The Running Back: A New Adult Sports Romance ~ Sean (The Rookies Book 3)

by Zoë Lane

  “I hope he gets in,” Casper said.

  “We know he will. Anyway, this game is close, and my schedule was free, so I figured, why not?”

  “Sure, sure. And you’ve got the money.”

  Dr. Kavoska laughed that sort of I’m-so-rich-it’s-just-hilarious laugh—while holding his stomach. His diamond cufflinks nearly blinded me.

  “Yes, well. I’m surprised you’re eating that. Didn’t see hot dogs on the menu or I might’ve helped myself to a couple.” He leaned in close and lowered his voice like he was sharing a secret. “The wife doesn’t much care for me eating processed meat.” He chuckled and straightened. “Anyway, please help yourself to what we have. The lobster is excellent, and there’s plenty. We’ve already ordered more champagne if you’re interested.”

  “Have you met Sean Miller? He’s one of our—”

  “Running backs,” Dr. Kavoska interrupted. He held out his hand, and I shook it. “Yes, yes, of course. Nice to meet you. I saw the news segment about your work with the Boys and Girls Club. Very impressive.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I imagine you’re going to have your hands full today.”

  “I think I’ll manage,” I said simply.

  Dr. Kavoska laughed. “I love it. Confidence. That’s good. Take that attitude on the field and you’ll win. I’m going to get back to my party, but don’t forget to take me up on that offer. The lobster really is first class.” He smiled and then left.

  I stared at Casper. “You know that guy? How?”

  Casper casually took a bite of his hot dog. “Keep eating,” he whispered.

  I started on my sandwich. Ham and cheese.

  “Met him at a party a few weeks ago. He had invited some of us over to show off in front of his son. I’d heard about it from Billy. Dr. Benzoli was there too. They looked real chummy.”

  Billy.

  He had committed suicide the other week because of his involvement in the murder of someone desperate for drugs. It had shocked a lot of us that Billy would be involved in dealing. His marketing scheme—although pyramid—was legit. I still couldn’t understand why he’d sell drugs making all this money.

  But Dr. Kavoska.

  Now I understood. Just something different about rich people who’d had money for a long time versus guys like us who had gotten rich overnight. Having not come from money, the fear of losing it all lingered at the back of my mind. As soon as the check hit my bank account, I pushed most of the money into a mutual fund.

  “You think Dr. Kavoska was involved?” I asked.

  Casper’s blond brows slammed together. “What do you mean?”

  “The whole drugs thing. Dr. Kavoska’s a medical doctor, right? Think he was involved with Dr. Benzoli.”

  Casper shrugged. “Dunno. Investigators won’t tell me anything since I don’t have a need to know or something.”

  “I think it’s kind of strange that he’s here, don’t you?”

  Casper grinned while he chewed. “Now you’re an investigator.”

  I had gotten a degree in criminal justice. “He’s got a lot of money, right?”

  “He’s a plastic surgeon in Richmond, Virginia. Can’t be that much compared to…I don’t know, a plastic surgeon to Hollywood stars.”

  “Probably nothing compares to that,” I agreed.

  “Maybe he’s got money elsewhere. But why would he live in Richmond if he can”—Casper shrugged again—“afford the Hamptons?”

  “Well, no one will think about Richmond.”

  Casper chuckled. “You should’ve been an investigator.”

  I finished off my sandwich, my eyes on Dr. Kavoska. “I wonder who those people are.”

  Casper’s eyes widened slightly. “Want to get some lobster and find out?”

  Mixing with the rich folks, we slowly filled our plates with lobster, crab cakes, shrimp, rolls…no way I could eat all of this and still perform. I shouldn’t have eaten the lunch I had, but whatever. I overhead somebody mention the word “investment,” and someone else talking about flying out to Vegas the next day.

  Vegas. One of the agents mentioned an investigation there.

  Casper and I took our seats again after spending a few minutes being introduced around.

