Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

AIDAN

"Explain." I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at Orion. Typical of the cocky prick, he didn’t look apologetic. Not even slightly. Instead, he met my gaze unwavering, stone cold.

"What is there to explain?" he asked. "Elenna and I had a practice session. It was interrupted. We dealt with it. For the record, I was doing fine before you showed up."

"Any other time, I would have left you to it." I matched his tone. "But not when Elenna was in your company."

For once, I didn’t refer to her as my wife. Her involvement with Finley complicated things. They’d be complicated further if she got involved with Orion.

She was still my wife and she always would be, but I didn’t need Finley correcting me right now. Not in front of Orion and not when Elenna was curled up next to Finley, his arm around her.

Her face was slightly pale, but she was dealing with her second time killing a man better than she dealt with the first. She acted on instinct. I was proud as hell of her. If she’d hesitated, even for a heartbeat, she’d be dead. They might as well kill me straight after. There was no life for me without her.

I’d barely functioned before we met. Finley would tell you I firmly had my asshole hat on most of the time. The team would tell you I had it on all the time, but I was worse before her.

"I was taking care of her," Orion declared. "Which she didn’t need. She can take care of herself." He turned to her. "That was a perfect shot to the asshole’s eyeball."

She gave a watery smile. "Thanks. I wasn’t really aiming at his eyeball. I couldn’t see much of anything in the dark. All I knew was they were going to shoot me if I didn’t shoot them first."

Finley clicked his tongue. "Never tell anyone that. Own the eyeball shot like you meant it." He kissed her cheek.

I pictured them together, naked. Him sliding his cock in and out of her. Her with his cock down her throat. The mental porn turned me on so hard. Almost as much as being with her myself. I wanted to watch them fuck each other, but one step at a time.

The right defenceman was an arrogant pain in my ass, but imagining him with her was as arousing. Unless he got her killed in the process.

"Fin is right," Orion said as if they were old friends. "Always own the eyeball shot. Or the ass shot." He didn’t smile, but he and Elenna seemed to share something amusing.

"I’d definitely own the ass shot," she said. "And remind you that you deserve it."

If anyone deserved to be shot in the ass, it was Orion. I might even shoot him there myself.

"This is all very amusing," I said sarcastically. "But you haven’t explained why you were interrupted. Why were they after you?"

"I’d suggest they were friends with the dickhead I punched at the game the other night, but we all know that’s bullshit," Orion said.

"Along with most of what comes out of your mouth," I told him. "If you don’t cut the shit, I’ll make sure you never play hockey again as long as you live. I mean that as a head coach and as someone with a cricket bat that could break your fucking knees."

Orion rolled his eyes. "As I said to Elenna, I helped Hunter and Parker Brantley to disrupt the Fiorellis’ human trafficking operation. They’re tougher targets these days, so they came after me. Partly to get rid of me and partly to send a message to the twins. They don’t like being fucked with."

I nodded. I used my well-practiced mask to hide the relief that the Fiorellis hadn’t gone after Elenna. Not this time anyway. Trying to kill Orion was less likely to start a war. There wasn’t much love lost between the older, more powerful Brantley brothers and their younger twins these days.

From what I understood, the guys who referred to themselves as the evil twins, were as likely to try to shut down Caleb’s human trafficking as anyone else’s. Ironic for people who probably received drug shipments the next day. If nothing else, people were good at picking and choosing their battles as it suited them.

"I guess you’re not the soft target they thought you were," Finley said.

Orion actually smiled at that. "Nothing about me is soft."

I snorted. "Some would say your cock is soft."

"Elenna would say otherwise." He looked smug. "Things were about to get interesting when we were interrupted." He was clearly trying to provoke me.

The joke was on him.

My gaze slid to her. "Sounds like the Fiorellis didn’t choose their timing well."

Her face turned slightly pink. "Ten minutes later would have been much worse."

A flash of confusion crossed Orion’s face, but he recovered quickly. "I last longer than ten minutes."

Finley chuckled. "Aidan, you’re a shit-stirring son of a bitch."

"Don’t insult my mother," I told him. "As for shit-stirring, it’s hard to resist when the target is such an easy one."

I could almost see the thoughts passing through Orion’s brain. His eyes narrowed, opened wider, then narrowed again.

"You have an open marriage," he stated. "That’s why you don’t care what she does with Fin. Or if I fucked her."

"I very much care what she does with Fin or you," I said. "You could say the relationship is open, but with boundaries."

Orion’s gaze cut to Elenna.

"They both want me to have my needs met," she explained. "But I wouldn’t go and sleep with just anyone. They have to agree."

