22. Talon
Chapter 22
Talon
The worst thing about being behind bars is worrying about Leni.
I fucking hate that I’m here, spinning every horror story imaginable, while that fuckwad Craig is walking around with access to my girl.
My beautiful ray of sunshine who was too panicked to speak. Or move. Or even breathe.
Noting the way Leni shut down wrecked me. A shot of adrenaline burned through my veins, and the second I saw Craig touch her, I was moving. At that moment, I didn’t give a fuck who was watching, or recording, me. I didn’t care about anything other than making sure Craig didn’t hurt Leni.
And then, he fucking groped her ass. Touched her without her permission. Scared her. Again.
I lost it and the only thing I regret is that I’m stuck here, in a damn jail cell, and Leni’s out there with no way to contact me.
“Miller. You got a visitor,” an officer calls out.
I sit up straighter but don’t bother responding.
Before I can decide on who I think it is—my bets are between Keller and Avery—Coach appears on the other side of the cell.
“Coach.” I jump to my feet.
Coach stares at me. He widens his stance and crosses his arms over his chest.
Shit. Is Leni okay? Did something else happen?
I let out a nervous exhale.
On a logical level, I know my entire career is in a precarious position. There’s video footage of me choking Craig and threatening his life. There is an entire room of witnesses to craft their own versions of what happened.
My career and everything I worked for, hustled toward, is on the line.
And the only person I care about is Leni.
“Is she okay?” I ask.
At my question, Coach sighs heavily. His shoulders slump and his head drops. The weight of the world has rested on his shoulders for so long and now, he’s buckling beneath it.
“You knew?” he tosses back.
About Craig. He must mean about Craig.
But I’m not blowing up Leni’s spot or sharing anything that she hasn’t told her parents. I won’t do that to her.
“How is she?” I ask again.
Coach’s head snaps up, his eyes flashing. He doesn’t like me asking questions, but I don’t care. I’m too twisted up over Leni and her safety to give a shit about anything else, even Coach Strauss’s opinion of me.
“She told us the truth,” Coach says, wrapping a hand around one of the bars.
I breathe out. Thank God. “And Craig?”
“I took care of him.” There’s a sharpness to Coach’s tone and I narrow my eyes, trying to understand why he seems angry with me.
But then, I get it. I’m the guy his daughter came to instead of him.
And he’s a dad, worried out of his mind, and not fully ready to step aside and cede a position he’s carried for so long to another guy in Leni’s life.
“Good,” I say, and I mean it. I’ll protect Leni with everything I have but at the end of the day, I want her safe. It doesn’t matter to me who makes it happen as long as it’s done.
“She told you first.” Coach sounds accusatory.
“She didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“Fuck.” He shakes his head. “Fuck, Miller. I should’ve known.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “But she was dealing with a lot…and to be fair, Coach, I guessed at it.”
“Guessed?” Surprise flickers in his eyes.
“That night at the lake house, the shit that went down with Toby, I saw Leni’s reaction. And it reminded me of my mom.” I shrug, hating that I was right about it. “There were other things too but don’t beat yourself up over it. Sometimes, it takes an outside perspective, some distance, to see things for what they are. You two are close, you always were.”
Coach’s jaw clenches, anger, hurt, and relief all warring for position in his expression. “Thank you, Talon. For being there for her.”
“I’ll always step up for her. I’m not going anywhere, Coach. I know you never wanted Leni with a football player, and trust me, I know there are better men for her than me. But I love her. She’s it for me. And if you need to take your anger out on me for the rest of the season to prove some point, or put me in the place you want me, go ahead. I’m not walking away from her. Not for fucking anything, not even for you. Not even for football.”
Coach stares at me hard. Seconds pass and I hold his gaze, neither of us blinking. Then, he nods. “You’ll be out within the hour.”
“Coach?”
He sighs, looking tired. “The Attorney General is a huge Coyotes fan. I made a few calls, and you’ll get slapped with some community service.”
Holy shit. I hang my head as waves of relief, of gratitude, roll through me. “Thank you, Coach.” I meet his eyes. “Fuck. Thank you.”
He nods once.
“I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow.”
He shakes his head. “Nah, come by the house once you’re out.”
“I will. I’ll be there.”
Coach continues to stare at me.
“What?” I ask, growing uncomfortable.
“You earned your spot on the field, Miller. You’re one hell of a kicker and an asset to the team. My issue with you and Leni is just that— mine . I didn’t like that I didn’t see your relationship coming, but that’s on me. You earned your place by Leni’s side. You stood up for her when she needed you. You’re one hell of a man, Talon. You’re good enough for my daughter. But you don’t need me to tell you that. You need to believe it and know, deep down, that what you two share is special. It’s enough.”
He turns to leave, and I reach out. “Wait.”
Coach stops and lifts an eyebrow. “Thank you,” I say, meaning it. “If I hadn’t met you, if you hadn’t helped me, I don’t think Leni ever would have looked at me twice.”
Coach holds my gaze, and I see the moment he gets it, truly understands that his daughter chose me, in part, because of him. He snorts softly and shakes his head. “The world works in mysterious ways, Miller. See you tonight.” He glances at his watch. “Hopefully before midnight.”
“See you, Coach.”
“Make sure your head’s screwed on right for Sunday’s game,” he adds as he walks away. He turns around again before he exits the space. “Don’t worry about that son of a bitch from New York either. There won’t be another problem.”
