“Yeah. We’ve all watched the tape. You know these guys are good. You’re better. You’re more seasoned. They brought in a lot of new guys this year to try and stay under the salary cap and still keep their center happy. But they know me. They know my game. They know how I move. I’ve trained with them for ten years. I’m gonna try not to be predictable for them, but I could use your help tonight.” Nobody wants to look like they need help from their teammates, but I need to make sure they’re thinking this way if we’re gonna win.
Jace nods and looks around at the team. “You hear that, guys? Our goalie is laying it on the line. Are we gonna let him down?”
Boone throws an arm around me. “Fuck no, we’re not.”
“Fuck no, we’re not,” Jace echoes. Guess we’ve come to an understanding after all.
He follows me out of the locker room after practice. “Hey, Easton. Wait up.”
“Yeah, man,” I slow down as we head for the door. “What’s up?”
“You going with Lindy to meet with Sam today?”
“Yeah. I’m picking her up now, and we’re going over together.” I push through the door and stop in the parking lot. “Why?”
“Just glad she’s doing it.” He opens the door to his SUV and throws his bag inside. “She might not have needed that level of security ten years ago, but she needs it now. I appreciate you convincing her.”
“I didn’t convince her of anything. I told her I wanted her safe, and I wanted her in control. She needs to look at security as a tool that lets her live her life without being afraid of getting bombarded every time she leaves the house. I need her safe, man. But it’s gotta be on her terms.”
“You know I fucking hate when I’m wrong, Hayes.”
“Yeah, man. Most of us do.” I shoulder my bag, ready to get out of here and get to Lindy.
“Yeah, well it’s worse when it’s in front of the kid who could barely talk to me he was so starstruck the first time we met. I let Lindy down, and I didn’t really worry about letting you down in the process. I should have. She’s just always clouded my judgment. She’s my baby sister, you know?”
“Listen, I wouldn’t exactly say I was starstruck,” I laugh. “But I guess I get it. I’ve always wanted to protect her. The idea of letting her down has haunted me for fucking years. But I’m not the one you need to worry about hurting her. I never will.” I shove his shoulder, not sure what else to say. “I think she’s planning on coming to the game tonight. Maddox said he’d come with her if she doesn’t have security in place yet. Any chance you could try to smooth shit over a little with your family?”
“You’re good for her, ya big fuck. You know that?”
“Yeah, man. It might have taken me a few too many years to accept that. But she’s not getting rid of me. So I hope I’m good enough.”
“None of us are good enough for the woman who falls in love with us, man. None of us. We just have to do our best to earn it every day.”
Jace gets in his SUV, shuts the door, and waves as he pulls away.
None of us are good enough.
Guess it’s a good goddamn thing hard work doesn’t scare me.
Sam Beneventi’s office isn’t a place I expected to ever find myself.
I’ve watched my fair share of mob movies in my life. Read a few books. Heard a few stories. You can’t avoid them. Especially when you live in Las Vegas. But none of that prepared me to sit in this office and ignore the fact that Lindy’s brother-in-law, Maddox’s dad, is the head of the Philly mob. From what I’ve heard over the years, he owns a shit-ton of legitimate businesses too. But the Beneventi crime family has run this city for a century.
Sam’s in his forties. But other than a little gray mixed in with his dark hair, he doesn’t look much older than Maddox. Power rolls off him in waves. He’s intimidating as fuck.
When he speaks, you listen.
“Explain to me what you want handled differently, Madeline, and I’ll let you know if we can do it. I’m going to be honest with you. My team are professionals, and they make the final calls. You know that. If my men feel like they need to handle a situation a certain way to keep themselves and you safe, they’re going to do what they have to. But they’ll protect you at all costs.”
Lindy sucks in a breath. She knows that fact all too well. One of Sam’s guys, Marco, was her bodyguard on duty the night I took her home from a Kings game. I remember it like it was yesterday.
She was fifteen years old and spent the whole day trying to flirt with me.
Not that I didn’t want to flirt back, but fuck. She was fifteen, and I was nineteen, about to turn twenty. Nearly five years may not seem like a lot later in life, but it felt like it back then. I kept reminding myself she was too young and off-limits.
I drove Kenzie and her to the Kings game that day, but Kenz was spending the night at Brynlee’s, so it was just Lindy and me driving home, with her bodyguard, Marco, following in the car behind us.
I remember pulling into the driveway and turning off the car.
I remember talking about hockey and teasing her about figure skating. Teasing her about her partner, when deep down I was jealous because he was her age. That if something was going on between them, it was okay because he was the better guy for her. I’d never even told Pace that. Nobody knew how I felt because she was so fucking young.
She laughed at something I said, and it was the sweetest sound I’d heard in so fucking long. I was drafted into the NHL at seventeen. Everything was thrown at me after that. Women. Sex. Booze. Drugs. It was all there for the taking. There was no innocence in my life, not that there’d been a ton since my mom died.
I forgot myself for a second and cupped her cheek before I pulled my hand back and got out of the car. The look on her face was so fucking hurt. But fifteen kept flashing like a broken neon sign in my mind.
Marco walked ahead of us to the door, and she teased him as she handed him her key.
“You don’t have to be so dramatic, Marco. It’s my house. It’s not like we don’t have an alarm system you guys installed.”
He ignored her teasing and walked through the door with Lindy following behind and me bringing up the rear. By the time I pulled the door shut behind me, Marco was dead on the floor, and a man I’d never seen before was standing over him with a gun hanging down at his side.
There was no sound.
I remember being so confused in that moment.
Not understanding there was a silencer on the gun.
Not having a clue what was going on until bright-red blood poured out of a hole in the center of Marco’s head.
Lindy turned away, and a high-pitched scream I’ll never forget ripped from her throat.
Holy fuck. He shot him.
“You two.” He jerked the gun toward us, and I moved Lindy behind me. “Over there. Now. And don’t try anything. I don’t want you—either of you. I want your mom, little girl.”
Lindy sobbed hysterically as my fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, and I had to push it down.
Holy shit. What was I supposed to do?
I sat us both down slowly on the couch.
Who the fuck was this guy? What did he want?
“Henry,” she cried. “Why are you doing this?”
Henry pointed the gun at her. “Because Ashlyn was supposed to be mine, not his. I need to make her see that. That’s where you come in. We’re supposed to be a family. Not him.”
He had to be talking about Brandon Dixon—Ashlyn’s new man.