Page 7 of The Prince and the Puck
I sighed happily, gathering my bag to my shoulder and heading for the back door to let myself out into the player’s lot.
“Night Deck,” Al called.
“Have a good night, Al.”
Al was the security guard who patrolled the arena overnight. He was a good guy, and I often thought about how if I couldn’t play hockey, I might be happy to do a job like his, or maybe like Julius, who drove the ice cleaner. Just to be here. To be this free.
Though, the playing was a lot of fun too.
The parking lot was dim in the graying light, and my car sat almost alone beneath the lone lamp post. I grabbed my keys out of my pocket and froze, the hair on the back of my neck suddenly standing on end.
Spinning around, I realized I wasn’t alone.
The PR lady. She was just coming around the corner of the building, strutting in a way that told me she didn’t have a care in the world, despite wearing three-inch heels and a sheath dress that hugged her muscular curves.
She did have a care, though. She just didn’t know it.
I spotted the two guys on the other side of the lot closing in on her fast. They wore dark cargoes and T-shirts, and moved like panthers gliding through the shadows.
I let my bag slide from my shoulder to the pavement and took a steady breath, readying myself.
The guys were closing in on us now, and if they thought they were going to assault this woman right here in front of me, they had another think coming.
“Lizzy!” I hissed, but she was already angling toward me, practically breaking into a run. I was surprised at her hustle, given the heels.
“Deck, get in your car, now!”
She was awfully bossy for a woman in danger, I thought. And oddly chivalrous.
I hit the unlock button so she could get in and lock the doors, but she actually detoured, coming to my side just as the two men broke into a dead sprint, heading right for us.
“Shit, what are you—?” But there was no time for questions.
I tried to throw myself in front of Lizzy, but she was actually doing the exact same thing, and her erratic behavior threw me off balance. Why wouldn’t this woman let me just save her?
The two men reached her just as I went down, hard, on the pavement, but I shot a foot out and tripped one of the guys, landing him next to me. I just had to hope Lizzy could hold off the other guy for a minute while I dealt with this one.
Adrenaline surged through me when I saw that the attacker held a baton in one hand and had a knife sheathed at his belt. I rolled, moving to straddle him, but he slid out from beneath me, reversing our positions so fast I didn’t see it coming. He got in a good strike with the baton that would have knocked me out if I hadn’t blocked with my forearm. He was almost on top of me a second later, and I managed to buck up enough to keep him from pinning me.
There was a lot of grunting and groaning, but I got a solid blow in to the guy’s nose just before he slid off me suddenly, clearly changing his mind about taking me on.
“Lizzy!” I yelled, getting to my feet.
The other guy had her from behind, and I bolted to rescue her, hoping this wasn’t going to end badly.
CHAPTER 6
LIZZY
LETTING THE PRINCE DEFEND ME. SORT OF.
I should have been paying moreattention. But who the hell knew Declan would require an eight-hour shower after practice? I must’ve walked the perimeter forty times before the enormous prince finally emerged from the players’ door, grinning around himself like there was nothing in the world to worry about.
Sigh. Royalty.
I was just going to stroll on by—the guy was so oblivious he didn’t even see me—but that was when I saw the two men beelining for him across the parking lot.
If I pulled my sidearm, the jig would be up, so I’d already begun visualizing how I’d disable the men in hand to hand when Deck yelled out my name, giving me away.
