“Stay for as long as you want. My house is empty most of the year anyway. It’d be nice if it got some use.” If it got some life injected back into it. Just admitting that out loud was a reminder of how empty I’d let my existence become. Hockey, training, appearances. Rinse and repeat. There wasn’t fun anymore. There wasn’t even connection beyond the ridiculous siblings’ text thread.
Something shifted in my chest, the uncomfortable grind of bone against bone because it felt like nothing else was filling the cavity. And for the first time in a long while, I wanted there to be.
Sutton stared at me for a long moment. “I have to get up before the sun, and Luca needs someone to watch him?—”
“Warrior,” I cut her off, giving her neck a squeeze. “I can wake him up and get us both breakfast. I do it for myself every morning. And I’m already up early to get in a workout before camp.”
She let out a long breath. “He’s cute, but he’s a lot,” Sutton warned. “He’ll talk your head off and try to convince you all he needs to exist is sugar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
I chuckled at that. “Little man after my own heart. But I’ll remind him we need protein to build those hockey muscles.”
Sutton’s perfect lips twitched, and I wanted to trace the pillowy softness with my tongue, to know what they felt like wrapped around my—nope. Not going there.
“I pay some sort of rent,” Sutton began.
“Hell, no.”
“Cope—”
“No. You wanna pay me? You let me be your taste tester for whatever cupcakes you’re working on next.”
A flicker of a smile rose to Sutton’s lips. “That’s Luca’s job, and he’s pretty partial to it.”
“Two sets of taste buds are better than one,” I countered.
She was quiet for one beat, then two. “Okay.”
The sensation of victory swept through me, better than when we’d made it to the Cup two years ago, and I couldn’t help the absolutely ridiculous grin that spread across my face. “Really?”
Sutton lifted one shoulder and then dropped it. “Just remember you asked for this when Luca’s trying to wake you up at five in the morning to practice sports puck moves.”
I barked out a laugh. “Sports puck?”
She grinned up at me, and the action hit me right in the solar plexus, stealing the air from my lungs.
“I’m up on all the lingo. Clearly.”
I shook my head. “Come on. Let’s get you two packed.”
Flipping on my blinker,I turned onto Cascade Avenue. I glanced in my rearview mirror to make sure Sutton and Luca were behind me. She had the address plugged into her navigation system, but I didn’t want her to feel like she was making any part of this journey alone.
Once we were on the main drag out of town, I hit a button on the steering wheel. “Call Anson.”
It wasn’t a move I made often. I had his number in my phone, but it certainly wasn’t on my Favorites list. The truth was, I’d been skeptical of my sister’s boyfriend at first. But the ex-profiler had been there for her in the worst moments of her life, so I was slowly coming around.
“Cope,” Anson greeted. The broody bastard might’ve shown more signs of life lately, but it still didn’t make him warm and fuzzy.
There was no point in beating around the bush, so I just cut to the heart of it. “Need a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
Anson was right to be suspicious. I could’ve been asking him to dissolve a body in lye for all he knew. My grip on the wheel tightened. “You have a friend who’s a hacker, right? Someone who can dig up dirt on people?”
His friend had been instrumental in bringing Thea’s ex down and getting justice for countless women the guy had tormented.
“I don’t have friends,” Anson muttered.
I choked on a laugh. “Whatever makes you feel better, dude. An associate?”
