Chapter 35 Cole
COLE
Five minutes later, or maybe hours, I’d lost track, the door opened.
Alek stood in a black coat, his face carved from ice. Behind him, Eva appeared in pajamas, her hair pulled up in a messy bun, makeup gone. She looked younger than the woman at the gala, and when she saw me, pity flickered across her face.
“Thanks for taking care of him,” Alek said.
Declan shrugged. “You owe me one.”
I couldn’t look at her, couldn’t stand her seeing me like this—drunk, bloody, pathetic.
“Get up,” Alek growled.
I tried. Failed. The world tilted sideways.
“Bozhe moi,” Alek muttered, crossing to haul me to my feet. “You’re a mess.”
Eva examined my face. “Split lip, possible broken nose, definitely bruised ribs.” Her voice was flat. “You need x-rays.”
“No hospital,” I snapped.
“I wasn’t asking.” She was already pulling out her phone, texting someone.
“I fucking said no.”
Eva looked up at Alek, and I was so fucking jealous of the understanding that passed between them. They half-carried, half-dragged me to the exit. The cold air hit, and I threw up on the curb, Scotch and shame burning my throat.
Alek held my shoulders. Eva stepped back, arms crossed, watching me with an unreadable expression.
When I was done, they guided me to Alek’s black SUV. Eva climbed in the front passenger seat. Alek buckled me into the back like I was a child.
“Don’t throw up in my car,” he said flatly.
Instead of answering, I looked at Eva. “What are you doing here?”
“She was with me,” Alek said simply, “and I wasn’t going to leave her alone while I fetched you.”
“Are you fucking kidding—”
“Careful,” Alek snapped. “You will speak to Eva with respect, or—”
“Or what?” I snapped, so fucking tired of games.
The rest of the drive passed in silence. I closed my eyes, willing the world to stop spinning, willing Eva to say something, anything.
She didn’t.
I hated this.
The vulnerability.
The weakness.
I was Colton fucking Carter, heir to Carter Industries, star of the hockey team, and a fucking asshole who kept hurting the people I cared about the most.
When we pulled up to Alek’s building, Tristan was already there, waiting by the entrance in pajama pants and a sweatshirt, an overnight bag over his shoulder.
“Eva texted me,” he said simply when I stumbled out of the car.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“You should be.” But he got under my other arm and helped Alek get me inside.
Silently, we filed into Alek’s apartment. Eva opened the fridge like she owned the place but was stopped by his hand on her shoulder. “Go sit,” he said quietly. When she opened her mouth to object, he said, “Remember the rules?”
Her eyebrows flew up.
“Color?” he immediately asked, and god, her face transformed into sweet affection.
“Green,” she said. “I’ll go—” She waved her hand. “Sit and be waited on or something.”
“Brat,” he teased, and she giggled. Giggled! I was so fucking jealous.
“I’ll take a look at Cole,” she murmured.
Tristan guided me to the couch while Alek worked in the kitchen.
“Shirt off,” Eva said, all business. “Let me see the ribs.”
I obeyed, wincing as the fabric pulled away from bruised skin. Eva’s hands were gentle but thorough, probing for breaks and leaving a trail of soul-scorching fire everywhere she touched. Fuck, it’d be humiliating to get a hard-on right now.
“You’re lucky,” she said finally. “I don’t think anything’s broken. Just badly bruised.” She handed me an ice pack. “Hold this to your ribs.”
“Your nose isn’t broken either,” she continued, tilting my face toward the light. “But you’re going to have a hell of a black eye.” She cleaned the split on my lip with antiseptic that stung.
“Thanks,” I rasped.
When she’d finished cleaning me up, Eva moved to the other couch and snuggled up under Tristan’s arm, her expression still so fucking unreadable, it was breaking my heart.
Alek handed me a cold bottle of Gatorade. When I shook my head, he raised an eyebrow and waited.
“You’re not my dad,” I muttered.
To my surprise, he laughed, loud and carefree. “Brat,” he said to me, echoing his earlier comment to Eva. He shook the bottle once, emphasizing the command to drink it.