“Got it,” I say, knowing Craig’s been handled. Will I ever know the full extent of what that means? Probably not. But I’m cut from a similar cloth as Coach Strauss, so I trust that when he says I don’t need to worry, I don’t need to give it a second thought.
I plop back down in the cell and wait to be released. I’m sprung within the hour, with community service hours like Coach said. My agent, Callie, is already on the line to discuss a PR recovery strategy.
“Callie, can I call you tomorrow?” I ask as I duck into the car waiting out front to take me to the Strauss residence.
“Sure,” Callie says. “But call me first thing, Talon. We need to get ahead of the narrative on this. I need to know, as soon as possible, how you want to spin it.”
“I’ll get back to you,” I say, knowing a lot of that will depend on what Leni is comfortable sharing. I’m not going to push her to share her story or paint Craig a certain way. If she never wants to spill a detail of her past with him, then I’ll publicly take the heat and move on.
“You got lucky today, Talon,” Callie says quietly.
As the houses outside the window blur together and the car I’m in approaches Coach’s house, I spot Leni sitting on the front porch, waiting for me.
I grin as soon as I see her. “Don’t I know it,” I mutter, ending the call.
When the car pulls into the driveway, Leni is bounding down the stairs to meet me. As soon as I step out, she lunges into my waiting arms.
I catch her easily, one arm supporting her legs, the other cradling the back of her neck. I kiss her hard and she hugs me tightly.
“Thank God you’re okay,” I breathe, resting my forehead against hers.
“I’m so glad you’re out,” she replies, peppering my cheeks, my nose, my eyelids with kisses. “Thank you for today, Talon. I’m so sorry I?—”
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I do.” She pulls back, disappointment lining her expression. “I should have done a lot of things differently. I wish I had spoken up weeks ago about Craig. Now it’s a ‘he said, she said’ situation and…” She trails off. “You got stuck in the middle.”
I place her on her feet, shaking my head. “Baby, don’t you get it? As long as you’re safe and happy, I don’t care.”
“Well, I do.” She takes my hand and pulls me toward the house.
The car that dropped me off backs out of the driveway.
“I begged Dad to connect me to your agent,” Leni continues.
“Callie? We just hung up.” I look at Leni expectantly.
She blushes. “I know. She said I had to talk to you but Talon, I’m ready to go public. My dad’s from New York, you know?”
“Yeah,” I say. His family immigrated to a small, cottage town, Honey Harbor.
“He’s calling in every marker he has—to the DA in New York, who he knows from undergrad. To the AG here in Tennessee?—”
“Who’s apparently a fan,” I murmur.
“Yeah.” She nods. “There was another woman who filed a police report against Craig years ago. The District Attorney in New York is going to investigate it. I’ve filed a restraining order against Craig in the meantime.” Leni lowers her gaze. “I spoke with my parents.” She pulls in a breath. “I’m thinking about pressing charges.”
“You are?” My eyes widen. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”
“But what if he comes after you in retaliation?” she says, looking worried.
“Leni…” I shake my head. “No way. If you want to press charges?—”
“I want to tell the world what he did to me, Talon. I want everyone to know that you were protecting me. I want to help save your reputation the way you’ve saved me. And I want us to move past this, together.”
I stop walking and wait until she turns toward me. Then, I wrap my arms around her and kiss her hard. “I want everything with you, Sunny. I’ll play this any way you want, as long as it’s what you want.”
“Good.” She grins, looking more confident and at ease than she should after such a stressful day. “Then leave it to me.”
I bend down to kiss her. My hand fists in her hair and I barely feel the sting from hitting Craig only a handful of hours ago.
The porch lights flicker on and off and Leni and I jump apart.
Vicki stands in the doorway laughing. “I haven’t had to do that in long time.”
I look at Leni, raising an eyebrow.
She shrugs. “It wasn’t for me.”
“It was for Lincoln,” Vicki explains, holding the door open for us.
When I step over the threshold, Vicki hugs me. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for our daughter.”
“It was nothing,” I say, unsure how to handle these emotions. The Strauss women have no problem embracing vulnerability.
Vicki shakes her head. “It was important, Talon. The way you protected her, the way she confided in you, it matters. Come on.” She loops her arm through mine and leads me into the dining room where Coach and Leni are already seated. “I hope you like pizza.”
Various pizzas are spread out down the center of the table along with a green salad and a Caprese salad.
“This beats debutante ball dinner any day,” I joke.
Coach laughs, Leni rolls her eyes, and Vicki grins.
I sit down at the dining table. All eyes turn to Coach, who lifts his beer in the air. “To Talon,” he says, causing a lump to swell in my throat. “Welcome to the family, son.”
Tears spring to Leni’s eyes. She reaches for my hand beneath the table, and I lace our fingers together.
For the first time, I feel like I belong to something other than a football team. I belong to Leni and the Strauss family.
It’s a homecoming I never knew I needed but, in this moment, it feels like winning the Super Bowl.
“Thank you, Coach.”
He nods. “If you think this means I’m gonna go easy on you…” He lets his sentence hang in the air. “I’m not.”
Leni laughs while Vicki smiles at her husband.
“I’d expect nothing less,” I say, meaning it.
Coach holds his own to a higher standard and I’m honored to be included among them.