by Kate Meader
“This isn’t hockey, Theo. This is our lives.”
“Exactly. And I’m going to do what you can’t. Eliminate the toxic.”
“For the baby?”
“Of course for the baby!” How could she be angry with him for putting the wellbeing of their child first?
She turned away, her voice as small as he’d ever heard it. “I understand. Could you take me home?”
He sighed. “Sure.”
This was what it had come to. Her parents performing per their billing. Theo playing his part to perfection, the ideal gull who parts with a fortune and still thinks he’s getting the better end of the deal. He’d showed her how ugly her life was. How grasping her parents were. And he’d had to descend to her level to play their game. She hated what she’d turned him into.
She was already tainting him.
Her parents couldn’t even stick around for the baby shower, and they would have so enjoyed the extravagance on display, too. She’d hoped they’d be the family she needed instead of the family she was dropped into. She was no longer of use to them.
The ride back to Riverbrook was silent. Theo looked for parking outside the Empty Net but didn’t find anything and turned on the hazards.
“I’ll let you out and look for a spot.”
“I’m kind of tired and could do with some alone time.” She looked in the back, piled high with gifts. “Would you mind if we dealt with these later?”
He turned to her. “Elle, I know you’re upset. Maybe I didn’t handle it right but all I could think of is how negatively this might impact you. You’ve already had that turn and ended up in the ER.”
“You’re right,” she said.
“I am?”
“You did what you needed to do for the baby. I get it, Theo. I do. I’m just sorry that I put you in that position.”
“You’re sorry? How is any of this your fault?”
She reined in her irritation. “You shouldn’t have to deal with scammers and gold diggers. I brought this toxicity into your life. And while they’ll be gone for a while, they’ll eventually come back with their hands out. You’re a money tree to them.”
He shrugged like it was no big deal. “We’ll worry about it when it happens.”
We. Didn’t he get it? She was the enemy. She was the toxic element. He might think he loved her but how strong would that love be after the third handout or the fourth?
“We don’t need them, Elle. We have Aurora and our friends and the team.”
He had them. They were all his people and she was just a hanger-on.
“It’s been a long day, Theo. Could we talk later?”
His brow crinkled. “Sure. I’ll check in tonight.”
Once inside, she made some chamomile tea and tried not to think about her parents. They’d let her down one last time. Shown their true colors. This was a blessing, really.
But that left her brain space to think about Theo paying them off—Theo forced to pay them off so he could keep Elle’s stress levels at a minimum and maintain their baby’s health. She had placed him in this awkward position. Here he was, getting in the gutter with her awful family. Love needed careful nurturing, even a love as easily given as Theo’s. Any feelings he thought he had for her would fray and wither if he was forced to deal with her parents on a regular basis.
Her phone rang with a call from Amy. She let it go to voice mail because she was sick of the whole lot of them. Two minutes later, she listened to the message with an increasing sense of dread. She called Amy back.
“Elle! Thank God you’re there.”
“What’s going on? Are you still in trouble?” She’d barely understood a word her sister said on the message. Something about Jackson and money and shit-covered fans.
“I thought I had enough to pay them back for the engagement ring, but they want more. I have something in the works, something that might pay off big, but I don’t know if it’ll come through in time.”
Panic made Elle’s skin itch. “I have almost ten grand. Maybe we can use it as a down payment on the debt. But Amy, no more scams.”
“And where am I going to get the rest? Ten grand won’t be enough. Can you ask your guy?”
Elle’s blood turned to ice. “No. That well is dry. George and Dee already tapped it.”
“That explains why they’re not answering my texts. They’ve gone to ground. I could be at the bottom of the East River for all they care.”
Elle’s heart sank to the bar below. Predator or prey. Her parents had their pound of flesh and wouldn’t even throw a bone to bail out their daughter.
“Are you sure Theo can’t help?” Amy’s pleading broke Elle’s heart. Her parents might be beyond redemption but her sister wasn’t. Elle should have brought her in from the cold sooner.
“I’ll sort this out,” Elle said, her tone more even than her pulse rate. “Leave it to me.”
30
Game 1 of the Western Conference finals tonight, @ChiRebels v @EdmontonChucks. Who’s gonna bring home that trophy?
“Oh, hey, Theo, come in.” Jordan held open the door to the hotel room in Edmonton, where she was staying with Hunt. “Everything okay?”
“Have you heard from Elle?”
Jordan blinked in surprise. “Elle? No, not in a day or two. Is something wrong?”
“I haven’t heard from her today so I called Tina. She asked for a couple of days off, then left with an overnight bag. We had a fight and she’s not answering my texts.”
A shirtless Hunt came out of the bathroom, towel-drying his hair. “What’s up?”
Jordan’s face tightened. “Elle’s incommunicado. Have you heard from her?”
“Not for a while.” Hunt scowled at Theo. “What did you do, Kershaw?”
“Sure, assume it was my fault. I was trying to protect her from her crazy family. And now she’s skipped town because she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
Jordan led him to a sofa. “I’m sure that’s not true. She has a job. Friends. Connections.”
