by dlady
“I’d like to send him there.” Jared fisted his hands on the table, wishing he could wrap them around Gino’s neck and squeeze the life out of him. “Prison would be good enough,” he added quickly before Bronson got the wrong idea.
The PI chuckled and winked at him. “Got it.”
“I’ll help you, Bron. I’m a whiz on the computer, and you’re not.” Drew’s eagerness surprised Jared. He hadn’t seen his teammate get this excited about something in months, if ever.
“Yeah, I’m more of a beat-the-streets kinda guy,” Bronson said.
“We’re at home for the next two weeks, so I can spare some time,” Drew said.
“How much—how much do you think this’ll cost?” Jared asked. He needed to figure out his budget for the next month and how the hell he would be paying for this. Worst-case scenario, he’d ask Matt for money, as much as he hated to do so.
Bronson regarded him with a hooded gaze. “It’s on the house.”
“I can’t allow you to do that.”
“Sure you can. Just send your teammates my way when they need PI work. The best advertising is word of mouth, after all.”
“Absolutely.”
“Now get the fuck out of here and let me get started on this.”
Jared almost laughed. The guy was blunt and rude, and Jared didn’t mind one bit, especially if he got results, kept Steph safe, and locked up her bastard ex for good.
Chapter 17—Driving to the Goal
Vi and Steph stood on the doorstep and waved goodbye to Jared and Matt as Matt’s SUV disappeared down the driveway. Vi turned and shuffled back into the house. Steph followed, feeling as if she’d just lost a piece of herself.
“I’m glad you’re staying with me while the guys are on their road trip,” Vi said. “The boys love you, and I’ll need some adult conversation.”
“Me too,” Steph replied. “I’m not as brave as I pretend to be.”
In the kitchen, Vi dished up two bowls of ice cream. Vi and Steph sat together at the counter and ate in silence. The boys were still at school, and the big house was oddly quiet.
Steph swallowed back tears and silently chastised herself for being such a baby. Jared would be back before she knew it. She’d been dreading this day. For two weeks her life had been heaven on earth, and then came the road trip, a necessary part of the life of a professional hockey player. Now that she was officially a WAG, Steph would learn to endure these trips with stoicism.
Jared had all but moved in with her, and she’d gotten used to having him around. Their relationship had progressed at light speed, but being together seemed so right.
There were a few things about him she found odd. She’d never seen his place, but he was a slob and was probably embarrassed at how messy it was. She could attest to that. She was always picking up after him. He had a bad habit of leaving his clothes wherever he took them off. She refused be his slave, not like she’d been Gino’s, but there were times when she couldn’t take the mess and had to clean up before he came home from practice. Not that he didn’t try. He did, but he was a creature of habit.
The small apartment was a true testament to their ability to coexist. They had no option to get away from each other that didn’t involve leaving the property, yet they got along surprisingly well. Jared was laidback and mellow most of the time, except when blaming himself for a lost game or a goal scored. Just like any other human, he had his moments, but never once did she worry about him taking his frustrations out on her.
Jared respected women, and he believed in Steph. Not a day went by that he didn’t encourage her to discover what she’d like to do career-wise. She was a ship set adrift with no compass when it came to her career goals. She couldn’t be a party crasher or matchmaker’s assistant forever, even if she did enjoy both jobs.
She was so in love with Jared that sometimes how much she cared scared the piss out of her. Every day she fell more in love. She’d never imagined such a thing to be possible. She hadn’t told him yet, at least not in words, and had to bite her lip in the throes of passion to stop those three words from tumbling from her mouth. She wanted him to say them first.
There hadn’t been any recent Gino sightings, but her friends and Jared’s teammates had banded together to make sure she had a ride when she needed one and didn’t spend much time alone. Every morning, either Riley or Izzy drove her to the sisters. She’d signed up for driver’s training, but the closest location couldn’t fit her in for another month.
Giles drove her home and inspected her apartment before leaving her. Most times, Jared was there after morning practice. On the nights he had games, she was at every one of them, sitting with Izzy, Avery, Vi, Bella, and Amelia.
The PI Jared had hired hadn’t had any luck finding Gino yet, but he’d come close a few times. The word was out on the street, and Gino most likely knew he was being hunted. He’d been lying low at one of his cronies’ dives until he thought the heat was off. Knowing this, Steph felt a measure of relief. She didn’t look over her shoulder as often. Jared insisted Bronson was very competent, and it was only a matter of time.
She hoped so.
Things were going so well, yet she had this niggling feeling that they couldn’t last.
She ate the last of her ice cream and sighed.
Vi studied her. “There’s more wrong than Jared leaving today. Have you heard from Gino?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
“I’m not sure. Do you ever get the feeling the other shoe is about to drop and all the good things that’ve been happening are going to be jeopardized? I have to tell him, Vi.”
Vi didn’t ask what Steph had to tell him. She knew. “I think you should. It’s time, and I don’t believe it’ll change a thing about how he feels.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
“If Jared is half the man I think he is, he won’t care what you once did for a living, but you do need to come clean, more for your sake than his.”
“I will. As soon as he returns.”
Vi smiled at her. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
Steph wasn’t so sure.
