Chapter 27 Cole
COLE
Dad
Delaney will attend one of your games this weekend.
Me
No.
Dad
I’ve already got her a ticket for the section with the team’s guests. Give her a jersey to wear.
Me
No.
Dad
Then your pretty little medic is going to lose her scholarship.
Me
Christ, Dad, way to ramp it up to a thousand.
Dad
That better mean you’ll follow orders.
Me
I’ll do it.
Delaney’s face fell when she saw me waiting for her in the arrivals hall of Yorkfield International.
Good. I wanted her disappointed, wanted someone else to feel a fraction of what I was feeling.
“Expecting someone else?” I snatched her suitcase away before she could protest. “Daddy didn’t send the private jet?”
“Yeah, I was expecting someone who’s not an asshole,” she shot back, and even as I hated everything she represented, I admired her backbone. She was as stuck as I was.
“Too bad,” I muttered as I led her to my car. “Ready to come out as my girlfriend?”
She laughed bitterly. “No, but my father wants to publicly move our relationship from dating to engaged before Thanksgiving, so if we’re going to make this look like anything other than what it is, we need to get started.”
My gut clenched at the thought of telling the world about Delaney, telling the team, telling Eva. I took a shuddering breath. I had to explain to Eva why I’d let the engagement go forward, even if it hurt her all over again.
When we got to the car, I opened the door for Delaney automatically. One thing my father had done was beat my manners into me.
She looked up at me with amusement as I impatiently waited for her to buckle her seatbelt. “What’s got you so antsy?”
I checked my phone. Eva still hadn’t answered my text from this morning, but she’d worn the coat. I’d seen her on campus yesterday, wrapped in the grey wool we’d bought her, and the sight had made my chest ache.
I shoved the phone in my pocket and stalked around to my side of the car, jaw clenched so tight, my teeth hurt.
“There’s someone else,” Delaney said quietly once I was behind the wheel.
My hands gripped the steering wheel. “Yeah.”
“Does she know? About us?”
“Yeah.” The words bitter on my tongue. At least I was fucking sober right now, even if I wanted to be anything but.
“I’m not going to say you can trust me,” Delaney continued. “Because I’ll do whatever it takes to survive, and that includes fucking you over six ways to Sunday. But if you need someone to talk to…” She trailed off.
“Your father really wants this marriage, doesn’t he?”
“Desperate for it,” she answered.
“Why?” I asked. The media deal didn’t make any sense, not with my father’s cash flow problems.
“Your empire’s falling apart,” she said simply. “My father wants to pillage the ruins when it collapses.”
My hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“When it all goes to shit,” Delaney continued matter-of-factly, “my father will be there to pick up the pieces. The deal he signed with your father for this marriage guaranteed that. And if by some miracle, your father turns things around, my father will make a fortune by merging.”
“Fuck.”
She studied her perfectly manicured nails. “So here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll play the devoted girlfriend—”
“You’re not my girlfriend,” I snarled.
“Your devoted girlfriend,” she repeated. “I’ll smile for the cameras, wear your jersey, and let you use me as cover for whatever bullshit games you’re playing.”
“I’m not—”
“Please.” She cut me off. “I’m not stupid.” Her gaze turned to mine as I drove. “Just keep me safe, Cole. When this blows up—and it will—make sure I’m not collateral damage.”
I swallowed hard. Fuck. Fuck!
“All right,” I said roughly. “You play your part, and I’ll do the best I can.”
“Not good enough,” she snapped.
“Fine,” I muttered. “Appreciate your honesty.”
“I’m sorry,” Delaney said after a long silence. “About your girlfriend.”
“Yeah,” I said roughly. “Me fucking too.”
A text message displayed on my car’s screen.
Tristan
You really doing this?
I stared at it, my chest constricting. I’d warned him about Delaney arriving, that she’d be in the bleachers with the puck bunnies and girlfriends. He knew why I was doing it, and he was still pissed, dammit.
“Friend?”
“You could say that,” I rasped.
Delaney looked at me as I drove out of the airport parking lot. “You okay?”
“I have to be.”
I rolled up to pregame in my required suit, my hands shaking slightly as I gripped the steering wheel.
Just get through tonight. Play the game. Smile for the cameras with Delaney. Make Dad think you’re falling in line so he doesn’t hurt anyone.
Someone rapped on my window—Massi, already in his suit, icy annoyance written across his face.
Fuck. I forced a smile and got out.
“You good?” Massi asked as we walked toward the building.
“Fucking perfect,” I lied to the sanctimonious prick.
“Why are you such an asshole all the time?” Massi muttered, and my eyes widened. This didn’t sound like he hated me.
“I’m exactly the asshole you’ve been imagining me to be.”
Massi’s eyebrows shot up, and he grinned. “I’m well aware.”
When I didn’t respond to the teasing, he cocked his head and looked at me for a long moment. “Something you want to tell me?”
I pressed my lips together. “Just make sure Eva’s okay after the game today, all right?”
He blinked then narrowed his eyes, squeezing his hand on my shoulder until it felt like my bones ground together. “What did you do?”
I swallowed, knowing what I had to do. The only way to take my father down was to get close to him, and the only way I could get close to him was to fool him into thinking I was playing his game.
“My fiancée is attending the game,” I muttered. “Sitting with the team guests. Wearing my jersey.”
Massi went very still. “Fiancée. I thought she was your girlfriend.”
“She was. My father’s in a hurry to close the deal.”
“And Eva?”
My jaw clenched. “Make sure someone checks on her after the game. Please.”
“What are you doing, Carter?”
“Playing my father’s game.” I met his eyes. “He thinks I’m falling in line. Getting engaged to the right girl. Giving up hockey for the family business. But if I can get close enough, if he trusts me…”
“You can destroy him from the inside.”
“Maybe.”
Massi studied me for a long moment, as if he knew exactly what I was feeling. Not for the first time, I wondered what secrets he hid, what price he’d paid to his mafia family to be able to play hockey. “That’s going to cost you everything. The team. Your future. Eva.”
“I know.” My voice cracked, despite my best efforts. “But I can’t let him keep hurting people. Can’t let him keep using me as a weapon.”
He nodded slowly then glanced over my shoulder at Tristan, who watched us from the team entrance to the arena. “Does he know?”
“That I’m protecting Eva? Yes. That I’m going to take down my father? No.” The admission tasted like betrayal. “If I tell him, he’ll try to stop me. Or worse, he’ll try to help.”
I’d go to work for my father. I’d pretend to have a relationship with Delaney. I’d do whatever he asked—anything to protect Eva.
Massi’s hand dropped from my shoulder. “You’re capable of being a good man, Carter.” He turned toward the tunnel. “Now fucking prove it.”