Taking Shots (Assassins)

by Toni Aleo

  She came for a good time and she damn well was gonna have one.

  Elli slammed her hands against the table, causing everyone to jump as Shea spilled his drink all over the table. “Okay, guys, yes I am Bryan Fisher’s niece, but the guy y'all know isn’t the man I know. The man I know is amazing, sweet, and kind. The guy y'all know is an asshole, actually he was an asshole to me just a little while ago, since he won’t even let me share a room with my boyfriend, so quit, I’m not him, I don’t care what y’all talk about, I’m just here to drink and have a good time with my boyfriend’s friends. So, I mean, are y’all gonna live up to the stories I hear or what?”

  Everyone looked at each other before they started laughing. “Fisher won’t let you share a room with her Adler? Guess she’ll have to sleep with me,” Sergei said, causing Shea to give him a look of death.

  “Or me. I’m Fisher’s favorite,” Phillip Anderson said. He was the newly added young forward.

  “The hell you say. I’m his favorite!” Sergei argued, and off they went arguing about who was Fisher’s favorite when, really, Bryan loved Shea. Well, that was before Elli, she really wasn’t sure anymore. Not that it matter, because she was finally in.

  For the next couple hours her and the guys hung out, talked about wives, girlfriends, and the awesomeness of hockey. Elli, Shea, Alex Welch, and Sergei were playing pool when Elli noticed a group of girls come into the lounge. It was obvious they were ice bunnies, which is what whores that sleep with hockey players just because they can, are called. They all had about two inches of fabric on and walked with their chest up in the air for God and everyone to see.

  Sergei lasted about two minutes before heading over there, leaving Shea, Alex, and Elli to watch as he flirted with some blonde.

  “He’s hopeless,” Alex said as he took a shot.

  “He’ll grow out of it,” Shea said, as he took a pull of his beer. Alex laughed as he handed the stick to Elli.

  “Before I would have said you’re wrong, but I watched you grow out of it and I never thought that would happen.”

  “Fuck off, Welch. I wasn’t that bad,” Shea said, with a little red dusting his cheeks. Alex let out another chuckle as he looked over at Elli, who was also giggling.

  “I think he’s lying.”

  “Oh, yeah, he is. I know all about his old ways,” Elli teased as Shea came right for her, wrapping her up in his arms, kissing her lips hard. She giggled when they parted.

  “You be quiet,” he said, still not letting her go as he ran kisses across her jaw line.

  “Hey, Elli!” Elli looked over to Phillip who was grinning ear to ear at her, “When you are done with that, let me know. I’ll show you how us forwards take care of our women.”

  “And how’s that?” Elli asked even though Shea was turning red with anger. Phillip had been flirting with Elli all night and Shea was not happy about it. It didn’t bother Elli at all, though. Phillip was eighteen! He was a baby!

  “It’s simply really, defensemen take care of the back, while us forwards, take good, lovely care of the front,” he said with a cocky grin, causing everyone to hoot and holler while Shea just burned with angry.

  “Shut your mouth, Anderson, you won’t even know what to do when you finally do get a woman naked,” Shea bit out.

  “Oh, I’ve had my fair share of women, captain, oh my captain, and when I get yours, I’ll take my sweet ole time.”

  Everyone got real quiet, while Phillip stood there just grinning as his eyes went up and down Elli’s body. Elli felt so bad for him because Shea was gonna kill him. It took all of three second before Shea was chasing a laughing Phillip out the bar. Elli leaned against the pool table giggling while Alex just shook his head.

  “Oo wee, he’s got it bad for you.” Elli looked over at him, “Everyone probably thinks Shea’s joking around, but I’m pretty sure that kids going to get a talking to. Shea’s pissed.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so.”

  That made Elli giddy for some reason.

