Impatient and unwilling to venture too far away from her to look for a ladder, I took a running start and leapt up on the pole. I jumped as high as I could and wrapped myself around it. Because I was tall, I made it a good distance up.
The field goal was shaped like a giant U on a stick. Using my arms and legs, I shimmied my body up until I made it to the top of the stick part. Rimmel watched as I balanced myself on the bottom of the U-shaped part she was tied to. She was far enough out that I had to straddle the pole and work my way toward her.
The closer I got, the slicker the pole became. Everything was soaked. Her hair was in wet clumps hanging in her face, her skin was pale, and her lips were turning blue.
I took a steadying breath as I reached the place the rope was tied. The weight from her drenched body was pulling her down, and I knew the rope tied around her had to be cutting into her skin. It had to hurt.
“I’m gonna pull you up, okay?” I said.
She nodded. I locked my thighs around the pole and wrapped what I could of the hanging rope around one of my arms. Then I began pulling her up. She wasn’t heavy, but I was balanced on a pole and her weight was below me, so it was awkward. But I refused to give up. I kept pulling, my bicep and shoulder shaking from the effort.
A small sound of pain floated up from below me, and it cut through me. Ignoring how badly my arm burned and the way the rope cut into my skin, I gave one last tug. I was able to wrap my other arm around her and tow her up between my legs.
I sagged forward from relief as she tried not to collapse against me. She was stiff and held as much of her weight as she could. I admired that because I knew she had to be in pain.
She had what looked like an old T-shirt shoved in her mouth and tied around the back of her head. I untied it and threw away the fabric.
She dragged in an agonizing breath and coughed. “Romeo,” she said, her voice hoarse and weak.
“Shh,” I said. “It’s okay now.”
One of the losers appeared at the bottom, and he was holding a pair of large gardening sheers.
“Toss ‘em up,” I yelled. I held out my arm away from Rimmel and opened my hand. “Right here.”
The guy hesitated, and I made an impatient sound. He moved so he was standing under my arm and then used both hands to fling the things straight up. I snagged them out of the air on the first try.
“Balance, okay?” I said and pushed her forward away from me so I could cut her hands from behind her back.
The rope was thick and these sheers were pitiful, so it took me a few minutes, but when she was finally free, she sagged forward with a groan. I caught her around the waist and towed her up.
“I’m not sure if I can cut your ankles free up here and keep our balance,” I said as I went to work on the rope that bound her to the pole. When I cut through it, the remaining piece was left draped over the post.
“I just want down,” she rasped.
“Where’s the ladder?” I yelled down.
But the asshole was gone.
Both of them were.
I glanced to where I left Zach lying.
He was gone too.
“It’s just you and me,” I whispered.
“Want me to jump?” she asked.
“No!” I replied quickly. “You can’t jump from here. You’re all tied up. You’re weak. You’d break something.”
“I don’t think we have another choice.”
I wasn’t sure I could shimmy down the pole with her on my back. Her arms were probably too weak to hold on to me, and I would need my arms to climb down. Her feet were tied together so she couldn’t wrap herself around the pole and slide down. Besides, she was shaking so bad her teeth were knocking together. She wasn’t going to be able to do much of anything.
This was on me.
“Hold still,” I said and balanced her on the pole. She gripped it like it was a lifeline as her body quivered and shook. She was so weak and cold she wasn’t going to be able to hold on very long, if at all. I shifted so I was sitting beside her with my knees bent and my lower legs dangling off the side.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Getting you down.”
I tucked the clippers beneath my arm and locked my legs around the pole. I lowered my upper half so I was hanging upside down by my legs.
“It’s a good fucking thing I work out all the time,” I muttered as I grabbed the clippers and dropped them on the ground.
Blood rushed to my head and I did a partial sit-up and reached for her. She looked at me like I was insane.
“Trust me,” I murmured.
She nodded and came forward. I grabbed her around the middle and then lowered myself back down so I was hanging with my arms around her.
“Wrap your arms around my waist. Hold tight.”
She did, and I basically slid her down my body until my hands were beneath her armpits. “I’m gonna lower you a little more. As far as I can reach. You’re closer to the ground now. I’m going to drop you. Try to land softly. Once you there, get the clippers and free your ankles.”
“I’m scared, Romeo.”
“I got you,” I said with a lot more bravado than I felt right then. Her safety was literally in my hands.
She took a shuddering breath. “I’m ready.”
I released her arms and she fell, a little yelp of alarm ripping from her throat, but I caught her around the wrist before she even finished screaming.
“You ready?” I asked. The weight on my body was starting to make my muscles burn.
“Do it,” she said.
I let go and she fell the rest of the way to the ground. She hit with a thump and her legs buckled under her.
“Rimmel,” I called out.
She looked up at me. “I’m okay.”
Relief flooded my body.
“What about you?” she called up.
I started to tell her I would slide down the pole, but the loud sound of a motor cut through the stadium.
