by RJ Scott
And then everything went quiet. With a finger, Coach stabbed Loki in the chest. “You, inside.” Then he turned to Ryan. “You too. We’re talking this shit out.”
But Ryan couldn’t move. Anger simmered, and protection, and all kinds of emotions he couldn’t even recognize. “No,” he said. Then, with Coach talking at him, Loki still struggling to get to him, and everyone else slinking away, he climbed into his SUV and left. He’d take any fine that management handed him for walking away. He’d take anything, because he knew he’d fucked up. But first, he had something he needed to do.
He didn’t know how long he’d have to wait until she was home so he headed straight to the fire station where she parked the ambulance. Kat wasn’t in sight. He parked and jumped out, striding into the station, a big burly guy stopped right in front of him, becoming the most effective brick wall he’d ever seen. Kind of amazing, considering the size of the D-men Ryan faced on a regular basis. This guy must be an amazing firefighter.
“Hey, Ryan isn’t it? Dragons right? Your hurt.”
“I need to see Kat,” Ryan snapped. He had blood on his face and smeared over his T-shirt from where he’d wiped his knuckles, but he had to make this guy see that he needed Kat.
“Someone get Kat,” Tank-Guy said, Dennison according to the stitched name on his firefighter-issue jacket. Within seconds, Ryan heard her voice.
“It’s okay, I’ve got this,” Kat said, and Dennison moved away, although he hovered within reaching distance.
“Jesus, Ryan, what happened?” Kat looked worried, but not scared for him; likely she imagined this was hockey injuries, nothing she hadn’t seen before.
Ryan looked past her at Dennison and others who’d begun to gather. One of them was pointing at him and he heard the word hockey.
“Can we talk?”
“Your face. Ryan, did you get in a fight at the arena? With a prospect?” She sounded like she couldn’t believe what she was looking at. She looked closer. “You need stitches. Why didn’t you see the team doctor?”
“We need to talk,” Ryan interjected before she could continue. He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her and tell her what had happened, but first she had to know what he’d done.
“Come inside and I’ll patch you up.”
He moved closer and gripped her arms, swore he heard Dennison and the rest mutter at that and step forward. Hockey player or not, these guys weren’t having their colleague manhandled.
“I love you,” he said, soft enough so she’d hear him, but no one else.
She blinked up at him, rested one hand on his chest. “Ryan, what happened?”
“I love you,” he repeated. “Please don’t hate me.”
She shook her head, “I don’t hate you. I love you too,” she said gently.
The simple words were enough, and he sagged as every spark of energy left him. “I told him, Kat, I didn’t mean to, but he’s my friend, and I didn’t want you anywhere near him when he found out what I did.”
“Oh, Ryan,” she stepped closer to him, shaking off his hold and wrapping her hands around his back, pressing her face to his throat. “Please tell me Nicky didn’t do this to you.”
“He had every right to,” Ryan murmured into her hair. “I promised I would never hurt you, that I wouldn’t ever let a player touch you.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he held her close.
They stood that way for the longest time, until Ryan felt uncomfortable at being watched. He looked over to where Dennison and the others had been standing, but there was no one close by, only Dennison, way back in the station, checking that he didn’t hurt her.
“Come on,” she said, and stepped back and took his hand. “We’ll clean you up.”
He tugged her to a stop. “What about Loki?”
She hesitated, looked up at him with an absolute focus in her eyes. “I love you, Ryan. I love my brother. Everything will have to work out.”
Ryan allowed himself to be led past the guys at the large table and through to a small medical room with a bed in the corner. She sat him down. “Stay here.”
He didn’t move, looked down at the cuts in his palm. He must have scraped them on the asphalt or something; he didn’t recall much, just knew he hadn’t fought back, hadn’t hurt Loki.
She examined his face and cleaned up the blood, and he didn’t wince when she pressed his orbital bone under his left eye.
“This probably needs an X-ray.”
