Page 39 of Offside Angel

“He isn’t worth it,” Jace warns under his breath.

“If I lost my focus every time I got some good pussy, I’d never show up to a game again,” Carson chortles. “I guess I’m just used to it.”

Last week, I probably would have flung myself over the boards and beat Carson into the ice. Not just for talking about me, but for bringing Mira into it.

Now… “I don’t give a shit what he has to say.”

Jace claps me on the back. “Good. You have enough to worry about. You won’t become captain by killing Carson.”

I don’t give a shit about that anymore, either.

Becoming captain meant everything to me when I thought I had things at home handled. Now, all of my focus has to be on keeping my family safe. The only thing I want at the end of this season is for Aiden and Mira to be happy and healthy.

Anything else will be a bonus.

Coach blows a whistle for the five-minute warning. I stand up and start to stretch out.

“Oh!” Reeves snaps his fingers. “Jemma wanted me to ask about a sleepover for the boys tonight or tomorrow. Aiden was at our house so much there for a couple weeks that Jalen is missing him. He felt like he had a brother.”

“Sorry again about?—”

“I wasn’t complaining,” he clarifies. “We miss having Aiden around.”

I give him a tight smile. “Maybe soon. For right now, I want to keep him home with me. Let him get used to our new schedule.”

I also don’t want yet another thing to worry about. Mira seems to think her brother will go after Aiden if he can’t get to her. I don’t want to believe it, but I’m also not willing to risk being caught off guard and something happening to Aiden.

Per usual, Jace seems to be able to read my mind. “Do you know any more about where Mira’s brother might be?”

“I’ve kept the P.I. on retainer. He’s working on hunting him down. In the meantime, I left an anonymous tip with the police about Dante. I don’t want to lead them to Mira until she’s ready, but if there’s even half a chance that they’ll be able to stop Dante before he can get to her, it’s worth the chance.”

“Do you think she’ll ever be ready to talk to the police?” Reeves grimaces. “I mean, she killed her dad.” I toss him a warning look and he flinches back. “None of us think she’s guilty of anything, to be clear—but that doesn’t mean shit to the law. She could go to prison.”

“She isn’t going to go to prison,” I grit out. “She isn’t going fucking anywhere.”

Coach blows another whistle and we all hop over the boards to get back to practice. I’m already itching to text Evan again, but knowing Jemma is on her way to Mira is comforting.

Jace turns, skating backwards towards the center of the ice. “It sounds like you’re doing everything you can for her. Now, I need you to get out on this ice and do something for yourself.”

“Play hockey?” I guess.

“Sort of. I was thinking more along the lines of making Carson regret ever picking up a hockey stick.”

I grin wickedly. “Ask and you shall receive, oh captain, my captain.”

16

MIRA

“First, you hire a full-time bodyguard for me so I can’t even use the restroom without it being logged somewhere?—”

“Exaggeration,” Zane declares from the other end of the phone line.

“—and now, you want me to gallivant around the city?” I groan. “I can’t keep up.”

That’s true in more ways than one. Between Evan checking in on me approximately eighteen thousand times per day—on Zane’s orders, Evan reminds me each and every time—and my friends not-so-casually “being in the neighborhood” on a daily basis, I’m exhausted. My social battery, already unnaturally low, is drained.

“I think it would be good for you.”

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