for him, attacked in his own home. He’d barely moved into the place too."
"Better him than you," Aidan said.
He glanced over at me, his eyes narrowing. "I trust you're not going to cause any trouble with my players?”
I didn't imagine the accusing look in his eyes, it just took me a moment to realise what he was accusing me of.
"It wasn't my place to tell you," I said. "It was—"
"I should've been told immediately, regardless of who did the telling," he said coldly.
"You of all people should know how difficult it is to clean up a mess once it gets out of control.
If the press got wind of this, they'd have a field day and you'd be right in the middle of it.
How long do you think your job would last then? "
"Don't threaten me," I growled. I didn't give a shit if he was with one of my best friends, he didn't get to make suggestions like that. If he thought he'd get to me in some way…
Yeah, he was right, but I didn’t have to put up with it.
He tangled his fingers in Elenna's hair like he might bend her over the washing machine and fuck her, taking his frustration at me out on her pussy.
"I'm not threatening you," he said. "I don't need to. You know exactly how fucked you'd be if this got out. Coast would plead self-defence and probably walk away. But you, knowing what happened, and not coming forward, would be right in the proverbial firing line."
He emphasised the word proverbial, as if to accentuate the fact, I'd also be in the literal firing line. If I started pointing fingers at anyone named Fiorelli or Mancini, I'd end up on their shit list before I could blink. Being associated with Elenna and the team, I was probably on there already.
"I get it, you're pissed off I didn't come to you," I said. "But to be fair, I didn't realise it would take Coast so long. He could have called you before he came to my place to pick me up. He could have—"
"He could've done a lot of things, but he didn't," Aidan said. "Neither did Phoenix. As far as I'm concerned, you're all as bad as each other."
"Aidan." Elenna grabbed his wrist and glared at him. "We all know you're worried about the team and that they might attack the arena again. But we can't be at each other's throats. That's not going to help anyone."
"Elenna's right," Wren said. "Fighting amongst ourselves is not going to achieve anything. Especially not team unity." She raised a perfectly shaped red eyebrow at Aidan, clearly aware she was aiming right at his heart.
His grunt in response suggested she hit her target bang on. He'd talked so much about team unity, especially after the attack, he'd be a hypocrite to do anything to jeopardise that. Whether he cared about being a hypocrite or not, was another thing.
Sometimes I wondered how Elenna put up with him. At times, he could be a stone cold asshole.
"If the result is that more people are forthcoming with important information, then perhaps some altercations are necessary," he said coolly.
"That's bullshit, and you know it," I said.
"I'm sorry I didn't come to you and tell you what happened to Coast, but if I had it to do over again, I'd do the same thing.
It was up to him or Phoenix to tell you, not me.
This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm not their nursemaid.
I'm not even their girlfriend. I'm someone who works in the same place they do, that went out on a date with them.
That's all." And fucked them, but that was none of his business.
"As someone who works in PR, that's even more important than if you were their girlfriend," Aidan said.
"Being forthcoming with information about them is your fucking job.
Next time, do it or I won't need to threaten.
I'll explain the situation to the GM and you can find yourself a new fucking job. "
"Aidan," Elenna snapped. "She's my friend. She did what she thought was right."
"She was wrong," he growled. "No matter who she is, it doesn't excuse…"
He rubbed his other hand over the back of his neck.
“I'm trying to keep us all safe. I can't do that if I don't know what the fuck is going on.
The Fiorellis are going to find two dead bodies, courtesy of Coast and Phoenix.
What do you think they're going to do with that?
Smile, laugh and walk away? No, they're going to come back at us harder than before.
they're going to come back at Coast harder than before.” He sucked in a sharp breath.
“As soon as I know this shit happens, I can put measures in place to keep him and the rest of us safe.
I can have people watching him and protecting him.
I can put extra security on the arena. And I have," he added.
"But none of this is based on guesswork.
It's based on information. If I don't have all of that, I can't do my job. None of that is rocket science."
He was starting to make me feel bad. He was right, Everything he'd done was to protect all of us.
If he didn't know what was going on with one of us, it would be like trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces.
This was an important piece. We all knew Coast was at the top of the shit list. If they were going to come after anyone first, it would be him. And then they did exactly that.
I sighed. "You're right. Kind of. I should have made sure he told you. I didn't think to ask him if he had or not. I didn't think to ask Phoenix either. I assumed they were all over it and they weren't. That put all of us at risk." Especially Coast.
"You could have told Coast to contact Aidan, but do you seriously think he would have listened?" Wren asked.
Aidan gave her a look like she wasn't helping matters. His shoulders dipped.
"The problem with working with hockey gods is they take the gods part a bit too seriously.
Especially guys like Coast and Phoenix. They think they're invincible.
But they're fucking not. Coast could have been killed the other night.
If they sent three or four, we'd be having a different conversation right now, and the Demons would have a different centre. "
Elenna slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. "Lucky for all of us that didn't happen. And it won't. Coast can take care of himself and we're taking care of each other. You're making sure of it. We all know that. Right?" She glanced around at me and Wren."
"Yeah," I said, with some reluctance. Aidan was being such a dick right now. I didn't agree with the philosophy that someone could get away with being a dick just because they cared. Not when it came to Aidan.
Javey… Okay, maybe now I was the hypocrite. There was a difference between following someone around and growling at people just because you can. I knew which I preferred.
"The game should be starting soon," I said. "I'm sure we all have places to be."
I smiled sarcastically at Aidan who gave me a dark look in return. The conversation wasn't over, just over for now.