“They wrote RIP Douche on top of the pile. Let's go tell Mom.”
The laugh that I was trying to keep in comes out, my whole belly shaking while I follow him upstairs where he breaks the news to my mother, who of course blames Cooper for being too soft on them. With his hands on his hips, he argues back only for her to give him one look that shuts him up. They leave with a hug and a promise to visit soon. I go back to my room where I find Karrie in the middle of the bed, a white robe covering her. Her head is angled to the television that’s playing some kind of reality cooking show. Her soft snores fill the room. Climbing into the bed, I take her in my arms. She moves a bit but settles in. Kissing the top of her head, I follow her into abyss.
Now here I sit three weeks later. It’s been a fucking crap show. Karrie caught some fucking bug last week and she is still weak from it. She throws up one more time, her ass is going to the doctor. I don’t give a shit if I have to fucking drag her there. Plus, Max is being a top notch douche. Before he was just a jackass. He has since brought it up to a different level. A level that if we weren’t on the same team I would smash out of him. I walk into the arena, Mindy greeting me with a tight smile.
“Matthew, so we were just thinking that perhaps it’s a good idea that Karrie stays back from the next leg. It’s only one day. She can head back home tonight so she can rest and get better.”
“Who is we?” I ask, taking the earbuds out of my ear.
“Doug. He’s in town for business and is coming to the game tonight.”
“Is anyone going to be with her?” I ask, texting her.
Feel better.
“I think Doug said he’s going to talk to her tonight about going home with him.”
I nod, sending her another text.
Your father is in town.
I press send and see that it’s been delivered but not read. When I left her fifteen minutes ago she was finally lying down before the game. I walk into the room and get ready for the early skate.
I sit down, taking off the tape from my stick, throwing it in the garbage and getting my roll of tape that’s right next to my cell phone. Reaching for the tape, I see my phone light up with my mother’s number. She knows I’m on the ice, so it might be an emergency.
“Hello,” I answer the phone, looking around.
“Matthew, thank God. I want you to listen and say nothing. I have you on speaker. Cooper is here, too,” she says and then Cooper’s voice sounds out.
“Listen to us before you talk. Got me, son?” he says, his voice clipped.
“What the fuck is going on?” My heart starts pounding. My neck starts getting hot while I hear a commotion coming from outside the locker room. Voices start being raised behind me.
“There’s a warrant out for your arrest. Someone is accusing you of beating and raping her yesterday,” Cooper hisses out while the door is being slammed open. “I have the lawyer already on the way to you. You say nothing, son, nothing.”
I look up just in time to see two detectives dressed in suits coming into the room.
“Matthew Grant.” They flash their badge. “We have a couple of questions we need to ask,” one of them says while I hear Cooper still on the line.
“Don’t say a fucking word, Matthew. We are coming to you.”
“Now?” I hear Coach behind me yelling. “You do this to him now, two seconds before he’s supposed to go on the ice?” He glares at them.
They obviously couldn’t care less.
“You need to come down to the station with us,” one of them says, but I’m standing here with my mouth open, my ear drums pounding, and the phone to my ear. “We can walk out of here civilized or we can strap the cuffs on you. One way or another you aren’t getting on that ice.”
My teammates are standing up shaking their heads.
“This is bullshit.” I hear Coach say while the guys nod.
Phil comes up to me and whispers, “Don’t say a fucking word.”
I don’t have time to process before I’m being ushered out of the locker room. The only thing I take off is my skates.
I walk out of the building and I’m led into an unmarked car. The owner of the team is now standing with Karrie by his side. His hands are around her shoulders, her face streaked with tears.
“Karrie!” I yell from inside the car. “Karrie!”
Nothing. She turns around and walks back into the arena, leaving me alone with the silence that now fills the car.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Karrie
Thirty Minutes earlier
I’m dragging my ass. I can’t seem to fight this bug. I’m taking everything under the sun, extra vitamins, omega 3, extra vitamin C, but nothing is helping. I might have to admit defeat and go and see a doctor. I hate admitting that he’s right!
I’m walking into the lodge the team has at the arena when I spot my father sitting in the chair with Mindy beside him and someone else I have never seen. “Hey there,” I say to all of them, going over to my father, kissing his cheek.
Their faces say that something is off. “What’s the matter?”
“Honey,” my father starts and the way his voice is I know it’s bad. What I don’t expect is it to be the end of my world. “Sit down.”
Mindy stares down at her feet while her hand wipes away a tear.
“I’m starting to freak out,” I tell them, my heart pounding really fucking fast. I sit next to my father, who reaches out to hold my hand.
“This is Detective Horton. He’s here with a warrant for Matthew’s arrest.” He starts to say and it’s like my body is taken from me. I can hear him talk, but I don’t understand what he is saying.
The only thing I can hear is the pounding in my ears. The only thing I can focus on is the little fleck of dust that has fallen on my black jacket. I’m taken out of my trance when someone knocks at the door. Our family’s lawyer Ed Reynolds walk in.
“I came as soon as you called.”
I look at both my father and Ed. “He didn’t do this. Whatever you think he did, he didn’t.” The tears are now running down my face. “Dad, I swear he didn’t.”
