Penalty Kill (Love on Thin Ice Book 4) Read online

  If he feared anything, it was that the judge wouldn’t move on with things, so he could make his two o’clock appointment, one that was sure to involve plenty of sweat. The sexy stripper was the reason he was in court to begin with. Bethany was a sweet girl, at least that’s what she played on stage. Vasily felt a protective instinct when a guy got a little too handsy and her swats weren’t enough to make him stop.

  That wasn’t exactly a feeling he acted on often, but something about the schoolgirl outfit barely holding in the pair of breasts that would be too much of a handful even for his large hands made him act a little irrationally. He had a thing for innocence he supposed, even though when it came down to it, that was the last thing he wanted in the bedroom. It was just his luck that a handful of cops were celebrating one of their upcoming nuptials at the same time the fight broke out.

  The judge already hated him enough, at least that was the vibe rolling off her, so daydreaming about his afternoon excursions wasn’t the best idea. Since he was standing, with the low table in front of him only hovering around midthigh, if he thought about what he had planned as soon as he was out of there, it may become evident that taking the court proceedings seriously was at the bottom of his list of things to do. He assumed that was why she already had laser beams directed straight at him.

  She obviously knew about his previous run-ins with the law, but he didn’t think his reputation preceded him enough for her to already think the worst of him. The only reason he stood in front of her was because he’d been protecting a woman. That should have earned him at least a sliver of gratitude.

  The judge took off her thin wired-framed glasses and rubbed her temple. Her dark, squinted eyes landed on him as she put the glasses down on the bench in front of her. Most of the time, Vasily felt like women undressed him with their eyes, but that sensation was not what he picked up from the Honorable Judge McMillen.

  She may be undressing him, but it was his skin and flesh she was peeling off in her mind. And she expressed that enough he could feel that down to his bones. With her glares, her words, the general growl that seemed to be just below the surface, Vasily got the feeling he’d at some point kicked her baby or something. Since he got along fine with kids, and had never kicked one, he knew that wasn’t the case.

  “Mr. Oxentenko, not only have you been in front of me or one of my colleagues three too many times recently, but you brought your own personal cheering section into my courtroom.”

  She nodded back to the small gathering of scantily clad women in the back couple of rows. Vasily chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw the judge wasn’t wrong. A dozen or so women were either scowling at the judge or preening, their smiles brightening when they saw his redirected gaze.

  There was a thin line between appreciating the attention and letting it wear on him. He leaned towards the latter since the judge wasn’t in the appreciating mood. He briefly wondered if there was a hint of jealousy in the filleting being directed at him.

  Refocusing on the woman who had some kind of ax to grind, he let himself hope for just a second that her face would suddenly be different, a little warmer. He knew it was false hope before he even let it cross his mind.

  “There are very few things I despise more than my courtroom becoming a mockery. Somehow, you are ticking off most of those boxes. The only things you have going for you is that as far as I can tell, you aren’t a murderer, rapist or child abuser.”

  Something in her tone and words made Vasily want to laugh. She really needed to let go of some of that anger furrowing inside her. He had some suggestions to help her out, but he kept them to himself.

  “I’m afraid, if something isn’t done now, you’ll be well on your way to falling into at least one of those categories.”

  The scoff escaping his lips was unavoidable. Sure, he felt homicidal at times. With all the crazy people in the world, it was impossible not to. That’s part of the reason he did what he did. Playing hockey, and what he went through to keep in playing shape, exerted most of his extra homicidal energy.

  His lawyer kicked his foot as soon as the sound echoed in the silence between the judge’s words. Of course, the hushed conversations from the gallery stopped at the inopportune time.

  “It’s clear you don’t take this country and our laws seriously. I’m sure in Russia,” she said the word like it was tar coating her tongue, “they have no problems with superstar athletes doing whatever they want.”

