Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hunter
We sat in the back seat together on the way to meet the DA Penny sat up front with Rainey, who drove.
Penny had returned in barely enough time for me to dress in a suit for the arraignment.
I couldn’t argue about staying with Cat.
I had nothing left to lose. She had my back, she’d come to my rescue.
I felt like a drowning man being saved by a mermaid.
An hour later, with the arraignment over and the bail set, we were on our way to pay.
My chest tightened at the cost. One more problem to press through.
I had to figure a way to pay Cat back for this, figure out something I could sell, but most of what I had of value had already been sold to pay off my fines and my old man’s debts.
He was the last person I needed on my mind right now.
As Cat pulled me through the echoing corridor of the courthouse, leaving behind the attorney and everyone else, I had to ask because I didn’t want her getting into trouble too.
“Do you have permission to use the team’s money for bail? There’s no need for both of us to be in deep shit.”
Cat said in a whisper, “I have permission to use the team’s money as I see fit to protect your and the team’s reputation. I haven’t been wrong yet.”
“You’ve been on the job less than a year.” She gave me a look, for once not rolling her eyes. Instead she was dead serious. But then this was a serious matter. Too serious. I was fucked. We both knew it. Or at least I did.
We reached the clerk’s office where Rainey caught up with us and took care of business.
Cat turned over the team’s credit card and I held my breath, waiting for it to be rejected.
But it wasn’t, and I was officially out on bail.
I would be allowed to go to the game in Buffalo the next day as far as the courts were concerned, but I’d be surprised if the team allowed me.
When we got to the back exit, Rainey said, “I’ll see you at my office tomorrow, Cat. First thing in the morning. We have a lot of work to do.”
She turned to me and shook my hand. “Don’t worry, Hunter. We’ll get this resolved in your favor. And we’ll do it as fast as we can.” She left us standing there alone, me and Cat. Against the world. I was such a fool.
We headed for her car in the back lot of the courthouse without being seen. Penny was there waiting for us, keys in hand. I could see why Coach depended on her for logistics.
“I have a cab waiting,” Penny said. She gave Cat a quick hug, then kissed her on the cheek.
Giving me a wave, she left. We watched her until she turned the corner of the building, as if she’d been our chaperone.
I realized with a sudden pound of my heart, that Penny had been our chaperone. And now we were alone.
“You’re innocent, Hunter, and you shouldn’t have to go through this. It’s so unfair.” She grabbed my arms and spoke like she was trying to revive me. Like she knew I was tired of the guilty-until-proven-innocent bullshit.
“Let’s get in the car.” I opened the door and shoved her inside then went around and jumped in the passenger side. She started the car, but didn’t put it in gear.
She turned to me and said, “I couldn’t stand to see you spend a second in jail for something you didn’t do.
Not if I can help it—and I can. I could.
” Her anger flared, self-righteous indignation flying from her in sparks of heat I could feel.
She believed in me. I stared at her, not knowing what to say, emotions getting the better of me.
As I sat there mute, my chest tightening, she filled in the gap.
“You’ve already been through enough, burdened with picking up the pieces of a mess you didn’t create.”
My heart stuttered at the sureness in her words, the confidence in her voice. She knows something about my past, before the incident in LA.
“What do you mean, Cat? What do you know?” I held her by the arms, trying to stop my hands from shaking, the reality of my situation descending on me like the crumbling ruins of a monument.
“I know about your father,” she said. “I know why you need money. And I know that you are the most genuinely giving and heroic man I’ve ever met. You’ve been sacrificing yourself for the good of others all your life.”
Her drive to help me, to fight for me like Joan of Arc, felt like a real palpable thing, getting my juices going, my adrenaline and emotions whirling.
“Drive the car, Cat. Get us out of this place.” Forcing my head to go blank, I closed my eyes and let go of the fear of being locked up, unable to help my family, let it fade from me, let the clenching anguish of losing Cat recede.
Not that I ever had her, but we had something and it could have been gone if I didn’t get out of that place.
I’d have lost everything. Football, the least of everything, would be gone, the money for my family would be gone.
And Cat would be gone from my life. I let go of it, breathed until calm returned.
