Taking Shots (Assassins) Read online

  Taking Shots

  Toni Aleo

  © 2011 Toni Aleo. All rights reserved.

  ISBN 978-1-105-11487-8

  For my hockey player,

  Because he makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world:

  Michael

  Chapter 1

  Eleanor “Elli” Fisher didn’t understand why she was so forgetful. She was convinced that if her ass wasn’t attached to her, she would forget that, too, but really? How in the world did she forget all the bulbs for her light stands! Elli stood in the entrance of the Luther Arena, waiting for Harper Allen, her assistant, to bring the bulbs back from her studio on the western side of Nashville. This was one of the most important days of her career and she forgot the bulbs.

  God, she was an idiot.

  How did she manage this? She ran her hand through her unruly brown curly hair, sighing. She was having a bad hair day to top things off. As if forgetting the bulbs weren’t enough. This was her first year with the Nashville Assassins. She couldn’t blow it. Being chosen to be the photographer for a hockey team was huge, but when it was for the team that just won the Stanley Cup and had the prospect of winning again? Hello, it was HUGE.

  When she saw Harper running into the arena with the bulbs in hand, she let out a breath. Damn that was fast.

  “For Christ sakes! It’s a mad house out there!” she complained in her thick Southern accent. Her hair was in spikes this week, and purple to top it off. Didn’t she discuss with Harper how they needed to keep a professional image? Yes, purple was a team color, but still!

  “I know, come on. Let’s go put the bulbs in.” She didn’t have time to have it out with Harper right now, she had to get to the ice. They all but ran towards the entrance to the ice. Once there, she was greeted by the Assassins’ PR.

  “Ms. Fisher, how do you do! Are you ready?”

  Melody Yates was intense. That was the only way Elli could explain her. She was from Jersey, converted into a Southerner, which made no damn sense to Elli, but whatever, this was her boss, so she grinned extra hard, turning on her Southern charm.

  “Yes, ma’am. Let my assistant put these bulbs in and we can get started.”

  “Good, the boys will be out soon. Then we’ll go downstairs for the other shots we need.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Harper ran ahead and started setting everything up. Elli took in a deep breath. She had been doing weddings almost her whole adult life, and now she was moving to sports, something she has been wanting to do all along, since she had such a love for hockey but never could get the opportunity. But thanks to being related to the owner of the Assassins, here she was.

  Here was her chance.

  Harper handed Elli her camera with a big smile. Harper knew how important this day was and also how nervous Elli was.

  “Go on over there and let me test shoot, Harp.” Harper started towards the goal and turned with a stick in her hand, making a stern face. It brought a smile to Elli’s face, Harper was a dork, but God, Elli loved her. After fixing the aperture on her camera, Elli called Harper over as the guys started coming on the ice.

  “Good golly, Miss Molly. Look at them! Good Lord! They are gorgeous!” Harper whispered as all the guys came out and sat on the bench. Elli took her time looking the guys over, too. They were gorgeous, but she already knew that, since she never missed a home game. Sometimes she thought it was the uniforms: bright purple and black, with a masked man on the front as the emblem that brought out their good looks, but nope, even with the helmets off these men were just plain gorgeous.

  Getting back in the zone, she called for the coaches first. Trying to bottle her nerves, she got started. After shooting the coaches, it was on to the team. Each guy came out in front of the goal, taking their pose. Elli zoomed in, taking shots of their heads. Then they held a stick. After taking that picture, they lined up for an action shot, which consisted of them skating towards her, shooting a puck. During all this, Harper gave commentary.

  “For the love of God, El, that dude is hot!” Elli rolled her eyes, taking the shots she needed.

  “Hush, Harp.”

  “No, really, like, please can I hit on one of them, just one?”

  “No.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  Elli laughed it off. She was starting to get comfortable just as the alternate captains and the captain came off the bench.

  “Oh, the hell with what you say, number two is mine after this.” Elli gave her a pointed look as Jakob Titov, the Assassins’ leading scoring forward, skated in front of the goal. Jakob was extremely good looking, hard lines to his face, bright green eyes, and blonde hair. He was a looker, but not Elli’s type. He reminded her too much of Justin, her ex.

  “Hush, Harper!” Elli said as she took the shots she needed. What she didn’t need was Jakob making eyes at her assistant, because, of course, Harper returned them. She didn’t know why it always bothered her so much that Harper always flirted with the clients. It didn’t matter how old they were or what they looked like, or even if they were the groom, she always found something in them she liked, probably the fact that they all had a penis.

  Elli loved Harper, but she was a little promiscuous and she didn’t care who knew. Guys had no worth to her unless they were naked and inside her, as she always said. Elli always wondered what made Harper that way, since it made no sense. There had never been a guy that hurt her or anything in the twenty two years they had been friends. Her parents were good people, so Elli really didn’t understand where it came from. And, of course, guys liked Harper. She was wild, beautiful, skinny, amazing.

  Everything Elli wasn’t.

  Jakob lined up, giving her his action shot. After she got it, instead of him skating towards his teammates, he came towards Elli and Harper.

  “Nice hair, beautiful,” he said in his thick Russian accent. Harper just smiled widely, as Elli flushed deep red. Elli didn’t know why she was embarrassed, but she was. She didn’t want attention on Harper right now, not with how important this job was.

  “Nice stick,” Harper said, looking down at where he was holding his stick. Jakob gave her a devilish smile and skated towards the bench.

  “You are impossible, Harper Allen,” Elli said, flustered. After getting it together, next came Alex Welch. Alex was easy to shoot. He had good lines, so the pictures came out fabulous. Next was the captain, Shea Adler.

  Elli blushed as she got to the close up of Shea. She had always thought the defenseman was gorgeous. With his almost black hair that fell in the brightest, bluest eyes she had ever seen, and with his crooked nose that had been broken two years ago during a game with the Red Wings, she had to admit, she had a little bit of a crush on him. He smiled and her heart melted. Yeah, his teeth were probably fake, but damn he had a pretty mouth.

  “Why’s he blinking so much?” Harper asked. Elli was too busy looking at his mouth to notice.

  “Harp, shut up,” she whispered, but then she noticed too that the captain was blinking a little too much.

  “Is he hitting on you?”

  “Oh, my God!” Elli’s whole face blushed deep red as she looked down at the picture viewer of her camera. In all the pictures, the captain’s eyes were shut. Elli looked up, and Shea was rubbing his eyes. “Mr. Adler,” she said as she started walking towards him. He looked over at her. “I’m sorry, but I need you to stop blinking. Your eyes are closed in every picture I have taken.”

  “I’m sorry,” Oh God, his voice was butter, thick with a Boston accent. Elli swore she came at the sound of it. “I got new contacts and they are bugging the hell out of me.”

  “Someone get Adler another pair!” someone yelled as he pinched the little lenses out of h