Page 64 of Lawless in Leather

The Saints lost their second home game but not by much, and they’d won two of their away games.

And even though the team had lost the second game at Deacon, the Angels had continued to get plenty of press, most of it positive. There’d been a minor hiccup when Chen’s team had done some work in their locker room to replace one of the security feeds and a spark from a drill had somehow set off a sprinkler. Which in turn had soaked the contents of several of the girls’ lockers. Marly had been on of the unlucky ones but her good humor about it and the way she’d received Chen’s awkward apology had apparently set the standard for the other girls and no one had thrown a tantrum. Thankfully Ana’s locker had stayed dry. Everything had dried out with minimal damage and Maggie had brought down a batch of Shonda’s cookies so everyone had been happy. Well, the dancers who allowed themselves carbs had been. Ana had looked at the cookies like they were made from arsenic and entrails and stomped off.

Best of all, there had been no further contact from Jeremy.

So she was in a pretty good mood when she headed to rehearsals for the Angels on Tuesday afternoon.

She had just about reached the Angels’ locker room when she heard Maggie calling her name. Spinning on her heels, she stopped and waiting for Maggie to catch up with her.

“Hey, Raina,” Maggie said.

“Hi. Nice shirt,” Raina said. Maggie was wearing a scarlet silk shirt tucked into a black pencil skirt. She’d make a good sexy librarian, Raina decided, wondering if she could come up with a burlesque version of that outfit. The guys would eat it up. Maggie had legs that went on forever. And good boobs. And hell, she was going off on a tangent. Her head was so stuffed with rehearsals for the Angels and the club and her stolen nights with Mal, she found her brain wandering off on strange tangents at very odd moments.

“Thanks.” Maggie smiled. “So can I grab you for a few minutes?”

Raina checked her watch. She was already cutting it fine. “I’ve got rehearsal, can I come see you after? It’s just a quick one today, so I’ll be about ninety minutes?”

Maggie nodded. “That’s fine. Maybe I’ll sneak out and watch you for a bit. Alex has me analyzing attendance statistics going back practically to when baseball was invented. It’s not the most riveting thing ever.”

“Don’t tell me there’s something about baseball that’s not riveting,” Raina teased. “Won’t you get kicked out of the Jameson family for that?”

“Probably,” Maggie said. “But the good stuff outweighs the bad. Now get going. I’ve got fresh cookies in my office. They’ll all vanish once the guys get back later, so get them while they’re there.”

“What time are they arriving?” Raina asked, trying to sound casual. Mal had told her he’d be back today but not what time.

“I think the flight gets in at three,” Maggie said. “Sara’s picking them up at JFK, so they’ll be here sometime around four. They took a later flight because Mal wanted to look at something at the Twins’ field. Why? Did Mal need to talk to you about something? Has something else happened at the club?”

Raina shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Just curious. Okay. I will come and find you and claim my cookie reward after I put these Angels through their paces. We’re trying a new routine tonight.”

“You’re still doing the wings at the start though, right?” Maggie said. “I love the wings.”

“Wings are in,” Raina confirmed. She wasn’t going to mess with that opening routine until she had to. Someone had filmed the entire thing at Friday’s game and put it up on YouTube and even though the footage was pretty crappy it had gotten something like five hundred thousand hits already. Which only went to prove the power of wings. When wielded by her lean mean dancing machine. Who were waiting for her to tune them up a little. Maybe they could get even more hits if she tweaked things just a fraction.

Raina knocked on Maggie’s door about two hours later. One of the dancers had twisted her ankle slightly at practice so there’d been some running around finding ice and getting the team doctor—Steven “Indy” (as everyone called him) Jones—to take a look at it. That was a perk of working for a baseball team. Medical staff on premises. At least when the team was at home. Dr. Jones had strapped Haylee’s ankle and ordered her to rest it for a few hours and come back to get it checked before the performance. They had two extra girls on the squad to cover injuries, so it wasn’t a big deal. Just making her late.

“Come in,” Maggie said.

Raina poked her head through the door. Oliver Shields, the Saints’ first baseman, was perched on the edge of Maggie’s desk. Raina hadn’t really met many of the players yet but she knew what most of them looked like thanks to her research and the dancers’ tendency to show her pictures of the team hotties despite her repeated lectures on the ban on getting mixed up with players. Ollie Shields was a favorite with them. She couldn’t blame them. He was tall and had dark hair and olive skin like Maggie. They looked like a matched set. As she walked in he smiled at her, revealing killer dimples to round out the package.

She kept her answering smile strictly polite. “Hey, Maggie,” she said. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Everything okay?” Maggie asked. She reached down and pulled out a plastic tub from her desk drawer. “Come get a cookie before Ollie tries to eat them all.”

“I don’t eat them all,” Ollie said. “You won’t give them to me.”

“You can go sweet-talk Shonda for your own damned cookies,” Maggie said. “Besides, you have to stay in game shape, don’t you?”

Ollie stuck his tongue out her. Raina studied him out of the corner of her eyes as she went over to collect her cookie. Ollie Shields was in no danger of busting out of his uniform anytime soon. He was lean and muscled, the long-sleeved blue T- shirt and dark jeans he had on outlining his body quite nicely. If she hadn’t had Mal, she might have been tempted. Except for the baseball player part. He had to have women throwing themselves at him every five seconds. Not her thing.

“Raina, this is Ollie,” Maggie said. “He was just leaving.”

“You don’t really want to get rid of me, do you?” Ollie asked. “Your life will be bereft of meaning and purpose once I leave.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Maggie retorted. “Run away and go do whatever you should be doing before a game. Raina and I have important business things to discuss.”

That was news to Raina. But as she bit into the truly excellent chocolate chip and pecan cookie, she decided she was happy to be blindsided by something if she got more cookies as a reward.

Ollie reached for the cookie container. “Just one more for the road.”

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