  Elli placed her beer on the table and restarted the game with Alex. They were well into the game when she finally noticed that Shea was back in the bar. She watched as he leaned against the bar, laughing with two women, well, two ice bunnies. He had two beers in his hand, but had put them back on the bar when one of the girls asked him to sign her size toddler jersey. When he picked the beer back up, the other girl wrapped her arms around his arm, and he smiled down at her, then the other one did it, and it took everything out of Elli not to go over there and make a fool of herself. They were fans. They wanted to talk to their favorite hockey player. Elli wouldn’t get jealous, it was okay, Shea loved her. He wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t do anything dumb, especially with her in the damn bar.

  But then one of the girls leaned up and placed a kiss on his cheek, and he just smiled, which was fine. Everyone wanted to kiss their favorite hockey player. No big deal. The other one said something and he looked over at her and their lips just met. Elli doubt Shea even saw it coming, cause she sure didn’t, but Elli found herself getting pissed because kissing on the lips was not okay.

  Elli took in a sharp intake of breath as the girl moved her hand up to Shea’s cheek before she stormed towards the door, because Shea didn’t pull back.

  The damn girl had Shea’s mouth sucked into hers, something that had never happened to him before. When he finally pulled back, he felt like the chick had taking his lips with her. “Excuse me,” he bit out as he wiped his mouth, “Jesus, lady.” He then saw Elli out the corner of his eye, heading for the door.

  “Elli!” he yelled moving away from the women, knocking the beer off the bar as he went to go after her, but one of the girls grabbed onto him again. “Sergei, stop her!”

  As Shea tried to detangle his self from the crazy starfish women, he watched as Sergei stepped out in front of Elli. She said something and he let her right by. When he finally got the starfish off him, he ran towards the door. “Thanks a lot, Sergei!”

  “She said she would trade me!” Sergei yelled back as Shea took off running out the bar towards the elevators. He went inside one, pressing the suite level button and waited as the elevator went up. He didn’t understand why he even stayed and talked to the girls! One of them said something about their bother playing back in Boston and that roped him in. He should have known better. He had been playing with ice bunnies his whole life. He knew their tricks; he had fallen to them many times before. When the doors opened, he ran down to the room number Elli had given him and started pounding on the door, but Elli never open. Bryan’s door did, though.

  “Adler, what the hell?”

  “I need to talk to Elli,” he said turning his back to Bryan before returning back to the pounding.

  “She’s in the shower and it’s too late for visitors, you’ll see her tomorrow.” Shea looked over at Bryan, he stood with her arms crossed, glaring over at Shea, “It’s late Shea, go to bed.”

  “I need to talk to her.”

  “You can see her tomorrow, bye, Shea.”

  Shea shook his head, he couldn’t leave. But if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have to worry about trying to fix things with Elli, he would be off the team before the beginning of the next week. Shea looked at Elli’s door one last time and then walked away, basically making what he thought was the biggest mistake of his life, because when he came back the next morning, Elli was gone.

  Chapter 24

  The Assassins had won the game that night without the help of Shea. He was playing like shit and knew it, but the guys still came through and won. Which was great. But Shea was hurting, Elli wouldn’t answer any of his calls. He was freaking out that she had given up on him and wasn’t going to let him explain.

  Didn’t she understand? He didn’t want that starfish freak! He wanted her!

  He left for the airport, still calling her every two minutes, it seemed, and she still wasn’t answering. Unfortunately, he had to wait three hours before jumping on a plan
e and heading back to Nashville. When he arrived, he took a cab to the condo to find that Elli had left there too and she had taken Adler with her. Shea fell onto the couch and took a deep breath. He couldn’t go running over there at four in the morning. She was probably sleeping and would be mad as hell if he came banging on her door. So he laid down, shutting his eyes.

  He was out within two minutes.

  When Shea woke the next morning, he had one hell of a back ache and his head was killing him. Damn couch, only good for one thing, and it wasn’t sleeping. He picked up his phone, dialing Elli’s number for the 900 time.

  This time she answered.

