Defensive Line (The Unlovabulls #1)

Chapter Thirty-One

The Ashes of Brody Shaw

Brody

“You’re cleared to play. Your shoulder is fine.” Dr. Chase snapped off his gloves and turned to throw them away.

Should have been exactly what I wanted to hear. The first game of the season was tomorrow. Not only did it mean I’d get to play, but they couldn’t put me on injured reserve. “Was there ever really anything wrong with it?”

Darius tried to hide his grin. I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Devon in the last several days. Honestly, as the most senior trainer on staff and Devon’s boss, if Darius thought the other man was a problem, it was probably for the best.

Chase spun on me, though instead of the distaste I’d expected to see, he wore a shitty smirk that made me want to cram my fist down his throat. Pulling off his glasses, he wiped them with soft cloth. “Oh. I nearly forgot. Mr. Head wants to see you in his office as soon as we finish your exam. Take your playbook.”

My stomach plummeted, my head going a little light. I’d just been cleared for trade.

“Why, you weaselly little motherfucker.” I hopped off the table, made a grab for his button-down. “I ought to beat your crooked little raggedy ass for the hell of it with all the shit you’ve done to the guys on this team.”

His eyes widened ridiculously as he realized he had nowhere to go.

“Whoa, Brody.” Darius stuck an arm between me and Chase, pushed against my torso. “You know that’s not a smart move, my man.”

With a growl, I punched the drywall next to Chase. Letting go of his shirt, I whipped the door open. The glass rattled when I slammed it behind me.

I hit the locker room and started stripping clothes off. Ten minutes later I was pushing my wrist wraps into my gym bag as my hair dried. As soon as I got out of the locker room, I tried to call Lily.

It went to voicemail.

Knowing what I sounded like at the moment, I figured a text would be better than a voice message.

Brody: Call me as soon as you can.

After a stop at the truck to stuff my playbook in my bag, I texted again.

Brody: Lily, I need to talk to you. I’m about to go into a meeting with Dick.

No response.

I tried to call one last time before I went into the building that housed Dick’s office. I had a glimmer of hope that this meeting wasn’t what I thought it was. When the call rolled over to voicemail, I did my best not to scare her for no reason. “Give me a call as soon as you can, darlin’. I need to hear your voice.”

With that, I pulled open the door and took the elevator up to Dick’s office. His assistant was waiting for me. “Mr. Shaw, you can go right in.”

I pushed through the doors. Sitting in a leather executive chair so big I was sure he was compensating for something, Dick turned from his bank of windows. “Brody.”

“J.R. How is everything in the land of Ewing Oil today?”

“Funny.” He didn’t smile.

I didn’t give a shit. “Thanks, I thought so.” The last thing I ever wanted was to give Dick the satisfaction that he’d gotten to me, so I tacked on a smile for good measure.

“Mr. Shaw. I’m aware you’re sleeping with my stepdaughter.”

Sonofabitch. “Oh? Not that I wouldn’t like to sleep with your stepdaughter, or just about anybody for that matter, but what makes you think that?”

He had zero proof.

“I have proof.”

Fuck me running.

Dick slid a folder across his desk at me. “I’m particularly fond of the one with half her ass hanging out.”

I flipped open the file and my brows creased. It was full of photos of Lily and me.

Locked in a kiss next to her garage.

Her on the running board of my truck when I told her I loved her.

Wrapped in my arms against the railing on my balcony the morning after I’d told her about Andra.

Nearly the exact same pose the night before, when she’d gotten out of bed in my T-shirt and I’d found her on the balcony.

In her backyard after her house was broken into.

I ground on my molars, sat the folder down.

“Not funny now, is it, Shaw? Those will be released tomorrow to several media outlets, both local and national. Shortly thereafter, we’ll be releasing the news of your trade. You’re going to Miami, son. Not all that bad, considering. It’s a good deal. They pay out the remainder of your contract. I get a tailback, and first and second round draft picks next year.”

There was a faint buzzing in my ears from the rage building inside me. “Why not bench me? Why all the shoulder bullshit?”

He leaned forward. “Truthfully, we didn’t think you’d make it back from the dislocation at all. We needed Bishop to take the reps if he was going to start this season. But, not only did you recover, you did it in half the time. That meant paying out your contract in full, even if you rode the bench. We needed to slow you down, Mr. Shaw. When Dr. Chase told your trainer to keep you limited, you didn’t listen.”

“My contract isn’t fully guaranteed. You thought you’d be able to put me on IR this year and cut my pay in half. Me coming back fucked that up.”

