Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

ELENNA

"Phoenix needs new shin guards," Finley said in a rush. "No, not those ones, the other ones." He waved vaguely.

I put aside the first set I picked up, and grabbed another. "These?" I was yet to work out exactly what the difference was, but Finley always seemed to know. Not just their size, but their preference for one brand over another, or one fit over another. Whatever it was, he knew what every player needed, even the newer ones.

He flashed me a grin. "Yep. Don’t worry, you’ll learn them all, in time." He grabbed the guards and hurried over to where Phoenix was getting ready.

I watched the goaltender pull on the shin guards without really seeing what he was doing. Instead of paying attention, I was wondering if Phoenix could pull any strings with his brother, Ric, to ask the Brantleys to deal with the Fiorelli family once and for all.

I sighed. Aidan had more clout with Caleb than Phoenix or his brother did. If Aidan couldn’t get them to help, then there would be no point in involving Phoenix. Realistically though, Phoenix wouldn’t have involved himself. His priority was the man he saw when he looked at himself in the mirror. The team was his second love.

Phoenix must have felt me watching, he looked up. Our gazes met for a second or two before his slid away like I was too far beneath him to pay any attention to.

Yeah, he was definitely not getting involved.

"Don’t waste your time with him." Coast stepped up to me, his helmet dangling from his fingers. "His head is too far up his ass to have time for anyone else."

I didn’t think Phoenix heard until he flipped Coast off.

Coast chuckled. He pressed a hand to the wall behind me and leaned in. "I was thinking, can you ask Aidan if I can switch numbers? I like seven, but I much prefer sixty-nine." He gave me a wink.

"If you want a tongue to do sixty-nine with, you should back the fuck off before Aidan hears you," I said sweetly.

"Feisty," he said, his smile not diminished in the slightest. "I like that in a woman. If you ever get tired of Aidan, Fin, or Orion, or want to squeeze in another guy, you know where to find me."

"I’ll bear that in mind," I said. "I like a man who knows when no means no."

"Ouch," he laughed. "She shoots, she scores. Direct shot, right through my heart." He pressed a fist to his chest.

I smiled in spite of myself. "I have a feeling you’ll get over it. Right around the next time you see a woman."

He pouted playfully. "I’m not that easy. It’ll take at least a good five or six minutes to recover."

"That’s the spirit." I placed the tips of my fingers on his chest and pushed past him. "It’s healthy to be resilient."

"I hope you do better on the ice today than that." Tiger scowled at him.

"Yeah, we want to score out there," Javey teased.

"Hey, I can score on and off the ice," Coast said.

"Says you," Tiger said.

"Yeah, says me." Coast smiled at me again before stepping away to finish getting ready.

"Nice job," Finley told me. I hadn’t noticed him watching, he must have seen the whole thing. "It’s easy for me or one of the other guys to tell him to fuck off, but he won’t listen until he’s been shot down face-to-face by a woman."

"And by telling him to fuck off, you mean threaten to break his legs," I said.

"Something like that," he agreed easily. "He’ll respect you more now."

I shrugged. "Good. And maybe you and the others will learn I can stick up for myself."

"Never doubted it." He knelt down to scoop up a pile of towels. "The beauty of an away game, someone else gets to do the laundry." He tossed the pile into a hamper.

"It’s the little things," I teased. It was different being here, in Opal Springs, as a member of staff, not just as Aidan’s wife.

In the early days, before Ike was murdered, I’d stay back in Dusk Bay when the team played away. Now, there was no chance of the guys leaving me at home alone. I didn’t even try to ask. They’d ignore me if I insisted. They’d tie me up and stash me on the plane if they had to.

Now, no one would question my presence. They could, and did leer and flirt in the absence of my guys, but mostly they treated me like they treated anyone else that worked for the team.

"Wait until you get a day when you do five or six loads," he said. "Then you get fucking sick of doing laundry." In spite of his words, he didn’t seem too bothered. He had the perfect job for a guy who was obsessed with hockey, but never had the level of skill needed to be professional. He got to live the life, and kept all of his teeth.

"Point taken." It wouldn’t bother me, it kept me close to my guys. All the better to find an opportunity to change their minds about throwing Orion to the wolves.

"Looks like we’re ready," Finley said. "It’s going to be a tough game. The Ghouls are as hungry as the Demons."

"But not as awesome," Coast called out from a few metres away.

"No one is as fucking awesome as us," Bray agreed.

"Stop talking about it and get out there and kick some Ghoul ass," Aidan said from the doorway. He caught my eye and smiled briefly.

I smiled back and stood aside to watch the team make their way out to the ice. Orion was the last one out. He stopped to give me a hug.

"We’ve got this," he said. "We’re going to spill some Ghoul blood out there." His tone was deliciously vicious.