“I’ve had worse in a game,” he said. And he had.
“Yeah, hockey, not brawling with your best friend.”
“We didn’t brawl.” Ryan defended himself.
“Well, what do you call it?”
“I told Loki about us, and he hit me, a lot, and I didn’t hit back. The only damage I did was to Simba’s car. And maybe the parking lot.”
She stopped what she was doing and cradled his face. “You didn’t fight back?”
“I’m not that man,” he said, decisively. “He was in the right.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“I lied. I made a promise, and I turned that on its head.”
“Men,” she muttered under her breath. “You didn’t hurt me, Ryan.”
A knock on the door had him looking up. Dennison was back, and he had an amused grin on his face. “Your brother is here,” he said to Kat. “Outside, looking like he wants to kill someone.”
Ryan moved to slide off the bed he’d been sitting on, but Kat placed a hand on his shoulder. “Stay. I want to talk to my idiot brother.”
“Kat.”
“Ryan, please. He’ll listen to me.”
Ryan relaxed, but not before he sent Dennison a look that spoke volumes—you look out for her with her brother like you watched me.
Not that Loki would hurt Kat, but he wanted someone to be there just in case he got too angry.
Dennison nodded and then followed Kat out. The last thing he heard was Dennison asking Kat why the hell the forward and his defenseman had been fighting.
Ryan didn’t hear the response.
CHAPTER 15
Kat was hissing mad—at Ryan for being a bull in a china shop when they’d agreed to talk to Nicky together. And at Nicky for being an overprotective idiot.
Oh, and at the entire station, who had witnessed what had just happened.
What happened to the quiet dinner where everything was going to be explained carefully?
She spotted her brother standing by a scarlet sports car, and she waved at Simba, who waved back.
Simba shoved Nicky toward her. “He’s all yours.”
Kat turned her back and indicated that Nicky should follow, which he did, and she led him to another room on the opposite side of the station, where Ryan was currently bleeding all over the bed.
She shut the door behind Loki; shut it in the face of the Lieutenant, who narrowed his eyes at her as she did so. Great, not only had Ryan and Loki lost it over this, she was now in the middle of this farce at her place of work. “What. The. Hell?” she bit out.
When Loki spoke, he sounded wounded. “You didn’t tell me—”
“I was going to—”
“When?” he asked plaintively.
“When we were ready.” Kat glared at Nicky.
Loki nodded. “The fucking asshole says he loves you—”
“He does, and I love him.”
“How long? Fuck, Kat, how long has he been doing this to you?”
“It’s not a one sided thing, Nicky!”
“How long?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Kat snapped. “What matters is that he likely has a fractured orbital and he’s bleeding everywhere, and he tells me he didn’t even defend himself.” She waved at her brother, who apart from the bruising on his knuckles, had no sign of injury anywhere.
“Coward wouldn’t fight back,” Loki snapped, angry and tense.
She shoved him. Hard. Years of being a hockey player’s brother had taught her about center of ba
lance. He stumbled back against the table in the corner, sending sheets of paper flying. The schedules ended up on the floor, yet another check mark against her when she had to deal with what happened. “He’s not a coward. He’s scared.”
“Same thing.”
“You’re a freaking idiot, Nicky. You actually wanted him to hit back?” she asked, incredulous.
Nicky looked confused. “That is what he does. If it means anything to him, he’ll fight.”
“No… seriously… you’re an idiot. He’s wanted to tell you for so long, but you suffocate me, and all I wanted was something that was mine.”
Nicky blinked at her, his face paling and his agitation sliding away in seconds. That was a hell of a lot to throw at her brother, but she couldn’t help it.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re always there, with a reason why I shouldn’t live my life the way I want to. And I wanted Ryan. So I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want the lectures. Okay? He’s in my life and in my bed.”
Nicky winced and held up his hands. “Jeez, sis,” he moaned.
“Oh, grow the hell up! The mornings I’ve had to call cabs for your bunnies while I was growing up, you’re the last person who can comment.”
