Chapter 33 #2
“He’ll say you owe him one,” Micah warned. “And he always, always makes you pay.”
But I didn’t care, so he said he’d take care of it.
A few hours later, after pacing back and forth in lockup, worrying about Lucy and losing my shit that I couldn’t get to her, an officer appeared, opening the metal barred door.
“Your lawyer’s here,” he said stiffly, and I followed him out, down the hall, into a small dark room.
“Where the hell is Lucy Braverman?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, just left me there.
Moments later, a woman and man entered the room, the woman holding a briefcase, the man an easy smirk—the kind of a smirk you only smiled if you were worth billions of dollars and had nothing to worry about, ever.
That was Marcus, which meant the woman must be—
“Ilana Brandeis,” she said formally. “And before you ask, I’ve already seen Lucy. She’s fine.”
Relieved, I sat in the chair. “Thank you.”
She waved me off. “I know how you men are by now. If I hadn’t handled her case first, you’d be barking at me to go do it.”
She was right.
She also got right to work.
“Here’s the deal,” she said. “Marcus and Micah were able to find dirt on Professor Alison Putrovski, and they…spoke to her. Micah looked into her, and it turns out she lied about graduating from her Ph.D. program. She never should have gotten this job in the first place. It took a little leaning on her, but she dropped the charges against Lucy, and will still write a recommendation for some program Lucy’s interested in. ”
Oh, thank fuck.
“You, however, punched your university president, and although I can protect you legally, there’s very little I can do to protect your job. Marcus is willing to bail you out, but this will go on your record, and Saul Glazer is unwilling to let you stay on at the university.”
Once upon a time, losing my coaching job would have destroyed me. Now…I shrugged. “I doubted I was keeping my job anyway once my relationship with Lucy became public.” She was more important than any job. “Am I going to have to go to prison?”
“No.” Ilana grinned like a shark. “I was able to work him down from that. But you will have to pay a very, very hefty fine…and it’s going to be difficult to find another coaching job.”
“Which is where I come in,” Marcus said, smoothing nonexistent lint off his suit jacket. “I’ll pay the fine, so you don’t have to worry about it. But I’ll need a favor.”
Ah, here we go.
“Yes?”
“As it turns out, I am deeply in need of a head coach with your talents. You see, I recently purchased an NHL team here in Gehenom, The Beasts, and the coach is…well, let’s just say he’s subpar.
If you’re interested in the job, we’ll make all this go away.
If you aren’t…well, I guess you’ll have to enjoy prison… and unemployment.”
Ilana chuckled. “Well, until Lucy comes into her trust in a few years.”
I glowered. Fuck that. I was going to provide for Lucy, not the other way around. She could use the money from her inheritance to start an animal sanctuary for every stray in the world, for all I cared.
Besides. This was a dream.
Head coach of an NHL team? My former NHL team?
“What’s the catch?” I asked.
Marcus’s smirk widened into a smile. “The catch is you have to trade four of the players for my little brother and his three friends. You see, my brother doesn’t always make the best choices, and this will allow me to keep a closer eye on him.”
Ah.
Family drama.
Well, it wasn’t my problem.
I held out my hand, cracked and blood-dried knuckles and all.
“Deal,” I said.
“Deal,” Marcus repeated, and although I felt like I’d signed on with the devil, I wasn’t going to worry about it.
We were in Gehenom, after all.
“Now, let me see Lucy,” I said immediately.
“Of course, you’re free to go. She’s waiting outside.”
I couldn’t have gotten out of there sooner. The police gave me back my things, grumbling about shady dealings with shadier lawyers, and then I was out of the precinct and on the street in the early morning light.
Lucy sat on the steps, tapping away on her phone.
“Lucy, sweetheart,” I rasped, storming down the stairs toward her, lifting her up and spinning her around so she was in my arms.
I searched her. Her hair was a little mussed up, and there was some dirt on her dress, but otherwise, she was no worse for wear.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“Am I okay? Are you okay? What the hell were you thinking, hitting the president of Tabb like that?”
Well, that was easy. I set her down but gripped her upper arms to keep her close.
“I was thinking if I hit him, he’d press charges and the police would be forced to take me in the cop car with you. And I didn’t want to be away from you for a single second. I’m fine, in fact, I think we’re actually both going to be fine. I told you I’d handle it, didn’t I?”
She laughed, and the relieved sound lit up my chest like sparkling wine, making me feel fucking giddy. Me, Coach Samson, the grumpiest fucker alive, giddy.
“You did, although this was not what I figured ‘handling it’ meant.”
I shrugged. “I’d do anything for you. I will do anything for you. You know that, right? You’re the most important thing in the world to me. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said, rising onto her toes to kiss me. “Let’s go home.”
Home.
Our home.
“Yeah, sweetheart, let’s go home,” I said, even though for me, home was wherever she was. Although our actual home had restraints under the bed, restraints I had plans for.
“You know,” she said, as we waited for Marcus to join us and drive us home, “when I pictured being handcuffed, that wasn’t what I had in mind.”
I growled.
“Fortunately, I have the perfect handcuffs for a troublemaker like you,” I said. “We can use them when we get home.”
“Promise?” she asked, eyes brilliant with lust and affection.
“Promise,” I said, because I’d give her whatever she wanted. And if what she wanted was to be restrained with handcuffs and a spreader bar while I fucked her in half, well, then that’s exactly what I’d do.
Because for her, I’d do anything.
“I love you, troublemaker,” I said. “I’m not the most eloquent of men, and I wish I had the right words to make it clear just how important you are to me.
Because you are the most important thing that exists.
I used to fear losing control, but if losing control means gaining you in the process, then it was motherfucking worth it.
I can’t promise I’ll ever find the right words, and I won’t promise that I won’t keep you under lock and key to keep you safe and mine.
But I do promise I’ll show you how much I love you, every goddamn day for the rest of our lives. ”
Her eyes filled with tears, the happy kind.
“I love you, too, Blake Samson. And you can start by kissing me.”
So I did. She was the first woman in my life I’d kissed, and she’d be the last. And that made me the luckiest fucker in the world.
“Let’s go home,” she said against my lips.
And we did.