She rounded the loop. The locker room doors were wide open, players and their families spilling out into the hall. “Hi, Brian,” Grace greeted the team’s center.
The gigantic man looked at her strangely, his eyes gone wide. “Hey, Grace.”
“What’s wrong?” The man blushed, which was definitely strange.
“You missed the show,” he said.
“What show? Isn’t this a party? Congratulations on the win,” she remembered to say, going up on tiptoe to hug the mountain-sized center.
He hugged her and quickly stepped back. “Robyn St. Clair and Dallas got into some kind of argument. It got pretty nasty.”
“Oh no, what were they arguing about?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “She showed up here, accusing you of leading him on or cheating with Kyran’s friend from Boston. Dallas took her upstairs to Derek Billings’ box to handle it. Ty went with them.”
“Weird,” Grace said. “I’ll go check on the situation.”
Rushing back the way she’d come, Grace took the stairwell to the club level of the stadium. By the time she rounded the last step, she was running. She could only imagine Dallas’ reaction to Robyn’s lies. She slowed her steps as she approached the owner’s box, remembering the last time she’d been there was as Derek Billings’ guest. She could hear voices, two male, one was female.
“Dallas, please, you need to listen to me,” Robyn insisted, sounding rushed and slightly panicked.
“You expect me to let you trash my girlfriend?” Dallas questioned. “Ty, if you stand back and do nothing about your assistant, I will go over your head and have her fired.”
“Hear her out first, Dallas,” Ty urged. “She has information she claims will open your eyes to the woman you claim to love. I’m not condoning what she’s done by hiring a PI to trail Grace Daniels. But if Grace is doing something that could affect your performance with the team and that translates to bad press, I’m concerned enough to check the validity.”
Grace stopped to listen, staying far enough away from the room that they wouldn’t know she was there. She had to trust Dallas to deflect the lies before it got out of hand.
“I don’t claim to love her,” Dallas corrected. “I do love her. Grace is an amazing woman. Permitting your assistant to spy on her is beneath your integrity.”
“It doesn’t bother you that she’s been tracking your birth parents behind your back?” Robyn questioned, surprising Grace.
“I hired Grace when we first started dating. We’ve kept it quiet. You’ve no right to interfere or even question my decision on that.”
“You’re being adopted is not exactly a secret to me. I got suspicious when she took over your life so quickly and everyone turned on me at Kyran Black’s house,” Robyn explained. “I asked her former boss to investigate her and we sent in someone she’s familiar with to see how serious the two of you were getting. Even he was surprised by what he found. Do you know Phalen Maddox, Kyran’s friend from Boston, stays in her apartment whenever he’s in town?”
Grace stepped closer to the door. This couldn’t be happening. She should stop it now. But it was like watching a train wreck.
“Yes, I know. He’s a friend. Grace has been with me most of the time. This is nonsense.”
“It’s not. I have proof that she’s been stringing you along. Your so-called friend’s fucking your girlfriend, Dallas. Look at my video. Please. Maybe Grace was planning to use your case to exploit you. Did you think of that? For Grace Daniels, getting a man like you to fall in love with her is quite a coup.”
“I trust her.”
“You’re a fool,” Robyn accused. “In high school, your girlfriend was ridiculed for her looks. To my shame, I teased her too. But Grace? She can’t let the past go. She tried to ruin a friend of mine’s engagement to her childhood sweetheart. His name’s Brant Huxley. Brant and Marina were thick as thieves until he started seeing Grace behind her back. He almost called off the wedding.”
“I had no idea that Brant was dating Marina,” Grace defended herself, revealing her presence. “He strung me along, used me, making me feel like an ugly duckling by the time things ended. And then you brought him back into my life to do what, wreak havoc?”
“Grace, baby,” Dallas said, turning to rush toward her. Robyn planted her body in his path. “Let me handle this.” He tried to move around Robyn, who flashed something in his face. It was a newfangled video camera that fit in the palm of her hand.
