Silas shrugs out of his coat. He looks a little less wound tight after the haul, but his eyes narrow when they land on me.
“What’s the matter?” he asks.
“N-nothing,” I say too fast, wrapping my arms around myself. “I’m just… bored.”
His gaze sharpens. “For a lawyer, you’re being a terrible liar right now, you know that?”
“Silas, come on,” Felix cuts in, a warning under the easy tone. “I thought you were getting over the hostility.”
Silas holds my gaze for one more long, searching beat, like he’s trying to peel thoughts right out of my head… then finally grunts, “Coffee,” and heads for the kitchen.
I let out a shaky breath, watching his back as he goes.
That was close.
But as I watch Felix and Liam load wood into the nook beside the fireplace, my mind keeps drifting back to those photographs.
I'm pretty sure I'm starting to understand what's going on here.
Chapter fourteen
Naomi
By the time evening rolls around, my legs feel like Jell-O.
Three hours on the ice with professional hockey players will do that to a girl, even without running their drills myself. We all hit our respective showers after practice, and for a few blessed minutes it was hot water, sore muscles, and blissful silence.
Now it’s boredom.
Silas is aggressively clicking through TV channels. Static. Static. A cooking show in what might be Portuguese. Static. He finally tosses the remote onto the cushion next to him with a low curse.
Liam is “reading” on the armchair, but I’m ninety percent sure he’s been on the same page for ten minutes. Felix has moved the coffee table to the side, and he's now stretching out on the rug in front of the fire, one arm over his face.
“I’m dying,” he announces to the ceiling. “This is how it ends. Not in glory on the ice, but from terminal boredom in my own living room."
“You literally have a PlayStation right there,” Silas says, pointing.
“But the power can flicker. I’m not risking my save file for—” Felix bolts upright, eyes lighting up. “I’ve got it. Truth or dare.”
“No,” Silas and I say at the exact same time. We both blink.
“At least you have some sense,” he says, looking almost… approving.
“Fine, you joy-killers,” Felix huffs, already heading for a cabinet near the island. “We’ll do Never Have I Ever. It's a very respectable adult game, and it's excellent for team building.”
“Tell me you're not pulling out the good whiskey for—” Silas starts.
But the cabinet's already open. Bottles clink. Felix turns with something amber and suspiciously expensive. “Too late. Democracy has spoken.”
"Should I be concerned you have a democracy of one?" I ask.
"Ha, funny!" Felix says cheerfully, lining up four glasses and pouring generous measures. "See? This is fun!" He pauses before the last glass, glancing at me. "Naomi?"
I should absolutely not be playing drinking games with the three alphas I’m supposed to negotiate with. But on the other hand, I’m snowed in, my phone has no signal, and I watched them argue for twenty minutes about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie earlier. I'm desperate for any distraction at this point.
“Okay, sure,” I say. “What the hell.”
After all, what could go wrong.
