Erik (Arizona Vengeance 2)

But fuck. Tacker was piloting the small aircraft with his fiancée beside him that he was set to marry within a few weeks. I’d heard rumors that she didn’t die instantly, but suffered for quite a while before she did. Tacker was pinned in the wreckage and couldn’t help her. I’d heard it took rescuers over four hours to reach them and if his fiancée took any amount of that time to die while he watched and couldn’t do anything, I can’t say I blame Tacker for going after the guy.

If that had happened to Blue—

Fuck…I cannot even think about that.

Yeah…I’m all for going to kill Nilsson tonight.* * *—

Because Legend is no longer fucking Valerie, the flight attendant, we can’t quite play musical rooms. Thus, I’ve taken to buying a room at each hotel we stay at for Blue and I to share. I consider it to be perhaps the best use of the insane amount of money I make.

I make my way out of the bathroom after having disposed of the condom I’d just filled and slide back in bed next to her. I don’t bother to pull the covers up yet as I’m still warm after that insane bout of sex we just had. Despite the fact I’m always exhausted after a game, I still find energy in my reserve tank to go at it hard with Blue.

Tonight, I also had a bit of anger brewing deep inside me because of what happened to Tacker earlier. I texted Bishop when I got to the room and he said Tacker took off when we got back to the hotel from the arena. No one’s seen him since and I hope the fucker is okay.

A bunch of the guys went out tonight, and I had several of my former Demons teammates try to induce me to come out with them to sort of relive my glory days here. I declined for two reasons. First, I don’t want to be around them right now. While I’m betting they’d all think it was pretty fucked-up what Nilsson said to Tacker, they’re still teammates with the man and would be loyal to him. I doubt I’d be able to keep my cool tonight.

But more important, I have Blue. I don’t feel like carousing tonight. I have the option to bring Blue along, but I don’t want her to see me partying with my old mates. Those days are behind me. Blue’s partying days are behind her as well, and I remember all too clearly how offended she was when I called her a party girl.

For me, I’d rather be sunk deep inside my girl—or even lying beside her quietly in bed—than go out tonight.

“Something’s bothering you,” Blue says into the dark as she rolls toward me. She slips an arm over my stomach, and uses her fingertips to stroke patterns on my chest.

I smile into the darkness. Despite the fact we just got done giving each other extreme pleasure, she knew about the anger I was carrying silently.

“You know that fight Tacker got in tonight?” I ask her.

“Yeah.”

I proceed to tell her why it happened, feeling compelled to pull her into my arms when she gasps in outrage over what Nilsson said to Tacker. I hold her quietly while she vents her own anger, using very colorful curse words and asking me if we can go kill Nilsson. Just like Bishop, she asks, “You know where he lives, right?”

But she settles just the way I do, and then she turns melancholy for Tacker. “I wish he’d let us help him.”

“Not sure we can,” I reply as I stroke her back. “How do you help a man get over watching the woman he loves die?”

I know I couldn’t get over Blue dying.

I wonder if that means I’ve fallen in love with her? I’m thinking it probably does.Chapter 24ErikMy house is quiet when I enter through the garage, straight into the mudroom. Of course it’s quiet because I’m the only one here which is par for the course. Except now the quiet bothers me because I’d rather hear Blue’s voice greeting me.

I juggle the shopping bags in my hands as I put my keys on the small rack by the door. I find solace in the fact that Blue will be here soon. While I was at an afternoon practice, she went to see Billy for a bit then she had plans to do her laundry before coming back to my house where we’d made loose plans to cook dinner and just hang here for the night. Tomorrow we leave for a game in Calgary, which is the team I had been drafted into when I was eighteen. I played two years there for the Wild and then three years for the Atlanta Sting before I went to the Demons.