She held out the camera. “This is what she’s been doing behind your back.”
“What are you talking about?” Grace asked, even as Dallas reached up to grab Robyn’s wrist. “I’d never do that to Dallas. The very fact that you’re trashing the whole investigation is simply the work of a bitch.”
Dallas’ face paled, his expression transforming from contempt for Robyn’s behavior to one of stunned disbelief. He looked at Grace. The pain in his brown eyes was so real, it tore through her soul.
“Grace? Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded, taking the device and coming to her. Something in the way he moved felt dangerous and she retreated right into the wall. He looked at her like she’d grown devil horns on her head.
“Tell you what?”
“What you were doing with Phalen when I was waiting on that plane?” His tone changed, cracked, like he’d sounded with a sore throat.
“You know what happened. You talked to him and hired him to be my watchdog. I told you about it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you kissed him, Grace?”
Grace didn’t understand where he’d get that idea until Dallas showed her the video camera. Her heart fell to the floor as she saw the screen. It was paused on Grace locked in Phalen’s arms. She was tall enough that they were nearly face to face. And she’d been so desperate to get rid of Brant, the image looked passionate. “Oh my god…no, no, that’s not what happened! Yes, I was so happy he walked in that I hugged him. That’s it.”
Dallas hit rewind, then play. Grace watched herself on the screen. She’d been at her desk, talking to Brant.
She heard her voice. “Phalen!” she’d exclaimed as the camera trained on Phalen. She’d practically launched herself across the room, right into the other man’s embrace. Her back was to the camera, the image blurred, Phalen leaned in and she recalled asking him to help her.
Oh shit, it looked like they were kissing. Guilt tore through her. She knew she hadn’t crossed that line, but she’d been tempted enough that it must have translated to the camera.
“We didn’t kiss,” she argued, looking up at Dallas, who clearly wasn’t seeing the same thing she did.
It didn’t help that Phalen and Brant’s words were caught on tape. “Hey darlin’, now this is a real nice way to greet a man when he comes in the door,” Phalen had said, then he’d looked around the room. The camera shook a bit as the user lowered his hand and the angle of the scene changed. “Who’s the prick?”
“What the hell, Grace? Who is this man?” Brant had demanded, far louder since he was close to the camcorder.
“This is my friend, Phalen Maddox. He’s from Boston.”
“You’re looking mighty chummy kissing a so-called friend,” Brant accused. “Does McKay know you’re fucking around on him?”
“What’s it to you whether she’s fucking me or not?” Phalen questioned, moving so that Grace was protected beneath his arm. The video feed ended, that last image stilled on the frame.
“Dallas, no, it wasn’t like that.” Grace finally spoke, her throat as dry as a desert. It hurt to speak.
“Robyn, Ty, get the fuck out of here before you witness something that you’ve no business seeing,” Dallas ordered, not even paying attention to them. “I’ll deal with the two of you after I talk to Grace.”
Ty started to walk toward the door. He looked at her with pity in his eyes. Grace couldn’t afford to defend herself to the VP.
Robyn sneered at Grace as she went by. “I told you
she was going to hurt you, Dallas. You should have believed me.”
“I’ll go. The three of you can talk it out and laugh about it. I don’t give a fuck what you do,” Grace pronounced, losing her temper. “I’ll say this once, Dallas McKay. I did not cheat on you. If you want to believe the worst about me, then you can’t possibly love me.”
Afraid to see the rejection on his face, Grace felt like the bullied teenager she’d once been and sidestepped Dallas to reach the door. Back then she’d run or hide when the harassment got bad. Rarely had she fought back. Panicked as she was, she couldn’t fight now.
Dallas tried to grab for her, but Ty got in his way. Heartbroken, Grace took off in a flat-out run, using her long legs to power her down the hall.
“Grace, damn it, get your ass back here. Damn you, Ty, get the fuck out of my way,” Dallas yelled. A scuffle followed and Robyn screeched.