  “What, Shea?” she sounded groggy, which worried him since she had probably been crying since she left. He didn’t like her crying over him, he wanted her smiling, he loved her smile.

  “I’m so sorry, baby, please come back to the condo, or I’ll come there.”

  “No, don’t.”

  “Why, baby? I don’t want them girls, she got a hold of me, sucked my damn lips of my face. I’m sorry, please don’t do this,” Shea pleaded as he paced the living room, “I want you, baby, only you.”

  “I can’t do this right now, Shea, I’m not in the mood to talk to-” She started to cough, and it didn’t stop for what seem like a good five minutes.

  “Are you okay?”

  “No, I’m not. Listen, I need a few days to myself, a lot happen the other night and I just need to be by myself for a while.”

  “Elli, please, don’t do that, we can work this out.”

  “I can’t right now. I promise I will call you soon, but right now I need me time. I’m not home so don’t go there, I’m at Jodi’s. Just let me be for a couple of days. I promise I’ll call you soon.”

  “Like you promised before, huh?”

  “I promise this time, text me, I’ll answer. I just need some time to myself. Please give it to me,” Elli said, coughing again, “I gotta go.”

  The line went dead, and Shea slumped down into his crap ass chair.

  Why was being in a relationship so damn hard? It seemed like things were easier when he was screwing anything with legs, no one to answer too, no one to worry about, and no one to fucking freak out about! Shea stood up stomping through the house, kicking anything that reminded him of Elli. How could he do this? How could he fuck up the one thing that made him a better person? Elli was everything to him and he probably lost her. Yeah, life as a single man was great, but life with Elli was spectacular and what he wanted.

  When he reached his room, all her things laid everywhere. She must have been trying to find things to bring with her on the trip. His old AHL shirt laid on the floor by a pair of her boxers. He walked over to it, picking it up and bringing it to his nose.

  Mangos.

  Shea basically crumbled to the floor, a hard feat for someone Shea’s size. But he did it, holding the shirt to his nose taking in the scent of his Elli and for the first time ever of his adult life, he cried over a woman.

  The next day, after his embarrassing break down that no one would ever know about, Shea sat in the living room, watching Pride and Prejudice. He wonder if Elli was gonna talk to him anytime soon since her birthday was only a week away. It would be something if everyone showed up for the party and the guest of honor didn’t show. He would look like a complete idiot. Part of him wished he hadn’t planned the party, but somewhere deep in his heart, he knew she would call.

  He took his phone out and sent a quick text.

  I love you. I miss you a lot.

  An hour passed before she answered,

  I miss you too.

  He smiled. Maybe there was hope for them or maybe she just missed him, but had no intentions on getting back with him. He was about to ask her that when his phone rang, it was Jakob.

  “Hello?”

  “I have a bone to pick with you, Shea Adler!” Harper yelled into the phone.

  “Harper?”

  “The one and only. Listen here buddy, why is it that I am taking care of your best friend, but you can’t take care of mine?”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Elli. I can’t do both and work, you’re gonna have to take one of them!”

  “Wait, Harper, what’s wrong with Elli?”

  She paused, “What? You haven’t talked to her- oh God, please don’t tell me you don’t know she’s sick.”

  “No! I had no clue, she told me she needed a few days to herself. What the hell is wrong?”

  “Ugh, damn it, why does she do this? She lied to her dad, her uncle, and now you, wonderful.”

  Shea was starting to get frustrated so he tried to keep his voice calm when he said, “Harper, what the hell is wrong with Elli?”

  “She’s sick, it happens every once in the while,” she added when he took in a sharp breath, “she starts to feel run down and then she’s just down for a couple of days. She had to change her meds this time, so it must have been bad when it happened. She called me to bring her soup and to pick up her meds. I got mad because that’s what you should be doing since you are the boyfriend.”

  “You’re right I should be doing that, if I actually knew she was sick!”

