Rush Hockey Books 1-3 (EBOOK BUNDLE)

Billie Rose waded through a graveyard of beer bottles.
Chairs were overturned, glasses were broken, pool cues had been reduced to splinters. Even the door to the bathroom had been torn off one hinge, the cheap wood hanging lazily from the bottom one, swaying gently in the breeze that came courtesy of the shattered window just to the right of the bar’s entrance.
Suffice to say, the bar was trashed.
Absolutely trashed.
As was Axel Finnegan, the captain of the Rush and ringleader for all the antics that had left one of the two bars in River’s Bend in such a state.
He was propped up in a booth, his big, bulky hockey player’s body pinned between the table and the wall.
And he was singing.
Loudly and off-key.
The song of choice?
Diamonds by Rhianna.
Unfortunately for Billie’s ears, he wasn’t nearly as talented as RiRi.
“Shine bright like a—” He belched, stepping on the gemstone in the lyric, and then resumed singing. Even louder, and somehow even more off-key.
Good lord.
The man might be talented on the ice, but his singing skills rivaled nails on a chalkboard.
And the nails would win the talent competition.
Wincing, she glanced over at Barry, the owner of the bar, and somehow heard his sigh over the noise. He was polishing what looked to be one of his few remaining glasses.
“I’ll get you sorted, Bar,” she said, stifling her own sigh as she crossed to him and held out her hand. “Keys?” she asked.
He put down the glass, tossed the towel over his shoulder, and reached into his pocket, slapping the set of bronze and stainless steel into her hand. They were each topped with colored rubber covers. “Blue still for the front door?”
A nod, anger drifting into his eyes. “Not that it’ll make much sense to lock up with that window.”
“I’ll get you sorted,” she repeated.
And she would.
Before she kicked some hockey player ass.
“I know,” Barry told her, patting her on the shoulder. “You’re a good woman, Billie Rose.”
She smiled and then made it her mission to shoo him from the bar. His night had been long enough, what with the entire Rush hockey team deciding to go on a tear through River’s Bend. Which, unfortunately for Bar, meant they hadn’t had many places to “tear” to. They’d started the night at Monroe’s, the other bar in town, and when they’d gotten sloppy, they’d strolled down to the other side of Main Street and came here. To Haggarty’s.
Where havoc was wreaked.
Barry dragged his feet, and she knew that part of him still saw her as a little girl, still worried after her, especially when he peppered her with offers to stay, or to come back in the morning, or to call someone to come assist her. Knew it when he paused at the front door and asked, “You need help with him?”
But she was an adult now, no longer the shy, quiet girl who had been picked on at River’s Bend Elementary, or the wild child teenager who’d pranked and drank—and, cough, other illicit things—her way through River’s Bend High School.
She was a grown-ass woman—one who had absolutely no patience for bullshit, no matter the form it came in. But she especially had no tolerance for bullshit if it came courtesy of a pretty boy hockey player.
The Rush were the scourge.
A necessary scourge.
But still a scourge.
Her lips curved, thinking her English teacher of a grandmother would have given her a gold star for using the word scourge three times in as many sentences.
Hell, probably not.
Billie Rose’s English teacher of a grandmother would have told her to expand her vocabulary.
Bane. Eh, no.
Pestilence. Better.
Curse? Best.
Because the Rush were both the life’s blood and the curse of River’s Bend.
A curse she was determined to break.
She spoke, and if her tone was deadly, if it made Barry shudder; made him pale slightly, grab his coat from the hooks just inside the door, and slip out said door; if it made him realize that the rest of him knew her as a grown-ass adult who took no shit from anyone when she said, “No, I’ll take care of him,” then so be it.
And if it made him cross himself…then heaven help Axel Finnegan.
Because she was done with Axel’s particular brand of bullshit.
She’d been born in this town—literally in town, along the side of the road, her parents not having even made it to the highway that led to the next city over, where the only hospital around was located. She’d been too impatient to wait, too grounded to River’s Bend even then. The town was in her blood. She ate and drank, slept and bled and cried to make it the best it could be for everyone who lived here. River’s Bend was the most important thing in her life, and she would not allow these…these…
“Fuckboys,” she muttered.
Right. She wouldn’t allow the fuckboys of the Rush to continue their reign of terror.
She wouldn’t let them ruin it.
Not her town.
If she’d had her way—and she had to be frank, as the newly elected mayor, she got her way a lot of the time (and if she had to be truthful—blegh—she’d gotten her way most of her life)—she would have gone along with the Chamber of Commerce’s recommendation to not renew the Rush’s contract with the town.
She’d reclaim the ice rink, take the town back, kick the fuckers out.
But the Rush were a large income source for the town (including taxes that had just funded a new elementary school), and that wasn’t even taking into account that the organization employed hundreds of River’s Bend citizens.
No jobs.
No income.
No good.
Which meant River’s Bend needed the Rush.
But they didn’t need them like this, didn’t need them drinking, fucking, and smashing their way through town. Hell, she knew for a fact that Barry had struggled to get insurance after being dropped from his previous provider.
If he had to pay out of pocket for the repairs…
If the town continued to bear the brunt of the team’s antics…
If the gamble she was taking didn’t pay off…
River’s Bend wouldn’t survive.
She blew out a breath, turned to that drunk, singing hockey bastard, and battened down her resolve.
Billie Rose was just going to have to take the team in hand.
Axel Finnegan was the ringleader.
The problem child. The poster boy for fuckboys everywhere.
So, her lips curved, she would begin with him.
And she knew exactly where to start.