What Happens in Vegas: Las Vegas Sinners, #6

By Katie Kenyhercz

If you've read and loved the Las Vegas Sinners series, catch up with the couples in this collection of short stories! 

Life in Las Vegas is changing for the Sinners family in a big way. When Carter Phlynn gets an offer to coach for Pittsburgh, he ignores it. Until his wife finds the letter. No stranger to sacrificing for the ones she loves, Jacey isn't about to let her retired hockey player husband fade away in upper management when his heart is still on the ice, but encouraging him to follow his dream means walking away from hers--the hockey team she inherited from her father and raised from obscurity to the sport's highest honor. 

Sinners goalie, Shane Reese, grew up with Carter. The move could mean growing apart from the man who'd been his brother. As one of the team's sport psychologists, Allie Kallen-Reese faces potentially losing her job if new ownership decides they don't need her, but her biggest struggle is opening up and letting her husband shoulder some of her worries--one skill she's never fully developed. 

Jacey's brother, Madden Vaughn, left the Sinners organization to launch a financial planning business that found much success, but family has always been the most important thing to him. He's been engaged to Saralynn Reese, head of Sinners PR, for two years but every time he tries to make plans, she claims it's not a good time. If he wants Jacey to be at the wedding, he'll have to act fast, but Saralynn has a lifetime of commitment issues to contend with. 

Dylan Cole, young captain of the Sinners, is due for a contract renewal, but after a less-than-impressive few seasons, new ownership might easily trade him to land a different player. Las Vegas had become a home he shared with Lori Kelly, his Olympic figure skater girlfriend. They trained on the same ice, lived in the same apartment, and shared the same goals for the future. But Lori's last chance at a gold medal depends on the money she makes starring in Sin City on Ice. If he got traded, would she follow? 

Grayson Gunn left his hockey career on a high note and took a job as an assistant coach for the Sinners. A head coach offer from the Carson City Saints, the Sinners minor league affiliate, has him thinking. If only it didn’t mean moving seven hours away from the love of his life. As the Sinners' assistant physician, Olivia Parker is tied to the team whether it stays in Vegas or moves out of state. Things have been better than ever with Grayson, but could she give up her dream to follow him and his? 

Sin City is about to get seriously complicated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katie Kenyhercz
• Release date: Mar 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781530600786

Book preview

1

Jacey and Carter : Part One

The world tipped, and Jacey Phlynn’s heart pounded so hard she could feel it in her face and all the way to her toes. She stared at the letter, but the words had swirled into an illegible blur. A few blinks brought enough focus back to concentrate on the important parts. It was a coaching offer from Pittsburgh. For her husband dated two weeks ago.

She fell into the chair behind his desk, her body at a weird impasse where she was completely numb but about to burst out of her skin. Why hadn’t he told her? Was he considering it? He had to be. The opportunity was too big. Too good. But what would it mean for them? The possibilities stemming from that threatened to crush her like a tsunami, so she forced them back before they gained too much of a foothold.

However he’d reacted to the offer, it was something they needed to talk about. Her legs didn’t give out when she stood. Progress. She nudged the desk drawer closed then remembered. Team stationary. The reason she’d come in his office to begin with. She grabbed a stack, tucked the letter in her blazer pocket, then locked his door behind her.

As she headed for the elevator, life buzzed in the bullpen like usual as if the universe hadn’t just turned inside out. She went down the to main concourse and started walking. Past the closed concessions, the open team store, the larger-than-life banners of her players. Six years ago, she wasn’t sure she’d make it as owner of the Las Vegas Sinners. The team crashing and burning on her watch had been a real and terrifying possibility. But it hadn’t. Through her decisions, resolve, and bull-headed tenacity, it’d flourished, reached previously unthinkable heights and the highest honor in hockey. Several times. The team was no longer her father’s legacy. It was hers.

Oops. Where was that entrance? A glance over her shoulder confirmed she’d walked right past it. Descending into the arena, she breathed in the cool, crisp smell of the ice then wrinkled her nose at the chaser of sweaty hockey gear. Once upon a time head coach Nealy Windham had said she’d get used to it. That still wasn’t true.

