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Yeah, disturbing was definitely the word for it. But I plastered a smile on my face, since there was nothing the manager could do for me anyway.
“Oh, no, I was just curious. Thanks all the same!”
I hustled back to the rink and hurried down the stairs, watching Niko and Jasper from the corner of my vision. If I didn’t want any strange looks and uneasy questions, I had to get my finding out of sight before the men came this way.
My heart didn’t stop thudding double-speed until I’d tucked the bundle of gauzy fabric into the bottom of my equipment bag. My nerves were still twitching with apprehension as I leaned over to finish my cool down with a few sitting stretches.
Niko joined me a minute later, his head cocked. “You went out for a minute. What’s up?”
I shrugged like it was no big deal, willing away the sour taste in my mouth. “Nothing, just thought I saw someone I knew by the door. My mistake.”
His face relaxed, so I must have lied well enough. “If Jasper’s attitude today has been getting to you—I know he can be kind of—”
“It’s fine,” I broke in. “Really. I know what he’s like, and we all have off days.” I stretched my arms over my head and forced another smile. “I for one am looking forward to chilling out and a big dinner.”
Niko chuckled and went to grab his own bag. My gut twisted with the lies.
What could I tell them? That I might have brought down the wrath of a bunch of criminals not just on me but on my skating colleagues too?
Who else could have left this childish threat, after all? It would be just like those asshole wannabe gangsters.
I had no idea how they might have figured out that I was the one who’d messed with their cars on two occasions now. No one had spotted me so far, and I’d been wearing my ski mask both times.
Maybe they had no idea I was connected to their vehicular troubles. Maybe they’d just noticed there was a new chica in town and decided to haze me in their own sick way.
Jasper and Niko weren’t equipped to deal with that kind of problem. But me—I could take them all down without breaking a sweat if I let myself go full Deadly Rose.
Rage replaced the queasy feeling in my stomach.
If these asshats thought they could scare me out of this town —my new home— then they had another thing coming. They were small fry, barely even a legitimate gang.
I’d ordered around squads larger than them as a fucking teenager. Mom’s empire stretched around the globe.
They had no fucking idea who they’d just pissed off.
Niko headed up the stairs with a cheery wave. Jasper trudged by with significantly less enthusiasm. I chucked off my skates and gave the blades a brisk wipe before shoving my feet into my sneakers, hopped up on a combination of nervous and furious adrenaline.
My equipment bag weighed heavy on my shoulders, but I’d gotten used to making the walk to the bungalow rather than driving. All part of my endurance training.
And today it gave me a chance to burn off a little of my jangling unease while my gaze roved over the streets and my mind spun through the possibilities.
Buoyant music drifted through the door to the hair salon. The staff at my favorite café were busy stringing the patio railing with a garland of autumn leaves that the local trees were only just starting to match.
It wasn’t right that a place this peaceful and happy had such a dark cloud looming over it.
And now that cloud was coming for me.
I picked up my pace as I headed into the quieter residential streets. The back of my neck prickled as the memory of finding the doll floated up through my mind.
But no one said a word to me until Rafael’s brisk footsteps caught up with me just as the bungalow came into sight up ahead. Like usual, he preferred not to show himself until it was inevitable.
“Everything okay?” he asked in his usual low, even tone. “You seem a little more tense than usual.”
He really hadn’t noticed the gross gift that’d been left for me, then—or enough about my discovery of it to realize what had happened. Wherever he’d been watching from, it mustn’t have given him a view of the door. His main priority was keeping an eye on me and the area around the ice, after all.
I opened my mouth automatically, ready to tell him the whole story… and then closed it again.
Did I really want to admit that my crusade against the shithead gangsters might have come back to haunt me? That one way or another, they’d managed to get under my skin, however slightly?
