Page 116 of Ice Devil

“This isn’t marriage.”

The two of them looked at each other as if I had two heads. “It’s much more serious, Beck. Maybe you should stop by Mom and Dad’s house on your way back to the house so they can explain the birds and the bees to you once again.”

I shifted my glare to my sister, lifting my eyebrow. “Fine. I’ll have a talk with Sloane. She’s a little busy right now, trying to get us out of this mess. It would seem there was some conspiracy against us, but I was the winner of the brunt of it.”

Ford’s smile quickly faded. “Yeah, about that.”

“What? Did you hear something?”

“I got a call from Abbott while you were spending time in the hospital with Sloane. The coach and the owners want a meeting with us next week. He’ll be there.”

“Fuck.”

“That’s what I said. I tried to find out what they wanted to discuss over the phone, but they said it could wait. The bigwigs are flying in next week. Abbott did say we needed to lay low.”

Lay low, my ass. We were being fed for the slaughter. I could feel it in my bones and didn’t like being used for target practice. “He can be such a bastard.”

“Think of it this way, he’s a bulldog and on our side.” Ford tried to shrug it off.

“That’s not good,” Samantha breathed. “But Ford is right.”

“No. But you were right, sister of mine. This isn’t Sloane’s fault.”

She popped my arm after the two of them high fived. “Why is it you didn’t listen to me earlier? You could have saved yourself a lot of heartache.”

“What is she trying to do?” Ford asked. “I am a part of the freefall so I do kind of have a right to know.”

“She’s attempting to expose corruption with a couple of the team owners for one. She’s got something up her sleeve and nothing is going to stop her.”

“I knew I liked that girl.” Samantha was way too happy.

Ford whistled. “I’m not dissing her but she’s a sports reporter. Right?”

He had a gleam in his eyes. “She’s much more than that, dear brother. I’m learning that the hard way. She’s working on a plan as we speak.”

“Well, at least there was a nice piece on the family on the front page of the Portland Herald. Did you see it?” Samantha had pep in her step as she rushed to her desk, grabbing a physical copy and tossing it in my direction. “You should send it to that agent of yours. Maybe he’ll get the stick out of his butt.”

I snatched it in midair, glancing at the headline.

The Kendrick Brothers, Magic in the Making Both On and Off the Ice

“Not bad,” Ford said, reading over my shoulder. “I’ll send it to Abbott. Why not?”

Our sister’s sigh was the same one she used when she was holding something back.

“Spill it,” Ford told her.

“You’re not going to like it.” She glanced from one to the other of us.

I shrugged in response.

“Brent Parker? The Bronco? It’s all over social media that he has injuries that might keep him from playing hockey. Ever again.”

“That’s bullshit.” Ford shook his head. “Even I saw what happened. If you asked me, the entire scene was a setup.”

“It was,” I said quietly. “So what? Perceptions are everything.”

Now the three of us glanced back and forth. We’d weathered storms before. We’d get through this. Somehow. My wolf was itching to help with the situation. But his way would definitely place us front and center in the news.