  “Well?” Casper said, taking a large bite of the biscuit and then moaning in pleasure, his eyes rolling back into his head. “I should eat more food like this since I’m rich.”

  I was still savoring the lobster and the amazing sauce it was swimming in. “You and me both.” Sorry, Grandma. “Well… if I know anything, it’s that rich people are good at hiding things.”

  “True.”

  My eyes passed over the men. “But you only have to follow the money to find out their secrets.”

  20

  LACEY

  I checked my phone for the hundredth time, and it was only eight a.m. After sending text after text about going to the police station, seeing an age progression photo of my mother, and the possibility of going back to the home I had grown up in…

  I still got nothing.

  It’d been over twenty-four hours. Was that considered ghosting?

  Didn’t he say he wanted to see me?

  I kicked my janitor cart and then hopped around on one foot. A man chuckled from behind me.

  “You think that’s the best way to work through an issue?” Desmond stood with his arms on his hips, shaking his head. “You know, if you break anything…”

  “I know,” I mumbled. “I buy it.”

  “Nope. You have to fill out a product order form and get that approved so we can buy another one. I know you don’t much care for paperwork.”

  No, I didn’t.

  All throughout school, I’d suffered having to write papers. I’d made sure most of my junior and senior classes were those that would involve as little writing as possible. Basically, I’d hated English, and anything having to do with the social sciences, but I loved reading. Hated writing book reports, but loved to read the books.

  “Sorry, sir.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “We have time?” I asked sarcastically.

  “Very good. You’re learning. Only took you a couple of weeks.”

  I gave him a snarky smile.

  Desmond looked at his watch. “Why don’t you go ahead and take a fifteen-minute break? I know it’s not scheduled, but a happy, positive worker is a better one, and I’d prefer it if you’d stop trying to destroy company property.”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “You want to stand here and argue, or are you going on break?”

  “No, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  I pushed my cart into the nearest storage room and raced down the hall to the stairwell, hearing Desmond’s laughter trail me all the way.

  The guys had just returned from a win in Carolina last night, which meant they were already here for their early morning debrief. Coach Hicks had them on the strictest schedule, which had the guys spending a lot of time educating themselves on the teams they were facing.

  Debriefs were almost always held in one of the larger conference rooms on the third floor.

  And that’s where I’m going to be.

  I took the stairs two at a time until I reached the third floor. I opened the door to a quiet hallway. Who knew how long they’d been in the meeting, or if they were going to have a break soon? I only had fifteen minutes.

  Third floor…third floor…

  There were a few VIP waiting rooms for visitors on this floor, and the refrigerators were always stocked with food. I ducked inside one, pulled out a bottle of water, and then slowly walked up and down the hallway.

  I was officially stalking.

  The stairwell door in front of me opened, and Sean stepped through.

  I grinned. “Sean!” I jogged up to him.

  He briefly met my gaze and looked beyond me, frowning.

  “Sean? Did you get any of my texts? I haven’t heard—”

  “Excuse me.�
� He stepped around me.

  I snagged his arm. “Wait a minute,” I demanded. “What are doing? Are you ghosting me?”

  “Lacey—”

  “You are, aren’t you?”

  “No!”

  “Then why haven’t you answered me? Why couldn’t you say hello a second ago?”

  He sucked in his lips. Sean looked at my hand, still holding his arm. I dropped it.

  “I gotta go,” he mumbled.

  “Asshole,” I spat at him.

  Pain flashed across his handsome face. He nodded and turned away. I considered hurling my bottle at the back of his thick head as he walked away—until he turned around and swiftly came back to me.

  I parted my lips, anticipating his kiss, when he halted inches from my face. “Your brother accused me of raping you,” he hissed. “I’m not even supposed to be talking to you right now.”

  I couldn’t even breathe. What the hell was he saying?

  “Go on and be mad at me if you want. But you and your brother are ruining my life.” He stalked away.

