FULL CONTACT
HJ Bellus
KATHY COOPMANS
Contents
Prologue
1. Justice
2. Liam
3. Justice
4. Liam
5. Justice
6. Liam
7. Justice
8. Liam
9. Justice
10. Liam
11. Justice
12. Liam
13. Justice
14. Liam
15. Justice
16. Liam
17. Justice
18. Liam
19. Justice
20. Liam
21. Justice
22. Liam
23. Justice
24. Liam
25. Justice
26. Alex
27. Liam
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
FULL CONTACT
Copyright © 2017 by HJ Bellus. Small Town Girl Books, LLC. & Kathy Coopmans
Editor: Julia Goda @ Diamond in the Rough Editing
Proofreader: Cat Parisi
Formatting: HJ Bellus
Cover Designer: JM Walker @ Just Write Creations
Model: Adam Spahn
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of HJ Bellus.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Dedication-
To friendships, families, and everything in between. Coops, I love you and our wild ride. We have friendship & family in spades. Here’s to many more years.
Prologue
Justice
I stare lovingly and admirably at the smooth definition of Liam’s back as he sleeps one last time. My carefully thought-out letter is neatly folded and sitting on the pillow beside him. My statement is written in a way he should understand. Simple and to the point.
It pierced my heart to write words I don’t mean. Therefore, I’m sure the pointed, jagged words will stab away at his for a long time.
What I’m doing is cowardly, and I know it. Facing the fear and danger of people head-on has been drilled into my head for as long as I can remember. But this, dealing with the fear of breaking someone’s heart along with yours, is something no one can prepare you for. Not even my family.
The ruthless and leading Diamonds. Better known to those who know us as one of the top prominent mafia families in the entire world. Powerful in the eyes of the law, yet just as powerless when it comes to matters of the heart like everyone else.
No one can fix a shattered heart, and no one can convince me a heart doesn’t hurt either. It does. It takes more abuse than it should and keeps on going. Proving it can be strong.
I rub my trembling lips together to hold in the words I want to tell him one last time before I sneak out the door the same way I snuck in.
Quietly.
From the moment Liam Blake introduced himself to me a little over a year ago, I knew the instant pull that attracted me toward him would never last. Not with who I am compared to who he is and where he’s going with his life.
“I’ll ruin you if I stay.” The words are barely above a whisper as they slip out of my mouth.
We’ve been fighting about our relationship for over a month.
He won’t listen, and I’m too scared to tell him the truth. Hell, I’m frightened to admit the truth to myself.
I can’t take my chances anymore, not with where his career is going and who he’s destined to become.
Our futures are leading us down two separate paths, and it’s unfair that not even love is powerful enough to merge them into one.
The pain I’m causing us both is my fault, really. I let this go too far, even after the uncontrolled voices in my head told me if I felt the way I did about certain things in my life, I should let him go.
And still, the part of me that thought somehow it could all work out hung on to a piece of string with hope dangling at the edge that I could admit these things and just be me.
The sad thing is, deep down I knew it would catch up with me at some point and the lies I had told him about my family would come forth. I should have listened to my head instead of my heart.
I don’t know who I am or what I’ll become without Liam Blake in my life. I know I won’t allow the life I was brought up in to destroy something he’s worked his entire life to achieve, and that right there says it all. I’m ashamed. So, so ashamed for allowing my emotions to get the best of me.
I grab one of the photos he had printed of the two of us off his nightstand and clutch it to my chest, swallowing the hard lump of doubt sticking in my throat when my eyes land on how happy we look.
“What I’m doing is right. You will soar, Liam Blake. Become one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks, and you will rise to be loved by the fans just like your dad without being connected to the mob tainting your perfect record and reputation. I will always love you,” I whisper as I back away and slowly close his bedroom door.
I turn the corner at the end of the hall and let the tears fall down my face. Every warm drop has turned to ice by the time I walk through his house and out the front door.
Once I’m outside, I gulp in a lungful of the crisp spring air and gather the courage to move forward.
Pushing back my shoulders, I slip into the backseat of the limousine, tuck myself firmly against my mom, Calla Bexley, while my dad, Cain, climbs in next to us.
And I cry. The tears won’t stop. I’m not sure if they ever will.
I was born a mafia princess. Alongside my family is where I am meant to be.
1
Justice
Seven years later
“Hey, sweetheart!” my dad addresses me as he quickly climbs out of his SUV. A dark silver metallic Chevy Suburban, exactly like the one he drives back home.
He positions himself beside me, takes hold of my hand, and the two of us gaze up in astonishment at the building I’ve grown quite comfortable looking at for the past six months.