* * * *
On the third night of the road trip, Cooper walked into the hotel bar to check on some of the younger players, who’d been partying a little too much and weren’t in their rooms.
The little bastards were gathered around a table looking at something on Rush’s tablet. They were hooting and making rude remarks. Coop rolled his eyes. The immature idiots were probably watching porn in a public bar, with no thought to whether they’d end up as a story on the gossip sites.
He was going to kick some ass. Stealthily, he approached them from behind. Not hard to do, considering they weren’t paying attention to anything but the screen in front of them. Coop reached over Rush’s shoulder and snatched the tablet before any of them knew he was there.
“What the fuck are you morons doing now?”
Three bright red faces with guilt written all over them stared back at him. Coop frowned. Something was wrong. He sensed it. This was more than them being caught watching porn.
He took a long breath, steeling himself for what was on that tablet. He looked down at the screen and narrowed his eyes. A beautiful buxom blonde was dancing stiffly around a stripper pole. She couldn’t dance worth crap, but her body was—
Holy fucking crap.
No.
“This isn’t—?” He choked on the name and couldn’t say it.
Gibs nodded. “I knew I’d seen her somewhere before. She called herself Raven and worked at Dancing Girls.”
“Where the fuck did you get this?” Coop shook the tablet in front of their faces, and they shrank back. They knew an angry team captain when they saw one.
“Candy texted it to me. Don’t know where she got it.”
“Jared’s ex?” Coop already knew the answer to that. He ran his hands over his face and muttered several choice swear words, including a few in Russian and
French he’d learned over the years. He didn’t have a plan yet, but he would. For starters, he’d deal with these fuckheads.
He scowled at Rush, Gibs, and Wildman and got into their faces. They didn’t dare move a muscle.
“You won’t breathe a word of this to Jared. You will not speak of this again to anyone. You never saw this. You won’t ogle his girlfriend when you see her or make rude remarks even among yourselves. Do I make myself clear?”
The young players swallowed and nodded under Coop’s intense gaze.
“This team is a family. All of us. Steph is now part of that family. We protect our family.”
More nodding.
The shitheads were itching to get away from him, but he wasn’t done yet. “Does anyone else on the team know about this?”
The guys exchanged glances, while Coop waited impatiently for them to come clean.
“Yeah, maybe a few,” Gibs said, keeping his eyes downcast.
“You’ll talk to them, won’t you? And any incriminating video or images will be permanently erased from your devices and theirs, correct?”
“Yes, Cap.”
“Absolutely, Cap.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I vill see to it myself,” Rush promised.
Coop gave each man one his best screw-up-and-I’ll-kill-you glares. “Get the fuck out of my sight—now.”
They scrambled to their feet, falling over each other in an attempt to get away from him. He watched them go with a sinking feeling inside. This was not going to end well.
* * * *
Jared couldn’t sleep. The team had a night off, and he’d tried to go to bed early. He paced his room for a while, tried to watch some ESPN. Nothing put him to sleep.
One more night on the road and they’d be home after playing St. Louis tomorrow night. Steph and him had gotten damn good at phone sex, but sexy talk with a thousand miles between them was no substitute for the living, breathing woman he cherished.
Restless, he decided to join some of the young guys hanging out in the hotel bar. Most likely they’d be babysat by Coop and Smooth, who were putting the hammer down on the partiers to clean up their act. Maybe a beer would mellow him out enough that he could get some Zs.
Down in the bar, Ziggy, Rush, Gibs, and Wildman sat at a table playing blackjack. Coop, Matt, and Smooth sat a few feet away talking in low tones. Jared slipped into an empty chair next to Ziggy and watched Rush kick butt.
Rush was not a gracious winner. He rubbed it in to the point where the other guys looked ready to kill him and bury the body where no one would find it.
Jared took a long pull on his beer, laughing at his teammates’ antics. He wasn’t much older than any of them, but he felt so much wiser. He’d lost his father as a teen, been married and divorced, and now he was in love again.
In love?
Yeah, he was in love with the sweetest angel on the planet, sent down from above to rescue him and fulfill his every dream and desire.
Shit, if he kept it up, he’d be writing sappy love songs.
Ziggy was staring at him as if he had something on his face. He wiped his mouth with a bar napkin. Ziggy continued to stare.
“What the fuck are you staring at, Zig?” Jared asked.
“You. You amaze me. First you marry a gold digger who makes it her life’s mission to screw every professional athlete in Seattle, then you—”
“I what?” Jared didn’t bother to conceal his annoyance. He liked Ziggy, even though he wanted to kill him at times. The kid was brilliant on the ice but was a self-centered prick off it, especially when he’d been drinking, which was just about any time he wasn’t on the ice. Out of fear the team would beat the kid to death with their sticks, Coop had spent quite a bit of time working with Ziggy on how to be a team player. He still had a long way to go, and the drinking didn’t help.
Jared looked closer and saw how bloodshot Ziggy’s eyes were. He wasn’t slurring his words yet, but that usually didn’t come until just before he passed out.
Ziggy blinked a few times, as if he’d forgotten the question.
Jared repeated it for him: “What are you trying to say?”