  I don’t know how long I stood there staring into an empty hallway. My brother had done what?

  Your brother accused me of raping you.

  That night I had been over at Sean’s house, hiding out in his bedroom. I had returned to the condo, avoided my brother as best I could, and gone to bed. He thinks I was raped?

  Or was he doing all of this because he actually hated Sean? Hated him so much he’d ruin his career.

  I ran down the stairs to the first floor to retrieve my cart before Desmond could notice that I’d spent about a half an hour standing in a hallway doing nothing. Probably watched me on the security monitors.

  I spent the rest of the day giving two hundred percent at my job because I was so unbelievably furious.

  Tonight was another therapy session.

  And I was going to let Landyn have it.

  21

  SEAN

  I settled back into my seat next in the conference room. The coaching staff was still discussing what we got wrong in the third quarter against Carolina.

  Nico leaned over. “Hey, you okay? You look like your dog just died.”

  “It’s nothing,” I muttered.

  From the front of the room, Landyn casually rotated his chair and gave me a pointed look. My heart began to race, and my skin got hot. The investigation. Coach Hicks said it would start as soon as we returned.

  I wanted to punch Landyn’s smug face until his nose broke, and his eye sockets were busted.

  “Landyn is obsessed with you,” Nico said.

  Great. He saw the look.

  “He…I’m having trouble with him and his sister. Can’t really talk about it.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  My head snapped in Nico’s direction. He was frowning.

  “I told Landyn not to say anything, but I’m guessing he told the coach.”

  I turned away. “Yeah, he told him.”

  “Dude, I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing happened.”

  “I never thought it did, which is why I told him he was making a mistake.”

  “Did he give you a reason?”

  “No, but I figured it’s because he’s trying to keep his sister on a tight leash.”

  “Too tight,” I grumbled.

  And now it didn’t even matter because Lacey thought I was an asshole. I hadn’t even stayed to see her reaction to Landyn’s accusation. What difference would it have made? We were better off apart until she could have a life of her own, away from her possessive brother.

  And then there was the FBI. And Malik.

  Shit, and Lacey’s father.

  I tightly crossed my arms over my chest. Lacey’s whole family was one big drama, and if I didn’t convince my grandmother to move in with me until I got things sorted out with Malik, I’d have to figure out how to protect her.

  I can’t handle all of this.

  “I think you should go for it,” Nico whispered.

  I glanced at him. “Huh?”

  “Screw Landyn. Look, if Lacey wants to be with you, then…figure it out.”

  “Coach said to lay low for a while. They have to figure things out.”

  “Oh…shit. Okay,” Nico said in a defeated voice.

  Oh shit was right.

  “Well, look. It’s your business, and it goes no further than me.”

  “I know. Thanks.”

  How would it even work? Yeah, I was living across the hall from Landyn. She could sneak out of his place and then come to mine, but then Landyn would be banging on my door at all hours—even if she wasn’t there.

  I’ll go. I’ll live with Grandma, and that way, I can protect her. Give management time to clear my name.

  One woman at a time.

  22

  LACEY

  I’m going to fix this.

  That was all I wrote to Sean about an hour after he told me about the rape accusation. I hadn’t heard back, and this time, I knew why.

  He was following orders from leadership.

  I couldn’t blame him anymore.

  But I could blame my overprotective brother.

  For the rest of the day, I scrubbed and dusted and mopped and swept the Rhinos HQ building until it shone so bright it blinded people everywhere they looked. It was all I could do not to kick my cart, or grab the nearest chair and hurl it through a window—if I could lift it—or snatch a picture off the wall and smash it on the ground just to watch the glass shatter.

  If there was something wrong with me mentally, it was partly Landyn’s fault. He’d never worried when I was away at college, screwing random guys… In all fairness, he hadn’t known about them either.

  My mind settled on the last guy I’d messed around with before coming home. It made sense why I couldn’t feel a connection to him, nor the ones before him.

