Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake (Book 2) (2 page)

October
31, 2013

Chicago

Coming off the ice,
Drake Riser felt a brief moment of triumph as his team, the Las Vegas
Sidewinders, notched another win. This was the last game of their first road
trip, and they were undefeated. For an NHL expansion team, they had beaten all
the odds, getting through six pre-season games and 12 regular season games so
far. They were bound to lose eventually in an 82-game season, but not tonight.
They were going home with another win and a whole lot of energy.

It had been a wild
couple of months since he’d taken the leap of faith and gone to Las Vegas. He’d
been happy in Detroit, but he was in a rut and needed a change. When the
opportunity came around, he’d been interested in something new. It was an added
bonus that one of his best friends, a goalie named Karl Martensson, was going
too. Add to that several other friends that he’d played with over the years,
and he was on board. Jumping into his new life with both feet, Drake had been
having a blast—both on and off the ice—but he was restless. If he was honest
with himself, he knew he was lonely, and it was hard for a guy like him to meet
decent women. Sex was easy, but women who weren’t after his money or the status
of becoming the wife of a professional athlete were hard to find; he’d already
been through one marriage like that, and at 31, he had no desire to do that
again.

“Coach said you’re not
flying home with us,” Cody Armstrong, the team captain and one of Drake’s good
friends, came up beside him as he got dressed.

“My sister has this
charity thing tonight and she expects me to show up since we’re in Chicago
anyway,” Drake shrugged.

“Oh, yeah, that
masquerade ball,” Cody grinned. “Better you than me!”

Drake grinned.
“Alcohol, attractive women and a happy older sister—I’m thinking it’s not that
bad.”

Cody laughed. “When you
put it that way…” He clapped him on the shoulder. “See you day after tomorrow.”

Drake nodded and
slipped out to the waiting taxi. He would get back to his hotel room, change
into the tuxedo his sister had rented for him and then walk across the street
to the venue. It was already after 10:00, so he was running late, but her big
events always ran until the wee hours of the morning. If she hadn’t become a
top-notch plastic surgeon, she could have been a fundraising guru. His older
sister seemed to be good at a lot of things, especially trying to find him a
new wife. She’d been attempting to set him up on dates for a few years now, and
he was glad he was too far away for that anymore. It had been a nightmare when
he was still in Detroit and she’d been able to set him up on dates, sometimes
several in a week.

Tonight his mind was
only on one thing: sex. He wasn’t kidding anybody with his monk routine. He’d
gotten tired of one-night stands, so he’d stopped having them, but it had been
months since he’d gotten laid and that was getting old too. Here in Chicago,
his hometown, there had to be a sexy socialite interested in one night with a
good-looking hockey player. At least he hoped so; he wouldn’t be going to this
dance otherwise.

Erin stared at the
beautifully dressed people, stunning decorations and luscious tables of food
without any interest. The Halloween-themed masquerade ball had been a
last-minute invitation by the new plastic surgeon she’d come to Chicago to meet
with, but now she was having second thoughts. The only reason her friends had
been able to coax her out to such a social event was that her Victorian ball
gown covered the burn scars down the right side of her body, and the elaborate
mask she wore covered the scars on the right side of her face.

She never went out
socially anymore. She had returned to desk duty at Quantico just six months
ago, and only left the townhouse she shared with one of her best friends, Kate
Lansing, to go to work or to the dozens of doctors she saw on a regular basis.
They said she had PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The death of her
best friend combined with nearly debilitating injuries and an ugly divorce had
been hard on her and she hadn’t been the same since it happened.

Then there was the
physical therapy to get her strength back and work through the pain of the
burns. She’d had multiple surgeries to remove the flesh that was no longer
living with the hope that new skin would grow in its place. That hadn’t
happened to the extent they’d been expecting, though. Nothing had healed as
well as they’d hoped, even after five surgeries and dozens of doctors.

“Are you going to sit
here all night?” Kate demanded, giving her a look, her brown eyes sparkling
with excitement. “Come on, you’re in disguise. No one can see anything. Dance
with someone. Have a drink. Do something.
Anything
!”

