Page 5 of Puck my Prey
COACH: Test the waters. Valentine’s not a shit stirrer. He's a protector. But if you threaten the team, he'll come straight for you.
CORA: Great. Thanks.
I read over the text messages once more and straightened.Time to face the music.I'd made him wait long enough.
“Valentine,” I called in a clear voice.
Dammit, I should've gone to the kitchen and made another stale coffee. Or tea. Or matcha, even. Anything that contained caffeine would've been worth it. I poked my head out of the office and nearly ran straight into a Chimera jersey-wearing chest. Had he been waiting right outside the doorway? It was a damn good thing I didn't recite my notes out loud, selling state secrets to the nearest bidder for free. I found myself nose-to-recyclable-takeaway-cup he presented me with.
"What's this?"
"I wasn't sure if you ate today. We can be a handful."
I blinked at the group pronoun usage. NotI, butwe. My head canted one side as I repeated his phrase and threw his words back at him, reversing their meaning. "Haveyoueaten today?" I ushered him into the office, watching carefully as he placed the tall takeaway cup onto my desk alongside a brown paper bag. "Should I be checking for a bomb?"
Valentine was careful with his motions and I cursed myself for my positioning in not being able to see his face when he responded. "Yes. No."
I closed my mouth, closed the door, and waited for more.
My captive Chimera stood with his back to me. Perhaps our waiting game was a two sided coin. Unable to stand still and yet craving to see his expression, I circled around him, giving the huge man as wide a berth as Coach’s small office allowed.
I found it interesting that Coach could've asked for a much larger office in this building, but didn't. My own office in the adjacent building was double the size but we had decided that the interviews needed to be here today. I made a mental note to ask if he could be moved later for more space since he well and truly earned it putting up with the players like the one tormenting me now.
"No?"
"Coffee. Lunch. It’s there for you.”
I nodded. Valentine still didn't move as I finished my circle. “And have you?"
When he didn't answer, I looked up and discovered the office was so much smaller than I expected. Because Heath wasright fuckingthere. I slid the food and coffee across the desk, sat my ass down, and scooted Coach’s thread bare chair that was most definitely not leather several feet back to garner myself breathing room.
"Why does Coach have his office here? The smallest office here,” I murmured, then cursed myself for bothering. That was a question for either Hux or Solace who had been around the team for years, rather than a man who joined the Chimeras full ranks weeks ago and wouldn't be here by week’s end.
Heath Valentine stared at me with unreadable black eyes. That same shadow as before flickered across his unfathomable gaze before it disappeared as fast as it came on. Unblinking, unyielding. This man was as hard as fuck and the only way I would get in would be if he would let me.
Don't threaten the team.
Ward Bishop’s advice was solid. As coach, he held responsibility over the team, but unfortunately, the rest of the Chimeras hadn't left me much of an option. Everything rode on what Valentine said to me in the next twenty minutes.
"He wants to be close to the ice. To the team. Here for what we need.” Valentine returned my study, though his stance remained relaxed.
I raised both eyebrows ,mimicking his behavior from before. "Are you also a mind reader?"
The faint smile from before lifted Valentine's plush arched lips. “I asked him the same question on my first day."
"Why?"
His smile remained." Because I expected all executives—which Coach definitely isn't—to work in a gold gilt office. To a poor kid from a shit neighborhood this place looks like a palace. But—” He watched me carefully, " —you know that."
I did know that.
"Did you say anything else?" I forestalled his next question. Valentine never blinked at my interruption. I offered an olive branch. “I don’t want anyone off the team. It’s my job to be a barrier here too.”Even if I don’t wear a jersey.
"He told me to take care of the team in Solace’s absence."
"Is that why you took the traumatized girl to your car?"
"Yes." The images of Valentine were burned into my mind, but I glanced down at the black and white photo anyway, just to check. See if I was wrong, but I knew I wasn’t. Even grainy the image was clear, but with height, his shoulders were recognizable beneath a taut black shirt as he held a leather jacket across her tiny frame.