Did she, though? She could get a job anywhere. And she’d seemed so hurt by her family’s departure. When the going got tough before, she ran to Chicago. What if this was her MO and she was bailing again?
He told her he loved her—and she said thanks.
“I’ll text her,” Jordan said at the same time Hunt took out his phone and thumbed the screen.
Just as with Theo, their phones remained frustratingly silent. He’d be okay with her ignoring him as long as she contacted someone they knew.
“I’m sure there’s a good explanation,” Jordan said. “She wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.” She eyed Hunt. “Would she?”
“She’s a headstrong, independent woman, and if a set of circumstances are not to her liking, I think she’d change them.”
“Levi,” Jordan said softly, with an admonishing glance that told the hardheaded former Green Beret to be more sensitive to Theo and his misery.
“No, he’s right,” Theo said. He’d driven her away by being so high-handed about her parents. “She has no roots here, a job she could do anywhere. She’s pissed as all hell at me and now she’s off somewhere with my kid and I can’t reach her.” He held up a hand to halt Hunt’s superior response. “Yeah, I know. Good job, Kershaw!”
Jordan patted his arm. “So what did you fight about?”
Elle likely hadn’t shared with anyone about her family and he didn’t want to embarrass her. “Her family left town and she blames me for it because I don’t think they’re the best influence. I can’t really get into it, but it amounts to me looking out for her and Elle being her usual ornery self and not appreciating it.”
Hunt snorted. “Well, if you can’t get into it, I guess we just have to take your word for it.”
“Yep, Hunt, I guess you do.”
Jordan frowned at her fiancé. Theo had always liked Jordan. “She probably just needs some space.”
“Which is your way of saying I’m too much.
You think I don’t know that? I just want to take care of her.” Unable to remain still, he jumped to his feet to work off his nervous energy. “So we have different ways of looking at the world. She expects everything to go wrong when really the second my bad boy sperm met her very receptive egg, we had a bona fide winner on our hands. It’s like, how could we possibly fail? It’s not an option! And if anything threatens all this winning, of course I’m going to step in and fix it.”
Jordan showed a palm to Hunt, who took the hint and closed his mouth. “I think she’s worried about letting you down, Theo,” Jordan said. “You’ve got a lot going for you”—His teammate made some indecipherable noise—“And she’s worried about living up to your expectations for this winning life you’re always so sure of. I don’t know her that well but I don’t think she’s been as lucky as you or me with our families.”
Theo knew that for a fact. But why wouldn’t she accept the good things coming her way when Theo was so ready to provide it?
“She doesn’t trust me. Or trust that I’m in this for the long haul.”
“Are you?” Hunt asked. “In it for the long haul?”
“Of course I am.”
“Not just as a parent,” Hunt said, “but the rest? Do you love her, Theo?”
“Yes, I love her! I told her, but she didn’t say it back.”
Jordan looked stricken. That’s just great.
“She’s afraid of emotional intimacy,” Theo said. “Shit, I shouldn’t have told her, should I? That’s why she ran.”
Hunt folded his arms. “Maybe she felt smothered. You’re not the most low-key person I know.”
Jordan glared at her fiancé. “That’s not it. I suspect Elle’s not used to this kind of care. She’s overwhelmed by it and doesn’t know if she can trust it. She might be worried you’re being so amazing because of the baby and while it probably started out that way, she doesn’t see the moment when you started seeing her separately from the life you created together.”
“The moment …” How could he explain that Elle had been uppermost on his mind from the second he met her? “There’s never been a moment when I haven’t seen her. I’ve had a crush on her from Day One and now it’s more. It’s deeper. And yes, it’s wrapped up in her carrying my child. I can’t separate that out but I’m crazy about Ellie, the woman.”
Jordan’s phone buzzed, then Hunt’s. She held up her screen to display a message from Elle. Thank. Fuck.
I’m fine. Out of town for a couple of days.
Still nothing for Theo. A moment ago, he’d have been okay with that, but now not so much.
“That’s just fan-fucking-tastic!” Before he could get too mad about it, Theo’s phone rang with a pic of a velociraptor, his phone profile pic for Elle, Mother of Hatchlings. Didn’t seem so funny anymore.
“Where the hell are you?”
Pause, followed by a quiet, “Hi to you, too.”
He stood and headed to bathroom because he had already embarrassed himself enough in front of regular humans. “Tina said you skipped town. You weren’t answering my texts or anyone else’s. I’m worried.”
“I didn’t skip town. I needed to take care of something. It’s no big deal.”
No … big … Jesus, he was going to smash something. Serenity fucking now. “You can’t just up and quit instead of facing your problems.”
“Don’t worry, my problems travel with me.”
Their child, the problem. “Are you coming back to Chicago?”
“Theo, did you really think I would leave without talking to you? I just landed and saw all the texts.” She sounded a little choked up.
“People were worried about you.” People, meaning Theo. “And when I heard you were last seen rolling a suitcase down the street, I didn’t know what to think. I thought maybe you were …”
“What?”