“I’m going to have
fun!” Her other friend, Tessa Barber, gave her a pointed look.

Erin rolled her eyes.
“I’m here, aren’t I? You don’t have to babysit me! Go dance. Have fun. I’m
fine, you guys.”

“If you don’t have any
fun, I’m calling Liv!” At that, Kate flounced away, her dark hair swinging
behind her, Tessa close on her heels. Kate had given up so much to take care of
Erin over the last 18 months; that’s why Erin had felt guilty enough to come to
this stupid dance. That, and the compelling invitation from her new plastic
surgeon.

Erin really hadn’t
wanted to come, but Dr. Riser had been so sweet and generous. This was a huge
fundraiser for a local children’s hospital and the tickets were normally $500
per person. Lots of celebrities and professional athletes were supposed to be
here, and she recognized many despite the disguises. When Dr. Riser had offered
tickets to Erin, Kate and their friend Tessa, who lived here in Chicago, they’d
convinced her that this was the perfect setting to get out socially. After all,
she was almost completely covered—no one would be able to see the scars under
the big Victorian-style dress and the elaborate gilded mask that covered most
of her face.

Erin had come to
Chicago to meet with Dr. Riser after her ex-mother-in-law, Jan Gentry, had told
her about this doctor’s specialty in burn victims. She had a new procedure she
was testing and needed subjects who were willing to let her try it on them. In
Erin’s case, it was not like it could hurt. Almost the entire right side of her
body was severely scarred from the explosion in Afghanistan. Her right eye
drooped slightly and the skin on her right arm and leg was brown, mottled and
ugly. The scarring started at her temple, went all the way down her arm, and
started again mid-thigh, stopping several inches above her ankle. Her torso had
been mostly spared because of her bulletproof vest and Liv’s quick thinking,
rolling her on the ground, but the rest of her was ruined. She could barely
stand to look in the mirror anymore.

Divorced and basically
broke after so many medical bills, all semblance of what had once been her life
was gone; she went to work, therapy, the gym, and the rest of the time she hid
at home. After Liv had been moved to a unit in Hawaii, her friend from college,
Kate, had left her thriving New York City public relations firm to come live
with Erin in Virginia. Though she traveled back and forth quite a bit, Kate,
along with Liv and Tessa, had decided that Erin shouldn’t be alone. The trauma
of the explosion, coupled with her disfigurement and losing Shay, had been more
than she could handle by herself. Liv had been unable to stay in Quantico any
longer, and was forced to transfer to Hawaii. Tessa had been pregnant at the
time, so it was Kate who had offered to uproot her life and moved to Virginia.

Erin had tried to fight
them, but in the end, she knew they were right. Without Kate, she would
undoubtedly be curled up in a corner somewhere feeling sorry for herself.

After being released
from the hospital in Germany, she’d come home to the U.S. to have her husband
serve her with divorce papers. In lieu of taking her share of the
million-dollar home she and Clay had bought, along with their assets, she took
a mere $50,000 payout that she used as the down payment for her condo, and instead
of alimony, Clay paid the $5000-a-month nursing home bill where Erin’s father
had been when she’d been deployed. With advanced stage Alzheimer’s, it didn’t
seem that he would live much longer, and although Clay had balked, somehow Jan
had talked him into it.

Thank God for Jan, she
thought as she sipped the fruity drink Kate had stuck in her hand. Clay would
have left her with nothing, but Jan had somehow gotten her the down payment for
the condo and worked out the deal to take care of Erin’s father. Though she’d
made good money while deployed, and she still made a good salary now, Clay had
spent every dime of their shared monthly income decorating the house and
entertaining. She hadn’t even realized that he’d spent her paychecks as well as
his own while she’d been gone. Unfortunately, she’d signed a prenuptial
agreement before they married restricting her from getting any of his healthy
trust fund.

Ironically, Shay had a
life insurance policy for $500,000 that had Erin as the beneficiary. Clay was
currently in court fighting to take it from her, but she hadn’t even shown up
to the hearing. She didn’t care about the money—she’d gladly trade it to have
Shay back. Two years later, it was still unbelievable to her that he was gone.

