Page 170 of Beauty
His tone is laced with malice.Be careful, it warns.Don’t fuck me over or I’ll tell them everything.
Too bad I don’t give a fuck anymore.
I let out a breathy laugh. “We both know that’s not true,” I patronize. “But that’s okay. You were right. I had a lot to learn. Fortunately, Noah was more than happy to teach meeverythinghe knows.”
His eyes narrow. “Yeah?”
I turn so I’m also facing my brothers. “Yup. Most important, of course, is making sure I’m familiar with the stats of everyone on the team.” Smiling, I turn toward the rest of the group. “Did you know that Ezra here has quite the record in the NHL?”
Beckett presses his tongue to the inside of his cheek, his smug expression full of pride. “Oh yeah?”
“Yup. Did you know he has the third worst plus/minus record in the league?” I glance back at Ezra, whose face is red with fury. “Impressive, really. If you couldn’t be the best, you probably should have tried harder to be the worst.”
“What the fuck?” he mutters.
“Hey,” Gavin barks, taking a step forward.
I shake my head, letting my brother know that I’m not done. “Good news is,” I say to Ezra, “you are the worst GM we’ve ever had.” I grin. “So you’re fired.”
“What?” His eyes go wide, but he recovers quickly, glancing at my brothers and smirking. “Nice joke. We both know you don’t want them to find out about your”—lip curled, he looks at Noah—“extracurricular activities.”
The smile that splits my face feels feral, powerful. I’m not even embarrassed anymore.
So I like sex. Whatever.
What I don’t like is this man thinking he can use his knowledge of that against me. If I were a man and he’d seen me at Allure, he would have walked into my office the next day and given me a high five.
I did nothing wrong and I refuse to cower. “Actually, I told them all about it. And about my relationship with Noah. Turns out dating people we’re not really supposed to is a Langfield tradition. It’s practically a right of passage, right guys?”
When all my brothers echo my sentiments, his face falls.
“And then I told them about what you said to me. About your threats and your demands. You see, I’m tired of men screwing with my career, so although my brothers all offered to do this, as did my boyfriend, I prefer to handle it myself. So, Ezra, you’ve been relieved of your duties.”
“You bitch,” he spits, advancing on me.
Without a second thought, I knee him in the groin. While he’s busy grabbing his balls, I land a punch to his nose.
The crunching sound is far more satisfying that I would have imagined.
The whimpers and screams from the weasel’s mouth as he drops to the ground bring me a perverse satisfaction.
“Holy shit!” Aiden yells behind me.
Before I can kick the man while he rolls around on the ground, crying about his useless dick, Noah pulls me into his chest.
“Dammit,” I growl, cradling my throbbing hand. “That hurt.”
He rests his head on my shoulder and blows out a breath. “Fuck, baby. I’m so proud of you.”
“He deserved it.”
Hands clenched into fists, Gavin stands over the loser who’s struggling to get up. “He so did.”
“She hit me,” he groans. “That’s assault.”
“Nah, I saw you fall all on your own,” Gavin tells him.
“Tripped over that branch,” Brooks says, pointing to a nonexistent tree limb.