“If you hit him, Dallas, I will make sure you’re suspended during the playoffs,” Robyn warned.
Grace didn’t hear anything else. She kept running. She didn’t want to look back and see the anger on Dallas’ face. Slowing long enough to evaluate where to go, she took a fire exit instead of the main stairwell. She was still running when she made her way to the ground level and reached the parking area designated for visiting teams. She saw her car way across the lot and sprinted toward it.
A cold wind blasted her face. Cold, wet tears blurred her vision right as she hit a patch of black ice and crashed on her ass. Ignoring the pain that followed, she got back to her feet, getting ready to run again.
Out of what seemed like nowhere, a tan SUV roared up to her. It came to an abrupt halt and the driver’s side door opened. Phalen Maddox jumped out.
“Get in, Grace.” He took her elbow, helping her get into the passenger side and slamming the door.
“I need to get out of here,” Grace said when he climbed in behind the steering wheel.
He pointed at her. “Put your seat belt on.” She obeyed. “You were running like the hounds of hell were nipping at your heels. You never heard me shouting for you to stop and fell on your ass. Care to explain why?”
“Once we’re away from here, sure,” she answered, looking back as Dallas burst out of the fire exit into the parking lot.
Phalen looked back. “What the hell? You two have a fight?”
“You could say that,” she said, fighting her tears.
Dallas saw them and started hoofing it toward them. She heard him shouting, but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“Go, please.”
Phalen put the SUV in gear and they took off like a bat out of hell. They were heading for the exit when Grace checked the parking lot.
Dallas had turned away, heading back to the stadium. Grace’s heart shattered, torn into pieces. He believed Robyn’s lie and she didn’t stay to defend the truth. Damn it all, it hurt to have the man she loved think she’d cheated. He should know her heart belonged to him, but that video had done its damage.
Her cell phone went off. Dallas’ ringtone echoed through the interior. “Oh god, after all we’ve done together, how could he think I’d do that to him, Phalen?”
“Do what, darlin’?”
Grace turned the phone off. She couldn’t talk to Dallas. She might throw up if he asked her about a kiss that never happened.
“He thinks I cheated on him, with you.”
“Hell, that’s nothing I can’t fix right now.” Phalen started to downshift, the SUV slowing down as they approached an off ramp that would loop around and take them back to Griffins Nest Stadium.
“Don’t. I can’t face him yet,” Grace said. “He believed Robyn and my dickhead of an ex’s video camera over me.”
“What camera? You’re going to have to explain. Hold off until we get to a place where I can pull over and look at your hands. You’re bleeding.”
Confused, she clamped her mouth shut. She looked down, belatedly aware that her palms were burning. She’d scraped them in her fall. She must have tried to brace herself and had been lucky not to break any bones as a result. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” Phalen headed to a rest stop and pulled into it. He didn’t say anything at first. He opened a case that contained his laptop, taking out a small first-aid kit. He was dabbing her left palm with antibiotic ointment when he spoke. “I still have tickets for the next flight out to Minneapolis. We change planes there and go to South Dakota. You want to go to the airport with me or home?”
“Dallas isn’t here. You said his grandparents want to see him. He should go with you.”
“I think they’ll talk to you,” Phalen replied, gently applying a few bandage strips before turning his attention to her right hand. “Tell me about this video.”
Grace told him what Brant had done when he’d come into her office. Phalen whistled. The look in his green eyes was alarmingly lethal. “I knew that asshole was up to something. You should have let me hit him.”
“It was better that he left when he did. Phalen, I’m sorry that I put you in a position where you’d be suspected of doing something with me behind Dallas’ back.”
“You were scared of Brant. You said he wasn’t physically abusive, but I’m willing to bet he did a number on your heart. I’ll let your boyfriend take care of that. You’ll need to decide if you’re willing to work things out with him first. Bolting from a fight isn’t going to solve anything.”