“But—” He looked bewildered. “—Ryan. I mean… it’s Ryan.”
“I’ve been in love with him since I was… God, I don’t know when. Forever.”
Nicky slumped into the nearest chair as if his strings had been cut. “He didn’t force you, though, intimidate you into anything? He’s a big guy, physical.”
She pulled up a chair to sit opposite him, reaching for his hands and holding them gently. “You can’t think so little of him, Nicky. You know him. You really think he’d do that?”
Nicky closed his eyes and shook his head. “No.”
“It just happened. And I wanted it, and I love him.”
“What about Evan? You thought you loved him to start with. I told you—” He stopped whatever he was going to say, biting back the words.
“Evan was a mistake.” She waited for him to agree, because he’d been saying it himself for so long. But he was staring right at her without looking pleased that she was admitting he’d been right. “But it was my mistake to make,” she said. “Not yours.”
“I know.”
“And, Nicky, the more you pushed, the longer I stayed with him.”
“To try to out-stubborn me?” A ghost of a smile lightened his expression.
“No one can do that,” she said, with an answering quirk of her lips.
“So, this thing with Ryan? You really love him, even with his—hell, I’ve shared a room with him on the road…. He never picks up his shit… and he…. Hell.”
She smiled this time. “He has a big heart, just like my brother, and he makes me feel loved, and he’s what I wanted for so long. But even after he kissed me at prom, he wouldn’t do anything.”
“What?”
“When you chased off my date, you remember that? I was inconsolable. I was going to get my first kiss, and the two of you ruined it with all your posturing. So I demanded he kiss me instead, and he did, and that was it for me. And now it’s more.”
Nicky shook his head. “No sex talk,” he said, with a visible shudder.
“Will you talk to him?”
Nicky straightened in the seat. “I won’t say sorry to him.”
She laughed at that. “Like he’d expect it. But aren’t you the one always saying what happens on the ice stays on the ice? How about you say it’s all done now, and work on accepting what I have with Ryan have now.”
He stood up and she mirrored the action, and he pulled her close. “Love you, sis,” he said into her hair.
“And I love you, even if you are an interfering brother with more brawn than brain.”
She led him to the medical room, pushing open the door. She winced. The swelling on Ryan’s face was darkening, but nothing as bad as what he was used to sometimes on the ice; she’d seen worse. He smiled at her and winced at his cracked lip, but that smile disappeared when he spotted Loki behind her. He scrambled to stand and moved between brother and sister, and hell if the man didn’t brace himself for another punch.
“Nicky?” she prompted.
Loki sighed and then extended a hand. “Don’t fuck about on her, or I’ll kill you.”
Ryan looked at the hand and then shook it. “I won’t, and you can if I do.”
Then, with great affection and because she could, she cuffed Nicky around the back of his head, and then Ryan, although she was gentler on her beaten-up lover.
“I’m out of here,” Nicky said. “I’ll see you at home,” he added, looking pointedly at Ryan.
Ryan looked from Loki to Kat. “If it’s all the same to you, Loki, I think I’m spending the night at Kat’s.”
Nicky’s lips thinned, but he nodded, and that was a start.
She guided Nicky out through the bay, past the firefighters looking at him with varying expressions. Kat had seen all of those before, including the wariness for her and the adulation of some of the more rabid hockey fans.
“Dennison really likes hockey,” she said and pulled Loki to a stop. “And he’s standing there watching me, to make sure no one hurts me.”
Loki stepped over to the firefighter.
“You watch the Dragons?” Loki said, his public mask slipping over the expression of confusion he’d worn since they left the small room.
“More of a Blackhawks fan,” Dennison said after a moment’s pause. “But I’ll watch the Dragons when shifts allow.”
Nicky ignore the Blackhawks comment but Kat sent Dennison a look that spoke of the fact she knew he was a hugs Dragons fan.