  Vasily’s lower jaw slipped open to counter that point, and stand up for his homeland, but she was quick to continue. Her cadence was already a little deeper than most women’s, but she dropped it lower.

  “I would love to throw you in jail for a month or two to help you learn your lesson.”

  That thought made his eyes widen and dart over in his lawyer’s direction. They already had a plea deal worked out as far as he knew. Jail time was not part of that deal and completely unacceptable.

  Before Vasily could let those aforementioned homicidal thoughts take over, his lungs managed to take in a breath and the pounding that started in his ears stopped long enough he could hear the end of the judgement. Both of his hands gripped the table in front of him, almost to the point his hands would rip through the wood.

  “There are some limits to my power, though, so instead of just letting you off with the usual warning,” she paused, letting a hint of exasperation roll through her eyes. “I’m giving you five hundred hours of community service. And to make sure you don’t find a way to somehow skate through the time, I have three specific organizations you can contact to fulfill your hours.”

  Vasily let another deep breath attempt to calm him. The crazy judge had aggravated him enough that a couple of deep breaths weren’t going to do much. Community service was already a foregone conclusion. Adding a few hundred hours and trying to make him feel like the scum of the earth seemed over the top.

  The gavel sounded like a bowling ball dropping to the floor. The noise somehow echoed in his body, leaving his already frazzled nerves like little live wires prickling under his skin.

  What was this woman’s problem? And on a related note, was she some kind of witch?

  The fairy tales his mother told him as a child were always on the ridiculous side, but Vasily edged towards the idea that a vicious Baba Yaga had somehow become a judge in New York. Mothers better grip their children extra tight with her around.

  Shaking his head, he sighed and tried to let his mind float back to his plans for the rest of the day. The hour he’d spent in the courthouse had taken more of a toll than usual. He hoped Bethany was ready to help him work out all the accumulating tension.

  “Keep in mind, Mr. Oxentenko,” the judge said, drawing his eyes back to her. “You are in this country on a visa for your occupation. Since my fellow judges like to just give you warnings, here’s mine. If I find out you’ve been in front of another judge, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure your temporary status here is revoked.”

  She didn’t wait for a response. Vasily supposed it didn’t matter if he had one for her. He did not.

  “I told you Judge McMillen isn’t someone to mess around with,” his lawyer hissed as he hurried to pack his papers into his briefcase.

  The judge had left the room, so Will’s tongue evidently regrew. Vasily assumed a magically sliced tongue was the reason his lawyer had done absolutely nothing to stand up for his client.

  “I didn’t utter a word, so how exactly do you figure I did something wrong?”

  Vasily let his accent punctuate the words. He’d been in the States long enough that his heavy accent had vanished some, but whenever he wanted to make a point, his words became more clipped and guttural.

  “Well, for starters,” the man Vasily decided was a weasel, looked over his shoulder, “you have a cheering section.”

  Following his gaze, Vasily looked at the women in the back of the gallery still waiting around. The few other people who’d been in the room had left.

/>   None of the others in the room concerned him as much as the lawyer turned weasel. Vasily’s experiences with the man had been not exactly pleasant before now, but they were at least cordial. He wasn’t sure what had turned the man hostile. Or, why he suddenly thought it was okay to talk to Vasily in that tone. The hockey player had probably close to fifty pounds on the guy and was in court for sending a drunk idiot to a hospital.

  “I can assure you, I didn’t invite them. In fact, I don’t know a single one of them.”

  His focus had returned to the lawyer, but he let his eyes trace back to the women again. He was pretty sure he didn’t know them. He caught women’s eyes easy enough, but it wasn’t like he had a mass of them just following him around.

  “You don’t know any of those women?”

  The doubt in Will’s voice couldn’t be missed. If Vasily didn’t know better, with all the doubt and hostility coming his way, he would’ve sworn Will had been the one just punished to community service and had his visa status threatened. He let the last ten minutes or so replay in his head and shook his head.