“You’re a better man than I am. How do you deal with it, dude?” Ziggy asked.
“Deal with what?”
“After what happened with your wife, how do you handle knowing half the team has seen your girlfriend naked?”
All talking ceased at the table. Jared could’ve heard a puck drop. Confused, he registered the stricken expressions on his teammates’ faces and the deadly scowl on Coop’s. He took a few seconds to process what the rookie had said.
“What the fuck?” Jared shook his head several times, trying to clear it. He had no fucking clue what this little shithead was talking about, unless he had Steph confused with Vi.
Ziggy, despite being an insensitive idiot at times, wasn’t cruel. His face turned pale, and he said, “Oh, shit. You didn’t know?”
“I thought you told him to keep his trap shut?” Rush growled to Wildman.
Wildman shook his head and cast an accusing glare at Gibs. “You were supposed to tell Zig.”
Gibs shook his head. “I thought Rush was going to talk to him.”
Rush muttered a Russian curse, while the other guys suddenly found the golf game on the nearest TV fascinating.
Jared turned to his remaining teammates. Coop and Matt’s stunned expressions told him more than he ever wanted to know. This wasn’t a matter of confusing Vi and Steph. They knew. Whatever this was, they knew. Smooth paused from his usual sex talk with Bella to glance at his friends. He muttered a few words into the phone and put it down.
“What is he talking about?” Jared asked with steel in his voice. These fuckers were going to tell him the truth.
“No idea.” Smooth signaled the waitress for another shot of whiskey, as if he were going to need it. Not one of them would meet Jared’s gaze.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Every one of his teammates turned to Coop. After all, he was the captain, and captains handled the tough shit. Only this time, Coop kept his mouth zipped and looked to Matt, Jared’s closest friend on the team.
“Matt, what’s going on?” Jared said. “Does he have Steph confused with Vi?”
Matt stared at his beer, cleared his throat, swallowed, and took a sip, not looking at Jared. “No, not exactly.”
“Does this have something to do with Steph’s past?”
“I didn’t want you to find out this way.” Matt finally raised his gaze and met Jared’s. His eyes were filled with guilt and sympathy.
“You have to tell me.” Jared swept his gaze around the table. None of his friends said a peep.
“Your girlfriend was a stripper at Dancing Girls, Inc.,” Ziggy blurted.
“What?” Jared tried to process this info. He should’ve guessed. Vi had been a stripper there. It made sense they’d met there and became friends.
And half the guys on the team had seen her—naked.
He wasn’t the jealous type, but visions of his horny teammates drooling over his girlfriend’s, uh, assets made his stomach turn.
“You could tell she hated dancing. She wasn’t very good at it, but nobody cared because she has this rocking body and big—” Ziggy tried to make it better and made it worse.
Coop held up a hand. “Shut the fuck up.”
Ziggy hung his head and studied his beer. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
Jared looked each of them in the eyes. “You all knew about this.”
They exchanged guilty glances.
“Why didn’t you warn me instead of letting me find out like this?”
“Izzy felt it was Steph’s place to tell you.”
Jared wasn’t having any of it. “Does the entire fucking team know about this?”
Matt shrugged. Coop looked at his phone. Ziggy guzzled his beer. Smooth studied the menu, even though they’d already ordered dinner.
&nbs
p; “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Jared ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his eyes. This could not be happening. He’d thought the guys had been ogling her beyond the normal appreciation of a gorgeous woman. Some of them had even leered, which was against the Sockeye Bro Code in a big way. He could remember when they were caught watching a video of Vi dancing—
Shit, what if there was video? He hadn’t seen any signs of it. The guys didn’t shut up and put away their phones when he came into the room.
Matt stood and gestured to Jared. “Let’s talk.”
“Yeah, I really want to talk.” Jared hated the surly tone of his voice. He was pissed no one had told him, just like they hadn’t told him about Candy screwing around on him. Oh, hell, they’d hinted, but he wouldn’t listen.
With clenched fists, he followed Matt to a private table well away from the guys. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He couldn’t stop the hurt and betrayal from leaking into his voice.
“Steph asked us not to tell anyone. She wanted a fresh start, a break from all those bad memories. She deserved as much.”
“I knew she had things she didn’t want to talk about, but this?”
“It was her secret to keep, not ours to tell.”
“It wasn’t exactly a secret if the whole team knew about it.”
“They didn’t. Not at first. Ziggy was there on his twenty-first birthday months ago. I guess he remembered her. Regardless, if her past had any bearing on who she was as a person, I’d have told you everything.”
“And what is everything?” Jared leaned across the table and narrowed his eyes.
“I need a drink first.” Matt sighed and signaled to the waitress to bring another round. She hurried over with a couple beers. He took a long pull before setting down the glass and drawing in a deep breath. Jared gripped the glass with both hands but didn’t lift it to his lips.
Rampant emotions churned through his brain, everything from anger to hurt to fear to something else he couldn’t define. He didn’t know what to think of this. It wasn’t like she hadn’t alluded to enough skeletons to fill a walk-in closet. She hadn’t actually lied to him about that. She just hadn’t wanted to talk about it, and he’d respected her choices.