“So, uhm,” Nicky looked at Kat and then at Dennison. “Thanks for looking out for Kat,” he said.
All Dennison did was inclined his head.
“So, we’re playing the Lightning at home on the twentieth. Is that enough notice to organize shifts? There’ll be tickets for you, as a thank you, or I can arrange them for another game.”
Dennison looked at Kat and then at Loki, and he even smiled. “The twentieth is fine,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Let Kat know how many you need, and it’s cool. Thank you for your service here.”
And that was it. Loki was back, the man who went out of his way to talk to kids and servicemen, who donated huge chunks of his income to charity. The one who was sometimes ashamed that he earned money from playing a game and dismissed anyone who called hockey players heroes. He was the one who always smiled and had a best friend called Ryan.
When they reached Simba outside, he was crouched down next to his car. He stood up and Kat hugged him, before Simba pulled away and pointed at his car.
“What the hell?” he asked Nicky and indicated two long scratches. Then he shook off the question. “Everything okay? Do I have my wing and my D talking to each other, or do we need to stage an intervention?” He was legitimately concerned.
Nicky slapped him on the back. “We’ll be okay.”
Simba climbed in, and Nicky stopped just as he opened the passenger door; he turned to Kat. “If he hurts you….”
“He won’t.”
“He’s not what I wanted for you.”
“You mean he’s a skater? Like you are?”
He had the grace to look a little ashamed. “Just looking out for you. Ever since Mom and Dad….”
She knew. They hugged, and she buried herself into his reassuring hold. “Love you, Nicky.”
“Love you, sis.” And he released her and got in next to Simba.
Kat waved a goodbye as the car sped from the station parking.
As she walked back to collect Ryan, he came out, and she went straight into his arms.
Idiot men and their idiot issues.
But she loved them both.
He kissed her, kind of awkward and one-sided to avoid his wounded lip, but she welcomed the touch.
“I love you, Ryan Flynn.
”
“Back at ya, Kathryn Lecour, back at you.”
CHAPTER 16
Team roster was finalized the same day as Ryan’s birthday, and despite the obvious weirdness between him and Loki during practices, Ryan was on the roster. He was a starting D-man, the depth in the team that started with Simba’s first line. Coach had called both of them in and demanded to know what the fuck the fight had been about and why two of his best men were avoiding each other on the ice.
Loki shrugged, and Ryan felt like he’d just messed up the best thing he’d ever had. Still, he couldn’t do any more than he was doing and if Loki wanted to be all thoughtful and introspective then Ryan had to be patient and let him do his thing.
Practice that morning had been optional, but he wanted to take every moment he could to skate, as did most of the team, including Rafferty. Thankfully, Coach hadn’t taken to pairing Ryan and Rafferty, so they didn’t get much exposure to each other on the practice ice.
Until Coach decided to switch things up.
He put Rafferty and Ryan against Loki, playing keep-away, and that was when it all went to shit.
Because Rafferty did not stop chirping. About Ryan’s skating, his speed, his timing, his observations, and it went on and on and on. And then Loki joined in, seemingly just for the hell of it.
The temper was right there, simmering under Ryan’s skin. Who the hell did Rafferty think he was? Asshole was chirping him as if they were on opposing teams. Didn’t he know how hard it was for Ryan not to crush him into the boards?
“I’m having to carry you,” Rafferty said, skating to an abrupt stop. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Loki had taken the entire length of the rink to collect a puck and was skating back toward them.
“Fuck you!” Ryan spat. He crossed straight in front of Rafferty, catching his stick in Rafferty’s skates enough to let him know he was there, but not enough to take him to the ground.
Loki had collected the puck, passing close to Ryan, but Ryan was out of position and so Loki deked the goalie. Drago slid left and caught the puck in his mitt.
“What the hell!” Drago shouted from beneath his mask and power-skated over to Ryan and Rafferty, spitting mad. “Get your act together. That was so open, a kid could skate through.”