Drifting back to the
present, she looked around the room and caught a glance of herself in a mirror.
In all fairness, she looked lovely. The sapphire ball gown covered her right
shoulder and had a long embroidered sleeve that went to her wrist. The other
shoulder was bare, as was her arm, and the dress came with a corset that
accented her already slender figure. The skirt was full and enhanced with a
hoop skirt Kate had forced her to wear, completely covering the scars on her
right side. Her dark hair was swept up in an elaborate updo, covered with
bejeweled pins, and curling tendrils framed her face. On her face was a
gorgeous gold and crystal-laden half-mask that almost completely covered the
right side of her face, while leaving her undamaged side glowing prettily, with
the exception of the wired portion that rode just above her right eyebrow.
Honestly, it was the first time in two years she’d been able to look at herself
without wincing.

“Hi.” A sandy-haired
man with amazingly long-lashed hazel eyes, who was wearing an incredible tuxedo
with tails, approached her with a smile. He was at least six feet five inches
with shoulders that seemed to take up the whole room. She was momentarily
stunned by his large form and rugged good looks.

“I’m Drake Riser,” he
continued. “My sister said she would tell our mom on me if I didn’t ask you to
dance, and she’s my older sister, so I do what she says.” He leaned close and
stage whispered, “She kind of scares me.”

“I do not!” Dr.
Mackenzie Riser nudged her much younger brother with a laugh. She leaned over
to give Erin a hug. “This is my younger brother Drake. I figured I’d introduce
you since he doesn’t know many people here and, other than your friends,
neither do you. So, Erin meet Drake, Drake meet Erin.” With a grin, she moved
away towards another group.

“Sorry,” Drake laughed.
“She hosts this shindig every year and always wants everyone to have a good
time.”

“She’s very sweet,”
Erin smiled.

“How do you know my
sister?” He leaned back against the wall next to her comfortably, his large
frame dwarfing hers.

“I, er, well, I came to
Chicago to talk about her new study.” Erin took a breath and waited to see his
response.

“Oh.” His eyes met hers
with genuine concern. “Her burn study?”

“Yes.” She looked away.
“My unit hit an IED in Afghanistan.”

“I’m sorry.” He looked
genuinely contrite. “I didn’t realize—I know she has patient confidentiality; I
didn’t even think…” His voice trailed off. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have
asked.”

“It’s okay.” She
shrugged. “It’s been two years—I’m not ashamed of seeing a plastic surgeon to
help me.”

“Well, I don’t know
what’s under the dress,” he shrugged. “But you look pretty good to me.”

“I do?” Erin blinked.
Then she laughed. “God, I’m sorry. That was an idiotic thing to say! Thank you.
But yes, there’s a lot of damage under the dress.”

“Would you like to
dance?” Drake abruptly changed the subject. “I promise, no more stupid
questions and I won’t look under your dress.”

In spite of herself,
Erin laughed again. “I’d love to dance.”

 She let him take
her hand and lead her to the dance floor. He moved easily on his feet and she
let herself get lost in his strong arms and handsome face. It was the first
time in years that she’d thought of anyone but Shay as handsome. God knows,
though Shay and Clay looked alike, there was always something ugly underneath
Clay’s smile. She’d spent the last two years wondering why she hadn’t noticed
that until it was too late.

“You looked awfully
serious just now,” he said lightly.

“Thinking about my
ex-husband and other things I shouldn’t be,” she admitted.

“Anything you’d care to
share?”

She shook her head and
focused on enjoying the sensation of a man touching her, even if she was
covered from head to toe. It had been nearly three years since she’d had sex,
and for whatever reason, this man made her miss it. Between her multiple
surgeries, physical therapy, visits to the psychologist, work, and of course
dealing with both Clay and her father, she never thought about sex. Mourning
Shay had pretty much sucked the life out of her; if not for Liv, Kate and
Tessa, she wasn’t sure where she would be.