I could still lose everything, but now I had a shot. I had Cat on my side, believing in me. Fighting like hell for me.
She chattered about how impressed she was with my attorney.
“I’ll contact the Players Association so you won’t have to pay their attorney.
I’m pretty sure I can convince them.” She went on and on about every detail that she’d taken care of, all for me.
A man who’d rejected her time after time, a man who wasn’t hers, would never be, could never be hers.
We got back to her apartment as darkness fell. We came up from the garage and I had the keys, so I unlocked the door. I let her in ahead of me, as if we lived here, belonged here together.
Inside, she took off her coat and I saw the shaking in her hands. Tension coiled in me, but it wasn’t from fear or anger. This was the kind only Cat caused, the tension of pure sexual desire, the need to have her, to consume her. I went to her as she stood in her kitchen.
“I should tell you something, Hunter. I . . . went to Oneonta.”
Confusion stopped me from touching her as I stood within the circle of her scent, her heat, the sparks of her sensuality bombarding me while I tried to compute what she’d said. What it meant.
“Why?”
“Yes. I needed to do some research. You know—find some local charitable organizations for you to—”
“No need for that. I’ve already decided I want to support the Children’s Hospital.” Then I remembered I was currently labeled an assaulter of women and they might not want my brand of support. I clenched my jaw, fighting the frustration.
“But that’s not all, I spoke with a sorority sister.”
“Of course.” I almost smiled, wondering what this was all leading to. Then I realized. I still had one secret for her to uncover.
The one about my father, the bigamist.
Everything in me went still. I backed up a step. Her face went to pleading. She reached out for me. I turned away.
Flames of shame burned me from inside, lit my soul on fire, made me want to leave and never look her in the eye again.
She rushed at me as I retreated, blocking my exit. We stood near the door.
“No, don’t go. I know about your father, what he did to your mother, to you. That he had a second family, that he betrayed you so completely.” Her voice broke and her eyes glittered. She looked like I felt. Shattered. The desolation of my father’s betrayal hit me again, fresh and stinging.
“Ask my mother,” I said in a hoarse voice. “She’ll tell you he left us with a gift. My two half siblings.” I heaved a breath, concentrated on remembering their sweet faces, their innocence, the way they idolized me, thought of me as their new dad.
“In truth, she’s probably right,” I said, forcing the irony into my voice. I didn’t want her sympathy. “I’ve been left a gift and I need to measure up to the challenge. I’ve run into some roadblocks, but I’m capable of shaking loose from a couple of tackles to get to the end zone.”
“I love you, you know.”
Her words slammed through me like a miraculous surge of energy, lifting me, lifting everything in me, making me feel like I could fly.
“You’re out of your mind,” I said, but I gravitated toward her. She met me halfway. “I’m the son of a bigamist. I’ve been accused of sexual assault. I punched out a coach. What the hell are you thinking? How could you be in love with the likes of me?”
My arms wrapped around her, pulling every part of her against me, soft and cushiony, matching every part of me like two pieces of a puzzle fitting together.
“When you put it that way, I guess I am crazy. Love makes a person crazy. It’s a wonderful thing.”
She was asking me in her own way how I felt about her. I owed her honesty. Owed myself honesty.
“I wouldn’t know,” I said. Her face fell.
I cupped her cheeks in my palms. “Because I don’t need to be crazy to be in love with you.
I’d be crazy if I didn’t love you, Cat.” I crushed my lips to hers, pressed her against the wall in the entryway, and wanted to rip her clothes off right there, to have her finally, completely, and in the flesh.
But I wasn’t crazy, so I lifted her in my arms as she laughed and cried at once, and I carried her to her bedroom.
Putting her down, lifting my mouth from her luscious lips, I kept my hands on her, pressing her body against mine, let the sensation of her pelvis grinding against my hungry cock shudder through me.
After being deprived for so long, I needed to savor the feel of her, the reality of Cat in my arms, no longer only in my imagination. Breathing deeply, I took in her scent, her warmth, her energy.
“Hunter, I love you so, I want you so much. You have no idea.” She murmured into my ear, charging me with her electric words, the heat of her breath.