Every instinct in me wants to push harder, wants to resolve this now, but I don’t.
“Yeah,” I say instead. “I know. We’ll talk soon then.”
I don’t bring up when or how. She gives me a look I can’t quite read, then rolls up her window. I stand there, watching as she pulls out of the lot, one of her taillights cracked as it disappears down the road.
Eventually, I turn and cut across the parking lot toward my truck and head back to the hockey house.
The door barely shuts behind me before the questions ensue.
“All right, spill it. Don’t make us drag it out of you. What happened the other night?” Owen says.
“No kidding. What’s with you bringing back Coach Dawson’s daughter?” Kade adds, his voice sharp.
I drop my keys on the counter and turn to face them.
Kade stands near the breakfast bar, his arms crossed. Owen leans against the back of his chair, his expression serious. Talon sits on the couch, turned toward us.
“Relax,” I say. “It’s not what you think.”
Owen lifts a brow. “Then what is it?”
I exhale slowly, weighing what to say and how much to tell them.
“She’s being followed,” I say. “After she left the party the other night, I went with her to make sure she got home safely. She lives in a loft above Broken Saddle.”
I conveniently leave out the part about how I followed her and Sasha back there.
“She was cornered in the alley behind the bar. I was there when it happened.”
The room stills. I have their attention now.
Kade’s posture shifts immediately. Owen’s jaw locks.
“She was cornered, how?” Kade asks.
“Well, it was more like she was shoved against the side of the building. Some guy dressed in all black. He took off when I stepped in to help her.”
“That’s not nothing,” Talon mutters.
Kade drags a hand through his hair. “There’s more. After we talked the other night, I went back through the files Reed sent a few months ago, when we were digging into Wren’s dad and his business deals. I had him take another pass, see if anything we missed would stand out now. He also looked into Coach Dawson after everything with Gavin.”
My head snaps over to him, my gaze narrowing sharply. “What kind ofmoreare we talking about?”
He hesitates, glancing over at Talon before continuing, “After everything came out with Wren’s dad, we didn’t stop looking into the board. Coach Dawson’s name kept popping up. Reed looked into one of the payments and discovered her mom, Dianne Taylor. Turns out, she’s kept a low profile.”
My stomach twists. “Low profile, how?”
“Brinley never took Dawson’s last name. She’s always gone by her mom’s. There’s no public connection tying her to him. Nothing linking her to Rixton through Dawson.” He gestures between us. “Which makes this… a problem.”
“No one knows she’s here,” I say immediately. “That’s the thing. She said she didn’t tell anyone she was coming. Not even her mom.”
Talon’s eyes narrow. “Why wouldn’t she tell her mom?”
I shrug. “I didn’t push it. She was already on edge with my questions.”
“Well, if no one knows…” Talon’s jaw tightens. “Then someone’s been watching her.”
I already suspected it, but that thought lands harder than anything else.
