Page 79 of Lawless in Leather

Sara peeled a slice of pepperoni from her pizza, tore off a tiny piece, and offered it to Wash, who slurped it off her finger with a swipe of his tongue and then looked smug.

“Don’t blame me if you’re now stalked by a Maine Coon for the rest of the night,” Raina said. “Now, back to the party. Maggie, did Alex look at that final menu?”

Maggie nodded, mouth half full, and then swallowed. “Yup. He’s good with it. So that’s one more thing off the list.”

“How often do you throw these parties?” Raina asked. All the players, their various partners, the Angels and their other halves, Saints’ staff, and a few other people added up to a big number.

Maggie shrugged. “A few times a year.”

“Plus the odd fund-raiser for our community programs,” Sara added. “Those are the really huge ones. I wish you’d been at the one at the Paragon, Raina. It was very cool.”

She and Maggie exchanged a look that Raina didn’t quite know how to interpret.

“Well, maybe I’ll get to come to the next one.” She’d seen pictures of the Paragon party courtesy of Maggie. It had looked amazing. If she scored an invite to the next Saints ball, wild horses wouldn’t keep her away.

“Seems like a shoe-in to me. Alex isn’t going to get rid of the Angels now. The guys haven’t lost a game since your wings got wrecked. No messing with that. It’s their longest winning streak in about ten years.” Maggie bounced on her stool. “If it keeps up, we have a shot at the play-offs. A long shot, true, but a shot.”

Raina took another piece of pizza. “Fingers crossed.”

“All available parts crossed,” Maggie agreed. “I’m not getting my hopes up. There are still lots of games between now and the end of the season. And there are lots of teams out there that are stronger than us on paper.”

“Yes,” Sara said solemnly. “All of them.”

“Hey.” Maggie balled up a paper napkin and threw it at her. “Is that any way for the future wife of one of the owners to talk?”

Sara caught the napkin and threw it straight back, laughing. “You’re the future wife of one of the owners, too. You tell me.”

Raina lifted an eyebrow. “Maggie, something you’re not telling me? Did Alex…”

“No.” Maggie shook her dark curls decisively. “It’s too soon. Some of us don’t do romance quite so whirlwind as Sara and Lucas.”

Sara laughed. “You say that now but if Alex asked you, you’d say yes in a heartbeat.”

“Sure,” Maggie agreed. “I’m not an idiot.”

“And here Raina is living with Mal already,” Sara added.

“Not living with,” Raina said firmly. “Staying with. Temporarily.”

Maggie tilted her head at her. “But it’s going okay? You and Mal? He doesn’t say much, he’s spending every spare second with the security team. I swear they’ve been over every inch of Deacon three times now.”

“I know,” Raina said. “I get the summary reports every night from him. Don’t get me wrong, we’re getting along fine and he does remember to loosen up occasionally, but he’s definitely a little … intense right now.”

“He’s the save-the-world type,” Maggie said. “That’s why he joined the army after that bombing at their college.”

“The what?” Raina said.

Maggie looked guilty. “He didn’t tell you that part? About why he joined the army?”

Raina shook her head. “No. He told me about Ally.”

“Well, that’s a good sign,” Maggie said.

“But he didn’t mention a bombing.”

Sara and Maggie looked at each other again. But then Sara shrugged. “It’s not a secret. It’s on the Internet if you go digging far enough in their backgrounds. Mal and Alex and Lucas met at college. They were all baseball players. Freshmen at the University of Texas.”

“Mal played baseball?” Raina said. “I mean, obviously he loves it, and I figured he played in high school or something, but college ball? He was that good?”

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