Page 67 of Ice Wolf
Now I was only simmering with anger. What Rocco had tossed out continued to bother me. Wolves usually didn’t make claims they had no intentions of following through with. If he did, I’d have little choice but to ensure he didn’t lay a hand on Lily.
I glanced in her direction and could feel the heat bubbling between us and not necessarily in a good way.
She was angry.
And confused.
And if I had to guess, she’d plotted ten different ways to cut me into ribbons.
“You’ve taken this shit too far, Masters,” Coach Cavanaugh snapped as he slammed his office door.
“Is this about Rocco again?” I asked, although I knew it wasn’t.
“You’re trying me, son. Every day. More every day. Rocco attacked you first. Not that I agree with how you handled it, but there are a whole bunch of people who’d believe it was a stunt agreed upon by the two of you to boost ratings.”
“Then this is about Lily.”
He snorted as if I was dim-witted. “I have no idea how you managed to convince this young woman to go along with your scheme, but you just pissed in your teammates’ faces. Yeah, I asked you to clean up your act, but this is nothing but a dangerous stunt that could easily blow up in both our faces. Goddamn fucking grandstanding during the final game. Really?”
At least he’d waited until I’d showered and most of the team had left before berating me. I took a deep breath, trying to stylize how to put my actions.
“Hey, I couldn’t help myself. Lily is a hottie.”
The quick snap of her head in my direction was a clear indication I’d crossed a line. “Everything is a joke to you. Isn’t it, Saint? I certainly can’t say I know you very well, but what I do know is that you can’t take a single thing seriously. Not your career or reputation and certainly not the reputation of the team that depends on you to do the right thing. That’s playing hockey. Not grandstanding for a crowd. Not showboating for the hockey pucks. I mean puck bunnies. Not partying all night long and getting yourself in hot water by acting out on your true savage nature. Your teammates don’t need your continued bad behavior. Your coaches don’t deserve it. And I won’t tolerate it. You finished the night by beating up Rocco?”
“He deserved it,” I said with a lackluster voice. How could I explain to her that for a wolf from a different pack to put the moves on another wolf’s intended mate was an act of war? Yeah, that would go over well.
Where my ridiculous comment was weak, her words were robust, the sound of her lilting voice echoing in the room. When she blew a fallen piece of hair from her eyes, I knew I was in love. Not that it would last. She’d kill me in my sleep when I least expected it.
Silence seemed to placate both. “Sorry about that.”
Coach Cavanaugh narrowed his eyes. “Ms. Weathers is right, which is why you’re on suspension as of right now.”
“No! You can’t do that. We have the first playoffs game in a few days. You need me.” Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. The truth was I needed them. Hockey. The team.
And I also needed her.
She’d been right. My career was swirling around in the toilet.
“Hold on a second. The fake engagement was my idea, Coach,” Lily jumped in. “I don’t think there’s any reason to suspend him at this point. We just need to keep him on a short leash.”
Was she kidding me right now?
I threw her a look, which she ignored.
Coach Cavanaugh was shocked. “Go on. If this really was your idea, then you’re going to need to explain to me why you thought this was a good idea. I didn’t place any parameters on the contract with your firm, but I also didn’t expect to turn thesituation into a bigger nightmare.” When his office phone rang at the same time his cell phone did, he made a gesture like ‘see.’
To Lily’s credit again, she didn’t back down from his gruff demeanor. She stepped directly in front of him, planting her hands on her voluptuous hips. “You hired my firm because you were and continue to be in a social media crisis. While your social media manager was good at her job when things went well, she certainly shied away from anything that was too difficult for her skill set. What your team is facing is a forced elimination of your star player. While you have incredible players, none have the skill level to win a game or the charisma to carry the crowd the way this man does.”
I’d be damned if I wasn’t struck in awe. She swung her arm around, pointing at me while still not looking me in the eye.
Yep. She was furious, steam likely to pop from her ears at any time.
When the coach started to open his mouth, she pointed that same finger in his face. “I’m not finished yet.”
The coach was taken aback, but didn’t attempt to talk over her.
There was my girl. My girl.
