Page 99 of Perfect Playbook

“Long time no see.” I extend my hand.

He reaches out with his own, also painted with a skull design.

I lift my mask toward the others to say hi. “Gabriel, Enzo, Rio.”

The men offer me almost imperceptible nods.

I use a classic male conversation opener because it’s clear they aren’t going to give me an in. “How’s the tech business going?”

Her brothers were all sportsmen in high school. They are built like fucking brick walls after all, and when they weren’t studying or in football practice, they were on the ranch wrangling calves, riding horses. There can’t be an ounce of fat on these boys. But there were brains going with the brawn. All the guys but Santi got scholarships to college, but earned surprisingly un-sporty degrees. They went into computer science.

I already know a good amount about their business, but in the Starlight Canyon world, man’s friendly conversation is typically about sports or work. So I begin with work.

I look directly at Santi who’s most likely to talk. He was always charismatic compared to the others.

“Tell me about it. It’s crime? Security? I’m not sure I understand.”

I totally understood Shay when she explained, but if I can’t get these guys talking, I can’t get to the part where I tell them how I feel about Shay.

“Yeah,” Santi offers. “We built tools that can penetrate the dark web. They counteract anonymizing software.”

“So is that the software people use to make themselves anonymous for criminal purposes?”

Rio finally acknowledges my existence by glancing over but doesn’t say a word.

Santi answers, “That’s it. But we aren’t giving this to the general public. Shit, there’s enough track and trace in fucking cookies and social media data. People would go mental.”

I can sense this conversation could go well beyond my understanding quite quickly.

“Shay tells me you were talking to a philanthropic investor.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Our tech in the right hands can fight crime. In the wrong hands, it will just make it easier for criminals to create new ways to hide. We didn’t want to sell our playbook to the devil, you know? It’s actually been hard to find the right person, but we’re partnered up with Thaddeus Getty. Just signed this week.”

“You’re serious? Shay didn’t say who it was.”

She really didn’t, and that man is… well, he’s a loose cannon kind of man who chases space and at the same time wants to save the planet. And a man who is stinking rich with a name known to nearly everyone on Earth. Aligning with Thad Getty is going to be an overnight game changer.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Rio finally speaks. His words are somewhere between a command and a threat. “It’s not public yet, but apparently we’re family now.”

And there it is. The segue we’ve all been waiting for.

Rio doesn’t look at me, just takes a pull from his beer. He talks while staring out into the sea of people. “We can trace anybody, anytime, anywhere.”

He doesn’t finish his sentence, but I can do it for him.So don’t tell a goddamn soul because we’ll know it’s you.

Shit. I’m glad I’ve kept my nose clean enough over the years.

Rio pushes his back off the wall and steps toward me. Faces me. We’retwin towers.

“So what aboutyou, Logan? What have you been up to all these years besides hockey?” He asks as if he thinks hockey is a disguise and I’m actually a serial killer.

“Family and hockey was it. I’m a simple man.”

At that, his black-lined mouth twitches up at the corner. “Oh yeah. You don’t seem so simple to me.” He flicks his eyes down. “Nice watch by the way.” Accusation is still thick in his words, as if I stole my Rolex or something.

If Rio thinks he can goad me, I’ve been through just as much on the rink over the years and had to keep my cool. It’s one of my skills to come across unbothered, casual and in control, even when my heart thunders and a snarky locker room response dangles on the tip of my tongue.

They don’t need to like me, though I’d rather they did. But what I need is for them to believe I have Shay through thick and thin. That she’s safe with me.

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