Page 14 of Vibes

"Chai latte, almond milk, extra foam," Brianna says, slapping her hands down on the counter in front of me. I usually only see her here one day a week, but it’s one day too many. She’s one of those self-proclaimed puck bunnies. Honestly, she had more business being at the disaster party from Friday than I did. She’s always hanging off someone’s arm from the team, and Kelsey isn’t much better. At least Brianna isn’t as nasty as Kelsey can be.

Usually I don’t pay her much mind and just call out the order. But I don’t even manage to put anything in the register as I stare at her, my eyes lasering in on the center of her forehead.

I try, and fail, to bite back a smirk. “So I see you took having hearts in your eyes a step further?”

“Shut it and just make the drink, Monson,” she growls, pressing her phone back to her ear. I hadn’t realized she was listening to anything when she walked up. “No Kels, I don’t know when they are coming back. It’ll probably just be a big reveal. You know how Flynn is with his fanfare. Wear something tight and you can probably drag him back to your room for the night.”

As interesting as all that is, I’m still staring at Brianna’s forehead. I don’t care what she just called me; I’m distracted. “You know you have a heart impression on your forehead, right?”

She sneers. “I’m aware.”

I keep staring. It’s a fairly deep mark, and I would almost think it’s branded there but the skin doesn’t look irritated. Someone pressed something heart shaped to her forehead, and it’s there like a giant beacon in her skin.

“Would you just call out the order already, Iris,” she hisses, and I finally tap her order in and gesture for her to swipe the card. I call it out, eavesdropping on her call as I do so. She barely moves away from the registers, and it’s almost too easy to listen in. “I don’t know, okay? They missed the game yesterday. Big whoop. You really think they won’t be back for the next one Friday?”

Games, she’s talking about the hockey games. I’ve never tracked the schedule before, but it would make sense that the team would play one or two a week. The Denver Lords are highly ranked from what I could glean when I did a search about an hour ago. I don’t know what I’ll report to Lachlan when my shift is over, or if I’ll even need to. He might be able to hear some stuff under the counter. Everything is very uncertain as far as he goes.

“Yeah, I don’t know anything about the coach,” Brianna goes on. “He’s mad as hell according to Ronaldo. He was bitching up a storm in English Lit an hour ago.”

I wonder how long the team will survive if five key players are missing? It’s only been a couple days since the party, but at some point, don’t the authorities send out search parties or something?

The barista calls out her order and Brianna gives Kels a speedy goodbye. Before going to grab her drink she slides her fingertip over the mark on her head, winces, and digs in her bag. She pulls out a bright red beanie that definitely reminds me of someone, tugging it over her head until the mark disappears. She takes her drink and hurries out of the store before I can ask her any more questions.

It’s minutes after she leaves that the pieces click together. Jaxen, that’s his name, not Jason. One of the missing hockey players. I don’t know what his position is, but he always has that red beanie on between classes, which makes it easy to spot him.

I’m sure you can get a red beanie anywhere, but it’s odd Brianna has one that matches Jaxen’s so perfectly. And Jaxen is definitely on the list of MIA players since Friday night.

Eyeing the lack of customers, I decide to pull out my phone and do a little digging. So long as the customers don’t get ignored and everything is done before my shift ends, using our phones isn’t typically a problem. And damnit, I need some answers before I try and have another unfortunate chat with Lachlan.

~~~

My nerves are fried after seeing all the social media posts asking where the hockey players are, and I’m starting to feel like I’m part of the problem. I didn’t do anything to Lachlan, not on purpose anyway, but I do have the missing player in my purse. That does feel like a crime now that I know people are worried about them.

I skipped my class, because I need Cora to give us some answers and quit dicking around, no pun intended. So that's how I end up in the parking lot of the sex store mid afternoon, staring down at Lachlan the vibrator, and occasionally looking around like someone might see me.

Before I waltz into Cora’s job, I think I need to speak to Lachlan for a few minutes. Looking around one last time to see if anyone’s going to spot me having an intimate talk with a sex toy, I sigh and turn him on.

"Oh thank God!" Lachlan erupts, and I almost drop him at the outburst. It's not very loud since the toy only puts out so much power, but his voice carries the same vibrating quality and it's jarring. "I thought you would leave me to rot in that hellish bag, Iris!"

"I don’t really want to know what you’d look like dead," I sigh. He’s back to talking a mile a minute I see. “We’re going to talk to Cora.”

“The witch?” he asks, his voice vibrating along with the toy. It’s an odd feeling on my palm, and something about Lachlan’s buzzing voice goes straight to my pussy.

For fuck’s sake, pull yourself together. He’s a toy. You aren’t going to do shit with him.

“Cora,” I correct, eyeing the doors to the store. There are large windows that offer a very obvious visual of what’s inside, and it’s on the end cap of a strip mall so there’s a lot of traffic here in the parking lot on the weekends. Since most people are still at work at this hour, the lot is relatively empty, so there’s no one immediately around to witness me losing my mind. “We’re going to talk to Cora.”

“Why don’t you let me make you feel good?” Lachlan asks, and instead of turning me on it makes me clam up thinking he’d actually want me to do that here. “Then I can look Cora in the face. She said something about orgasms, yeah? If possible, I’d like to be a person again when I yell at her.”

Oh sweet, micro-boy. “That’s not going to happen. It’s mid afternoon, and I’m not touching myself in the porn store parking lot.”

“Exactly. I’ll handle it for you.”

I stop pushing his button, and the buzzing as well as Lachlan’s voice goes quiet. I wait several moments to see if anything else happens, but he truly can’t speak if I don’t allow him to. Turning him in my hand, I inspect to see if there’s anything else obviously unusual about this vibrator.

It just looks like smooth silicone. Nothing stands out to indicate eyes or a mouth, and the pink color really doesn’t remind me of Lachlan so I’m not sure how that part happened. Probably just a happy accident if I’m being honest.

Sighing, I chuck him back into my purse and get out of the car before anyone sees me. I need this to be over with. Unfortunately, if Cora’s stipulations are as nutty as this plan is, I might be forever screwed.