Following her parents. That’s what he’d thought. That the scam had been successful and she was off to rendezvous with them or something like in a Jason Bourne novel. His first instinct was to not trust her and assume the worst.
It’s not like it hasn’t happened to me before.
“Nothing. I was just worried. Are you okay?”
“The baby’s fine, Theo.”
He inhaled deep, thinking about what Jordan had said about seeing Elle as separate from the baby. “But are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m fine. I flew to New York to meet with my sister. She … she needs me.”
But I need you. “Is there anything I can do?”
Tell her you love her again.
Or, you know, stop smothering her, idiot.
“You’ve already done so much. This—this is something I have to do. Alone.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “Elle, what’s going on?”
“I’ll be back soon, Theo. We’ll talk then. Good luck at the game tonight. We’ll be watching.”
If Elle had any doubts that Amy’s former mark was “connected,” they were quickly dispelled by the first choice of meeting location. When she finally reached him—after several phone calls and what sounded like a reroute to a messaging service in the Czech Republic—Jackson’s associate had suggested they meet at a dive bar on the Lower East Side.
Elle might be the least talented of the Butler crew but she wasn’t born yesterday. Instead she’d suggested a Starbucks in Midtown Manhattan. Nothing bad ever happened to anyone in Starbucks, except empty calorie ingestion. Zing!
Sometimes she amused herself greatly, and hell, she needed cheering right now.
Armed with a non-fat decaf mocha with whip (and she was aware of the dissonance), she took a seat at the window. Her backpack sat on her lap, inside it a Chase Bank envelope containing $9,453 in one hundred dollar bills, her entire savings. Like Elle, her sister needed a clean slate to start over, an empty ledger. Elle could give this to her and at the same time, unhook her from the grasp of their parents.
It was a risk. Jackson’s family might not be satisfied—she was over two grand short of the cost of the engagement ring and they’d said they wanted more. Amy might not see it for the fresh start it was. Most terrifying of all, Elle would be penniless, needing to rely on Theo to tide her over for the few months after the hatchling was born.
But he was a good guy. He’d do this because Elle and the baby were family to him. She hoped it wasn’t too late for them. She loved him so much and wanted to trust that he meant what he said at the baby shower. With her responsibility to Amy fulfilled, balance could be restored. This fantasy life she was living as Theo Kershaw’s baby mama might become real.
When she returned to Chicago, they would talk about their future—as a family, but also as a couple.
She checked her phone. Five minutes past the meet time. Some sort of power play, she assumed, but right then, a text came in from Amy.
It’s all good. Call me.
What did that mean? About to dial her up, she pulled short when someone took the seat beside her. Someone who sent her hormones into a loop-the-loop because she recognized that scent.
Theo.
She turned.
Scowling Theo.
“What are you doing here?”
The scowl deepened. “I’m here to stop you from being your own worst enemy.”
She looked over his shoulder. He was alone.
“Wait, you should be in Edmonton for Game 2 tomorrow night.”
He shook his head, not disagreeing with her, but acknowledging her statement and signaling exactly how annoyed he was.
Oh, crud. Leaving in the middle of a two-game away trip during the playoffs was probably not the best preparation.
“Theo, why are you here?”
Anger rolled off him in waves. The words emerged from his mouth like the rat-a-tat of gunfire. “Tommy helped me track down your sister. I talked to her and then I talked to Jackson. I’ve taken care of it, so we can leave now.”
“But—what do you mean you took care of it? You mean you dropped
more money on the situation?”
“I didn’t have to. Amy and her guy needed their heads knocked together and now that’s done—yep, I played Cupid for your sister—so this debt you’re here to pay is taken care of. Now, let’s go.”
Her head spun. “Amy and Jackson are together? You came here to fix this?”
“I shouldn’t have had to come here at all. Because you should have come to me for help. Instead you kept it to yourself, jumped in to do your lone wolf bit, set up a meeting with some sketchy criminal type to do some sketchy money drop—”
“Theo, keep your voice down.” People were giving them strange looks. At least one person was filming.
A muscle she had never noticed before jumped in his jaw. His voice turned low and menacing. “What the hell do you think you’re doing flying to another city and putting you and the baby in danger? I thought we were a team.”
Pot, the kettle would love to make your acquaintance. “Are you kidding? You went behind my back and paid off my parents. And you think I should have come to you again to beg for more money for my sister?”
“If necessary, yes. At the very least, you should have run it by me instead of high-tailing it off on your secret 007 mission and putting yourself and my child at risk. You have no idea how pissed I am at you right now, Elle. I can’t leave you alone for a second. I can’t trust that you’ll include me in the most important decisions.”
She opened her mouth and he cut in.
“Yes, I fucked up when I paid off your parents without talking to you first—I get that and I’m sorry—but they’re not good people. And they’ve taught you that it’s okay to keep secrets. It’s not. It’s not okay.”
She knew her parents were terrible role models. Given his past and how secrets had burned his heart, she understood he would never be on board with their brand of deception. No decent person would. She would eventually make peace with the lifelong betrayal by her parents but she still had a mission to complete. Amy could still be saved.