  Nope, it was Vasily the Baba Yaga had gone after. There was no reason for Will to have to worry about the monster coming to eat his family, if he had one. Vasily, on the other hand, was going to have to reinforce the locks on his windows and doors.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to your adoring fans and be in touch when I have more information about what the judge wants you to do for community service. I hope you don’t mind cleaning the toilets at city hall with a tooth brush.”

  Vasily was confused by the words and the man’s hastened retreat out of the room. He was pretty sure they were having a conversation about the fans he mentioned, but clearly it was over. That suited Vasily just fine.

  He didn’t want to think about the concept of cleaning public toilets, and thankfully, he had someone waiting for him to help him focus on happier thoughts. Although, looking at the women in the room, maybe he could pick up a little snack for the road. He wouldn’t want Bethany to have to work out all the tension on her own, after all.

  Chapter 3

  Lacey stared across the kitchen table at her two kids and wondered how George could have abandoned them. The thought crossed her mind multiple times a day, even months after the act. She understood tossing her aside. Their marriage had been rough, accompanied by a niggling feeling that their seldom bedroom activities since Rachel was born were being made up elsewhere.

  As much as she wanted to gouge his eyeballs out for leaving her and rubbing his soon-to-be new family in her face, it was the way he treated his children that made her want to reach in his chest and rip out his heart. Her dreams were filled of her fulfilling the act and holding his dripping heart in her hand before throwing it on the floor and stomping on it.

  The idea made her feel a little better, but seeing her two children, who both looked so much like their father, bent over their homework, concentrating on finishing it so they could move on to more exciting adventures, Lacey knew death wouldn’t be enough for George.

  He needed to feel the destruction, embarrassment and shame his family did. His real family.

  George was gone before he got a chance to see the hurt fill his son’s blue eyes, which had the same golden swirl of flecks as his father’s. He wasn’t there to see Kevin perk up each time the phone rang in those early days, hopeful that it would be his dad calling to tell him it had nothing to do with him and he loved his son.

  Not one single call came. Kevin still stood up for his dad, going so far as trying to mimic him whenever possible, but Lacey saw that the adoration was slipping away. It was like a vase of flowers once in full bloom, now with just a few petals left that hadn’t drifted to the floor.

  She was sure if the teachers and principal at his school saw the same thing she did, they’d give him a little more leeway. They’d been understanding at the beginning. Lacey could admit maybe a little too understanding, but her son was hurting and reacting how he wanted them to wasn’t going to help matters.

  He needed something else. She’d been a little hopeful on the buddy program he’d started going to, but nothing seemed to change his mad-at-the-world attitude.

  Lacey sighed and glanced over to her other child. Kevin gave her every reason to worry about him, but there were times she feared she should be more concerned about Rachel. Her quiet, angel of a daughter, who was sometimes too shy for her own good, posed a greater concern.

  Rachel had only asked about George leaving once. After Lacey’s explanation that her parents had just grown apart, her daughter nodded and asked if she could have some ice cream. There were no tears, no further questions, just a desire for dessert.

  It was reassuring that Rachel didn’t lash out like Kevin, at least at first. Over time though, Lacey worried about the emotions the ten-year-old held inside. She hadn’t been as close to George as Kevin, but she adored her father in her own quiet way.

  As if sensing the attention, Rachel’s eyes lifted from her sheets of paper. Why did both of the kids have to have those blue eyes? Lacey could stand the fact that their hair was the same shade as George’s, many shades darker than her own pale blonde hair. Their noses had the same upturn as their father’s, and the same slight dimples appeared in their cheeks when they smiled. Not that they’d had reason to do much of that lately.

  But, it was their eyes that hurt Lacey the worst. She found herself having difficulty meeting them. There was no way she would look away from her daughter, but her gaze drifted down a little, so the full weight of her eyes didn’t overpower her.

  “Is something wrong, Mommy?”

