Page 28

Gwen

“G wenifer, are you doing okay? I got you a bubble tea.” Mercy came to the door of the accounting office, at the training center and held out a cup and a pink straw.

“Thank you.” I was alone and going over some things for one of the accountants.

She came in and sat in the hard plastic chair, then handed me a cup. Mercy looked like she’d just come from practice.

The three Deloitte brothers had been arrested and extradited to New York for the hit-and-run. Yesterday they were given fines and community service, then sent on their way. Okay, the brother driving had his license suspended. Still, that was it.

I took the milk tea and sipped it. “It’s shitty, but what can I do?”

Okay, their punishment was fine, after all they were punished . The shitty part was their team issuing a statement that said it was just a miscommunication and nothing to worry about.

Sure. A hit-and-run wasn’t illegal, it was a miscommunication.

Though I hardly expected them to get jail time.

“I’m here.” Mercy reached over and squeezed my arm.

“Thanks. I appreciate your support.” I was pretty sure she and her hacker bestie had found some of that erased footage and got it to the police.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I’ll do anything for you,” she told me.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m alright.”

“Um… Is this you?” A video played on her phone, of a much younger me, dancing around the goal, in pink and purple gear. My mask had a unicorn on it.

“How the fuck did you find that?” I started laughing.

She grinned. “As you know, my bestie in Rockland is fucking clever.”

“True.” Said bestie had shown up at one of my games at the Rockland tournament to check me out. She was fun. Also, she’d brought me a hockey hoodie from my old high school, since that hadn’t survived Austin. I’d taken her to my host parent’s retro ice cream shop, which she’d never been to.

“What about this?” Mercy changed the videos. There I was in a silver skating dress, skating a classical routine. It was when I was still with Klavdiya. Everything about it was perfect and dainty. That’s what the dads wanted, even when I trained with Vail.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s the Gabriella you’re looking for.”

It had been a long time since I’d been that girl.

“That’s one of my big sister’s favorite piano pieces,” Mercy told me. “Will you let Riley add me as your sister to your record? I’m worried the Deloittes are going to come after you. Though you know Lenny is now on your record as your brother.”

“I know. I always wanted a little sister.” I took a sip of coffee. There was no downside to having her listed as my sister on my record.

Honestly, I did worry. There was a lot happening in the PHL right now and I didn’t want Mr. Deloitte or Coach Deloitte taking their frustrations out on me.

Mercy beamed. “I’ll be the best little sister. Do you want to come to my game tonight?”

“I’d love to, but we have a game,” I told her. “I could meet up with you after. Are you going to Tito’s?” The NYIT team usually went out to Marabou Mike’s, but I’d go to Tito’s with the Maimers.

She shook her head. “I think they’re going to the Arctic Toilet tonight. I… I just don’t like it as well as Tito’s. The vibe is just different, you know?”

“I know. I worked there before Tito’s.” The Arctic Toilet was a club owned by some retired skate smashers and friends of Rusty’s. It was where they usually went after games. They’d started going to Tito’s more often last year when Mercy joined, since at seventeen she couldn’t go to the club and they didn’t want her to feel left out. Now that she was eighteen, they’d gone back to mostly frequenting their old place.

“You did? Oh, I didn’t know that.” Surprise crossed her face.

I nodded. “I was a bottle girl. That’s how I first met Rusty and some others. I got fired when I went missing. When I started as an EBUG and would see them around the training center, they remembered me.”

Mercy laughed. “Pics or it didn’t happen.”

I found a picture of me with long, bleach blonde, straight hair, and my silver beaded short dress with tall white boots.

“Wow. You're blonde. Also young. How old were you?” she asked.

“Your age.” It was the first job I got when I moved to New York, a favor to one of my coaches back in Rockland. The tips there were amazing, but I liked Tito’s better. Not to mention, I didn’t need long, straight, pale hair at Tito’s. It was a little bitch to keep it like that. Only later did I realize I could have just gotten a wig.

Also, Lucius really liked the long pale hair. The first thing I did after I found out I’d lost that job was to cut it short and dye it green.

“Let’s skip the bar and have a sleepover, since the guys are out of town?” Mercy asked. “You could show me how to make those almond cookies and I could teach you to ice dye? Verity and AJ will be there, but it’s fine.”

I always made chocolate almond cookies as my holiday gift for pretty much everyone, and I’d given some to her last year. Ever since then, she’d been wanting to learn how to make them.

“Sounds great. What should I bring?” While I wasn’t very crafty, I wanted to tie-dye some presents for my nieces and nephews and ice-dying was a fun-looking method I hadn’t tried yet. Maybe I’d make something for the babies in Knights’ colors.

“Just whatever you want to dye. Send me the list of what we need for the cookies.” She stood. “I should go home and take a nap before the game. As should you?”

“I have goalie practice with Coach Dodd, and a lunch-and-learn on campus. I’m so excited about the forensic accountant from the Bureau of Investigation.” The thought made me bounce. One day that would be me and I’d take Lucius’ entire family down.

“You’re so much like my other big sister. Math is her thing, too.” She grinned and left with a wave.

I finished my work, then went upstairs to get ready for practice with Coach Dodd and the EBUGs. Constantine’s door was open, so I knocked. There was a wreath on his door and decorations along the halls.

His head popped up from his work. “Hi, Ladybug.”

“Can I give Maddox a treat?” I held up a container with a couple of crickets.

“Sure.” He smiled. “Oh, Mr. Longfellow is coming back.”

“That’s good. I hope you’re getting all the things accomplished you needed to, even with having to step in as GM,” I added, remembering he was brought on as assistant GM, because he was a numbers guy—and a fixer.

“I am. As nice as it was to get a crash course in managing a hockey team, I’ll be happy to return to being assistant GM. Also, I’m not sure how many more favors I can owe my friend Myra, who knows much more about hockey than me.” He nodded.

I fed Maddox the crickets, then waved and got ready for practice. There was a lot to do today.