My father squeezes my hand, “Honey, you don’t know that. Rape.” He shakes his head. “I don’t want to believe it. But...”
“Wait.” I shake my head. “What?”
“Karrie,” Mindy says, “a woman just accused him of beating and raping her last night after the game.”
My dad nods. “According to the police, she walked into the station this afternoon and said she spent the night with him or rather he went to her room at around one a.m. They spent the night having sex, rough sex.” Mindy looks at the lawyer. “Where it got out of hand. She said no. He didn’t stop.”
I let my father’s hand go. “Bullshit. He would never. Ed, I promise you he didn’t do this.” The tears are coming, but they are angry tears now. Why isn’t anyone listening to me? Mindy’s phone rings and she answers it. She nods and hangs up. “They are arresting him now.”
I get up. “I have to go to him. I have to be there.” I’m about to run, not walk out of the room, when my father stops me by holding my arm.
“Karrie. You did what you had to do. You can’t put this on yourself. He must have sneaked out while you were sleeping.”
I yank my hand out of my father’s hand. “He was with me.” Mindy’s hand goes to her mouth. “All night, Dad.” My tears run down my cheeks like a river flowing. There’s nothing that will let them stop. “All night, every night.”
My father puts his hands in his pockets, looking at Ed.
“I don’t need you to believe me. I need you to believe that no matter what, Matthew would never do that to anyone. He has sisters and a mother that he adores. He would never ever raise his hand to anyone.” I turn to Ed. “I need to know right now whose side you're on, because if you aren’t on my side, which is his side, you need to leave.”
“Karrie,” My father starts, but I hold up my hand to stop him.
I gat
her whatever strength I have left.
“I love him, Dad. I love him more than I can say. I love him with every beat of my heart. I love him with every breath in my body. I love him with every single piece of me.” My shoulders go square, my spine straight. “I’m in love with him. I have been from the moment he walked into the house and told me to buy his food. Now I ask you, Dad, whose side are you on? Because...” I shake my head, not ready to say the words.
“Yours, every single time it’s yours,” he says quietly. “Let’s go be by Matthew’s side.”
I nod while a sob comes out of me. The thought of losing Matthew is too much. “I can’t let him see me like this. I have to be strong for him.”
My father takes me in his arms, where I let go, a sound of horror coming out of me, my heart broken when I think about how alone he must be.
“Get Cooper on the phone. Ed, call in the cavalry,” he says over my head while he rubs my back. “Mindy, put out a statement that we stand by his side. No matter what.” He rubs my back. “Okay, honey, we need to get to the police station.” He guides me out while Mindy stays on my other side, her hand in mine. A form of unity.
She leans in. “No way he did this.”
I nod at her, biting my lips together when we make it out of the arena at the same time they put Matthew in the car.
“Karrie!” he yells from inside the car. “Karrie!”
My first thought is to go to him, but they drive off, so I turn and my father ushers me back into the arena into a waiting car.
“The media is picking up the story. It’s all over the place,” Mindy says, getting in the car also. “I have Parker on the phone.” She hands me her phone.
“Hello,” I breathe out, my voice cracking.
“Karrie, I know what you're going through, honey, I’m on my way.”
My head just nods.
“Honey, you have to be strong. For Matthew. Yes?”
I just nod, but it’s like she knows.
“We should be there within the hour.”
“Okay,” I whisper and then give the phone back to Mindy. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I say when my stomach starts to rumble and the motion of the car makes me light-headed.
“Here, drink this.” Mindy hands me a bottle of water. When we get to the station, I spot five media trucks already. “Look down and don’t say a word to anyone,” she says, getting out of the car followed by my father, who holds out his hand to me.
I walk next to my father, who puts his hand over my shoulder and leads me inside.
Ed is already there with another man I saw once. “Ladies, this is Noah. He’s Cooper’s lawyer,” Ed tells us as soon as we walk in.
“Where is he?” I ask, and Noah smiles at me. “I have to speak to him. I want to see him.”
“You can’t see him just yet,” Noah says. “They are reading him his rights in a couple of minutes. He better fucking ask for a lawyer. Criminal is not my forte but everyone knows that you ask for a lawyer.” He’s about to say something else, but the door opens and we hear a commotion. Lights flash.
Turning, I see it’s Cooper and Parker. Her face is as white as mine is. She has the same tears that have streaked her face.
One look at me and the tears come again. She rushes to me, taking me in her arms. “Sweetheart.” And just like that I lose it. I cling to her because she is the closest thing to Matthew. Cling to her because I need her strength. I feel strong arms hug us, and then hear Cooper’s voice.
“We are going to prove that he didn’t do this.” He then turns to Ed and Noah. “I don’t care what it costs, private detective, find out everything.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” a strange voice says from the side.
I look up to see a huge bulging guy. His eyes pierce through me.
“Off the record, her story has so many holes, you might fall in and end up in wonderland.” He doesn’t say anything and just goes past us to the back. Another man follows him.
“What kind of evidence do they have?” Cooper asks. “They have to have something strong to just go and arrest him.”
