Page 7 of Eat. Prey. Love. (Apex Academy Capers #5)

I did not get to go find Coach Z alone.

“Baby Girl, you know I gotta see the pitch, too,” Fitz says as he trots along at my side. He’s pushed his growing locks into two crazy man buns that match mine and it’s hard not to grin.

“You’re mad as a hatter, you know that?” I reply as I grab his hand and squeeze it. “But it makes me smile, so don’t even think about changing.”

“Are you talking about my stylish ‘do? ‘Cause masculinity is not defined by bullshit gender expectations. I contain multitudes and so do you. Anyone who doesn’t get it can fuck right off the side of the planet.” He winks at me, then wags his brows. “I enjoy challenging people’s image of me, especially if it gets back to dear old Dickhead Dad.”

Chuckling, I look at the smaller arena in front of us critically. “Zhenga’s probably already on the phone with her family. It’s in okay condition, but she can’t draw crowds with this place.”

“Man, that chick likely has crews headed here as we speak. Z is a full-on nightmare when she’s on a mission. She probably skipped her jackass brother and went right to Daddy Leonidas.” Fitz lifts my hand to his lips, kissing it before letting go. “Go talk to her while I scope out the Khan contribution. Big bro might have to give our asshole patriarch a poke, too.”

“Great,” I groan as I huff. “We’re here for a couple hours and drawing the attention of the stupid Council already. I was hoping we could fly under the radar for a little longer.”

“Not a chance, Baby Girl. We were all born to be the stars of the show.”

He blows me a kiss and turns on his heel, heading to the Battle Arena. Once he’s far enough away, I face the stadium, looking for which door is open.

Hopefully, Coach Z isn’t on a complete tear.

“The first match isn’t for a month. I don’t know if they told you, but they extended the school year by a month to compensate for the lockdown in January,” Zhenga says as she rifles through the grungy Academie uniforms. Obviously, their team had so little support that they couldn’t even get their kits cleaned. “So we have time for me to convince my father to invest in re-inventing this damn place.”

I nod, stacking equipment into a usable and unusable pile. “I get all my news from friends and the TV. My mother hasn’t spoken to me since Yule. I have no idea what she's up to—other than blowing my asshat father up.”

Zhenga pauses, tilting her head as she studies me. “You’re okay with that?”

“I would have preferred to deal with him myself. The guys would have, too.” I frown and shrug as I go back to sorting. “This didn’t give me any sense of closure, but I’m not surprised Lucille stole it from me. She’s stolen everything she could since I was born. Why not my vengeance, too?”

“I knew I liked you,” the lioness mutters. “I’m glad we figured out that mating shit. Honestly, I was clinging to the Raj as a way out. My family’s easily as nuts as yours, but there are too many of them to get my revenge. I’d gotten attached to the idea of living well to spite them.”

This is dangerous territory, but we’re both adults, right? We should be able to get past this overdue talk.

Considering my words for a moment, I meet her gaze across the locker room. “We’re good, Coach. The past is… the past, you know? You’ve been a pretty great sounding board and trainer, even if I hate you sometimes for it. And you deserve more than settling… you should have someone who treats you the way the guys treat me. Or someones, if that’s your thing.”

Her face lights up and she chucks a ripped jersey. “This is hopeless. These are old school, gross, and not salvageable—at least, not if we want to challenge the world’s perception of the Academie team.”

A thought strikes me and I scratch my chin. It could work if Zhenga is convincing enough. “What if we had a student re-design them as part of a school assignment? I guarantee that would make it special and save some dough. Your father would like that, I bet. He could run publicity around it. ”

“That’s a fantastic idea,” Coach beams as throws another destroyed kit away. “I suppose you have someone in mind?”

My lips curve up. “In fact, I do. Hopefully, she arrives in the next few hours with my other bestie and her girlfriend. We can arrange a tête-á-tête after they’re settled. How’s that?”

“Works for me.” Once she finished with the grubby laundry, Z sits down and sighs. “What are we going to do to recruit? This place is so fucking arts centered—I bet they’re going to be as picky as your professors were about you joining. I had to sign a million damned forms promising we’d handle your injuries with your dance career in mind at Cappie.”

That’s going to be a sticking point; I know it. Dancers and legs, musicians and artists’ fingers…

“I’m not sure, honestly. It’ll be an obstacle because so many of the students here are probably in the top of their chosen fields. None of them will want to risk it—except maybe some transfers and possibly those who are here not because they earned it, but because their parents demanded it.”

Zhenga grins. “Legacy bullshit. That actually might help. There have to be folks who shouldn’t be at this level and need something to succeed at.”

“Yep. And that’s who will be hungry to excel and make their parents shut up.” I plop on the bench, sighing as I look around the poorly maintained room. “But we can’t start unless you get this place upgraded. Snotty, elitest kids won’t want to set foot in here.”

“Agreed, despite it being not remotely predictive of a team’s success.” Slapping her thighs, Coach stands, putting her hands on her hips. “We’re in this together, Dolly. If your friend needs help convincing a teacher to let them use this for a project, I’ll run interference. Just let me know, okay?”