“Yes, sir,” I said, swallowing hard. When Alek’s cat yowled and leapt into my lap, I allowed myself a moment of smugness. At least someone preferred my company.
Eva frowned, looking at Alek. “You have a cat?”
He cocked his head. “Yes.”
“Does it have a name?”
“Koushka.”
“What does that mean?”
“Cat.”
That fucking giggle made another appearance, and when she met my eyes as if inviting me to participate in her levity, I just couldn’t bear another moment of this bullshit.
I set the cat down and dropped to my knees in front of her, wincing at the pain of the movement. “Eva, I’m so fucking sorry.”
She sat up, sliding her legs out from where they were tucked under her to either side of me, her toes dangling on the floor.
“I—” I swallowed my pride like fucking glass in my throat. “I shouldn’t have blackmailed you. I shouldn’t have dragged Tristan into blackmailing you. I definitely shouldn’t have walked away when I found out what my father had threatened yours with, and I should have explained about Delaney.”
She didn’t say anything.
“My father said he’d hurt you if I didn’t marry her.
You and Tristan. That if I didn’t play along with the engagement, he’d—” My voice cracked.
“He’d make sure you lost everything. Your scholarship, your job, your father.
And Tristan would never make it to the NHL.
I’m so fucking stupid. I thought it’d be better to push you away than keep hurting you. I was so fucking wrong.”
More silence.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, to all three of you. I swear.”
Slowly, tentatively, her fingers stretched out to push a strand of blond hair out of my face, but still, she sat in silence.
When I took a breath to keep apologizing, she shook her head sharply. “I got another message tonight while I was at the gala. From your father.”
My stomach dropped. “What did he want?”
“He’s threatening to expose Alek.” Her voice was flat. “He’s given me until Saturday to give him blackmail material, or he’s going to put my father in the hospital.”
“He’s desperate,” I said. “I’ve been telling him I want to learn the business to get access to his records and accounts. He’s skimmed millions over the past year.”
Alek went very still. “Your father built a sports betting empire that none of the Yorkfield families can touch. Not the bratva, not the Italians, nobody.”
“Yes.” I met his eyes. “But I think it’s failing. I think he’s running out of money, or there’s something else that’s wrong. That’s why he’s so desperate to keep the programs he can control under his thumb.”
“But if he loses that control—” Alek’s expression was unreadable.
“Exactly,” I said, satisfaction in my tone. “He loses everything.”
“How?” Tristan demanded. “We can’t go to the cops. Eva’s the one stealing information. We can’t go to the university. There’s no way your father doesn’t own AD Hall.”
Eva swallowed hard and opened her mouth to speak, then shut it.
“Eva?” Alek prompted gently.
“We have the tools we need to take him down.” She looked at Alek. “The bratva.” Then, she looked at me, still on my knees beside her. “Your insider information.” She swallowed hard. “And the people who have been talking to me about how he’s blackmailed and manipulated them.”
I exhaled sharply. This was what I wanted. This was what I’d said I was going to do on my own. Eva was giving me the gift of doing it together, with her, with them.
“Will the bratva help?” Eva asked Alek.
“For a price,” he answered.
“So we get proof,” Tristan said slowly. “And then what?”
“We give it to someone who can’t be bought or threatened,” I said. “Reporters who’ve been trying to break into college athletics corruption for years.”
“The NCAA investigation would destroy the university’s athletics program,” Eva said slowly. “They could vacate every championship. So many scholarships—”
All the players, the team—fuck! I’d sacrifice anything and anyone to keep the people in this room safe, but my heart ached for the damage we’d leave in our wake.
“Or we could see if we could get the SEC to investigate his businesses,” I added. “Even if the books look clean on the surface, federal investigators would find the skimming.”
“And he goes to jail,” Eva replied.
The plan hung in the air between us.
“Except he’s threatening Alek now. We don’t have months to bring him down,” she murmured.
Alek looked at the ceiling for a long moment, more human than I’d ever seen him, including when he was face-first in Eva’s pussy.
He swallowed hard then pushed away from the table and walked to stare out the windows of his apartment, overlooking the Yorkfield skyline.
Eva joined him, wrapping one arm around his waist and leaning into him. He pulled her close, his fingers gripping her shoulder, then bent down to kiss her forehead before stepping away.
