Chapter 35 Tieran
The team’s energy is exhilarating as we walk through the tunnels, riding the high of our victory. Yet, all I can think about is getting to Jade, kissing her until she forgets about the past forty-eight hours, and then never letting her go.
It would seem the universe has other plans, though, because as I walk into the locker room, I end up bumping into Amari, who’s come to a standstill behind the crowd of other players.
“What’s going—” Suddenly, Cavan is standing in front of me, blocking my view.
“You need to keep a level head right now.” In the worst of times, Cav is always the steady voice of reason. He’s slow to anger, to emotion in general, but right now, he looks concerned and pissed at the same time.
That’s when I hear his voice, and everything in my body goes tight with barely restrained anger.
Lawrence Chapman is at ease in the middle of the room, his ruddy face set in a self-satisfied smirk, and I’m one second away from killing the pompous fuck standing in front of Jade’s team, acting like he owns it.
My knuckles go white from clenching my fists at my sides, and I take one step forward, my foot falling like an anvil of doom, before Myles grabs my arm to hold me back.
“Ah, there’s the man everyone’s been talking about.” My jaw clenches hard enough that I could crack a molar. Seventeen different, inventive ways to hurt him without anyone finding out run through my mind. “Gather ‘round, lads. We’ve got some housekeeping to go over.”
I move over to my locker, careful not to get too close to Chapman in case my thinly veiled restraint snaps and I decide to lay him out like he deserves.
Grabbing my phone out of my bag, I shoot off a quick text to Harry.
Tieran
Is everything sorted?
Three dots pop up immediately before his reply comes through.
Harry
On our way.
Tieran
Hurry.
“Lawyers are going over the paperwork, but I think it’s safe to say that as of tomorrow morning, there will be changes within upper management. Ms. McKallen is gone, and everything will go back to rights.” The room is quiet enough to hear a pin drop, but several eyes shift throughout the room.
Ekon is the first to break the silence. “What do you mean, Ms. McKallen is gone? Is it official?”
“Due to her gross misconduct,” I snarl at his words, and the bastard smirks, “she’s decided the best course of action would be to move on to…new opportunities.”
“Like hell she decided that,” I growl, rage coursing through every fissure of my body.
“She felt it was better for the club as a whole to not tarnish our image further by continuing to flaunt around like a sl—”
“Finish that sentence, and it’ll be the last thing you ever say.” The words are on the tip of my tongue, but it’s Cavan who says them before I can.
I look to my friend, who’s vibrating with barely-leashed fury.
The same man who’s slow to anger, who is always composed and unflappable, is seething with rage for my girl.
I wish she could see it. As I look around at my brothers, I see Cavan’s outrage mirrored in their faces, and I wish she could see the impact she’s had on this team in such a short amount of time.
The woman who never had any true friends to look after her has a whole team of them here.
“Nevertheless, the little stunt you all pulled today won’t happen again. Let this meeting serve as a warning to fall in line, or you’ll find yourself working at your local Nando’s come next season.”
“Why don’t you tell them the truth, Chapman?” I cross my arms and lean back against the shelves holding our things, trying to stall long enough for Harry to get here.
“And what would that be, Stone? That you’ve been boinking the boss?” He sneers derisively. “Is that why your game got good suddenly? Because you had someone to show off for? Or was her cunt just so magical, it gave you super powers?”
Myles adjusts his stance to position himself in front of me, reading my body language and deducing that the threads of my patience are fraying at a rapid rate.
Hold out, Tieran. It’ll be worth it when we wipe the arrogance off his mug.
I loosen my limbs, easing back onto the wall again to adopt a careless stance.
“I was referring to the fact that you’ve been harassing Jade for months because you feel entitled to her job.
A job you don’t deserve and would fail spectacularly at.
” His face darkens. “See, the thing is, Lawrence, Jade has earned everything she has, unlike you. She’s smart, savvy, and works harder than anyone I’ve ever met.
But you’re a raging arsehole, so you sit around and wait for people to hand you things because you’re a lazy sack of cow shite. ”
“You would say those things, considering how hard she worked you.”