What the—
My thought was cut off when one of the oversized zero-turn mowers the maintenance people used came lurching toward us as fast as it would go.
Zach was driving.
He looked even more sick and twisted with blood and bruises all over his face.
“Rimmel!” I yelled and stretched my arms out for her.
I couldn’t reach her, but it was all I could do. “Run!”
But she couldn’t run. Her feet were still tied together. She struggled with the clippers, sawing away at the rope.
Zach was coming fast.
But he lurched around her and our eyes locked.
He was coming for me.
I started to sit up, but it was too late. He stood and the mower jerked erratically as he snagged my hand and kept driving. The speed and pressure of the pull was too much for my muscles, and I felt myself slide right off the pole.
Zach let go of my hand and kept going, but the damage was already done.
I braced myself for the fall as the hard ground came rushing toward me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rimmel
It all happened so fast.
One moment, Romeo was climbing up the goal post and shimming over to me, and the next, I was hitting the ground, finally free from the ropes that bound me.
When Zach and his friends grabbed me, I fought and kicked as hard as I could. Until one of them hit me hard enough to knock me out.
When I woke, I was hanging from the post.
The fear I felt when I first realized where I was couldn’t be described. I imagined it would feel a lot like being dangled over a cliff.
I couldn’t even beg to be released because my mouth was gagged and bound.
I couldn’t even fathom that something like this would happen.
I got roses.
I expected a surprise.
I expected romance.
What I got was sheer horror.
Just when I thought the worst was over, I h
eard the revving of a small engine. Romeo was still hanging upside down from the pole, and I was lying there stunned. The next thing I knew, some crazy contraption driven by Zach came barreling toward us, and I watched helplessly as he stood on the thing and purposely grabbed Romeo and tugged him.
As Zach drove off, Romeo did a literal flip in the air and then landed with a hard slap on the field.
I screamed his name as I struggled with the clippers and finally freed my ankles from the rope. I surged up onto wobbly legs that tried to give out, but I wouldn’t let them. I rushed over to where he landed, and he rolled over with a grunt.
“Oh my God,” I cried and fell to my knees beside him.
“I’m okay,” he said and struggled to sit up.
I noticed he wrapped a hand around his middle.
“Where are you hurt?” I rushed out.
He didn’t get to answer because Zach had turned the mower around and was coming back at us.
Seriously. We were being attacked with a lawnmower.
If I wasn’t so scared, I’d laugh.
Romeo rushed forward and picked up the hose. He turned it on full blast and sprayed Zach right in the face. As he drove closer, the pressure of the water grew more intense, and he lost control and the thing swerved and crashed into the nearby pole.
Romeo pulled his cell out of his pants and handed it to me. “Call the cops.”
I called 9-1-1 as Romeo stalked forward to where Zach was slumped over in his seat. As soon as the operator answered, I launched into detail about where we were and what happened.
Well, as much as I could. I was pretty sure I was starting to babble as the shock of the night took full effect.
Zach was unconscious. His face was bruised and bloody and there was a gash on his head that was oozing blood. Romeo grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled his limp body off the mower. Instead of dropping him, he held him up and plowed his fist into his face one last time.
“Motherfucker!” he spat and dropped him in a heap.
He glanced up at me. “Tell the operator we’re not waiting for the cops. We’re going to the hospital.”
I relayed the information, and she tried to talk me out of it. But Romeo took the phone and pressed the end button.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
“I’m okay,” I told him. “I don’t think any of my injuries are an emergency. We should wait for the cops.”
“You need to get looked at,” he said, gruff. “And so do I.” As he spoke, he wrapped his left arm across his body once more and rested his hand on his right arm.
“Romeo,” I gasped. “Where are you hurt?”
He grimaced.
“Is it your ribs?” I said, forgetting about everything that had happened and focusing solely on him.
“No,” he said and shifted. He looked up at me, his eyes grim and laced with pain. “My arm is broken.”
I sucked in a breath and looked down at him. He wasn’t holding his ribs. He was favoring his arm.
His right arm.
His throwing arm.
I blinked back the tears rushing into my eyes. He didn’t need tears right now.
He needed me to be strong, just like he’d just been when he helped me.
“Give me your car keys,” I said.
He looked at me like I had four heads.
“You can’t drive with a broken arm. Shifting will only hurt it worse.”
“Front pocket,” he said.
I grabbed them and we started walking again. I glanced at him every few seconds because I was so worried.
When the Hellcat finally came in sight, I clicked the automatic start and rushed to climb in. When he was in, I glanced at him again.
“I’m okay. This is nothing.”
I wondered if he really believed that.
I wondered if I did.
I nodded and looked down at the controls of the car. I wasn’t very good at driving a stick. I’d only had the one lesson.
And I was missing the books I needed to help me see.
But I didn’t say a word. Instead, I straightened up as tall as I could, adjusted the seat, and took a breath.