  “Well, now you know, her meds are at Walgreens and she likes the chicken noodle from Panera Bread. Holler if you need anything else.”

  “Where is she at?”

  “Home.”

  “She told me she went to Jodi’s,” he said through his teeth, Harper laughed.

  “She’s scandalous as hell; no, she’s at the house.”

  “Wonderful.”

  “Do you have a key?”

  “No.”

  “Well stop on by cause she won’t be able to unlock the door, she’s stupid weak.”

  Shea’s heart broke knowing that Elli couldn’t even move to answer the door, “Alright, thanks, Harper.”

  “No, thank you, see ya soon.”

  Shea didn’t know why he was nervous when he pulled up in front of Elli’s house, but he was. After packing his bag for the next couple days, going to get Elli’s meds and five things of her favorite soup, he ran over to the studio for Elli’s key. Harper was busy and told him to grab it off the desk, and go, so he did. The whole drive over to Elli’s he thought about what he would say to make everything better between them. He wasn’t sure if she was mad still or if she was really just trying to hide the fact that she was sick, which he was not happy about and would address when he saw her.

  After unloading the truck, he unlocked the door and started bringing things in. Adler came barreling out the back room and bark happily as he jumped around and between Shea’s legs. Shea grinned as he bent down, loving on the dog. Shea had missed Adler just as much as he missed Elli. “Hey, buddy,” he said quietly in case Elli was sleeping before noticing the house.

  It was trashed and something smelled. It was probably all the dog shit by the back door. He walked into the kitchen to find that something must have died in there because it stunk badly. He also saw that Adler had torn into dog food bag and food was all over the floor.

  “Harp, just leave everything in the kitchen. I’ll get it later.”

  Shea barely heard what she said, it was muffled and she was groaning between words. He left everything in the hall and started down the other hall towards her room. When he opened the door, Elli laid face down in her bed, in only a bra and panties. Her body was flushed and she was sweaty.

  “Harp, please go. I look terrible,” she groaned still not moving. Shea moved towards the bed, sitting on the edge and running his hand down her burning hot back. Elli moved her head, looking up at him, her eyes widen and after a moment, a tear ran down the side of her face. “Shea,” she groaned, turning her head back into the pillow.

  “Harper called, she was busy and asked me to go get the soup and everything.”

  “Please just go, Shea; I don’t want you seeing me like this.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, so you can stop telling me to leave. Have you taken
anything for the fever?”

  “No, I can’t move.”

  “You don’t think we should go to the ER?”

  “No, this happens sometimes. I just need to lay here, it’ll past. I just need the new meds I was prescribed, there should be an antibiotic in there.”

  “Alright, I’ll be right back.”

  Shea went into the front hall, grabbing the bag with her meds and tearing open the package. She was right, an antibiotic was in there, along with her new hormone medication. He went into the kitchen, pulling open the fridge to get a bottle of water, but what he found was a great big pan of green stuff that he was sure wasn’t supposed to be green.

  Well at least he found the source of the smell.

  He shut the fridge and went to the bags he brought in. He had bought a bottle of water at the gas station, so he grabbed that and went down the hall to Elli’s room. He sat everything on her night stand, and moved her hair off the side of her face. She open her eyes, and he could see that she was hurting bad.

  “Can you sit up?”

  She slowly shook her head. Shea moved himself into the bed, picking her up slowly, leaning her against him as he grabbed one the meds and the water. Her body burned through his shirt to his skin, and he shook his head. How could she not call him? How did she do this by herself before?

  “Open up, sweetheart,” she did as he asked and he popped the pill in her mouth, then put some water in afterwards. He repeated the same thing with the other med, and then slowly laid her down.

  “Thank you,” she whispered as he covered her up. He smiled down at her, moving the hair that was stuck to her forehead off and to the side.

  “Anything for you, baby, anything,” he said as he finished tucking her in, “Maybe after I’m done cleaning up, you’ll wanna take a shower. The fever might be broken by then.”