Page 119 of Sin Bin

Dubinski grew even paler. “How…how will you decide who to sacrifice?”

“The sacrifice will be chosen from our wedding guests, and it has to be a man. As the groom, I’ll have the honor of performing the ritual during the reception.” Viggo lowered his voice confidingly. “My ancestor Gunvald apparently had a real knack for it, and they say his spirit lives in me.”

Dubinski swallowed as Viggo leaned toward him, dark mischief dancing in his eyes. “To answer your question specifically, I’m probably going to choose the person who irritates me the most. Someone I wouldn’t mind getting rid of once and for all.” He smiled narrowly. “Who do you think that might be?”

Dubinski stared at him with a look of incredulity and horror. “No way, Sandström. You’re just fucking with me again.”

“Am I?” Viggo’s smile turned chillingly sinister. “Do you really want to take that chance?”

Dubinski looked around at everyone, gulped hard and mumbled, “Never mind about that invite.”

The entire table exploded in laughter.

Chapter Seventeen

MEADOW

Logan was able to get Meadow a seat on the same flight as the girls. So less than a week after leaving home, she found herself headed right back to Las Vegas.

She’d never flown first class before. The seats were plush and roomy, and the flight attendants were extra attentive. She felt like a pampered princess as she and the girls sipped cocktails and chatted excitedly about the fun weekend ahead.

After a short and enjoyable flight, they arrived at McCarran International Airport. Everyone had carry-on bags, so they skipped baggage claim and went to pick up the rental car that Reid had reserved for Nadia.

The girls were delighted when she was handed the keys to a Mercedes-AMG, but Nadia thought the luxury vehicle was unnecessary. She wasn’t the kind of girl to exploit her status as the fiancée of a rich hockey star. She was pretty down to earth and practical. So when Bianca gushingly pointed out that renting the Benz SUV would cost Reid about seven hundred bucks a day, Nadia wrinkled her nose with displeasure.

Her friend Jess had a totally different mindset. Once they’d all piled into the luxury SUV and were on their way, she reasoned to Nadia, “We make so many sacrifices when dating a professional athlete. Why shouldn’t we enjoy the perks that come with the territory? Hell, girl, you’ve definitely earned it after dating Reid for six months. You’ve given up your privacy, you deal with thirsty bitches constantly throwing themselves at him, and you have to cope with his crazy travel schedule. Once you put your career on hold to start popping out his blue-eyed caramel babies, you’ll definitely deserve all the pampering you can get. So pull the stick out of your ass, flip your pretty hair and start spending that man’s money!”

As everyone cracked up laughing, Nadia stuck her tongue out at Jess in the rearview mirror.

Jess blew her a kiss and grinned unabashedly. She was super gorgeous with a light honey complexion, hazel eyes and loose dark curls that cascaded down her back.

“The hotel suite we’re staying in already includes airport limousine transportation,” Nadia pointed out. “So, technically, we didn’t even need a rental car. I just wanted the convenience of having our own transportation so we could come and go as we please. A standard SUV would have sufficed.”

“Speak for yourself. I like traveling in luxury.” Jess grinned. “Best believe I plan to make full use of that twenty-four-hour butler service we’re getting with the suite. And since we didn’t take advantage of the airport limo service, maybe we can get them to drive us to the game on Friday so we don’t have to worry about parking.”

Meadow scrunched up her nose. “Or we could just walk. The hotel is pretty close to the arena. It makes no sense to drive.”

The others exchanged considering glances.

“We’re walking,” Nadia decided.

Jess booed, cracking everyone up. She’d recently started dating Marek Dubinski, one of the team’s right wingers—which was the same position that Logan played. She made a point of explaining to Meadow that Logan was the starter so he played on the first line while Dubinski played on the second line and got less ice time. But he was really good, Jess insisted, and she was hoping he’d score a goal during Friday’s game.

“Why do you call him by his last name?” Meadow asked curiously.

Jess laughed. “Because he hates his first name. It’s Polish and I don’t think he’s as proud of his heritage as, say, Viggo is proud of being Swedish. So he makes everyone call him by his last name, which could be of any origin, I guess.” She grinned. “The fellas usually call him Dubs, which has a nice ring to it. It’s like the abbreviation for the letter W. Like, he be getting all the dubs, you know, all the wins. Get it?”

Meadow smiled. “Got it.”

“Marek means warlike in Polish,” Bianca read from her phone. “That’s pretty fierce. He should totally embrace his name.”

“Hmm. I’ll have to tell him that.” Jess paused. “Or maybe I’ll have Viggo make the suggestion. Dubinski seems to listen to him.”

Nadia and Scarlett shared a look in the front seat.

“Hey, look at that,” Bianca said from behind her phone. “Viggo is an old Scandinavian name that means war.”

“Oh! They’re practically identical!” Jess beamed and clapped her hands together, obviously pleased.

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