Page 9 of Playoff (Toronto Blaze #4)

Mata Hari him

Jess

The buzzing of my phone woke me up. I groaned.

Should have turned off the alarm. It was Saturday, and after being up late then crying on JJ, I wanted to sleep in.

My body twinged in some unfamiliar places and I smiled.

I didn't regret last night. The sex had been amazing, and the crying cathartic.

Despite being tired, my body felt good. Relaxed.

Then I picked up my phone and everything else rushed back into my head. Mrs. Garvin. The trade. An onslaught of messages and calls from my parents. My mom, to be precise. By the time I read through them I was tense and stiff, all post-orgasm relaxation gone.

My parents had notifications set up for anything with the name Denbrowski, so they'd heard about Denny being traded here as soon as the news went public.

Ten years ago, they'd invested all the money they had with Boris and Claudia Denbrowski.

My mother came from money, and she and my dad owned a travel agency where they did little of the actual work but catered to their wealthy friends who liked to travel.

Mostly the agency was an excuse for them to take trips all around the world.

Justin and I had spent a lot of time with our paternal grandmother while they were away.

She was more of a parental figure than Mom and Dad while we were growing up.

When the Denbrowskis fled the country with all the money they'd “invested” for their clients, our lives changed.

My parents no longer had money, and a lot of their social circle also lost investments.

There weren't any more friends using the family travel agency.

Since my parents spent their time and resources trying to find a way to recover what the Denbrowskis had taken rather than pay attention to their business, the agency had gone bankrupt.

They still clung to the belief that they could somehow recover the money and lifestyle they'd enjoyed. It had become an obsession, a way to avoid looking at their own contribution to the mess. They’d spent too much money on lawyers and private investigators.

Even if they found something, at this point the Denbrowskis had probably burned through most of what they’d taken. It must cost a lot to evade detection.

Now, with Alek Denbrowski in Toronto, and playing with Justin? They’d see this as an opportunity. Access to a Denbrowski. Not sure what they planned, but they’d be planning something.

I left my phone on the charger and showered, trying to postpone the inevitable.

I’d made coffee and toast and settled on a chair to enjoy my breakfast when the phone rang again.

With a sigh and a look at the time, I caved.

At least, since Mom and Dad were in Victoria, BC, I didn’t usually get early wake-up calls.

"Jess, where have you been? We were trying to get a hold of you all night.” Mom didn’t wait for me to answer. “Did you hear the news? The Denbrowski boy is back in Canada, on Justin's team. This is a golden opportunity for us."

And so it began. "Sorry to have missed you last night. I was out with a friend." Not like I was going to share with them what I'd actually been doing. "Yes, we heard, Alek Denbrowski was traded to the Blaze. Justin will be professional on the ice.” I hoped so. “After all, he’s played against him before." I ignored the part where she talked about opportunity. Denny hadn’t been involved in his parents’ crimes, according to the police. My parents had followed the investigation closely and they’d checked him out extensively. If there was any chance they could have sued him, they’d have taken it.

“Of course he will. Justin always does the right thing.” Doing what he considered the right thing had hurt him badly ten years ago, but my parents ignored that.

"We've discussed how Alek Denbrowski might be liable for his parents' debts.

If he had knowledge of what was happening and benefited from it, we could sue him for what we lost."

I rubbed a hand over my forehead, feeling a headache coming on. When my mother said discussed , she meant that she had repeatedly vented about it being unfair that Alek Denbrowski had never been touched after he had patently been a recipient of the benefits of his parents' lifestyle.

I tried, once, to ask if the police had investigated him.

And if there was evidence of his complicity, wouldn’t they have charged him?

My mother asked if I was on “their” side or the Denbrowskis.

As if I would ever support the people who'd wrecked so much for my twin and me.

But when it came to this topic, logic was never involved.

So I'd stopped arguing, and let the complaints and plans flow around me.

Unless they wanted to use Justin's money. That, I stopped. I wouldn’t sacrifice Justin any further.

"Now Justin has a perfect opportunity to befriend the man and discover the truth.

He could record conversations on his phone, couldn't he?

Would that be admissible in court? You could also help out.

From what I read, he's single, and probably lonely in a new city.

As a woman you could learn even more of his secrets than Justin could. "

What the actual hell, Mom?

Her voice went dreamy. "Just imagine, if you found out the truth and we could get our money back."

The headache was pounding now. Justin, who'd walked out of the bar when he heard Denbrowski's name, was to befriend the man.

Not suspicious at all. And apparently I was supposed to Mata Hari him to find out all his secrets.

There were so many problems with that scenario.

It would never work. But my mother would harp on this as long as the man was in Toronto.

"Justin isn’t here, since the team has practice.

” Based on how Justin had behaved last night, there was a good chance Mom’s buddy-up plan was already shot.

I hoped Justin wouldn’t punch him or something.

“I need to get some groceries, so I should go before the stores are crowded.

" We had food delivered, but Mom didn’t know that and I had to get off the phone before she went further down this rabbit hole.

"You won't forget what I said?"

I only wished I could. "No chance."

"Oh, and while I have you on the phone, we need a bit of money."

Of course they did. Justin had been supporting them for the past ten years. He’d left college to play hockey full-time, even though he’d wanted to get a degree first. Once he was on bigger contracts, he’d paid for the condo my parents lived in.

Their direct communication with my twin had been cut off when I'd discovered they were exploiting him.

Asking for money for renovations that instead were used for some shady investment that was supposed to recoup their money.

Justin was a soft touch, so I now managed their interactions.

I had his power of attorney for financial matters.

When they needed money, they had to deal with me, not him.

"Send through something by email with all the figures."

A long sigh. "You make it such a hassle. Why can't we just have a quick conversation and not go through all this?"

Because my parents would bleed Justin dry if I wasn't here to prevent that. They wouldn’t hurt him deliberately, but they had complete tunnel vision and justified everything because their goal was supposed to benefit all of us.

"I deal with numbers all day, Mom. Remember, I’m an investment advisor. It really is important to have the details in writing. I would hate to confuse anything."

Which was my way of covering up that I'd have to check that whatever they asked for, beyond the money they got every month, was a legitimate need. Not a payment to a lawyer to try to squeeze Alek Denbrowski, or yet another private detective who was supposed to find the senior Denbrowskis. Sometimes it was money they wanted to invest in a high-risk, likely fraudulent venture. You’d think they’d have learned after losing everything in a Ponzi scheme, but nope.

Despite my training, they never heeded my warnings or advice.

Like people I worked with.

"Very well. I'll leave you to it."

"Wait—how is Grandma doing?"

"Your grandmother is fine."

"When did you last visit her?"

"I've been busy, Jessica. She doesn't recognize anyone so what's the point?"

The point was that Grandma was a lovely woman who'd done most of the work in raising us.

Five years ago, she'd pushed me to move to Toronto to be with Justin. After the way his marriage had blown up, he needed someone, since his default response was to crawl inside his shell. Considering what he’d sacrificed for me, it was my turn to help him.

And Toronto was the place to be in Canada for the type of investment work I was trained for anyway.

But I'd hated leaving her behind, alone, since my parents were no help. And now dementia had eaten her mind away with devastating speed.

"As soon as I can take some time, I'll come to see her." Justin always stopped in when he played in Vancouver.

"It would be nice if you could come and see your parents as well."

She hung up in a snit.

I walked to my bathroom to get some of the painkillers I kept on hand. Dealing with my parents always gave me a headache.

Maybe I’d clean out the fridge. Since it was already a crappy day, I might as well include all the shitty jobs I hated to do. Maybe I should have spent the night with my hookup after all.