“Stunning place.” The sound of his voice used to soothe my jitters. Today, not so much. I doubt anyone or anything will until this meeting is over.
Actually, that’s not true. I won’t be calm until I’ve let go of the heavy weight that’s been weighing my heart down since I was old enough to grasp hold of the world I grew up in.
However, this particular day I’ve been fretting about, excited, anxious, and scared while waiting for it to get here, and now that it has, I’m worried.
My turbulent head has spun and spun for the past two months until I’ve lost any semblance of balancing anything else in my life except this meeting.
The only thing I’ve accomplished is unpacking all my belongings and feeling settled in my gorgeous two-story home in the foothills of Boise, Idaho. I’ll be calling this place my home for however long it takes to get this upcoming adventure off the ground.
Who knows, I might even love it here.
This adventure I’m looking forward to as much as I am frightened out of my skin to accomplish—and not a bit of it—has to do with my family letting me hold the reins.
“It is,” I confirm, squeeze my dad’s hand, and suck in a breath. The man is my anchor. A devoted family man, not only to his flesh and blood but also to his job. One I will never understand, no matter how much I have tried.
Being the daughter of Ca
in and Calla Bexley was relatively easy for my brother and me growing up.
We stuck to our own, both in school and outside of it. It wasn’t because my parents kept Jonathan and me sheltered. It was the opposite, really. They sent us to public schools, involved themselves as much as they could in our daily lives.
That is until both of us gained the notoriety from our classmates of who they thought we’d become the second we left the perimeter of the school grounds.
Their judging never bothered me, not like it did my hot-headed brother. He stood up to them, pretty much told them to fuck off or they would feel the wrath of what he would do. He never followed through with his threats back then. I’m fairly certain he shows every enemy we have what he can do now, though. The thought of it freezes the words I’ve longed to ask and say straight up.
We both had our core group of friends. They knew all along who we were and what my family did for a living. Some of our friends are amongst the family; some are not. Didn’t really matter because I was taught to never apologize for who I was, to stand with my head tall; and I did, up until the day I couldn’t hold it high anymore.
Since then, the only thing that has lifted me up is doing this job.
“It’s a beautiful morning, Dad. Are you going to be a good boy and let me do all the talking, or do you need to sit in the waiting room and color me a picture?” I tease, slide through the door when he opens it for me, and smooth down the skirt of my suit. A nervous habit I’ve picked up ever since my father has been trying to negotiate a deal with the agent of the man who I hope is upstairs waiting to talk to me.
A man I fell hard and fast for in college, and a man whose heart I shattered into a million pieces the day I vanished.
Every other player we’ve drafted, scouted, and signed already for this up and coming team. Dad and the long list of men in our family have negotiated contracts with the majority of them. This one in particular is personal to me, and I insisted on hopefully finalizing the deal myself.
And I believe this is why my dad is here today. It doesn’t have a thing to do with him not trusting me to get the job done. He’s here for moral support for what my entire family claims is an aching soul. Mine. One that has never healed. They couldn’t be any closer to the truth, whether I admitted the reason why I’ve allowed my heart to ache all this time or not. Which I surely haven’t. Not to them anyway.
“You might be able to gang up on me when your mother is around. Not going to happen today, Justice. You own twenty-five percent of the Idaho Diamonds. Alex owns another quarter. The rest is owned by the Diamond Empire. And just because we have officially declared you the general manager does not mean I don’t have a say in what happens here today.”
I rein in my temper before pausing in my steps. There is a lot more meaning to those words than he’s letting on. I might be my mother’s daughter, but I look, act, and have the temper of my father; and right now, he’s pushing me. My temper ignites, and it shoots all the way to the top floor of this stadium.
A football stadium, to be precise. The one place I never thought I would step into ever again. Not until the day my parents and the leader of the Diamond Empire, my mom’s cousin, Roan Diamond, presented me with my college graduation present nearly four years ago.
My mouth never hit the floor as hard in my life as on that day. I’m afraid it, along with my heart, is about to do it all over again.
Four long years it has taken my family to establish, build, reconstruct, and form the first professional football team in the state of Idaho. They bought an old stadium in downtown Boise, an area that’s thriving. Worked alongside architects, contractors and turned it into a state-of-the-art modern football stadium rivaling the rest of the league, Dallas included. Nobody, not even the biggest football fans of the great state of Idaho, expected what we brought to the league. There’s been plenty of skepticism, but my determination trumps it all. The Idaho Diamonds will leave their mark in football history, and that’s why I only want the best, even if what happens here today tears me to shreds.
Our stadium is beautiful. All shiny with the logo above every entrance. Three stories of skyboxes above the stadium seating with crystal glass walls that can open on beautiful autumn days. A massive store which is selling out quicker than our marketing team can keep up with. Tiled floors and offices on the third level and a skybox that will give us the perfect view to watch every game in a few months once the season starts.
