Page 89 of Timelessly Ours
Once outside and alone, Nick wraps his jacket around Cora and turns to me. “You alright here?”
“I’m good. Are you alright?”
He glances around us. “Coach thinks we have someone on the team either tipping off our strategies ahead of the game or…sabotaging us—somehow.”
“I heard. Is that confirmed?”
“Not yet. But a few hours ago—he called Jace and me into his office to share some revised strategies. It’s not unusual to do, but adjustments are usually done during the game as needed. Anyway, he told me to fill in the team right before we get on the ice.
“And did you?”
He glances around again and nods.
My wheels are spinning. “So you won…because whoever it is…didn’t have time to plan on how to intervene."
"Not without making it obvious," he adds.
Cora shakes her head in disbelief.
“All signs point to Coach being right. If the team—or someone in the team didn’t know our strategy—our plan—our deliberate moves—until the last minute, we might have the benefit of surprise in our court.”
I nod slowly. “Any of them…seem annoyed at the change-up?” I ask.
He levels my gaze. “Nicole, you’re not doing this.”
“It’s a simple question.”
“I don’t need you getting into interrogation mode.”
“Well, it’s not Rielly,” Cora says, ignoring our sibling quarrel. She narrows her eyes. “My money’s on Garret.”
Nick gives Cora a pointed look. “Not everything should be pinned on Garret just because you don’t like him.”
Cora folds her arms in front of her chest. “You don’t know women very well, do you?”
“Like him or not, he’s one of our best. He plays well,” Nick argues.
“Doesn’t make him trustworthy,” Cora grumbles.
I smirk. Cora holds a personal grudge against Garret since he was the one who ratted out her relationship with Nick to her brother. Tipping him off he’d just seen Cora in the locker room—alone with Nick. It was two years ago, so I may have my story mixed up, but it was definitely Garret who pissed her off.
“So, if not Garret, do you have any suspects?”
Nick shakes his head, regrettably. “No. I can’t…look at the team like that. Coach seems to, but I can’t. I won’t.”
I nod and smirk at Cora. And I know we're sharing a thought.
But we can.
I pat his bicep. “Good game, bro. I’m gonna head back in.” I leave the two of them to have their moment out on the balcony because obviously, living together isn’t enough.
Angel is talking to one of the Ice Girls and waves me over the minute I step back in. Jace is behind her and watches me with knowing eyes. The same look he was giving me back at the house.
Oh fuck.
Does he think I’m an idiot? He knows. This isn’t paranoia. Jace knows. Somehow, I know it wasn’t Cora who told him about my setback. She wouldn’t have been able to look me in the eye tonight.
Being the fight-fire-with-fire woman I am, I glare back at him. “Something you want to say, Knight?”