“Baby, please don’t wreck on the way to the hospital,” Romeo said.
I glanced at him and said with much more boldness than I felt, “I got this.”
And then I drove.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Romeo
Pain radiated along my entire right side. My arm ached and the ice they placed on it only seemed to make it worse.
I’d just come back from X-ray.
We wouldn’t know how bad the damage was until the radiologist looked at the images.
My arm was swollen, blotchy purple in some areas, and basically totally fucked up.
I’d just signed with the NFL.
Professional teams were making offers.
I was a quarterback.
I threw completed touchdown passes all day long. I had the best record in the state. My right arm was my ticket to the life I’d always dreamed of.
And now it was broken.
Everyone on staff here was solemn and morose around me, almost like I’d died. As soon as I walked in with Rimmel, they rushed me back. They tried to make her sit in the waiting room, but that only got people yelled at and me an elevated blood pressure.
She’d been fucking hanging from a pole. She was wet, cold, bruised, and battered. She was in worse shape than me, but they wanted to make her wait for treatment.
Hell to the no.
This was the first moment I’d been alone since I fell. Since I felt the bone in my arm snap, since I felt the stab of pain.
I knew immediately what it meant.
I understood my life as I knew it could be over.
What the fuck was I going to do?
My arm stung with the pressure of the ice, and I ripped it away and threw it across the room. It hit the wall with a loud slap as the door to my room opened.
Rimmel peeked inside.
She still wasn’t wearing glasses because we didn’t know what happened to them.
“Hey,” she said quietly, hesitating in the doorway.
I held my arm out to her and she rushed inside. I folded her against me and she held her body stiffly so she didn’t cause me any pain.
“Shouldn’t you be with the doctor?” I asked.
“I snuck out of the room when they weren’t looking.”
I smiled. “Thanks for not tearing up my car on the way here,” I said, tucking a strand of damp hair behind her ear.
She was dressed in nothing but a hospital gown.
I sweet-talked my way out of one and was just wearing a pair of scrub bottoms and no shirt. I have no idea where the nurse found these pants, and I didn’t care. Gowns were for women.
“How bad is it?” she asked, her eyes filled with worry.
“Not sure yet.”
She cupped her hand around my jaw. “It’s gonna be okay. I know it.”
“Yeah?” I asked, pain lancing through my chest. “How do you know?”
“Because you’re number twenty-four. You have epic mojo.”
“I signed with the NFL last week. There are offers on the table from two pro teams.”
She gasped and excitement filled her eyes. I loved that look. It was so much better than the morose glances I’d been getting since I got here. “Romeo! That’s amazing! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because what’s going on with you is more important.”
She took my face and forced my head down so she could look into my eyes. “I am never more important than you are. You’re everything.”
“Kiss me,” I demanded.
She did as she was told. When she was done, she sank back onto the balls of her feet. “Your dream is still right here. Your arm might be broken now, but it’s gonna be fixed and you’re going to play better than ever.”
I finally said out loud what no one—not even me—wanted to hear. “What if it’s not?”
<
br /> “I don’t believe that. Not for a second.” She glanced at my battered arm and back up at me. “But if that’s what happens, then something else just as amazing is going to happen for you. And I’ll still love you. No matter what.”
“I love you, Rim.”
“I know you do. I just wish you hadn’t gotten hurt like this because of me.”
I started to reply, but the door opened once more. Two nurses came in with disgruntled looks on their faces. “There she is,” the blond one said.
Rimmel grimaced.
“You can’t be leaving your cubicle, miss.” The dark-headed nurse scolded her.
“Ladies,” I said and turned up the charm. “You’ll have to forgive her. I was whining like a big baby and begged her to stay in here with me.”
“That’s the football player,” the blonde whispered. Rimmel stiffened.
“Maybe she could just take that bed right there.” I pointed to the one beside me. “That way we could all be in the same room, and I’ll have more than one nurse to help me if I need it.”
Rimmel sighed when they agreed immediately and rushed to get her chart and other supplies for the room. “Seriously? Do all women have to fall over themselves for you?”
“I wanted you in here,” I said.
Her eyes softened.
The door opened again and my parents came rushing in.
“What the hell happened?” my father boomed. For once, his smooth feathers were ruffled.
Mom rushed to my side with tears in her eyes. “Oh, Roman.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just a broken bone. I’ll live.”
“Your arm,” Dad said. I knew he was thinking about my career.
“We’re still waiting for word on the break,” I said. “Besides, Rim had it worse than me.”
“Rimmel.” My father came forward and put an arm around her. “The nurse told us about your ordeal. I’m so sorry. I thought the restraining order would keep him away.”
“We all did,” she replied and leaned into him a little. Her eyes slid to my mother, with a little bit of expectation in them.
Mom didn’t even look her way.
In fact, it was like she was making an effort to not look at Rimmel.
What the hell is going on now?
“Shouldn’t they be putting a cast on this by now?” Mom worried.
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