He steepled his fingers. “Exactly. And Chase says you’re as dumb as you look. Fortunately for us, the last year you’ve had a run of bad luck. That got me thinking about your trade clause, Mr. Shaw. You were two strikes in. Arranging a trade would be even more lucrative for the organization than having your contract reduced. The accident at camp was purely a stroke of luck, but it was the opening I needed to both send you home so I could get these for your third strike—” he tapped the folder with the pictures “—and set you up to go on the injured reserve list, if I couldn’t get the photos. We knew the civil suit wouldn’t stick before you even knew there was a lawsuit.” He leaned forward like he was imparting a secret. “In fact, the criminal case won’t either. The girl has character issues.”

Jesus. The way this man’s mind worked. If he weren’t so fucking evil, it might be admirable. Might. “Mmhmm, and you didn’t have anything to do with that either, right? For all you know that woman could have been forced into sex at that party, and you’d find a way to make that go away, too, wouldn’t you?”

He spread his hands wide. “It’s a football town, son.”

It was taking everything I had not to jump across the desk and punch in his eye teeth. “I’m not your son. I want my release. Free and clear. The Bulldogs don’t have to pay out the last two years on my contract and I’ll announce my retirement early. I’ll even say it’s medical if you want.”

“Now, why would I do that? I need you healthy now, Mr. Shaw. This deal with Miami hinges on it. As much as I’d like to be free and clear of your contract, you’re worth a lot in this league. First and second round draft picks and a tailback. Three players for the price of one when Bishop can do your job just as well as you can. Miami is desperate for you. I’d much rather have talent I’m going to use than let you go free and clear. Now, if you’d have asked me before the trade was possible, this conversation might have gone differently.”

Dick rocked back, rested an ankle over his knee as he sipped brown liquid from a crystal tumbler. “Don’t take it personal, son. This is a business. Bishop is younger, faster, and he took a smaller contract just to come here and learn with you. I’m in high cotton.”

The sonofabitch threw his head back and laughed. “Of course, I also have it on good authority that, should you stay healthy for the duration of the two years, Miami is prepared to offer you an extension to keep you from retiring.”

Miami was desperate after their starter retired without much warning, and their backup had more brains than ability. With them tossing two picks at Dallas, they’d be praying they could convince me to stay a couple more years.

Not that I gave a shit.

“See, everybody wins, Brody. More money for you, more money for me, and Lily gets her dog shelter.” Shifting in his chair, Dick clasped his hands behind his head. “Besides. You might not want to ask for that release. Take this trade for the blessing it is.” Glancing at the photos, he tipped his chin. “How do you think I came by those, anyhow?”

Was he implying that... Oh, no. No, Lily wouldn’t. “She wouldn’t do that, you sadistic fuck!” I jumped from the chair needing to move only to find my legs shaky as I paced. “Lily wouldn’t sell me out.”

“She wouldn’t, would she?” He kept a hand poised under the edge of the desk, I’m sure with a finger on his panic button. “Not even for the dogs she loves so much?”

Shaking my head, I clasped the back of my neck as my stomach bottomed out and I fought back the bile.

Lily used me. She set me up .

“Now, she can finally get back to planning the wedding.”

She lied?

She’d fucking told me she loved me, and she was planning on marrying some other guy? One she said had cheated on her, but fuck, was that even real or did she lie about it, too? Was any of it real with her?

No, you couldn’t fake the kind of chemistry we had.

Maybe she has it with him, too.

Dick’s smarmy grin was salt in an open wound. Rage flooded me. Gut-searing, all-consuming, blackout hate for the bastard. I’d never wanted to crush another man’s windpipe so much in my life. To feel it give underneath my palms until his eyes bulged and he gasped for his last breath.

“You better hit that button now, Dick.” In something out of a movie, I turned, reached across the desk and lifted him out of his chair by his shirt front. His face blanched. He clawed at my hands, tried to reason with me, but I blocked it all out. “You arrogant, narcissistic piece of shit. You whored out your s tepdaughter for a game. You really do think everyone else is shit on your gaudy-ass Lucchese alligator boots, don’t you?” I felt people pulling at my arms, I was fairly sure I smelled urine, but it was all the buzzing of flies.

I knew I couldn’t kill him.

But I would get one hell of a punch in on this diseased microdick who was a scourge on the game I loved. The woman I loved. “Well guess what, you sack of donkey shit. You bleed. Just like the rest of us.”

I loaded up and punched.

But I didn’t hit Dick.

Hayes stepped into it and I nailed him in a pectoral muscle.

That’s when I realized I’d had a security guard on one arm, Hayes had been on the other, and a second teammate around the side of my desk was trying to pry my hand off Dick’s shirt. I could hear his assistant screaming into a phone and the last guy had me around the waist with his feet braced against the desk. I put both my hands down.

Dick tried to straighten his shirt. “Get this asshole out of my sight. Your new team will hear about this, Shaw. So will the commissioner.” Everyone turned to me like they weren’t sure they should move. “Now!” Dick yelled like a recalcitrant toddler.

Leaning down, I picked up the folder that had fallen to the floor, and I walked out of his office like my life hadn’t gone up in flames and the ashes weren’t floating all around me.