  A chill ran through me as I thought about how it would be with Sean. I wanted it to be different. I wanted to feel with him.

  But I was damaged.

  I need to see my therapist again.

  After I punched Landyn.

  I had kept my mouth shut about the accusation during therapy; didn’t want to come off unhinged because I couldn’t find the words to say how much I hated my brother for being such a liar. I stewed the entire time.

  When he walked through the door with Rose, I stood in the hallway waiting for him like twin girls in a haunted hotel.

  “What the hell, Landyn!”

  Rose’s eyes went wide, and she looked at my brother.

  He rolled his eyes. “What did I do this time?”

  “You know exactly what you did. What you did to Sean.”

  He smirked. “He’s finally going to leave us alone.” He stalked past me, dragging Rose by the hand.

  “I don’t want him to leave me alone. He doesn’t want to talk to you either. So why did you do it?”

  “Someone want to fill me in?” Rose asked in a small voice.

  Landyn circled the island in the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “It was nothing. Basically—”

  “Landyn accused Sean of raping me,” I snapped. Landyn looked at me with the same cool eyes as mine. “You think that’s nothing?”

  Rose gasped, her hands covering her mouth. She stared at Landyn. “What? I…why would you say that?”

  He turned his hard gaze on her, his skin flushing from his neck to his hairline. “You don’t believe me?”

  She dropped her hands from her mouth. “No, I don’t,” she said flatly.

  Silence descended like a rock while Landyn and Rose competed in a staring match.

  “Look at her, Rose! She’s…she’s fragile,” Landyn sputtered. “After what our father did to her? Sean’s trying to take advantage of her.”

  “No, he’s not!” I shouted. If anyone was taking advantage, it was me. I wasn’t going to be controlled anymore. “And you don’t know what Carter did to me,” I accused.

  Landyn stared at me. “Yes, I do.
He…he…” Landyn visibly swallowed, his face draining of color.

  “No, you don’t.” I hadn’t told him everything. It was better that way.

  Or maybe not.

  Landyn’s wide eyes remained on me while Rose spoke softly. “Landyn, maybe you’re more fragile than you think.”

  He didn’t acknowledge her.

  “I know the two of you love each other, but you can’t force the other to do anything. You can’t force healing, and you certainly can’t order Lacey to stay away from Sean. Sean’s a good guy, Landyn. He’s not…”

  “He’s not Carter,” I finished for her.

  Rose put a hand on Landyn’s arm, and he snatched his arm back and stalked from the room. Rose sighed heavily. “Tell me everything, Lacey. I’ll probably hear about it eventually.”

  “It’s just what I said. Landyn accused Sean of rape.”

  “That doesn’t tell me why. The two of you have been…?”

  I crossed my arms. “Not yet. Landyn thinks so anyway. And you know he hates Sean.”

  “I know they had a rivalry, but that’s not enough reason to justify his attacks.”

  “No kidding,” I grumbled. “He just won’t leave Sean alone, and now Sean’s not even talking to me.”

  Rose nodded. “Probably can’t until the investigation is over.”

  I hopped onto a stool and put my head in my hands and groaned. “An investigation… does that mean it’ll be in the news and everything?”

  “Not if I can help it. I’m sure management will try to resolve it quickly and quietly.”

  “They better, or I’ll never forgive Landyn.”

  Rose sat beside me and spoke softly. “Landyn is probably blaming himself for what happened to you—what he thinks happened.”

  I looked at her sharply. “He’s going overboard.”

  She nodded. “I agree. He doesn’t want—”

  “Anyone to touch me ever again?” I laughed ruefully.

  “Probably.”

  “That’s not a solution.”

  “No, but that is an indication of what’s going on inside his head. Be patient with him. He’s got a lot of pain he hasn’t dealt with before and probably didn’t know existed.” She gave me a small smile before leaving the kitchen, probably to go look for Landyn.