The only issue we had, which was a doozy, to say the least, was dealing with the National Football League board. They were apprehensive of a mafia family joining their forces. While my father, Alex, and I sat alongside my mother and Roan with steam billowing out of our ears, my mother stood her ground. Told them they would spend a long time in court fighting a losing battle they could not win if they didn’t sanction the team into the system.
If I didn’t know I wanted to be a lawyer before she ripped new assholes into each one of them, I would have changed my major and become one. The woman is as loyal to our family as everyone else. Hardcore and doesn’t put up with shit from anyone. Especially the man who is here to soothe me.
It wasn’t until the Sunday after the NFL called to notify my mom that the paperwork had been pushed through and the announcement of a new team joining the ranks would be delivered in a national press conference that I realized there would come a time when I would run into my past. It was then I had to grow up and start watching football again.
I learned moves, plays, penalties, and I learned everything I know about this great sport from watching Liam Blake.
Shortly after I left, Liam signed his contract, and from there on out, the only man I ever fell head over heels in love with was everywhere. All over ESPN. Magazines, the news, radio.
He had done it. Went on and fulfilled his dream without me as he should have. I quit watching, only because my heart couldn’t suffer through the pain anymore.
He stole my heart the first time we met, and I’ve never taken the chance of getting it back.
Being with him was the best year of my life.
His rich cocoa eyes, broad chest, and skillful hands haunt my dreams, and I’ve been given an opportunity to make everything right again. Or at least try.
I wish he didn’t have to go through what he did for me to get this chance. I would have waited and sought him out when his contract came up. So, when the time was right, we pursued and offered him a deal he’d be crazy to turn down.
I cringe thinking about what happened to him. I stood alongside my family watching the big Thanksgiving Day game and saw the only man important to me outside the realm of my family have his dreams demolished in one unjustifiable play. His face not only contorting in pain, but also in the knowledge his career could quite possibly be over.
My heart tore, and a gasp ripped from my throat. Before I knew what was happening, my dad had me lifted off the floor and a giant puddle of tears pooled at my feet. That was the day my family figured out I was still in love with a man who more than likely hates everything about me now.
I sigh, gather my strength, and again take my mind to a place of happiness, a place I’ve worked my ass off to achieve. The last piece of this football team needs to be put in place, and I will not allow the one half of my heart that’s still dangling to get in the way. The simple fact is, the Idaho Diamonds need a leader, and Liam Blake is the best man for the job.
The broken part. The part my father desperately wants to protect. He can’t protect me from what I’ve done. No one can. He should know that by now, and yet here he is, by my side without knowing the real reason why I broke it off with Liam in the first place.
I never thought I would be part owner of an NFL team when I left New York a few days after walking out on Liam.
I hid away and finished up my last two years of college at the University of Michigan. After graduation, I returned, moved in with my friend Danika, and attended NYU to obtain my degree in corporate law.
When I first le
ft the state of New York, I was second-guessing everything in my life, from my career choice of following in my mother's footsteps and becoming a lawyer to leaving the man I loved behind; and now here I am, the oldest child of our family’s next generation, part owner of a sport I knew little about until I started dating the quarterback in college.
On the one hand, it’s funny how I’m standing here now, the athlete in our family. The one who fell in love with the sport of baseball because all the men loved it.
It surprised me when they decided to invest all this money into a franchise with the NFL instead of with the MLB. I’m glad they did.
I was known in our family as the girl who drove her parents and everyone else out of their minds with worry after injuring my arm more times than any of us cares to count during my high school career as our leading pitcher. I helped drive our school to their first state championship with a messed-up shoulder that had my dad obsessing while standing on the sidelines. He told me my career as a pitcher was over, and as heartbroken as I was about not carrying the talent he helped me achieve to the next level, which was playing college ball, I knew he was right. But this he is wrong about, and he knows it.
“Dad, this meeting will be done my way. You will step in only if I need you. We’ve talked about this. Don’t underride me by throwing your authority around. There’s more at stake here then you realize.”
“I’m well aware of what’s at stake here. More than you might think.”
I doubt that.
I snap my mouth shut and start walking; it won’t do me any good to try and reason with the man. My heart starts pounding harder than my now moving feet are in my five-inch black Louboutin’s. My love for heels is one of the few things I inherited from my mother. That and the strength to tune my overbearing father out.
I don’t disrespect the man by any means. I love him with everything in me. He’s taught me how to survive in a world so full of malicious people; I would have never made it after walking away from Liam if it weren’t for the love he, my mother, and my younger brother gave me.
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