“Yes,” I agreed. “Our road trip was not good.”
She leaned up to give me a quick kiss. “I’ve been dealing with some other things, but yeah. The road trip, too. Let’s get back to work.”
It was difficult to finish my workout after what we had done, but I slowly fell into a normal routine. Between sets, June and I shared private little smiles.
I was tempted to take her again. Once was not enough.
It was fortunate that I did not, however, because one of the assistant coaches came into the workout room a few minutes later. “Hey, June? Do you drive a Ford Bronco?”
“I do,” she said, frowning.
The assistant grimaced. “Someone stabbed your tire with a knife.” He held out a piece of paper. “And they left a note.”
33
June
By the time Cole drove over to the arena, there were five of us sitting in the office with Coach Jay. Me and Elias, obviously, the assistant coach who had found the note, the head of stadium security, and a detective from the Atlanta Police Department.
The captain of the Reapers stormed into the office with rage on his face. “Let me see it.”
The detective handed him the note, which was now in a protective layer of plastic. Cole read it out loud.
“This is your last warning. If you play in the next game against the Lightning, I’ll burn your fucking house down.”
His fingers began tightening on the plastic, so the detective grabbed it from him before he could crumple the evidence.
“We checked it for fingerprints,” the detective explained. “The assistant’s were the only ones we found. But we’ll send it off to the lab in case there’s any other DNA on the paper. Sometimes bad guys mess up.”
His tone was doubtful, though.
Cole immediately looked to me. “I’m so sorry this happened, June.”
“Hey, don’t worry about me. I’m not the one they’re threatening. All I have to deal with is a tire replacement.”
Cole gave me a tiny smile, then turned to the detective. “Do you think this is related to the burned-out spark plug incident?”
“We can’t say definitively, but that’s a good bet,” he replied. “Someone knows you drive a Bronco and confused hers for yours. Twice. We’re reviewing all the parking lot footage now.”
“I’m not sitting out the next game,” Cole said firmly. “The Lightning are only two points behind us in the standings, and I’m sick of letting threats dictate our roster.”
“Relax, I’m not benching you,” Jay said. “I agree with everything you said. I don’t like someone external making my roster decisions for me.”
Cole nodded once. “What’s the plan, then?”
“Increased security at the arena,” the detective said. “We’re also going to quietly rope in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They have a lot more resources at their disposal.”
“Good,” Cole said. “What were you and Elias doing here, anyway? Official practice isn’t for another hour.”
“Extra rehab,” I said more calmly than I felt. “Just my luck, huh?”
“We’ve made the decision not to tell the rest of the team,” Jay said. “The only people who know about the letter are in this room. Let’s keep it that way.”
Our regular practice came and went without anything else exciting happening. When I walked back out to my car afterward, the tire had already been changed and all evidence of the crime removed.
Cole was still shaken by the whole thing, and wanted to hang out after practice, so he came back to my place. Rhett invitedhimself over too, and we didn’t have any way of telling him no without tipping him off.
But he figured out that something was wrong after just five minutes on the couch with us, so we ignored Coach Jay’s mandate and told Rhett what had happened.
