Page 51 of Bad Ruck

She didn't. She walked to the door and pushed out, smiling when she saw us. She kept walking until we were around the corner and out of sight of Skinner.

"Hey." She gave us a quick kiss each, trying not to display too much affection in our workplace. For far too many reasons, it was better not to draw too much attention to us.

"You good?" I put a hand on her lower back and guided her towards the elevator.

"Yeah," she said. "Doctor Skinner has some interesting theories. Some that could be quite beneficial to the team." She spoke lightly, like she was genuinely impressed, and the conversation went well. As if it was nothing more than one professional consulting with another. As if one conversation couldn't get people killed.

"Others not?" Jay guessed, keeping it vague.

"Let's say he has some interesting ideas," she said. "I look forward to learning more."

The elevator pinged and the doors opened. We stepped inside and waited for them to close behind us. Only once they had, I put my arm around her. She leaned against me, giving and taking comfort.

On the outside, she was tough as hell, but on the inside she needed all the support she could get. Like the rest of us, she used a mask to pretend she was okay when she wasn't. Here, when it was only the three of us, she didn't need to pretend.

"What the hell?" I asked.

In a handful of sentences, she told me about her conversation with Ramsey, then with Otis.

"Fuck," Jay whispered. "They don't mean coerced, do they? They mean kill. Coach Stanley is the best coach the Smashers ever had."

"They don't care about winning," she said. "Not rugby, anyway. The team is just a means to an end. A cover for what they're really doing."

"We can't get him involved," I said. "As far as I know, he has no idea about any of this."

"If it's the only way to bring down the enemy…" Jay said slowly.

I stared at him, and shook my head. "That's where it starts. Innocent people like him get involved and then everything is fucked."

"What choice do we have?" Jay asked. "If he asks Chelsea and Ice to do something to him to prove their loyalty, what are they supposed to do?"

I held Chelsea tighter. "I don't know. What would Ice do?"

"He wouldn't like to torture an innocent man, but if it was necessary in order to bring down Otis, Dominic King and Carlos Jones, then…" She looked like she was struggling to hold herself together.

"Does he need to be tortured?" I said slowly. "They might just want him killed and gotten out of the way."

She looked at me, blue eyes glistening. "What are you saying?" she whispered.

"I'm saying, I have an idea. In the meantime, we have to act normally. Relax and wait until things play out. You're finished for the day, right?"

She nodded. "Right."

"Good, then let's go home."

Chapter Twenty-One

Chelsea

"Can't sleep either?"Frost poured himself a drink of water and swallowed it down in one gulp. Wearing only a pair of exercise shorts and messy hair, he looked adorable. Good enough to eat.

"It seems to be contagious," I said. "Did I wake you?"

"I wasn't asleep," he said. "I saw you slip out of the bedroom and wanted to make sure you were okay."

"As okay as I can be under the circumstances," I said with a sigh. "With everything that's going on, my brain won't slow down."

He put his empty glass in the dishwasher and stepped over to wrap his arms around me. "Believe it or not, mine won't either."

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