I carried the box of roses like it was a live grenade. The kind of thing that didn’t explode on contact, but poisoned slowly, with intention.
Roan and Jay were already down in the trainers’ office, getting iced and stretched after drills. I skipped the hallway greetings and dropped the black box onto the counter between them. Jay raised an eyebrow. Roan didn’t blink.
“Rylan sent them,” I said flatly. “No card. Just twelve red roses. Showed up in Wren’s office like a little present.”
Jay’s face darkened instantly.
Roan leaned back slowly, his eyes never leaving the box. “You opened it?”
“Yeah. She didn’t want them.”
Jay stood and crossed the room to open the box fully, gaze flicking down over the flowers. “Not just roses. These are scent-bombed,” he muttered. “There’s no way this was a simple gesture. They’re designed to trigger attention.”
“Exactly,” I said. “That asshole wants everyone who walks in her office to think she’s still on the table. He wantsusto smell it on her.”
Jay’s hands curled into fists before he shoved them deep into his pockets.
Roan still hadn’t moved. “She okay?”
“She didn’t flinch,” I said. “Told me no. I handled it.”
Jay exhaled sharply, pacing once before he stopped, then looked at Roan. “We should go to Marchand. This is deliberate. This is league line–adjacent and?—”
“No,” Roan said quietly, but with that steel that made people shut up.
“You don’t think we should do something?” Jay frowned.
“Ido,” Roan replied. “But we’re not going to handle it like a couple of pissed-off rookies swinging sticks behind the bench.” He pushed off the wall, finally stepping toward the flowers, his expression unreadable. “Rylan wants to rattle us. Wants to make a play that forces our hand, makes us look like we’re unstable.”
“Because heknowswe’re not,” I muttered.
Roan met my gaze. “Exactly. That’s why we don’t take the bait.”
“So what do we do?” Jay asked, voice low, simmering.
“We make a plan,” Roan said. “We protect Wren without turning it into a pissing contest. We keep her name clean, her scent clear, and we make sure Rylan never gets within arm’s length of her again.” His gaze moved to me. “That starts with staying steady. No fights. No outbursts.”
“I didn’t say I was gonna deck him,” I muttered.
“You didn’t have to.” Roan's mouth curled faintly. “I know that look, Rhett.”
Jay chuckled dryly. “Yeah, it’s the same one he had during the Rivets game last season. Right before he put Torres through the boards.”
I held up both hands. “Thatwas provoked.”
Roan crossed his arms. “So is this. But we’re not on the ice yet.”
That calmed something inside me.Yet. As in—wewouldbe. When we were, Rylan was going to feel every ounce of what we’d been holding back.
Roan turned to Jay. “She still good for morning coffee?”
Jay nodded. “She didn’t say otherwise.”
“Then you bring it. Sit with her if she has time. Not because sheneedsa babysitter, but because she’s running point on a storm none of us can help with right now.”
“I’m on it.” Jay glared at the flowers then at us. “What about tonight?”
“I’m bringing her dinner here, if she’s still at work. Probably take it to her place if she gets out of here on time.” Not leaving her exposed was a good plan. The fact neither Roan nor Jay amended my idea said it was.