"Make sure it’s theirs and not yours." I kissed him. Like a lot of the team, he preferred his helmet without the visor in front of his eyes.

"If I don’t leave some blood behind, am I really playing hard enough?" He twitched an eyebrow, but didn’t smile. His expression was one of ninety-nine percent concentration on the game, one percent on our conversation.

"Exactly," Aidan told him. "Get out there." He followed the rest of the team, leaving the locker room to Finley and me.

"We have something else we need to do while we’re here," Finley said, speaking softly in my ear. "And if you think I’m thinking what I think you are, I’m not talking about fucking. Unfortunately." He jerked his head over toward the side of the room where a pile of equipment bags lay.

"Grab that one and that one," he pointed. "Don’t think about it too much and don’t ask too many questions. You know what goes down."

"Yeah, I do." I grabbed the handles of the two bags he indicated and pulled them up my arm. They weren’t heavy. If I had to guess, they contained diamonds or something similar. Whatever was in there didn’t feel like guns, or slabs of any particular drug.

Admittedly, I didn’t have any experience handling drugs, but I preferred to assume it wasn’t that.

I followed Finley out of the locker room and down the corridor of Opal Springs arena. He seemed to know his way around, because he didn’t slow as he led us through a doorway and down another corridor that led out of the arena.

A man in a uniform that indicated he worked for the Opal Springs Ghouls greeted us outside the door. Once a small, mining town in New South Wales, Opal Springs was now one of the biggest and fastest growing cities. Approximately the size of Dusk Bay, they had a team in the AIHL for about as long. And, apparently, a shady underbelly too.

The man nodded to me and Finley, took the bags and loaded them into the back of a red SUV. In return, he slipped Finley an envelope which he folded and stuck into his pocket.

He nodded to me and we headed back into the arena.

"That was easy." I glanced back to see the SUV pull away before the door closed behind us.

"Everything is planned well in advance," he said. "The minute the roster of games is released, the organisation of shit like this starts." He frowned. "That may go the other way around. I stay out of that side of things. Aidan would know more, if you want to know. When it comes to this sort of shit, I’m just the grunt. I recommend you to do the same. The less we know, the better for us."

"Ignorance is bliss," I quoted.

"In this case, ignorance is less likely to get you dead." He slipped his hand into mine and we stepped out in time to see Javey smash the puck into the goal. The score was already 1-0. His goal evened the score.

Orion skated back toward his place behind the blue line. A metre or two before he got there, the right winger for the Ghouls slammed hard into him on the way to his own position. Obviously purposeful.

For a moment, I thought he was going to punch the other player. Instead, he glanced in Aidan’s direction before skating on and stopping exactly where he was supposed to.

That winger looked surprised, but shrugged and got into his position. Evidently he was hoping to provoke Orion and mess with his focus.

Judging by the way the puck slid past him a minute later, he’d only screwed with his own. Orion seized control of the puck and drove it back before slamming it off to Tiger.

The winger mouthed, "Fuck," and made it his job to crowd Orion every chance he got.

Whatever he did, Orion ignored him except to elbow him out of the way, although it got more forceful each time. He was clearly becoming irritated.

Aidan ordered him off the ice, leaving another player to slip into position while Orion cooled off. A couple of minutes later, he was back on, composed again.

The Ghouls scoring twice more before the end of the first period diminished that. Not helped by a different winger who also crowded Orion and checked him into the boards whenever he got the chance. Both he and the opposing wingers were on and off the ice several times all period, switching out but never letting up.

By the time the alarm sounded, Orion and Aidan both looked ready to break bones.

"If I wouldn’t get a penalty, I’d break their fucking knees," Orion growled as he stepped off the ice and tugged off his helmet.

"It’s part of the game, get over it," Aidan snapped.

Orion shot him a look, but didn’t say anything. He stomped over to grab a water bottle and take a drink.

"At least he didn’t punch any of them," I said.

Aidan snorted. "Not yet. Give it time." He narrowed his eyes at Orion, in case he was listening and took that as permission to drive his fist into his opponent’s face.

"He’s doing well to keep his feelings in check," Finley said. "Sometimes I miss the grand old days when it was okay to punch the shit out of the opponent. In those days, there was more fighting than there was playing." He sighed wistfully.

"Now we play smart," Aidan said.

"Some of us do anyway." Coast grinned. "In case anyone was wondering, yes, I am speaking for myself."

"You and your ego," Tiger said.

"There’s nothing wrong with having an ego," Coast told him. "Maybe you should try it sometime." As if Tiger’s ego wasn’t just as big.

Tiger flipped him off, which, considering the size of his glove, made me laugh. He reminded me of one of those big foam hands.

"All right," Aidan said. "Save it for the opposition. Get out there and win."