Page 136 of Triple Pucked
I force myself to look at the second message fromTHE GRILL SERGEANT.
Reply, unless you’re dead. Zombies can text too, remember?
Then the third.
I am NOT messing around. I want a strategy meeting with J this evening. S’s ass is on the line.
“He’s demanding an extra strategy meeting with you,” I explain.
D’Angelo’s hand clenches around the glass. “We don’t need one. He doesn’t like that as captain, the staff come to me more than they come to him now. He also hates that I am no longer his leashed puppy. Let him stew.”
“You’ve changed.”
D’Angelo gives a sharp smile. “I have, haven’t I?”
“Not to sound like Dr. Watson to your Sherlock…” Michael arches his brow.
“Don’t you mean Dr. Kink?” I say, before my drunken mouth can catch up with my drunken brain screaming at me to stop.
Cody splutters with laughter.
Michael shoots his husband a stern look, before replying, “I wear many hats, and some of them are leather caps withDaddyon the front.”
I choke on my tongue. “TMI.”
“Revenge.”
“More like your favorite birthday present. Well, along with the—” Michael firmly places his hand over Cody’s mouth.
“Code,” he warns.
Shay looks delighted. “Let me guess. Did it start with ‘B’ and end with…?”
D’Angelo leans over me to place his hand just as firmly over Shay’s mouth.
Michael gives D’Angelo a nod in thanks, tipping his glass to him. In turn, D’Angelo takes a casual drink of his whiskey.
Cody and Shay both chuckle, muffled behind their partner’s hands.
It’s funny to me that my brother has become best friends with Eden, when he shares some playful traits with Shay.
Actually, it’s lucky that these two haven’t paired up. They’d be a menace.
Although, Michael has always been able to handle my brother.
Michael calmly removes his hand from Cody’s mouth, but D’Angelo firmly keeps his over Shay’s mouth.
“I was going to say that I didn’t want to sound like Dr. Watson,” Michael continues, “but isn’t it more than a coincidence that Blythe is holding this blackmail stuff over you right now? The card? The creepy dead roses? Controlling you through text messages? But she’s doing it at the exact moment that your bastard of a boss is back trying to control you in the same way.”
“Heine.” My eyes widen. “You’re right. He plays at submission but he’s obsessed with controlling you, D’Angelo.His bet is just another attempt to force all of us to take part in his games. He’s mind fucking us in the same way that Blythe is. The two of them were together before Christmas. Do you think that it’s connected?”
I catch D’Angelo’s guilty expression. Dread shoots through me.
D’Angelo carefully pulls back from Shay, smoothing down his suit with jerky motions like then he can avoid meeting our eyes.
The silence between us is suddenly unsettling.
“D’Angelo,” I try, “what aren’t you telling us? We don’t need to share everything from our pasts or lives, but our whole dynamic is about trust and communication. We just had a big thing about not keeping dangerous secrets. If this is important, we should know.”