Ed shakes his head. “Right now it’s her word against his. The judge probably issued the warrant because of who he is.”
“I need to sit down,” I say, trying to get a handle on myself. “I think I’m going to throw up.” I go to the wall that’s lined with chairs.
“Someone get her something to eat, or a juice,” Parker says to them and Mindy nods, going on a hunt for something.
A man walks out from the back. “Who is here for Grant? He is asking for a lawyer,” one of the detectives says with a leer.
“That’s me,” Noah says, getting up and walking to the back. “No need to follow me. I need a word with my client. In private. And you might as well turn off the camera and the tape recording. I would hate to have this thrown out of court because you are an eager beaver.” He smiles at him, walking away.
I look at Parker. “He was with me the whole night.” I put my hands in my lap, playing with my fingers. “I was sick. He was a pain in my ass. Overbearing. I couldn’t take it.” I laugh, thinking about almost giving him a sleeping pill to shut him up from breathing. “He kept me up most of the night with his snoring.” I gasp out loud. “Where is my phone? I need my phone.” I rummage through my purse. “I have video.” I look around the room at Cooper, Parker, Mindy, Ed, my father, and most of all the detective. I grab the phone from my purse, opening up the camera. “I took videos to show him.” I look at Parker. “Only because he did it to me last week. Last night I decided I would give him payback.” I turn the first video on, the room so quiet you can hear a pin drop. My voice suddenly fills the room.
“It’s one a.m.” I turned the phone to show the time. “Sleep, he tells me.” Then I put the camera on him. He was sleeping on his back, and the snores were so loud it was really hard to say he wasn't.
I put the next one on. “It’s now one-thirty and he stopped for maybe a second.” I turned to see Matthew, who was now throwing his hand over his head. “Maybe he’s done.”
The next one was just of the clock. “It’s two-thirty. I’m thinking what would happen if I put a pillow on his face?” I turned the camera to Matthew, who turned then to face me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Showing you that you snore like a pig.” The screen went black because he had grabbed me, bringing me into him.
“Go to sleep,” he said.
The next one was an hour later. I was sitting on the couch, showing him the infomercial about snoring and a pillow that would stop it. I pointed to Matthew, who was sleeping like a starfish. His snores were so loud I’m surprised you could hear my voice.
“Well, there goes her story,” the detective says, walking away from us.
Two minutes later, the two men from before come out of the room straight to me. “Hi there. My name is Mick Moro. This is my partner Jackson Fletcher. I was told that you have evidence that will close this case?” he tells me.
“Um,” I answer him, “I taped him snoring.” I smile finally. “He was with me the whole night.”
“Do you mind if we take the phone into evidence?” Jackson asks me, his voice softer than his partner’s.
“Here, take it.” I give it to them. “Can I see him?” I look from Mick to Jackson. “Please.”
Jackson nods. “Give us a minute,” he says, going to the back and coming back out. “Okay, till this gets straightened out, he has to stay here, but you can see him for a bit.”
I get up, walking toward him, following him down the white hallway, where he opens the door and the man I love sits with his head down and his eyes closed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Matthew
I hate this fucking room. It has a smell of stale coffee and smoke, which is weird since I didn’t see anyone smoke. I’m sitting at the table, my hands on top, my foot moving a million miles a minute.
“So tell us where you were last night,
” the detective who calls himself Martinez asks while he leans back in his chair.
“I told you I was in my room as soon as I got back from the game.”
“Were you alone?” the other detective, who goes by Mabie, asks, leaning on the table. “The whole night?”
“Yes, the whole night, alone.” I’m not bringing Karrie into this. I don’t give a shit what happens to me and my name, but they aren’t fucking touching her.
Martinez snickers while he leans back, the button on his gut about to pop open. “You want me to believe the player of all players just finished the game and went back to his room?” He laughs.
Mabie, who is balding on top, leans forward. “The woman says you called her from a private number at about one a.m. Then you went to her hotel room. You guys had sex, but then you flipped.”
“I’m telling you it wasn’t me.” I shake my head. “I was in my bed all night.”
There’s a knock at the door and a huge detective comes in. “You read him his rights?”
“They haven’t and I want a lawyer,” I say out loud, making Martinez and Mabie get up, glaring at the guy who came in. They shut the door behind them. I breathe out a sigh, wondering if this is actually happening to me. This is a fucking nightmare. My thoughts go straight to Karrie. The need to go to her. I don’t think long because the door opens and Noah comes in, closing the door behind him.
“Noah,” I say with hope.
“Hey there,” he says, sitting down. “So this is the story. This woman claims you called her, went to her apartment or hotel, had sex with her, then you wanted rough sex, and when she said no you didn’t listen. You beat her. From the pictures I just saw, if you did this your knuckles would be bruised. She can barely see. One side of her cheek is swollen so much you can’t see her eye. Her lip is cut open. She looks like she went twelve rounds with Tyson.”
“I was with Karrie the whole night.” I shake my head. “But there’s no way in fuck I’m dragging her into this mess.”
“Oh, you don’t need to drag her into this. She is here willingly,” Noah says while he leans back in the chair. “Your girl just about laid out her father, or at least that’s what I’m told.”
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