Chapter 18
King
“Well, where is she?” My voice is barely above a whisper, but the two bodyguards I put on her are already backing away.
“She said she had to use the restroom. She said…” They look at each other as I fight the urge to crush their Neanderthal foreheads together.
Instead, I bring the tracking app up on my phone for the dozenth time since I got to the booth and found out she’s not fucking here.
It’s still showing as no signal. No signal.
That doesn’t make any fucking sense. Even if she turned her phone off, I made sure the tracker would continue working.
“Keep talking.” I grunt as anger pumps through my veins. “She said what?”
“She was on the phone and she seemed upset. Then, when she tried to leave, we asked her to stay—politely, like you said we should. But, she’s…” Chase, the dark haired guard, swallows hard as I stare into his soul. “Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing, and… She’s tough. And she said she needed to go find a…tampon, and I didn’t know what to do.”
They both look as flustered as two adolescent boys buying condoms for the first time.
“You fucking telling me you both knew she was upset, she was on the phone, and you just let her walk away because you couldn’t handle hearing the word tampon?” I shake my head, pointing at each of them. “If I find her and she’s hurt, or anything is wrong, I’m coming back for both of you.”
I’m shaking as I turn and burst through the door into the hallway. Other players and family and friends are laughing and talking, but I hear nothing but the rage-filled blood rushing through my ears.
Chase and Mack follow as I barrel down the hallway calling her name. They both have a full six inches on me, but every time I shoot a look their way, they won’t meet my eyes.
If I find her and there’s anything wrong, they better hope they’re a million miles away from me.
“You two go that way. Check fucking everywhere, you hear me? Everywhere. I don’t give a shit if it’s off limits or if you’re fucking embarrassed. If I find she was there and you missed her…if she’s hurt…”
I glare, and they get it, turning around and heading down a corridor as I continue the other way, panic riding my back like a five-hundred-pound gorilla.
I check bathrooms, I check supply closets. I check garbage cans.
Her fucking phone is still showing off line.
What the fuck.
What if she left? But, she doesn’t know about the tracking. She would still have her phone…
Something is wrong. I feel it in my soul.
“You!” I bark at a security guard standing at the entrance to the VIP suite hallway. “Have you seen a girl with red curly hair, about this tall?” I put my hand out at my side. “Pretty. Curvy. Wearing one of my jerseys.”
“I, er… Yeah, I think I saw a girl like that.”
“Did she leave? Did you see her go out the doors?”
“No, man. No. She was heading down that way.” He points, but the direction doesn’t make any sense.
“Toward the maintenance corridor?”
There’s a network of tunnels down there, and nothing she could possibly have any interest in; electrical wires everywhere, plumbing, ventilation ducts, large machinery.
It also houses the coolant pipes for the rink. Unless Emee is secretly some sort of spy and wants to sabotage the stadium, I can’t think of a single reason she’d be going down there.
“Yeah. I tried to stop her. Told her it was off limits. She either didn’t hear me or ignored me. She started running, and I had another call about a fight, so I couldn’t go after her. Shit happens down there. Sometimes we find needles, used condoms.” He makes a disgusted noise.
“If you’re sure it was her…” I say, darkness clouding my vision, staring at the maintenance corridor.
“You want me to come with you?”
“Shit,” I mutter, then it occurs to me. “You get phone signal down there? Any sort of interference?”
“No, you can’t get a signal down there. The main electrical lines and the cement block the signals.”
“It’s her,” I say, my jaw locking up then I growl through my teeth, “Yeah, show me the way. I hope you can run…”
I follow as he heads that way, huffing and puffing but giving it his all, but before we can disappear, a voice echoes down the hall from behind.
“Hey, asshole, where the fuck you going?” I know who it is without looking.
“You’re coming with me,” I demand, waving my arm in a come here gesture, and he shrugs.
“Sure. Where are we going?”
“To find Emee.”
We’retwo stories underground when I hear it. Emee’s voice. She’s screaming, and it’s not in celebration.
“Go back,” I tell the security guard, already picking up the pace, following the sound of the voices. He’s falling behind looking like a heart attack ready to happen and I don’t need to be dealing with that right now. “Victor, you’re with me.”
He stops, bending over with a thank you sort of wave as Victor and I run headlong down a narrow corridor, raised voices echoing through the empty space as clear as if we were right on them.
“Your brother told us it was a sure thing. Told us you’d take care of it. You don’t like your brother, is that it? You know what happens when you don’t square up? Then, you screw us and we lose money?”
“Let go!” Emee’s shrill voice pounds nails into my heart as I push my legs faster, harder, down the hall toward the sound. “I’ll pay you whatever he owes, just let him go. Please!”
“Yep. You’ll pay. Sweet girl like you gets a nice price.” A low male voice yells. “You don’t fuck with me. Make a fool of me. You’re gonna work off this debt taking a lot of dicks in all your holes.”
Blind rage crackles over my skin as we come around the corner and my world falls apart.
Emee’s lip is bleeding, there’s swelling around her eye, and her hair and clothes are disheveled. There’s a guy holding her arms back while another holds her chin in his hand.
No, fucking way.
I don’t say a word to Victor, but we’ve been friends long enough not to need it. He wades in right alongside me, heading for the guy holding Emee while I rush the one who was touching her. They weren’t expecting company, and they take a second too long before they see us coming.
Benjamin is on the ground with another goon standing over him, but right now, it’s all about Emee.