“And when you couldn’t find a fault with her work ethic and everything she was doing to make this club better, you decided to invade her privacy.
” He splutters, looking around at the guys who are all standing straighter at my revelation.
“You violated her by having her watched, followed—filmed, and then you blackmailed her into handing her shares over to you.”
“And it worked,” he snaps. “Daft girl didn’t even care how it would affect her. All she was worried about was what this scandal would do to you.”
I rear back as if he slapped me. “What did you say?”
“I used her love—” he spits the word out as if it's poison— “for you against her. When I showed her the evidence stacked against her, the only time she tried to change my mind was on your behalf.”
My heart thumps painfully inside my chest. It was so perfectly Jade, to be thinking of someone else as she was backed into a corner with no way out. God, I love her.
“Either way, she agreed to my proposal within hours. Seems she was hellbent on protecting you.”
“So then why the fuck did you renege on your deal?” I shout. “Why, when she gave you everything you wanted, would you still need to shove a knife in her gut?” I’m off the wall now, chest heaving as my breath comes in harsh gasps.
Jade. My Jade. Taking on the world alone because she didn’t want to burden anyone else. When we make it through the other end of this, I’m going to love her so hard, she doesn’t even remember the word alone.
But not before spanking her arse raw for not coming to me for help. It would be a sweet sort of punishment, one we would both enjoy.
“I d—” Chapman starts but is interrupted when the door bursts open, and a stream of cops comes through.
“Lawrence Chapman?” one asks him.
“What is the meaning of this? We’re in the middle of a private meeting.”
“We’re detaining you for violating the Protection from Harassment Act. Please cooperate and place your hands behind your back.” The officers move in on him, but he steps out of their reach.
“You must be joking. You have no proof!”
Harry steps forward then, with Reginald in tow holding the large ring of keys that give him access to every office in the building.
“Actually, they do.” He pulls a laptop out of his bag—Lawrence's laptop. “And if the laptop containing the images and video footage you used to extort Ms. McKallen isn’t proof enough, I’ll be providing them with the transcripts of our messaging. ”
“You spineless son of a bitch.” Chapman manages to rip out of the authorities’ holds, lunging for Harry—for the computer in his hands.
The soft-spoken equipment manager flinches, locking up and waiting for the blow to land, but then I’m there, stepping in front of Harry and throwing my entire body into a rear hook across his face.
Bone crunches against my knuckles, and the satisfaction I feel cancels out any pain when Lawrence hits the floor, the thud reverberating around the room.
My chest heaves as I crouch within inches of where his cheek is pressed to the linoleum floor, blood leaking from his nose.
I whisper only loud enough for him to hear, “You fucked with the wrong person when you went after Jade. Something you may not know about me, Lawrence: I will throw it all away for someone I love. There is no purpose in my life greater than taking care of her. So, you better pray to whatever god you believe in that the evidence we find on that laptop holds up in court, because if it doesn’t,” I pause leaning in further, “I’m going to make the pain you’re in right now feel like a holiday in Ibiza. ”
I signal to the police, and they hurry over, stretching his arms behind his back, cuffing his wrists, and pulling him upright. He jerks against their hold, wincing from the pain of being jostled around as they yank him toward the open door and out of sight.
I watch as he goes, feeling one small weight float off my shoulders as another, much heavier boulder comes to rest atop them.
“What now, Cap?” The question comes from Connor, of all people, and I finally turn to face my team—my brothers, the men who have stuck by my side and whose loyalty never wavered.
Pride shines through every set of eyes I meet, and a sudden realisation hits me like a high speed train: even when I was at my worst, they never saw me the way I saw myself.
They were just waiting for me to catch up.
Looking at every last one of them, I say, “I’m going to go get our boss back.”
The confidence I felt when I left the stadium quickly starts to wane the closer I get to Jade’s flat. In its place is anticipation mixed with apprehension.
I’m almost positive she broke up with me only because of the stunt Chapman pulled, but a small demon in the back of my mind pokes at my insecurities until they’re red and tender.
