All Chapters of On Thin Ice With You: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Three days later, the PR director calls Elias and Denny back in.The report is one page."Unauthorized photographers got through the door screening. Staff have been dealt with." He folds his hands on the table. "The photos were sent to the magazine from an anonymous number—significant payment, no buyout request." A pause. "We traced the IP as far as we could. Combined with the hotel security footage..." He exhales. "Everything points to Claire. High probability she arranged it directly."Elias doesn't look surprised. He just looks colder."Did she admit it?""We didn't confront her directly. Side-channel inquiry. She was visibly nervous. Inconsistent." The director shifts. "She didn't need to admit it. The evidence is clear enough."Coach Danny leans back heavily. "That girl has no sense of consequence.""The question is what we do with it." The director leans forward. "Elias—I understand your frustration. But going public doesn't serve anyone. It makes the whole organization appear i

The last week of November, and the Raiders have not wasted it.Two games left in the regular scoring period, and they're sitting so far ahead on points that December is beginning to look almost relaxed.Tonight is the reward for all of it. No curfew, no early morning ice time, no Anderson circling with a clipboard.Just this.The Royal York's rooftop bar is not the kind of place you describe as a bar.Floor-to-ceiling panoramic glass wraps the entire top floor, the city spread out below like something lit deliberately for the occasion. Crystal pendants catch the light and scatter it in warm fragments across marble floors.The waiting list for this room runs six months on a normal night.Tonight it belongs to the Raiders.Weston family property, made available with a single call.Mia stands at the glass with her fingertips just touching it, cool against her skin.From here, the CN Tower's red beacon pulses steadily above the skyline—patient, rhythmic, like a heartbeat the city doesn't

Claire glances at something over Mia's shoulder and smiles."Looks like Elias will be a little while yet." She signals a server before Mia can respond. "Perfect. You and I can get started."The server arrives with two fresh glasses.Mia feels the rim before she raises it—the same fine crystalline texture as before, barely perceptible unless you're looking for it.She looks at Claire's glass. Clean. Smooth. Nothing."My glass has salt on the rim again," Mia says. "Yours doesn't.""I had them do it specially for you. I noticed you usually drink fruit juice or sparkling water, so I assumed you're sensitive to the bitterness. Salt softens it."She says it at a volume the men nearby can easily hear. One of them nods with the enthusiasm of someone who has been waiting to contribute."She's right. It opens up the bubbles too, completely changes the texture—""It's just salt," Claire adds warmly. "There are ten people watching. What do you think I'm going to do?"Mia looks at her.She looks a

The elevator descends.The voices fill the small space with perfect clarity.Claire's. Clayton's. The room number. The instruction to get her face on camera. All of it, preserved in the ambient noise of a hotel corridor.With each passing second, Claire and Clayton's faces lose more color.Elias waits until it finishes. Then he locks the screen and turns the phone between his fingers, unhurried."All that planning," he says. "How does it feel?"Neither of them answers.Mia reaches over and takes her phone back. "Exactly." She tucks it into her bag. "Nothing to say. Funny how that works.""Mia—""You started it." She gives Claire a look that is perfectly level despite everything. Then she drifts, with great dignity, to the side of the elevator and leans against the wall.Elias covers his mouth with one hand for a moment. Then he turns back to Claire."You understand that I have everything I need now." His voice has settled into something very quiet and very final. "I could make things

The suite is quiet when Elias comes back in.Mia is on the bed, face-down, completely still. She's changed into what the hotel sent up. The fabric moves with her breathing in small, liquid shifts.He stops just inside the door.He's seen her in a wetsuit, in a sundress, in the lavender bikini at Tofino, in the sapphire dress she'd been wearing three hours ago when the night was still something else entirely.This is different from all of those. There's nothing performing here. Just her, and the slow rise and fall of her back, and the faint flush still on her cheekbones.He sits on the edge of the bed.His phone goes before he's had thirty seconds of quiet.He already knows who it is. He had been expecting it, actually.He watches Mia's eyelids flicker at the sound, and steps out to the balcony before she surfaces fully, pulling the glass door shut behind him."Where are you?" Richard Weston's voice, before Elias can say anything. "You're very quiet.""Signal issue. It's fine now.""I