Chapter 153: Is This Man Bothering You?

"I’m at the secondary practice facility," I choked out, wiping the cold sweat from my forehead as I leaned heavily against the wall. "The private conference room in the back corridor—"

​"Don’t move," Marina cut me off, the sound of her car keys jingling sharply over the line followed by the heavy, aggressive slam of a door. "Whatever you do, do not get into a fight. And tell McCoy to keep his hands off Stein until I get there. If that bastard touches you again, I’ll take care of it myself."

​The line went dead.

​I slowly lowered the phone, the click of the screen turning black signaling the first ounce of real hope I’d felt all day.

I exhaled a long, shaky breath, my shoulders dropping as the frantic, pacing rhythm of my heart finally began to stabilize.

Marina was coming. And when the eldest child of the Evans family decided to intervene, the rules of the game changed entirely.

​I turned back to the room.

​Reid was still standing like a protective wall, his broad shoulders squared and his teeth bare, keeping Edward pinned in the doorway with a lethal, unyielding glare.

Edward hadn’t moved an inch, but his intelligent eyes flicked from my pale face to the dark screen of my phone, a subtle crease forming between his perfect brows. For the first time, a tiny sliver of his supreme confidence seemed to waver.

​"Who was that?" Edward asked, his smooth voice dropping a fraction of its pitch, trying to sound entirely unbothered.

​I didn’t answer him. Instead, I walked right past him, my posture straightening as I stepped back into the center of the conference room.

I pulled out my chair, the heavy metal legs scraping loudly against the floor, and sat back down.

​"We’re waiting," I said, my voice completely flat, all the frantic panic from before entirely gone. I locked my eyes onto Edward’s face, a cold, unyielding mask sliding back over my features. "You wanted an answer, Edward? You’re going to get one. But you’re going to have to say your proposal to one more person first."

​Reid’s head snapped toward me, his grey eyes wide with shock. Who would be able to intervene in this situation? His face asked. Who else knew my secret and could help? And then it hit him.

And as the realization hit him, a dark, wicked grin slowly began to pull at the corner of his mouth.

He stepped back into the room, letting the heavy metal door click shut behind him, completely trapping the three of us inside.

Edward looked at the heavy, closed metal door, then back to me. The subtle crease between his brows deepened, his sharp mind clearly calculating the sudden shift in the room’s atmosphere.

He didn’t know who Marina was or what she was capable of, but he clearly didn’t want things getting any more complicated than they already were.

​"Evans, let’s not stall for time," Edward said, his smooth voice tightening as he took a step toward the table, trying to regain his grip on the narrative. "Whoever you just called, bringing outsiders into this is only going to make things dire for you. This is a league matter. It’s a private negotiation. If you let someone else debate this matter for you, the fallout will get messy before we can even come to an agreement. Let’s make up our minds right now. Sign off on my proposal, and I can assure you that whoever is on their way here won’t have anything to worry about."

​"Shut the fuck up, Stein," Reid snarled from behind my chair, his broad shoulders shifting as he leaned his weight forward. "You’re the one who’s going to be worried."

​"I’m talking to your captain, McCoy," Edward shot back, a flash of genuine irritation cutting through his pristine gentlemanly facade. He locked his eyes back on me. "Evans, think logically. If this person arrives and causes a scene, Marcus won’t be able to keep the facility staff quiet. The press will have a field day. Decide now. With me, or against me?"

​I didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer. I just kept my eyes locked on his, my arms crossed over my chest, counting the seconds.

His rambling only seemed to me like he was the one worried and not the other way around. We will wait and Marina will fix this. She always does.

Seeing I had no intention of answering, Edward decided to trust in the fact that he held a full hand of cards, and sat quietly.

​Ten minutes later, the heavy metal door flung open, slamming against the interior wall with a deafening crack that echoed off the room.

​Marina walked in. She wasn’t wearing a business suit; she was in a sharp, tailored trench coat, her dark hair pulled back, radiating a heavy, suffocating aura of pure, unadulterated dominance that completely ignored the Alphas’ territorial pheromones in the room.

​She stopped at the foot of the table, her sharp eyes immediately sweeping over the scene. Her gaze lingered on Reid’s tense, protective posture, passed over me, and finally landed squarely on Edward.

She looked him up and down, a cold, clinical evaluation that stripped away his pristine, high-society armor in a single second.

​"Edward Stein, right?" Marina asked, her voice dangerously level.

​Edward straightened his tie, instinctively trying to pull his model-citizen persona back into place. "Yes. And you are—"

​Marina completely ignored his attempt to get an introduction out of her. She turned her head slightly, her gaze fixing directly on me. "Kain, is this man bothering you?"

​I looked at my sister, the final remnants of the morning’s panic completely melting away under her steady gaze. I nodded once. "Yes."

​"Is he..." Marina’s voice dropped a fraction of an octave, her eyes slightly darkening and narrowing as she locked onto my face. "...threatening you?"

​The underlying weight of her question hit me instantly. She wasn’t just asking if he was making standard hockey league threats. She was asking about the blackmail, the extortion, and the sick leverage he was trying to use against an Omega.

She wasn’t here to hear the whole thing but somehow, she already knew it all.

My jaw tightened, my fingers gripping into the fabric of my sleeves as I held her gaze.

​"Yes, sister," I said, my voice ringing out with absolute clarity. "He is."

​"Alright." Marina clicked her tongue, a sharp, dismissive sound that cut through the room like a gunshot.

​Without breaking eye contact with Edward, she reached into her trench coat pocket, pulled out her phone, and tapped the screen twice. She brought it to her ear, the silence in the room so thick you could hear the faint hum of the line connecting.

​"Yes," Marina spoke into the receiver, her voice completely smooth, cold, and authoritative. "Get me all the dirt you can find on Edward Stein. And make it quick. Yes..." She tilted her head, her gaze dropping down to Edward like he was an insect under a microscope. "The captain of the Avalanche hockey team. Everything. Finances, family connections, league history. I want all the dirt on him and make it quick."

​She ended the call and tossed the phone onto the table.

​Before Edward could even open his mouth to protest or invoke his family’s high-society status, Marina stepped forward.

She slammed her hand down onto the polished wood of the table, the violent impact rattling the empty chairs.

​"Look here, pal. I don’t know who the hell you think you are," Marina hissed, leaning over the table until she was directly in Edward’s face, her eyes flashing with a lethal, terrifying ferocity. "But anyone bothering my brother is officially on my kill list. And trust me... you really don’t want to know what happens when I cross a name off that list."

Edward stared at Marina, looking indifferent even now. For a second, a faint, condescending smile played at the edge of his lips.

He was the golden boy of a billionaire dynasty much like Reid but unlike Reid, he was allowed to pursue his dema because he had older siblings who could take over his family business. Plus, he was deeply cherished.

Anything he had ever done wrong had probably already been thoroughly sanitized by an army of high-priced lawyers and public relations experts before it could even breathe.

He was confident there was absolutely nothing she could find.

​"With all due respect, Ms. Evans," Edward said, his voice smooth, completely unflustered as he straightened the cuffs of his navy suit. "You’re wasting your time. My life is an open book. I’ve spent my entire career under a microscope. If you think a standard background check is going to scare me into backing down from protecting the integrity of this league, you’re sorely mistaken."

"Is that so?" Marina murmured, her hand still resting flat against the table. She didn’t look angry; she looked amused, like a cat watching a mouse celebrate a temporary escape. "Then, shall we wait to see what this standard background check will yield?"