Page 150 of Twisted Play

Where—? What?—?

Memory crashed over me like a wave. My tears. Alek’s gentle commands. Dozing off at his feet while he stroked my hair like I was precious to him.

Alek grumbled as he swung his feet out of the bed, padding toward the door in nothing but silk pajama pants. The network of scars and tattoos across his back caught the dim morning light, and I realized with a start how little I actually knew about this man who’d become my refuge.

He checked the peephole and swore under his breath before he glanced back at me with what might have been regret.

“Brace yourself,” he murmured.

I didn’t understand until he opened the door, his broad shoulders blocking most of my view.

“Coach! We can’t find Eva, and she’s not answering her phone.”

Tristan.My heart stopped.

“She’s fine,” Alek said with one of his great sighs that rippled the muscles of his back.

“How do you know?” Cole’s voice was flat, dangerous.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

This was what Alek meant about bracing myself. I looked around frantically for my clothes.

“How do you know, Coach?” The icy calm of Cole’s voice sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t do this, couldn’t ruin his relationship with his mentor, couldn’t?—

“That’s Eva’s business, not yours,” Alek said softly, his accent thicker, like when he was stressed or angry.

“The fuck it’s not!” Cole exclaimed.

Alek’s body blocked the door, but if I stood, did anything but lie here like the coward I was, Cole and Tristan would see me.

“Coach?” Tristan asked quietly, and cracks formed in my heart. “Are you sure she’s okay? She’s not in her room either.”

The men stood silently, and I slowly sat up, clutching theblanket to my chest, terrified of the pain I was about to cause all three of them.

“Do you have someone in there?” Tristan asked, his voice teasing, but Cole was already pushing past Alek, shoving into the room like he owned it.

He stopped dead when he saw me sitting on the couch, my shoulders bare, and my hair a mess from sleep and Alek’s fingers.

“Eva?” His gaze flew between me and Alek, his expression shifting from relief to confusion to wild and hurt and completely out of control. “What are you doing here?”

“Why are you naked?” Tristan added, his voice smaller, wounded in a way that made my chest ache.

I looked at Alek, panic clawing up my throat. How did one introduce one’s blackmailers to each other? How could I explain?

“Come in,” Alek said dryly, shutting the door behind them. He grabbed a button-down shirt from a nearby chair and tossed it to me.

I slipped it on quickly, not bothering to hide the way I breathed in his scent—spicy and comforting in a way that made my chest tight.

“What the fuck is going on?” Cole demanded, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

“You will speak respectfully to her, or you will not speak at all,” Alek snapped, and butterflies exploded in my stomach.

When had anyoneeverdefended me?

Cole looked abashed for half a second, then turned that heated stare back on me. I could see the hurt bleeding through his anger, the way his whole body was coiled with tension.

“Eva, why are you naked in Coach’s room?”