“Got it, Coach. Now let’s go take notes on the field problems so I can get back home before they send in the clowns.”

Laughing, Zhenga holds her hand out, tugging me to my feet. “Have I mentioned how much I enjoy seeing you take those grumpy asshats to their knees? If not, it’s delicious.”

She can’t possibly enjoy it as much as I do, but I just wink at her as we head outside.

“Thank fuck you’re back,” Felix mutters when I walk in the door. “Maybe you can wrangle them.”

Walking up to my grumpy Raj, I kiss his jaw. “What’s wrong?”

He arches a brow, then grabs my hand to drag me to the living area. My eyes widen as I see the entire place draped in clothes and taped as the Captain and his crew scurry around on ladders and stools to paint the walls a soothing azure. There are boxes everywhere, clearly filled with all the creepy ass dolls and old lady décor the room was overwhelmed by when we arrived. “It’s Armageddon in here.”

“I was only gone for like two hours,” I gasp as I see Chess pop his head out from behind a sheet covered pile. He pushes his glasses up, smudging paint on his nose and my heart melts. “This is crazy.”

Fitz barrels out of the hallway leading to the bedrooms, sweeping me off my feet and swinging me around. “They got rid of the Annabelle shit. My world is right again, Baby Girl.”

“However, to do so, they’ve torn the gathering area to pieces,” Felix grumbles as he moves past us towards the kitchen. He opens the cabinets, searching for a moment until he pulls out a bottle of brandy. His nose wrinkles, but he shrugs and uses a flowery tea cup to pour a hefty draft. “It’s chaos in here.”

“I see that,” I reply when Fitz finally sits me on my feet. “Who started this?”

“ Him ,” Aubrey growls as he walks in from the door that connects to the library. He hooks his thumb over his shoulder at Rennie, who doesn’t look in the least bit perturbed. “He’s overcompensating.”

“I am doing no such thing, mon ami . You asked Chester and I to begin re-decorating and we did.”

Giving the gargoyle a pointed expression, I walk over to where Raina is directing the triplets. “Hey, girl. Do you think you’re all going to be done before it’s time to head to bed?”

Her cheesy grin is huge as she turns to throw her small arms around me. “Leave it to me, Dolly. I’ll whip these scallywags into shape. All you have to do is take the raging preds somewhere else so they’ll focus on finishing rather than flinching.”

I chuckle. The crew knows none of us are going to hurt them, but some instincts run deep and my guys are certainly worked up enough to unintentionally frighten them. “Got it. Remove the blustering boys and you’ll let me know when this is… taken care of?”

“Yep. The furniture won’t be here for a couple days, but we can handle moving all the boxes to storage and finishing the paint job tonight.” Raina squints as she looks around. “Tomorrow, we’ll work in the kitchen. Sounds good?”

“This chair be high, says I!” The Captain declares as he totters on a tall stool as he works on the edges of the windows.

Raina snorts. “Of course it is, you tool. You’re too small to reach the damn ledges without it.”

We share a look as the various men in our families fill the room with testosterone. I turn to Felix, tilting my head. “Well? Is there something we can do until we grab food in the mess? We need to get out of here if you want your space back.”

Aubrey holds his finger up, cutting in before my tiger can answer. “We should probably walk through your schedule and tour the buildings. This place was definitely set up by artsy idiots who lacked common sense. It took us an inordinate amount of time to find the place we were supposed to be.”

“Chessie? Are you coming with us or staying?”

My cheetah puts down his roller, walking over with a rueful smile. “Give me just a sec to get cleaned up.”

Before I can answer, he speeds off and I blink. “Damn, he’s fast.”

“Only when he’s running,” Fitz crows as he comes up behind me and buries his face in my neck. “But that’s for later, Baby Girl. Kitty sandwiches aren’t appropriate when we have guests in the mansion.”

“For fuck’s sake, Fitz,” Aubrey growls as he rolls his eyes. “Could you at least attempt to be normal?”

“Mmm mmm… nope.” The tiger makes a face at him and I giggle. “Afraid I am who I am, Red-Hot Reptile. Good thing our girl loves me in original mint condition.”

The dragon pinches the bridge of his nose, muttering about sanity and fireballs going places I know they definitely shouldn’t. I wriggle out of Fitz’s arms, moving to Aubrey with a soft look. “Hey, big guy. You know he’s just playing. And Rennie only wanted to get this place feeling less like a bottle of Pepto. Raina promised the mess will be gone when we get back. Don’t get all curmudgeonly.”

“Bite size, I’ve torched people for less than this shit,” he mutters.

Rennie nods. “That’s true.”

Save me from men with absolutely no training in emotional regulation.

“Well, that’s not what we’re doing today.” I grab his hand and lace our fingers together. “Today, we’re all adults and taking a nice walk around this weird place, then we’ll eat like normies in the cafeteria because our place is full of paint fumes. Got it? ”

My gaze narrows as I look at each one of them and they all mumble assent. “Now let’s get out of their way before someone loses their bunny hugging privileges.”

They don’t have to know I’m full of shit on that count—I’d never give those up.