Chapter 5 #2
I tap on the face of my Rolex three times. “He’s trying already. The whole team is. So, why have I been called in on the day after I finally moved in with your daughter?”
Fuck. You.
Finally, that appears to hit.
Coach’s gaze shoots to meet Robyn’s unimpressed one.
She crosses her arms. “I moved in with D’Angelo yesterday. The twins are living with us as well. I briefed security. We’re happy, thanks for asking.”
For the first time, coach’s expression softens.
I hold my breath, as he settles in the leather chair behind his desk. He is taking his time answering.
I stiffen.
What if he tries to split us up?
Our secret relationship is dangerous for his daughter. I have things in both my present life and past that could hurt her if they were exposed in the press.
Coach’s assessing gaze settles on me, before swinging to Robyn again. “After what happened with Wilder, you know that I only care about you being happy. I wish that I didn’t…”
He catches himself, as if stopping himself from revealing something that he hadn’t intended to, before clasping his strong hands on the table.
I look at him sharply. What had he been going to say?
“Didn’t what?” Robyn demands.
He shakes his head. “I’ve watched you go through a lot of bullshit together. I’m your dad. Of course I want your partners to have your back. It seems that you have theirs.”
Robyn crosses her arms, tossing her fiery hair.
I’ll never tell her that she looks like a cute but fierce squirrel when she does that.
It may be why Eden has fallen for her.
Unexpectedly, coach adds, gruffly. “Have you talked to your brother this week?”
Robyn stiffens. “We agreed not to do this.”
“Do what?” Coach’s eyes flash. “Ask about my own damn son? Just because he’s too stubborn to return my calls doesn’t mean that you can’t at least tell me that the little shit is okay.
He obviously doesn’t care about his own dad.
When is he going to get over his tantrum and stop wrecking our family like he always has? ”
When Robyn sways, Shay instantly rushes to step toward her, wrapping his arms around her.
I pale.
Once, I thought that the way coach treated Cody, me, and the rest of the team was normal. But then, I’d been sent by my own family to an institution that beat me for breaking rules like looking out of a window, meeting a teacher’s eye, or even fucking smiling.
I’d had my hair shaved off and my dignity stripped from me.
Now, I won’t allow anyone, from Cody to the newbie players and youngest staff members, be broken down in the same way by coach.
“Code was never the reason that our family was wrecked,” Robyn replies.
She’s shaking. “He set the boundary that you may only see him inside work and not outside. He doesn’t want to be alone with you.
You haven’t been respecting that by trying to contact him, which is why I’m not talking about him to you.
I will never go behind my brother’s back. ”
When coach slams his hands down on the desk, I leap out of my seat, and with deliberate precision, place my own hands down next to coach’s.
Our faces are close.
It startles him.
I coolly meet coach’s shocked gaze. “Bust my ass as much as you want. But lay off your son and daughter, or we are going to have a problem.”
“I’m their dad,” coach snarls. “Stay out of my family business. It’s nothing to do with you.”
“Robyn is my family now, which means that her brother is as well. And I don’t allow family to be threatened or hurt.”
“They’re my family too.” Shay’s expression is harder than I’ve seen it before. He scowls at coach. “And I’d do anything to protect them.”
Robyn appears overwhelmed, swiveling her gaze between Shay and me.
Slowly, coach settles back in his seat, as if it’s a victory and not a defeat.
Coach’s smile worries me like he knows something that we don’t.
“If anyone else had spoken to me like that, then I would have handed them their asses and made sure that they never played anywhere but the minor leagues again. But I understand what love can do to you. I’ve experienced how much it can twist your mind.
I just hope that you all know what you’re risking and throwing away for this relationship.
I hope that your brother understands too. ”
Robyn’s brow furrows. “Throwing away…?”
“Luckily,” coach taps on the laptop, “a new coach is starting next week who I hope will remind you who is in charge around here. And it’s not you.
One of your many issues, Jude, is that you need to be in control at all times.
You’ve never learned when someone else has the power. Even I am not the boss of this club.”
My blood runs cold. Chilled, my skin goosebumps.
Coach turns the laptop around, revealing the man who has been sitting silently listening throughout the meeting on Zoom.
Charles Heine, the Bay Rebels’ billionaire owner.
I scramble to remember what I’ve said…given away.
I’d have been much more guarded if I’d known that Heine was pretty much in the room.
“Thanks for telling me that Charles was here,” I force out.
Coach shrugs. “You were too busy kicking my ass. Do I have your full attention on the meeting now?”
I nod, stiffly.
Heine is the obsessive man who kidnapped me, thrashed me, and tried to force me to take him on as his sub.
I refused.
Shay is the only personal sub I have ever wanted.
I flinch, feeling the phantom sensation of the whip falling across my back in lines of fire.
Crack…crack…crack…
Shay rubs along the top of my back, where the worst line fell that took weeks to heal. Slow, purposeful rubs of his thumb that ground me in the present but remind me that he’s with me now. I’m not trapped by myself with Heine, until Eden rescued me.
I’m whole, and safe, and Heine is exiled to Germany.
Heine has a restraining order. He shouldn’t be able to contact me.
Heine is pretty with cornflower blue eyes and wavy honey blond hair.
Yet his eyes are as dead as a shark’s.
He is dressed in his signature look of black skinny jeans, a designer blue long sleeved t-shirt that matches his eyes, and a bulky jacket, which is embroidered with Gothic skulls.
