High Risk Rookie (Vancouver Wolves Hockey #4) - Odette Stone Page 0,2

honestly couldn’t keep up. I’ll be going off the clock for the next twenty-four. I need to sleep.”

“Thanks for helping out on such short notice.”

He hesitated and then spoke. “Watch your six. He’ll keep you on your toes.”

For Terrance, this was about as big a warning as he would give me. “The last time you said those words to me, I ended up in jail.”

“If you get arrested, don’t call me until my twenty-four hours are up.”

“In twenty-four hours, I’ll be on a flight back to Vancouver.”

He paused, and a noise came out of him that resembled a laugh. “Good luck with that.”

I studied my reflection in the mirror. My sleeveless, blood-red jumpsuit did a good job of accentuating my best asset: my breasts. I wore a necklace that dangled just at the top of my cleavage. Playing up that part of my body usually kept eyes off my ass, which lately had seen far too much wine and not enough yoga. My sky-high heels added inches to the short frame I had inherited from my dad’s side. I brushed out my auburn hair into big waves that cascaded over my shoulders, and as a finishing touch, I applied my signature red lipstick.

Winners always show up, no matter what. Years ago, when I was a rookie myself, I had been bitching hard about some inconvenience. I will never forget when Mark Ashford looked over at me and said in a scathing tone, “Winners always show up, no matter what.”

That was the first time he had ever spoken to me directly, and his annoyance at my attitude had both shamed and motivated me. I think that was the moment I started to take my life seriously.

I picked up my clutch purse and looked myself over with approval. Perhaps that would be a good anecdote to repeat when they interviewed me for the Forbes list.

The cab driver dropped me off at a mid-sized hotel that overlooked the water. I walked through the near-empty lobby and stopped at the entrance to the courtyard pool area. The bass of the music throbbed, and the place was packed with people. I stood and contemplated the packed courtyard.

Locating my rookie would take a lot of hustle. I moved through the crowd. I asked every person who made eye contact with me if they knew Levi Ziegler. No one had seen him at the party yet, but I was surprised how many people actually knew him.

“Jump, jump, jump.”

I glanced around at the crowd. Everyone’s faces were tilted up towards the sky.

High above us on the roof of the hotel, silhouetted against the black of the sky, stood a man. The light from the party illuminated his indifferent expression. He had a shaved head, and he casually stood on the edge of the building, staring down at us like a god looking down on mortals.

“Jump, jump, jump.”

It took me a moment to process that the crowd was encouraging him to jump off the roof. I didn’t know if I was scared for him or turned on by him, but I was unable to tear my gaze away. His dark, brooding eyes and no-fucks attitude mesmerized me.

“He’s not going to jump, is he?” I asked the woman beside me. “That’s way too dangerous.”

He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his muscular, bronzed torso. The crowd responded with heightened fervor. I tried to remember the last time I had felt this much lust rush over me for a man I’d never met, but besides the first time I’d seen the movie Thor, I couldn’t.

“Oh, he’ll jump. Levi loves to do anything dangerous.”

My entire body froze as I turned towards her. “Did you just say his name was Levi? Levi Ziegler?”

She grinned at me. “The one and only.”

My gaze swung back to him. Oh shit. This was my rookie? I’m attracted to my rookie. And he was currently about to risk his life. This was the kind of scenario that we contractually forbade players to engage in because shit got messy when they died—or worse, got injured. My mind worked through every possible way this stunt could go wrong. I should have been thinking about how I would handle any potential emergency, but it was almost too horrible to contemplate.

Without warning, he leaped into nothing.

I screamed, a pitiful squeak, while he gracefully fell three stories before crashing into the water. Everyone went silent.

I pushed my way through the crowd until I had a front-row view of the pool. I got