Page 26 of Pucking Them
She must be a new member of the staff. Is she the doctor?
Athletic, she is taller than Noah. She leans on the glass, caging Noah against it. She talks in a low voice.
Noah is stiff, uncomfortable.
I hesitate.
On the ice, I am the captain. I am in charge, able to stand up for every teammate, my brothers. Yet off the ice, I don’t have thesay over how the staff are run. I don’t know the dynamics of their working relationships.
Is she bullying him?
Will it make things worse if I charge in when Noah isn’t my sub or boyfriend?
Frustrated, I hang back.
Shay breaks off from his drills to skate over to me, however, while he glances as well at Noah. “Who is that giving Noah a hard time?”
“I don’t know.”
Shay frowns. “Shall I dramatically crash into the boards and pretend that I need Noah’s help? It’s not like it wouldn’t be believable.”
“You recklessly hurting yourself wouldn’t surprise anyone, cucciolo. We’ll just watch them from a distance for the moment. She could be part of the bigger problem going on with the staff.”
“But the staff are brilliant. They’re our rock. What’s going on with them?”
I nod toward the far side of the arena, and Shay skates after me.
We both lean against the boards, trying to look like we’re talking about hockey strategy.
Fleet shakes his head, rolling his eyes.
At the same time, I notice how closely he is watching the exchange between Noah and the woman.
Fleet has always had a soft spot for Noah. If Noah ever wanted to be taken on as a non-romantic sub, then I know that Fleet would take him on to train him.
“Do you see the split lip?” Shay whispers.
“I wish that I couldn’t.” Hungrily, I scan Shay’s gorgeous pale skin — flawless. No bruises or blood. It settles something in me to know that he is okay. Unhurt. “I’m not meant to tell you whatI discovered about the staff. I was warned not to tellanyonehow Silas threatened me in the meeting.”
“Bastard,” Shay hisses. “I knew that I should have been there with you.”
I rest my hand on his arm to steady him. “You were where I ordered you to be like a good boy.” Shay’s cheeks flush gratifyingly. “But you hid what your abusive ex did to you because she commanded you to and?—”
“I’m so fucking sorry,” Shay blurts.
His eyes are wide with regret and pain.
“I know you are.” I stroke his arm, reassuringly. “And we’ve dealt with that, haven’t we? You’re forgiven, cucciolo. But look what it led to…”
“Kidnap and arson.” Shay twists to stand in front of me, blocking our conversation from the view of the rest of the team.
“In an attempt to avoid a repeat, despite how much Eden appears to have grown in confidence since then…” I try hard not to examine just how much good it seems to have done to Eden’s self-confidence to burn down a house with Blythe in it. Because I am certain that he is responsible for those crimes, despite Heine confessing to them.Arson therapy — I should have known that was the method of therapy that would work.“…we swore that we would trust each other with our hearts and secrets. We wouldn’t hide things.”
“So, what did that bloody bastard want?”
“For us to win the Conference Finals.”
Shay blinks. “Don’t we all want that?”