The typical billionaire asshole look.
“Surprised to see me?” Heine appears delighted.
“We had a deal,” I manage to force out, although my throat is dry. “I have an order out against you. You’re breaking the law.”
“Boring.” Heine waves his hand. “My lawyers are better than yours, Mr. D’Angelo, and the time was reduced. You may have been distracted by that dull stick waving you do, but the restraining order has expired. Don’t worry, I’ve been a good boy. I’m still in Germany.”
I can barely swallow.
Robyn and Shay hurriedly walk to stand at my shoulder.
Heine’s expression sours when he sees them.
“That suit brings out the blue in your eyes.” Heine scans my face with the same eagerness that he once did when he looked at me like I was a god. “You look good.”
I should have recognized it as part of his love bombing.
Now, I’m sure that it’s performative or to piss off Shay.
It’s working.
“You don’t.” Shay is breathing too fast. “The skulls on your jacket bring out that the Goth nerd who never had any mates.”
Robyn chuckles.
Heine’s pale cheeks pink. “And your leather jacket brings out the biker trash in you.”
Shay’s shoulders curl in on themselves, but I immediately grasp his hand in mine. “You won’t talk to any of my team like that. What do you want?”
“I’m still the owner of your little club. I can take an interest in it if I want.”
“Why are you interested in the club now?” I demand. “You’ve left us alone for months.”
A veil settles across Heine’s face. It’s unsettling.
What isn’t he saying?
There is a cruel curl to his sly mouth that says it’s nothing good.
My pulse speeds up.
“I tried to stop this.” Coach sounds weary. It’s unlike him enough to startle me. “Robyn, whatever you think of me now, I have spent the entire season fighting for the club’s legacy and protecting the players. I took this to the board. I tried to—”
“Yes, yes, noble blah blah.” Heine rolls his eyes.
“The irony is that your continued success has made the Bay Rebels international legends for the first time in their history. You are a few wins away from making the playoffs. And that has meant you’ve kept my attention.
Your boy Shay is now a star of the NHL. Yet all I’ve heard from my father, as I’ve learned the ropes of the business here in Germany, is that I must sort out your finances and make this a success. ”
“If this is about taking revenge on me,” I boldly meet his amused gaze, “then name it and do it. Keep everybody else out of it.”
Robyn makes a desperate noise of denial low in her throat.
I ignore her.
Heine pretends to look sympathetic but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“That’s sweet. On a business level, however, I’ve promised my father that the Bay Rebels are going to qualify for the playoffs.
You do remember what that man does to me if I break my promises…
? The next six games on points are crucial, so Silas Anderson tells me.
On points, you can have clinched a playoff spot within the next six games if you play them right.
Yet I’ve read Bolling’s report, and he’s disappointed in you. ”
I take a steadying breath.
I can do this.
For Shay. Robyn. Eden. Bay Rebels. The entire town.
“What do you want?” I demand.
Heine appears thrilled, leaning forward toward the screen, as if he can touch me all the way from Germany. “Beg.”
My heart leaps into my throat.
Coach stiffens.
“That’s going too far,” coach says, gruffly. “Jude has led his team to victories and—"
“I’m not talking to you, old man.” Heine never looks away from me. “I said, beg.”
I want to hurl.
“Please…” I cough, clearing my throat. This goes against my entire dynamic. Heine is watching me avidly. He knows how hard this is for me. “Please don’t target anyone but me. We will win the next games.”
Robyn’s expression is thunderous. Shay is as pale as I am.
“Good. Then you won’t mind a little bet,” Heine declares.
“Shit,” Shay mutters.
This isn’t about the success or failure of the team.
I knew that it was a mistake to become relaxed, comfortable, and happy.
Every time that I have, life has pulled the rug out from under me. I should have known from the call that Heine and Blythe made four months ago.
I never won against Heine.
He only allowed me the illusion because he knew that if he timed his revenge at precisely the right moment, it would hurt so much fucking more…like the moment that I finished renovating my home and finally, my lovers moved in with me.
And he’s right.
It does.
I narrow my eyes. “What type of bet?”
Smug, Heine meets my gaze. “Firstly, thank me for my kindness.”
I arch my brow. “Go fuck yourself.”
The first genuine emotion sheets across Heine’s face: fury.
“My father wanted to fire every staff member,” he hisses. “Replace you as captain. Maybe sell the whole club. I talked him out of it and persuaded him that you could lead the Bay Rebels to the playoffs. Want to know what that cost me? Now, thank me.”
“Thank you, Charles,” I say.
This time, it’s genuine.
I do know what it cost Heine. Probably, a busted lip and black eye. If he was unlucky, a short stay in hospital.
Heine looks wrongfooted, peering at me like I must be mocking him.
Then he leans back in his seat. “So, the bet is that you win four out of six of your next games. Your coach here is confident that you can manage it and clinch that playoff spot. You’ve ungratefully attacked him since you came in here.
But he’s spent the last hour praising all of you and the team.
He believes in you to a sickening degree.
Win the bet, and I promise not to contact you again for the rest of the season. ”
My stomach is churning.
I smooth my expression to a cool mask. “And if we don’t?”
Heine’s malicious gaze slides to Shay at my shoulder and then Robyn; something inside me breaks. “Then it would be my duty as owner to make some big changes. I’d trade our newbie player here with Wilder Talon from the Pittsburgh Penguins. What a shame that would break up your happy little family.”