“Baby, if you ever want to switch teams?—”
She whacked him with a bar towel before setting down our drinks. “Navarro, if you want to keep your kneecaps, you’ll cut that out.”
I smirked into my water. Roan gave a huff that might’ve been a laugh. Barely.
Rhett held up his hands. “I’m just sayin’. I’d treat you right.”
“You’d treat me pregnant,” she shot back, already turning toward the booth behind us.
Roan scowled. “Do youevershut up?”
“Why would I?” Rhett said, sipping his soda like he hadn’t just joked about knocking up a bonded omega in a public bar.
The place wasn’t packed, but it was full enough and familiar. A half-dozen guys from the team were posted at the long high-top near the back, beers in hand, posture easy. That tension you only noticed when youknewthe difference between casual slouching and barely-contained rage.
I noticed.
Then, I noticed everything. Especially the shift in the air when someone’s phone lit up. A mutter. The scrape of a stool. Then?—
“Yo, what thefuckis this?”
Roan looked up instantly. Rhett did too, slower, but alert.
I didn’t move.
Yet.
The guy who’d spoken—Devon Laskey, winger, third-line grinder, built like a truck and just smart enough to get pissed when his spot felt threatened—was shoving his phone toward the others. Everyone leaned in.
Dammit.
I knew before they even said it.
Before Roan’s phone buzzed.
Before Rhett’s did.
Before mine did.
Group Text – Team PR & Captains:
CBC Sports BREAKING: Former Vultures captain Beckett Rylan spotted at Howlers Arena. Sources say reunion with PR manager Wren Foster may be part of the pitch.
There was a photo.
Of Wren, in the owner’s box, gaze on Beckett.
Framed like a date. Posed like a fuckingscandal.
“Oh, hell no,” Devon growled. “They’re gonna bring that asshole back? What, so they can bench me during playoffs? Is that the plan?”
“Relax,” Roan said.
“Relax?” Devon snapped. “You see this shit? She’s practically drooling over him. You think this doesn’t make her look compromised?”
That did it.
Rhett sat up so fast his glass nearly spilled. “Watch your mouth.”
