Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

ELENNA

"Did I hear you right?" Sinclair flopped down on the couch and sat back against the cushions. "Finley is living here too? That sounds cosy."

I stepped over to the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine. "It is, but it’s been… interesting so far." In so many ways.

"You’re my hero." Wren lowered herself more gracefully into a chair. "I can’t even get a date and you’re living with two guys."

"With another on the hook," Sinclair said. She frowned at Wren. "You can too get a date. You had one last week."

"If you can count that as a date," she said. "His breath smelled like fish, and his body odour wasn’t much better. I had to excuse myself with a migraine after an hour. I need me a hot guy like Elenna has."

"Come to the game on Friday night. That’ll be better than a date." I grabbed three mugs out of the cupboard above the coffee machine and placed them on the counter.

"Only if I can talk to Tiger Pennington." Wren sighed. "Now his brother’s taken, I’ve decided to switch my focus."

"That’s a good strategy," Sinclair said. "Hockey players are slightly less temperamental than rock stars. Sort of."

Wren snorted. Her stepbrother, Braylon Ellis, played for the Demons. They butted heads harder than a pair of goats. Anyone could see they were hot for each other, except them.

I cleared my throat. "I can neither confirm nor deny. I haven’t met Tiger’s brother." He played the keyboard for the band Wolf Venom, but from what I could tell Beau Pennington, or Penn as he was known, wasn’t close to his family. Neither was Tiger, that I knew of.

"But you’ve met Tiger." Wren sat forward eagerly. "Bray keeps telling me to stay away from his team, but—" She shrugged, her gaze shifting from me to Sinclair and back again. "A girl can be curious, right?"

"What can Bray do about it anyway?" I poured them both coffee and took them over their drinks. I picked up mine in one hand and a plate of chocolate chip biscuits in the other, before sitting on the couch beside Sinclair.

"How did your boxing session with Orion go?" Sinclair leaned forward to snag a biscuit.

I sighed out my nose and told them about the attack. "You’re safe here," I said quickly. "If Aidan thought for a moment we weren’t, he wouldn’t have left."

"I can just imagine," Wren said. "He’d probably be standing, leaning against a wall, watching us like a hawk. Maybe tossing a knife from hand to hand."

I laughed softly. "I’ve never seen Aidan tossing a knife from hand to hand."

"There’s a first time for everything." Sinclair bit into her biscuit and moaned at the taste. "Mmm, so good. Did you make these?"

I was about to take a sip of coffee, but stopped just in time to prevent myself from choking on another laugh. "No, Fin did. He’s a thousand times better in the kitchen than I am."

"Firstly, these are amazing," Sinclair said. "Secondly, how does he compare in the bedroom to Aidan and Orion?"

"You’re right they are." I picked one up and nibbled on the corner. "I don’t know about Orion, I haven’t gone there yet. And I’m not comparing the other two to each other."

They both gave me a sceptical look.

"Come on, Elenna," Wren urged. "How are we supposed to live vicariously through you if you don’t throw us a bone?"

"I’ll throw you all the bones you want on Friday night," I told her. "What you do with them is up to you."

They both laughed.

"I know what I want to do with Tiger’s bone," Wren said. "I want to ride that bad boy all night long."

We both slid sidelong glances to Sinclair.

She looked back at both of us. "What?"

"I think Wren is curious as to who you want to fuck," I said bluntly. "We know you have a crush on Coast, but didn’t you used to date one of them?"

She sighed. "Gable Knox, one of the second line players, but that was a long time ago. Before he played for the Demons. We…" She paused for the longest time in history. "We took each other’s virginity."

Wren squealed. "There you go. It might be time for a reunion. Show him all the things you’ve learnt over the years. I bet he’s learnt quite a few things too. He’s really good with his stick."

Sinclair stared at her for a few moments, blinked a couple of times then said, "That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. Like I said, it was a long time ago. He probably doesn’t remember."

"Bullshit," Wren said. "No one forgets Sinclair Rooney. And no guy forgets his first time. Chances are, he’s been pining after you all these years, hoping to see you again. And here you are." She gestured toward Sinclair. "Ready to rock his world. If not, you never know who else might catch your eye."

"Wren is right," I said. "You might meet an ice hockey fan, or just have a fun night out with us. No pressure."

"Pressure," Wren disagreed.

"Fuck off," Sinclair told her. "I’ll go, but I’m going to have a good time. Nothing else." She frowned. "How did the conversation get so far away from Elenna’s sex life?"

"Because this topic is much more interesting than that?" I suggested. I loved them both to bits, but this situation was so new I was still getting my head around it. Discussing it in intimate detail was not something I was ready for just yet.

"Says you," Sinclair said. "I’d much rather talk about your sex life than have Wren hassle and pressure me." She cut Wren a look as though she was actually offended.