The squelch of blood as his nose explodes against my right fist gives me a satisfying rush of adrenaline. I hear a grunt and a shout from the other fight, but don’t stop to look as I swing with my left, feeling my knuckles crush against his temple. He stumbles back, raising a hand to defend himself, but I’m already following up.
“Stop!” he shouts. But I’ve got him on the ground, smashing the back of his head over and over onto the concrete as my vision turns red and blood weaves its way from his nose, down the sides of his cheeks and over my fingers.
But, I don’t stop.
I cock back for another punch but this stupid motherfucker smiles, then says, “You still think she’s for real, don’t you? Only reason this bitch spread her legs for you was to put you off your game, so her big brother could bet against you. So, we could clean up. Now, look at you. Here to play the hero. Oh, man, you’ve been played.”
I growl, my fist hanging in the air, muscles twitching and burning.
“Ask her.” He sputters, spitting blood and saliva, keeping himself from choking.
I turn my head, Emee is standing there, eyes wide with horror, brow knitted together.
But, there’s something else.
She doesn’t just look scared, she looks…sad?
No, not sad. She looks like she’s been caught.
She’s shaking her head, as her brother pushes himself to sit up, his face battered into a blue and red swollen disaster the guy standing over him a minute ago is long gone.
“She didn’t want to,” he says through swollen lips, clutching his face. “She did it for me, okay? These guys were going to… If I didn’t come up with cash fast, they would have killed me, and Emee…” He looks at her, “I’m sorry. I never wanted you to get hurt. I’m sorry.”
The guy under me tries to roll away, but I twist my fingers into his shirt. He looks up at me with a bloody smile. “She fucked you to make you lose, man! You gonna let that cunt make a fool of you like this?”
“That’s not true. You have to believe me!” she screams, but everything starts to spin.
The guy on the floor takes my momentary disorientation to grab a blade from his pocket, swinging it in an arch toward my face.
I block it at the last second, delivering another fist to his nose as he howls in pain.
Then, Emee is right there, that hellcat look in her eyes, delivering a solid kick to his ribs then turning her sorrow filled eyes at me. “I didn’t do what they said. Benjamin asked me to, but I said no. What happened had nothing to do with…” She looks around at the chaos around her swinging her arms. “This.”
I only blink.
Is this happening? Am I hearing all this right?
“You fucked me so I’d lose?” I furrow my brow as I push to my feet, the bloodied guy on the floor losing priority as I process that the woman I love played me.
“No.” She shakes her head, putting her hand on my heart. “I fucked you because I loved you. If you know me at all, you know I wouldn’t do that. And, who are you to talk?”
The guy reaches out for her leg as Victor finishes off his partner, but she’s having none of it, and I’m trying to puzzle out what that last part means.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” She roars at the bloodied guy on the ground. “I’m having a very. Bad. Day!” She lands another kick, this time where it counts, as he gags and cups his balls, curling into the fetal position, but she’s not done.
“Hey,” I tell her, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Hey, that’s enough.”
“Oh, really?” She turns to glare at me, shrugging out of my grip. “Now you’re the voice of reason? Got anything you want to tell me, Mr. Hertzof?”
I growl. “You call me King.”
“You’re lucky I’m not calling you a lot of other things!” she yells, her face contorting in anger that’s directed now at me.
I hear Victor chuckle, looking across to see him gesture to Benjamin, to come over and take a shot at the limp guy he’s holding on the ground with his foot looking like a crazy Captain Morgan. “This is a helluva way to celebrate. Anyone wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m not fucking sure,” I say, keeping my eyes on the angry little redhead that’s spitting mad at me about something.
Victor looks like he just won the championship. Smiling that crazy smile wiping his bloody hands down the front of his shirt. “Okay, well, when you know, you can tell me, but for now you want me to take care of cleanup? My uncle will deal with these guys permanently. We need to get this little situation under control.”
Emee looks from him back to me, like she’s lost in her own world. “I did not sleep with you to cover his debt,” She says, her anger slipping away, moisture gathering in her eyes and the marks on her face make me want to tear down the fucking stadium.
Her pain could be the end of me.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, Firecracker, but I’ll protect you no matter what. Your bother needs to man up, though. I don’t get all the details of what’s happening, but I can put together that this is his fucking mess, and you’re being dragged down with him. That stops today.” I growl, pointing a finger at Benjamin. “Family does not put family in danger, especially to save their own ass.”
“You don’t understand, his life was bad. It was horrible growing up,” she says, defending him.
I love her for her mother bear instincts, and she’ll make a great mom for our kids, but she needs to hear this.
I nod. “I know, and I’m sorry for that. But that’s no excuse. I’ve had a tough life, Victor’s had a tough life, you’ve had a tough life. That’s no fucking excuse.” I look over to Benjamin, who’s staring at me, eyes twitchy, working his lips back and forth.
“Leave my brother alone,” Emee says, “and let me go.”
Benjamin watches me for a moment, and I think this could go either way. He could rage against me right now, tell me to fuck off, and my relationship with my future brother-in-law will be tainted from the start. I don’t want that. I want us to be friends.
But what I won’t do is allow his shit to hurt Emee, not ever again.
He locks eyes with me, his bravado fades. “He’s right, Emee. I can’t live like this. I need help.”
I reach for Emee’s hand. “I’ll get you help. You’re family now.” I turn to Victor, who is punching numbers into an emergency phone on the wall behind the bloodied guys on the ground. “But, first, I need to take care of what’s mine.”