Page 15 of Lawless in Leather

She’d been working with Brady to come up with wings that would actually let the girls dance rather than just parade around like Victoria’s Secret models—or alternatively wouldn’t look like dinky little Cupid’s wings. If Alex wanted wings then goddamned wings she would give him. But it wasn’t easy.

Nor was it that easy to figure out what they should wear. The Saints’ colors were white, blue, yellow, and silver, which didn’t exactly lend themselves to a Fallen Angels theme. But given this was baseball and had to be somewhat family-friendly, maybe that was a good thing.

She moved through the last sequence of steps by rote and then held up a hand as they all came to a stop.

“Okay, that was pretty good. Just remember to keep it sharp when you’re doing those place transitions. You’re going to be working in a big space, so if you’re out of place, things are going to get wonky fast. But let’s take five and then we’ll come back for the next routine.” She bent to grab her water bottle and swallowed gratefully. Then picked up her jacket and shrugged it on. It was almost April but the weather was still pretty bad.

The last two days, they’d ended up practicing inside due to rain, but today she’d made everyone get out on one of the training fields. The squad needed to be able to perform on grass and they didn’t have all that much time up their sleeves to get the hang of it.

It was warm enough when they were moving but no point anyone catching pneumonia during the breaks. “Make sure you keep warm,” she yelled as the dancers moved off toward the sidelines where they’d left their gear. She caught the eye-roll Ana sent her way but decided to let it go. She was going to have to pull her up sooner or later but an eye-roll wasn’t enough to confront her over. Not yet.

Raina watched the girls go, trying to see if anyone was limping or doing anything unusual that would indicate that they’d hurt themselves.

She didn’t need any walking wounded at this stage. Everyone needed to be on top of their game to make the splash Alex wanted. But she couldn’t spot anything so she made her way back over to the speakers and iPod dock she’d brought along to cue up the next song.

A woman with long dark hair stood waiting beside the equipment. She had a Saints scarf wrapped around her neck and wore a thigh-length dark-blue wool coat that Raina envied as a sudden gust of wind hit her and cut through her dance gear like it wasn’t there.

The woman stuck out a hand. “Hi, we met once before. I’m Maggie Jameson.”

Raina nodded, summoning a smile of her own, and shook Maggie’s hand. Great, one of the boss types down to check out what she was doing. “I remember.”

Maggie nodded toward the dancers, who were standing huddled together while they drank from water bottles and checked their phones.

“They look really good,” she said.

“Thanks, I think it’s coming together.”

“You’ve done well. It’s not like we gave you a long deadline.”

“Comes with the territory,” Raina said. “Outside of Broadway, I’m not sure I’ve ever had a job that came with quite enough rehearsal time. And even those get down to the wire if the show’s not quite coming together.”

“I can imagine,” Maggie said. “Not that I know much about dance. The audience is about as close as I get. I did ballet for a couple of years when I was little but I think it was a relief for all concerned when I decided it wasn’t for me.”

“Well, you’re definitely too tall for ballet,” Raina said. Maggie had boots with a relatively sensible two-inch heel but she had to be close to six feet in them. Which made Raina feel like a midget, but around the Saints, she was starting to get used to that. She wasn’t that short in the dance world but apparently everyone in baseball had been handed out the tall genes.

There’d been players wandering around the complex for the last few days and she’d yet to spot a short one.

“Yes,” Maggie said. “Which is why it’s good that I’m better at baseball. Anyway, I just wanted to come down and see if you needed anything. Is the schedule okay?”

“Yes,” Raina said. “I’m trying to sneak in a few more sessions on the main field, so I have to get clearance from Mr. Coulter for those but otherwise everything is fine. Shonda got me set up for invoicing for the costumes and everything else.”

“Mr. Coulter?” Maggie said. “Please tell me you call him that to his face?”

Raina wasn’t sure what the joke was. “Well, he kind of does that tall-dark-and-very-focused thing. Doesn’t really invite a first-name basis.”

Maggie’s eyebrows rose. “Oh really?”

“I’ve only met him a couple of times,” Raina said.

“Interesting,” Maggie said, and Raina had the sudden urge to shake her down for more information. Or at least to find out what she was thinking. Because Raina had the distinct feeling that Maggie was finding something funny. And she didn’t quite know what.

“Not really,” she said, putting on her best nothing-to-see-here face. The last thing she needed was to let anyone else at the Saints know that there was anything … inadvisable in the air between her and Mal. She was here to do a job, not sleep with one of the guys paying her. Time to end the conversation. She waved toward the dancers. “Was there anything else you needed from me?” she asked. “Because we need to get going again before anyone stiffens up in this weather.”

Maggie shook her head. “No. Of course, keep doing what you’re doing. But give me a call if you do need anything.”

“I will.” Raina turned away.

“Maybe I’ll see you at your club sometime soon,” Maggie said.

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