For the first time since I met him, Orion was speechless. He gaped at her for a solid minute. "They agreed on me?"

"We all did," she said. "Only if it was something you wanted too though. I mean, there was no pressure or anything."

"You weren’t going to get kicked off the team if you didn’t fuck her," I said. That was never on the cards, but I couldn’t resist another shit stir.

I continued. "He probably doesn’t want her now; she’s not forbidden fruit."

"Just delicious fruit," Finley said.

Orion ignored us both. "How does this work?" He directed the question to her. "If we want to fuck, how does it work? Do they have to watch?" He jerked his head towards me.

"They don’t have to watch, but they have to know," she said. "After if not before. I won’t cheat on them. I won’t go behind anyone’s back. If anyone is uncomfortable with this, they…" She shook her head. "They can walk away at any time. Including me."

"You don’t get to walk away from me," I told her. "No matter what happens, I will never give you up. You’ll always be mine."

"I never want to walk away from you," she told me. "Or from Fin." She glanced back over to him, then back to Orion. "I know this is a lot."

"You’re not fucking kidding." He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "When were you going to mention any of this?" He gestured around to all of us.

"Before we went any further," she said. "If you said no, we would have gotten on with our training session."

He sat back.

"Grown-up relationships can be complicated," I said, reminding him he was half my age. Half my amount of wisdom or experience too, if he was lucky.

He flipped me off.

That was fair enough, I supposed.

Finley laughed.

"If you walk out the door right now, I’ll understand," Elenna said. "Aidan is right, it is complicated. You all have to work together. I’m not asking for any kind of commitment, I just want you to understand the situation."

Orion closed his eyes for a moment. "So you’d be good with a friends with benefits situation with me while you’re in a relationship with Finley and that asshole?" He opened his eyes and gestured vaguely in my direction. As if we didn’t all know who he was referring to.

"If that’s what you’d like, then yes," Elenna said. "But maybe don’t call your head coach an asshole to his face."

"I have thick skin," I said.

"And a thick head," Finley said helpfully.

"This is still my apartment," I reminded him.

"Maybe it’s time we got a house." Finley raised an eyebrow at me.

"You’ve been living here for three days," I said. "You’re already trying to rearrange the whole situation?"

"As equipment manager, it’s my job to be organised," Finley said. "And it’s my job to organise other people. If that includes you, then so be it. I don’t mind at all."

"Like I said, if you want to leave…" Elenna looked at us both meaningfully.

"I think she’s trying to tell you not to drive Orion away," Finley said.

"If he’s driven away that easily, then he doesn’t deserve her," I said firmly.

Silence fell after that statement.

"I’m going to have to think about it," Orion said finally. "It’s not that I don’t want you, because I do. It’s not even about the situation with Aidan and Fin. Sooner or later, the Fiorellis are going to come after me again and I don’t want you hurt."

"I thought you had it under control," I said.

He glanced over at me. "I did. This time. They sent ten people after me. It might be twenty next time."

"You must have caused one hell of a disruption for them to go to that much effort and expense," Finley said.

Orion looked smug again. "I helped to free about two thousand women and girls. We destroyed a bunch of facilities and networks. It’ll take them years to rebuild. If there’s anyone left with the last name Fiorelli by then."

"I’m starting to think we should kick you out on your ass," I said. "Don’t get me wrong, all that sounds incredible, but I don’t want to get stuck in the middle of a war between you and the Fiorelli family."

His expression didn’t change. "You’re already in the middle. I was working with Ike to find the information that led to us doing what we ultimately did. Even if you weren’t with Ike’s sister, you work for Caleb. You can kick me out, but it’s not going to make any of this go away."

"You might be needed to help keep Elenna safe," Finley said softly.

Orion turned back to her. "I think you’ll find she’s more capable than you give her credit for. More than she gives herself credit for. She packs a mean punch when she wants to. And then there’s that eyeball shot."

She smiled. "You think I can punch?"

"You need more practice, but you got a good start tonight." His expression turned grim. "Which could have been your end."

"Lucky for everyone Fin and I weren’t far away," I said. "If you got Elenna killed, having your knees broken would be the least of your trouble."

"Yeah, because if she got killed, I’d be dead too," Orion said, his eyes still on her.

"I’d resurrect you and smash your knees, then kill you again," I said. "Or better yet, resurrect you and hand you over to Ice Miller. If anyone can keep you alive for a few more days while torturing your ass, it’s him."

"You talk a big talk, coach," Orion said.

"Because I can walk a big walk," I said. "Can you?"