“Yeah. Yeah,” she said, still reading that paper. “The deal looks pretty good.”

“Pretty good?” Ricky asked, but Toni waved her hand at him to put a lid on it. So maybe she hadn’t impressed Cella Malone. Felines were notoriously hard to impress, but that didn’t mean Toni needed Ricky Lee to push the issue for her.

“Yeah. Like I said. Pretty good. Uh . . . nice job.”

Well, even Toni would have to admit that Cella didn’t sound like she meant that last part.

“I have something else for you to do,” Cella went on.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. A few things I need you to organize in my office.”

“Organize?”

“Yeah.” Cella stopped outside the practice rink doors. “You said you’d help out with my workload, right?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Great.” She motioned to the rink. “Come on. I’ll give you the list while I’m setting up for morning practice.”

“Okay.” Toni worked hard to not audibly sigh. It was a big drop to go from negotiating with Russian bears to cleaning up the coach’s office, but it made Toni even more determined to impress Cella Malone. She would impress her.

Toni followed Cella into the rink, swinging her backpack around so that she could pull out a notepad and pen to take notes. But as she stumbled to a stop, digging into her bag trying to find her stupid notepad, she heard banging. A weird banging.

Toni looked up and blinked, her mouth dropping open a little in surprise.

Because the entire Carnivore team was on the ice in their hockey gear, including their home jerseys, banging their sticks against the ice while the office staff, including her assistant Kerri, and the team’s current staff photographer, Livy, stood outside the ice clapping and cheering.

Reece Lee skated across the ice, his arms behind his back. When he reached the very edge of the ice, which was right next to where Toni stood on the carpeted floor, he stopped and brought his arms around. He held two dozen roses wrapped in cellophane in one hand and a box of expensive chocolates in the other. He grinned at her and winked.

With shaking hands, Toni took the gifts and Reece skated backward. That’s when he howled and the rest of the team joined in. Except each player did their own thing. So the room filled with roars, growls, howling, and violent hissing. She didn’t even realize she was crying until the tears hit her bare forearm.

Cella slung her arm over Toni’s shoulders and hugged her in close. “After the way you fucking rocked in Russia, little girl, you better start getting your family ready. Because the Carnivores are not letting you go anytime soon.” Cella shook her head and added with a laugh, “And Ivan Zubachev called and, after praising you to heaven and back, he wanted to know if you weresingle.”

That made Toni laugh until Ricky, standing next to her, said, “Nope. She’s not.”

Both Toni and Cella looked at him, and the wolf shrugged. “What? You’re not.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Toni couldn’t believe how busy her day turned out to be. She had meeting after meeting, and a bunch of phone calls to handle. Yeah. Sure. Everyone was really impressed with what she’d done in Russia, but now they expected her to keep impressing them.

She didn’t know if she could manage that. Maybe the Russian negotiations were just a fluke. And she had had Vic Barinov’s help, hadn’t she? So she’d need to tread carefully to make sure she really deserved all the attention she’d gotten today.

Well, if nothing else, being so busy meant her workday had flown by. It was already four o’clock and she was ready to head home, check on the kids, and order dinner before Ricky’s mother showed up.

Toni peeked over at Ricky Lee. He’d sat in that chair all day, taking phone calls and remotely working on other jobs for his security company. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind being stuck here with her. That was good. She didn’t know if she could keep him entertained when she kept having to answer e-mails from Bo Novikov every couple of hours asking about team travel.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

“Yep.” He and Vic Barinov, who occasionally left the office to do a “sweep of the area” as he called it and get coffee and more food than seemed natural from the food court, stood.

That’s when Livy walked into the office, a tablet computer in her hand.

“Hey, hey.”

“Hey.” Toni smiled at her friend. “Where did you go? I haven’t seen you since this morning.”

“I wanted to finish this up.”

Livy put the tablet in front of Toni and touched the screen. Toni’s face lit up. “Oh!” Then her smile began to fade. “Oh.” The smile faded completely, replaced by a frown. “Oh . . . my God! Why are they naked?”

Ricky and Vic practically sprinted across the room to see what Toni was looking at.

“Good Lord!” Ricky stepped back from her desk. “Why am I looking at my brother’s penis?”

“What’s wrong?” Livy asked. “This is some of my best work that didn’t involve getting shot at.”

“So to speak,” Vic mumbled under his breath.

Toni flicked through the other photos. They were mostly in black and white, but some were in color but just gave the illusion of being black and white. Each player was beautifully lit, showing off every muscle and vein. Yes. This was some of Livy’s best work.

And completely useless for Toni’s needs!