“You’re right. I’ll call him and let him know to come to the airport. I just…can’t stop seeing his eyes when he looked at me. He reacted like I’d stabbed him in the back.”
Phalen glanced up, his eyes training on the intricate sapphire and silver chains looped around her neck. If he hadn’t been taking care of her hand, she would have pulled her coat closed. He was putting another bandage on her palm when he spoke. “A man like Dallas doesn’t put chains on his woman unless he’s damn serious about keeping her. I’m sure it hurt like hell for him to see that recording and he deflected that pain onto you.”
“It’s a necklace.” Grace gasped, completely stunned.
“Call it what you want. He put the chains on you. He takes them off when you need a break. He calls the shots with you, yes?”
She barely felt herself nod. “You’re making him seem like he’s a badass wolf or something. He’s a bit alpha at times, but not a Dom, if that’s what you’re implying.”
Strange as the conversation was, Phalen was forcing her to think about something other than her broken heart. He succeeded in calming her down.
Phalen’s gaze lifted to hers, his brow arching, and something in his green eyes made her bow her head and listen. “True, he’s not like me. But he’s definitely an alpha. He may switch to beta once in a while to keep from scaring you. Dallas sees you as his. He’s not going to let you go without a fight.”
“I hope not,” she admitted.
“So what’s it going to be, Grace? Are you going to stay and solve this with him? If you give him a chance, he’s going to realize the truth.”
Grace was going to stay. She was still mad as hell and needed to think, but she was much calmer now. “Let’s go to the airport. I’ll call him now. If he doesn’t show, we’ll go to South Dakota and finish his case. Maybe then he’ll forgive me for running away in the first place.” She made the call and put the phone away. She’d have said more, however, the voice mail she’d left didn’t seem long enough to say what she needed to say.
As soon as they were back on the road, Grace’s anger turned to guilt. Guilt for failing to trust that Dallas would have believed her if she’d stayed and faced him. And, yes, she felt guilty about running to Phalen the way she did. If she’d caught Dallas nearly kissing some other woman, she’d have wanted an explanation too. It didn’t lessen the sting of his disbelief, but maybe they could talk it out and heal each other.
Tears blurred her vision. Grace tried to wipe them away. All she could do was cry, now fearing she’d ruined everything. Halfway to BWI
airport, Phalen handed her a tissue, then texted something on his fancy phone.
“You’re not supposed to do that while driving,” she murmured. He texted anyway and tossed the phone down. “I have nothing to wear.”
“We’ll get something on the way,” Phalen said. “Don’t worry, Grace. I think things will look up soon.”
Grace didn’t think so. The further they drove from Alexandria, the further she felt from Dallas. He didn’t call back. His silence hurt just as much as the look on his face when he saw Brant’s video.
It wasn’t until Phalen returned the rental vehicle and they were inside the airport that she realized they’d spent forty-five minutes driving. The forty percent chance of snow in the forecast increased to one hundred. Flurries had begun.
Phalen led Grace through the terminal, taking her to the gate where they’d wait for their flight, which was delayed because the incoming plane was late leaving Atlanta. The attendant working at the desk felt certain that the flight would depart as soon as they cleared the plane and a new crew came in. The snowfall outside wasn’t really more than a dusting.
“Grace, stay here,” Phalen said. “I’m going to track down something to eat. Can I get you something too?”
She collapsed into a chair, feeling grateful to be in one place for awhile. “Coffee would be great.”
“Be back in a few minutes,” he said, walking away while texting on his phone.
Grace pulled out her cell and dialed Dallas.
“Hey, it’s me. I tried to say this before, but I couldn’t find the right words,” she said to his voice mail. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run. I didn’t do anything with Phalen, I swear it. I pray we can talk through it and go from there.” The voice mail beeped, indicating she’d talked too long. She dialed again. “I ran out of time before. We found your grandfathers. Please come to BWI as soon as possible so we can fly to South Dakota.” She ran out of recording space again and left one last message. “I love you, McKay.”
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