She said I was a distraction, and maybe that’s what she needed for a time, but she was ready to put it behind her now and go back to L.A.
, back to her life there and everything it came with.
It would annihilate me, but I would weather the heartbreak because it meant for a small time, I meant something to her, even if she meant everything to me.
But there was another part of me screaming she belongs here in London—with me.
I pull my car up to the curb outside Jade’s home, barely coming to a full stop before I’m throwing myself out the door and ringing the bell to her flat.
Minutes stretch on with no answer, and I start to panic.
Did she leave already? Night’s fallen, and I count the hours that have passed since I saw her last, but…
no, between the second half of the match, post-game interviews, and the whole ordeal with Chapman, it’s only been a few hours.
Four, tops, and she wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye to her dad first.
Her dad.
A light flares bright in my mind as I race back to my car, slide inside, and throw it into drive. Within a half hour, I’m knocking on his door, feeling hopeful and a little out of breath.
My fist pounds against the door over and over until a very agitated Archie yanks it open.
It’s funny how I can see little bits of Jade in his irate glare.
The “are you insane?” look on his face makes me miss her even more.
It’s equal parts disturbing and comforting to find her in this person she loves so much.
“Have you lost your bloody m—” I step further into the glow of the hallway light spilling out onto the front step.
“Oh, Tieran, my boy!” Archie's wizened face brightens when he sees it’s me.
“Did you see my last Word with Friends?” He leans against the doorframe as his lips lift in a smile.
“Give it up, lad. There’s no way you can top quaalude. ”
A chuckle escapes my mouth despite the stress coursing through my body. “I’ll best you one day, Arch.”
As Archie ushers me in with a trembling hand to my shoulder, I strain my ears for any sign of Jade, but I can’t hear anything outside of this week's presenters on Gogglebox playing on the tv. No rustling around in the kitchen, no doors upstairs being open or closed; it’s as if her dad is the only one here. But…she wouldn’t just leave, would she?
“What brings you by, son?” My stomach flips at the endearment, making me picture a future in which he calls me that because I’m family.
“I’m looking for Jade.” I look around again, hoping the sound of my voice will make her magically appear and start laying into me with her sarcastic tongue.
His face turns grim, and my stomach sinks down to my feet.
“I would have thought she’d tell you…”
“Where is she, Archie?” My voice is pleading, edged with intense desperation.
“She left to go back to L.A. I told her not to go,” he hastily adds on, but I’m unable to focus on what he’s saying as my body threatens to crumble.
She wouldn’t give up on us. I couldn’t fathom it—couldn’t even entertain it, because the Jade I know has never given up on anything in her life.
That is, until she relented to Chapman’s whims in order to save me.
“I told her she needed to stay and stick it out. I knew something was happening with you two long before the news came out. I’ve never seen my Jade so carefree—so happy.
” He just launched a javelin clean through my chest. “She’s never had that before, a balance to her life.
Work was the only thing she ever focused on.
No matter how much I tried to encourage her to do other things, she always brushed it off, always had her mom in her ear to dissuade her.
But you,” he pats my face affectionately, “you got her to slow down, to do something for herself for the first time in years—you brought her balance.”
“She brought me peace,” I admit, wanting him to know any effect I had on her, she had on me tenfold.
“You love my daughter, Tieran.” A statement, not a question.
I feel the need to answer anyway. “More than every star in the sky.”
He weighs my words, his expression inscrutable before he walks over to the small table under the window of his sitting room. He pulls out a pad and pen, scribbling something down before tearing it off and handing it to me, his hands steady for the first time since I’ve known him.
“Go bring her home then.”
Hope swells within my chest when I glance down at the slip of parchment to find an address in black ink staring back at me.
Jade made a mistake thinking I would let her leave, that I would be the same as everyone else who had put themselves before her. She would always come first; there was no other alternative when she engraved herself so deeply into my soul.
So, I hug Archie, pocket the piece of paper, call Lottie to ask her to take care of Pebble, and drive straight to Heathrow.
Jade might think distance will be enough to make her forget about me, but I won’t go down without a fight.