Sinners in their practice jerseys darted around the rink and looked almost choreographed. Nealy stood next to the players’ bench, screeching orders around the whistle in her mouth. Grayson Gunn, assistant coach, chipped in whenever Nealy took a breath. And Carter stood beside him, throwing in his own suggestions. If the infringement bothered Grayson, he didn’t show it. Of all people, he’d know what retirement could do to a former player.

Carter smiled wide, and his eyes sparked with an excitement that didn’t exist in the boardroom. He’d been an excellent general manager and had developed and added depth to the team since he stopped playing. But this kind of happy? He only found it on the ice.

All right, that’s it for today! Nealy’s voice cut through the clamoring sticks and the shhh-shhh of blades cutting into the ice. All of the players stopped simultaneously and came to attention like well-trained soldiers. In a way, that’s what they were. That’s how Nealy ran her team. We have less than a week until the first championship game, and we’re nowhere near the shape we need to be in. You can bet your asses that’ll change. Hit the showers. She tilted her head toward the tunnel, and her players filed off without so much as a grunt in complaint. They wouldn’t dare. Grayson followed, joking with the guys as they headed for the locker room. While the coach gathered her clipboard from the bench, Jacey caught her eye and waved.

Carter noticed and surprise wiped his face blank followed by a flash of guilt and then the smile that never failed to make her heart skip no matter how long they’d been married. Hey, you. I know I have that meeting in an hour, but I thought I’d sit in on practice.

If Nealy had a problem with it, she didn’t let it show. Instead, the coach nodded. Sometimes they listen to him better. That wasn’t true. The Sinners obeyed Nealy without dispute because they all knew the hellacious practices they’d suffer if they didn’t. Besides, Phlynn’s got that player-vision, sees things from a unique perspective. That much couldn’t be argued.

Carter shrugged. Part of it was modesty, but there was a hint of embarrassment there, too, and Jacey’s heart broke for him. He knew that he didn’t really belong down here anymore. At least not here, in this arena. But maybe he did belong behind the bench.

Actually, I was hoping to steal Nealy for lunch.

The coach didn’t react for a split second—at all—which was a reaction in itself. Nealy was perceptive to the tenth degree. While they sometimes had lunch, it was less often these days, and this change in routine clearly didn’t slip by her. Lunch works for me. I’m ready if you are. She shook off her hockey gloves then sat down to trade her skates for the tennis shoes she kept behind the bench.

Ready.

Okay then. Carter took a breath like he was about to say something then thought better of it. A potentially patronizing comment like You girls have fun would have gotten him a stick butt in the stomach from Nealy, and the man was smart enough to know it. She may not have been his coach for a few years, but the residual fear of her ran deep.

Jacey bit the inside of her lip to keep from grinning.

Nealy gave him the side-eye in acknowledgement of the near slip-up then hopped over the low wall, focused on Jacey, and pointed to the main concourse. I’ll meet you up there.

Deal. Jacey glanced back to her husband and winked. I’ll see you later, stud. Good luck in your meeting. Not that you need it.

Thanks. Love you.

She blew him a quick kiss then jogged up the steps, heading out of the arena. A slow exhale did little to calm her frayed nerves, but at least she hadn’t let on that she knew. Nealy would have some advice. She always did. Maybe not with tact, but definitely with truth.

---

Nealy?

She stared blank-faced at the letter from Pittsburgh, statue still. The woman hadn’t had such a non-reaction since Jacey first asked her to coach.

Jacey blew out a breath and pushed the lettuce around on her plate with her fork. What do I do?

It was another beat before the veneer cracked, and a few wrinkles appeared on Nealy’s forehead. First … you might want to add a little Long Island to your iced tea.

I can get behind that. And then?

Nealy took a few seconds to answer—longer than she ever did in any circumstance. I can’t tell you what to do here, kid. I don’t think there’s one right answer.

Jacey swallowed with a dry throat, not wanting to ask but needing to know all the same. Is there a wrong one?

Both choices require great sacrifice. It comes down to what you can live with and what you can’t live without.

But what if she couldn’t know that except in hindsight? What if she chose wrong? He didn’t tell me about it. What does that mean?

It means he didn’t want you to have to decide. He knows what the Sinners are to you.

Guilt tightened around her chest like a giant rubber