He pulled out his phone and dialed.
“What are you doing?” Eva’s voice was quiet.
“Alek!” a jovial voice said over the line as Alek put it on speaker. AD Hall. What the fuck? “To what do I owe this pleasure after midnight on a weekend?”
“I’m resigning,” Alek said. “Effective immediately.”
The fuck he was. I stood, despite the protest in my ribs, and strode toward him, only for him to hold up a hand, his eyes colder than I’d seen them before.
Tristan’s eyes were wide, but he said nothing.
Eva paled and shook her head, her lips forming the word no without sound. She reached for him then stopped halfway there, trembling.
“Alek, are you okay?” AD Hall asked carefully.
“I’m fine. This has been a long time coming.”
“Whatever’s happening, I’m sure we can work it out. You can take a leave of absence, switch up your staff, a raise! Tell me what you need in order to be able to stay.”
Alek took a deep breath, and Eva reached out to hold his hand and squeeze, as if to offer him comfort.
He smiled down at her, and his expression was so fucking tender, my chest ached with affection for the both of them.
“Soon,” Alek continued, “a news story is going to break about me and some of my students.” He swallows hard. “It’s all true.”
“Alek, what are you talking about?”
He was giving up everything for this—for us, for Eva. “It’s been an honor to be part of your athletic program,” he said, his voice rough.
A tear streaked down Eva’s face. She was still holding his hand, squeezing so hard, her knuckles were white.
“I’ll stop by tomorrow to take care of any paperwork, but I won’t be joining the team again,” he said.
“You’re abandoning those boys in the middle of the season. They have a game tomorrow!”
“When the news breaks, you’ll be glad I didn’t get in front of a camera one last time,” he said.
“Alek!”
He hung up.
The silence in the apartment was deafening. He’d just ended his career.
“Alek,” Eva breathed. “Sir. Why?”
He looked out the window, but his expression was clear.
“This was the only way, baby girl. It takes away Carter’s leverage, it protects you, and most of all—” He reached down to lift her to her feet.
“It’s the only way to remove the power differential between me and you—between me and all of you.
” He finally looked at Tristan and Cole, a flash of vulnerability in his eyes.
Tristan surged to his feet and joined Alek, dragging me with him on the way, until we stood in a circle, the tops of our heads bent down—except for Eva, who looked up at us with a thousand emotions swirling in her eyes.
“We’ll destroy him,” Eva said, hope coloring her voice. “Make it so he can’t hurt anyone ever again.”
Alek’s smile was crooked. “That’s right, baby girl.”
“What do the bratva want in exchange for helping us?” Tristan asked.
“Control of the betting operation once Carter’s gone. Probably a cut of the legitimate businesses too. And—” Alek paused. “They won’t help someone who refuses to help the brotherhood in return.”
“And now that you’ve quit coaching, that’s it? You go back?” Eva asked.
“I’ve already gone back,” he answered softly, and Tristan’s eyes flicked down to his knuckles. Eva gasped when she made the connection, and fuck, I didn’t think my heart could break anymore.
“So we have a plan,” Tristan said. “Eva stalls. Cole gathers evidence. Alek brings in the bratva. And I—” He swallowed.
“You work the team and the rest of the athletics program,” I said, looking at him with sorrow in my eyes.
This was the opposite of everything he’d tried to do since the day I met him—keep his nose clean, play hockey, and get that NHL contract when he graduated.
“Put that famous Baptiste charm to work and convince players and staff to go on the record about my father. We can’t do this without you. ”
Tristan looked at me for a long moment then nodded. “Okay,” he said, scrubbing his face. “Yeah, okay, I can do that.”
This could blow up in our faces, but it was the only way.
Eva was quiet for a long moment, staring at the ground. When she finally looked up, something in her expression had shifted.
“We’re taking him down. But you have to know this doesn’t mean anything more than that. We’re not anything. We’re not—”
“Sure, kitten,” Tristan said, bending over to kiss the top of her head.
“It’s enough,” I said, my ribs aching and my lip bleeding again, but somehow lighter than I had been in weeks. “It has to be.”