Sinclair wasn’t offended so easily, especially by gentle teasing from us. We all teased each other, but when it came down to it, we took care of each other. Including driving down to pick up Wren from her terrible date when she was trying to make a quick exit. She’d do the same for either of us.

"I’d rather talk about what Orion did to mess with the Fiorellis." Wren’s expression turned serious. "They’ve been trying to muscle in on both the Brantleys and the Bells for years. It’s no secret they’d love to take them both down. They’re as ambitious as the DiMarcos."

"That’s saying something," I said. The DiMarco family fell out of favour with the Brantleys years ago. They’d been trying to claw their way back ever since.

"I think Phoenix DiMarco is happy being goalie for the Demons. He’s as ambitious as the rest of his family, but only on the hockey rink."

Being on a losing team didn’t generally line up with ambition. Unless you’re Aidan, determined to turn things around. If the whole team shared that mindset, they might just be unbeatable. If they could get along for long enough.

"He’s hot though," Sinclair sighed. When we both turned to her, she shrugged. "What? I’m just saying, that’s all. A girl is allowed to look."

"If you’re lucky, you might get to touch," Wren said slyly.

Sinclair looked at me. "Please, please, hook her up with someone. If she gets laid, she might stop fixating on my potential sex life."

"Yes please to the first part," Wren said. "Not a chance to the second. Not when it’s this much fun. And slightly less terrifying than being stuck in a dark gym with people shooting."

Sinclair frowned. "I’d like to think my sex life is a lot less scary than that. I don’t know what you’re imagining." She held up her hands in front of her, palms forward. "I don’t want to know. In fact, please don’t imagine me having sex."

Wren laughed. "No offence, but I’d much rather imagine me doing it."

I didn’t want to think about either of them, but I just sipped my coffee and smiled.

"Are you okay?" Sinclair asked me suddenly. "You’ve been a bit off kilter since Oscar. Shooting someone else can’t have been easy for you."

"It wasn’t, but it’s better than the alternative," I said. "Do you ever get used to it?"

"Kind of," she said. "I can’t say it ever gets easy, because I think I’d lose myself if it did. But it gets easier to sleep at night. It would have been harder if we didn’t grow up the way we did. I was basically watching my father smash people’s knuckles before I could walk."

Wren nodded. "I can’t imagine what it would have been like to grow up normal."

"When you don’t know any differently, it doesn’t bother you," Sinclair said. "It’s only later that you realise how fucked up it all is. But this is life. Even if we leave Dusk Bay, it’ll follow us forever."

"Unless my father can find a way to stop laundering money and gems for Reuben," Wren said. "But considering that’ll probably never happen, I guess you’re stuck with me."

She didn’t look like she minded too much. Being stuck with us, that was. She worked for her father making jewellery, which she loved, but it wasn’t making her a billionaire anytime soon.

"It could have been worse," Sinclair said softly. "Your father could have sold you. It could have been trafficked to fuck knows where."

"It could always be worse," I said, equally softly. We were all close to our families, but sometimes life happened in ways you didn’t expect. Sometimes people got desperate, and did terrible things.

"That would definitely have been worse," Wren said. She tucked a few strands of red hair behind her ear. "I would have clawed someone’s eyes out. And then they probably would have cut my throat. On the upside, I wouldn’t have gone through it for very long."

It was easy for her to say that, but the reality was, people like that were experts in breaking people like us. She would have been a shell of the woman she was now. We all knew it. None of us would bring children into the world without being sure it wouldn’t happen to them. Strange that I might have the Brantley twins to thank for that.

"What else does Finley cook?" Sinclair asked to change the subject.

Relieved, I said, "So far, the best spaghetti I’ve ever had. Even better than Gianna’s, if you can believe it. Last night, he cooked the most amazing roast chicken. If Aidan was ever thinking twice about the arrangement, he would have changed his mind last night. It was so fucking good. You’ll have to come around for dinner sometime. I’m sure Fin won’t mind cooking for more than three of us.

"Did I mention I’ll be working as his assistant?" I asked. "I’ll be taking over a lot of the administrative side. Keeping track of equipment and ordering replacements. It’s only a few hours a week, but it gives me an excuse to be at the arena more often. And I have plenty of time to get my book finished."

"Elenna Christakos, Queen of Romance," Wren said. "When do we get to read this next masterpiece?"

I shrugged one shoulder. "When it’s done. You wouldn’t want to read it when it’s the mess it is right now." I wouldn’t inflict that on my friends. My first drafts were a bit like my life; hot, but messy as hell. It was all right for life, not so good for a book.

"I’m sure it’ll be amazing," Sinclair said. "They always are. I bet there are people out there who don’t realise how much truth there is in them."

"It’s better they don’t know," I said. "They’d never sleep at night if they did."

Sometimes, I wasn’t sure how I managed to sleep myself. Of course, I never went into specifics. No one in my real life could say I based one of my characters after them, not for sure. That would be a very good way to end up very dead, very quickly.