Page 104 of Broken Promises

“I fucking love you too. Now go win.” Declan kisses me once more before releasing me and heading out onto the ice.

I make my way back to my security detail and let them lead me to the stupid box I have to watch from. I know why, and I didn’t even fight Declan on it, but it would’ve been nice to be closer to the action.

“Willa!” I turn to see to see Ben.

“Hi Ben,” I say, smiling at him. Declan told me how he dumped everything that’s been happening on Ben and instead of running, he helped Dec process it. I’m so thankful he’s there for Declan when I can’t be.

“I’m glad I caught you. The guys want to throw Declan a surprise retirement party, and I wanted to get your input on it with. . .” he pauses and scratches his head. “With everything, I figured it would be important.”

I laugh humorlessly. “I can see why you’d think that, and I appreciate it. I’ll give you my number, and we can plan it.” He nods and quickly types my number into his phone, sending me a text so I have his.

“I was also hoping you had or could get some pictures of Dec playing hockey when he was young. Or if you have any. I’m going to put a slideshow together.”

“Of course,” I agree.

Declan had a talk with Sally and Ted about keeping their phones on them and even bought them a satellite phone before they left. They were planning to come back to watch him play in the finals, but he asked them not to. I don’t know what he said to them, but they agreed. He was too nervous having them here with everything going on.

He’s sacrificed so much for me. Declan doesn’t see it that way, of course. I’m already planning something for when this is all over to make it up to him.

“Thanks, Willa,” Ben says, waving and taking off with his camera in his hand.

“Who was that?” Maverick asks around a mouthful of popcorn, looking over my shoulder at where Ben disappeared.

“Declan’s friend, Ben. He needs my help with a surprise retirement party.”

Mav nods and throws his arm around my shoulders, leading me to the box to watch the game. I lean into him. Maverick has been happy recently. Or as close to happy as any of us come the closer we get to Eva’s arrest. Harrison somehow got his contact to wait until the day after game seven to move in on her. I don’t know what he had to promise to get that favor, and I don’t think I want to know.

That also means that Declan only has one day to convince Sinclair to help us.

But Mav has convinced himself that Ezra’s within reach, and Eva is already in an orange jumpsuit. We’ve been letting him have it since he could be right. It wasn’t worth ruining his good mood over. Not yet anyway.

I’m practically hanging out of the box. Belle hasn’t even bothered to stop my fidgeting. Not that she’s noticed. She’s just as on edge as I am. Boston and San Diego are tied with less than a minute left in the third period.

I bite down on my lip as I watch the clock run out. Both teams are exhausted. They’ve been fighting hard to win.

“What happens now?” Maverick asks.

“Another period, but it’s sudden death,” I explain.

Maverick gasps, and I look over at him to see how horrified he looks.

I snort. “It just means that they play until the first goal, not the full allotted time.”

“Right. That’s what I thought,” he says, trying to school his expression.

Belle bursts out laughing. “You one hundred percent thought they were about to start fighting each other,” she says. “Don’t lie, Maverick.”

“They fight each other all the time. It wasn’t much of a leap,” he grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest and slinking down into his seat.

“Send Dec a picture of your lady bits to motivate him,” Kai says, completely serious.

“Never say lady bits ever again,” Jo says, her nose turned up in disgust.

“Skating with a hard on isn’t going to help him,” Belle points out.

I sigh and grab my phone from where I shoved it into my boot. These stupid jeans I wore have fake pockets. What psychopath made fake pockets? Whoever they are deserves prison time.

You got this, baby.

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