  Rachel’s voice was calm and quiet. There was a hint of concern in the words, but the almost monotone of her voice made it hard to tell if she was truly concerned.

  Shaking her head, Lacey painted a smile on her face. She hoped the kids were too young to realize her smiles never made it to her eyes.

  “Nothing’s wrong, sweetie. I was just wondering how you would feel about spending the night over at Fiona’s on Friday. I was thinking about going out with Hannah and Nina for a little while and thought you’d like to hang out with Fee.”

  The words flowed out of her mouth, but Lacey didn’t know where they came from. Nina had extended an invitation, part of her ongoing project of getting Lacey laid. That was exactly how Nina described the project, so Lacey wasn’t misrepresenting her friend’s good intentions.

  She’d gratefully declined the invitation for months, and she hadn’t even been tempted to take her friends up on the offer. For some reason though, it was the first thing that popped in her head as she tried to cover up her concern.

  “You’re going out with Aunt Nina?” The disbelief in Kevin’s voice seemed punctuated by the fact his eyes bulged slightly from his head.

  Lacey wasn’t sure what to be more offended about, the fact that he didn’t think she could hang with his cool aunt, or that he had even a true inkling of how cool his aunt was. The latter probably wasn’t something she could be offended about, but she hadn’t thought Nina’s sometimes wild lifestyle made it to Kevin’s knowledge.

  Since she’d gotten married and become a mother, things had toned down in Nina’s world. She used to be known as a wild woman, so the toning down was still a little bit of a work in progress. When the woman wanted to paint the town, she didn’t hesitate to have a good time. Lacey still hazarded to wager she wasn’t someone you wanted to play any drinking games with, unless she was pregnant.

  “And Hannah,” Lacey replied.

  Kevin rolled his eyes. Yeah, going out with Hannah wasn’t a huge surprise. She wasn’t a teetotaler or anything, but Hannah had a personality similar to Rachel’s. Lacey had witnessed her coming out of her shell more over the years. The timid hockey wife Lacey had first met had let confidence in herself completely change her into a fierce protector of everyone around her. She probably always had some of that in her, but Lacey didn’t remember her being so bold when they first met.

  She hoped
someday her daughter would undergo a similar awakening. That was one of the reasons she supported a friendship with the Fiona she’d mentioned. Fiona was the adopted daughter of another player from the team. She was a couple years younger than Rachel, but the little girl spoke her mind no matter how inappropriate her thoughts or questions were.

  If Fiona didn’t like you, she didn’t hide it. If something bothered her, you knew about it.

  Lacey didn’t want her daughter to be a clone of her opinionated friend. She just wanted to have an idea what was going on in her head, and since Rachel wasn’t sharing anything with Lacey, she hoped maybe Fiona had become Rachel’s confidant.

  “Aunt Hannah hasn’t been trying to set you up with a date. Nina has. Are you saying you’re looking to start dating?” Kevin asked.

  As her own eyes widened, Lacey saw her daughter’s do the same before she quickly looked down at her papers. Lacey hadn’t known where the idea to go out with her friends came from, but she had no intentions of it turning into some date set up. Her stomach curdled just thinking about the idea.

  Yes, she would love to find some hot, young piece of meat to parade around in front of her unfeeling, idiot of an ex-husband. Most people would probably even say she deserved that kind of fun, but the look of fear, or maybe it was just surprise, in her daughter’s eyes told her it would be a long time before she sought out any male companionship.

  Part of her was sad for that. At the same time, it had been so long since she had any real partner in that aspect that she doubted she’d know what to do with herself. Her only partner made it obvious she wasn’t enough for him when he started sleeping around.

  “I’m not looking for any kind of date, Kevin. It’s just been a while since we’ve all had a night out, and I think the last day of school is something we’ll all be celebrating. You can stay over at Michael’s.”

  Kevin stayed over at his best friend’s every other week during the school year. When the summer break came around, the two of them were inseparable.