Game On (A Bad Boy Sports Romance) (11 page)

              “Maybe a little,” I laughed back. “What are you doing here, ya son of a bitch?”

              “Came looking for a sparring partner and heard the sound of someone’s ass getting kicked from all the way in the lobby,” he said, nodding to the training dummy, and I scoffed.

              “Well if you want to get your ass kicked instead, I’m happy to oblige,” I said with a grin, and Marc stepped in to slip on the pair of sparring gloves he’d brought with him.

              “I dunno, that dummy seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping you down,” he joked, and we started boxing with one another after moving back to the center of the room.

              Marc was a good guy. Every bit as muscular and agile as me, but with his darker skin and black hair, we couldn’t have been more of a contrast as we struck each other on the sparring mat. I moved around him, getting a few blows in before he’d dish them right back, and where it was a struggle to keep my mind focused on the training dummy, Marc had no trouble in keeping my mind focused on the task at hand and off the turmoil outside the gym walls.

              That was the beauty of the Fighting Chance. All the athletes here were determined to keep themselves focused on what they really loved, and sometimes, coming to the ring to get your ass kicked was the best way to knock some sense into you. And that was exactly what I needed right now. That was exactly what kept me going, the thought that at the end of the day, no matter what some stuffy managers or team owners or their lawyers dictated, I could come back to a place where I knew people would have my back.

Where I knew Danielle would fit right in, once I introduced her to everyone here.

              Work today was turning out to be an altogether odd experience. Ever since Brett’s very public sacking, my coworkers had been regarding me with a kind of distant awe. As though I were a grenade with the pin recently removed, poised to explode at any moment and take a number of them along with me. Chuck was in a chipper mood, having bought everyone lunch from the pizza shop down the street. I could only imagine how expensive that had to have been, but he was whistling cheerily all morning. It was no mystery as to why his mood was so elevated-- nobody had really liked Brett very much, as it turned out, and Chuck had been just itching for a reason to fire him. I, for one, was glad to have provided the opportunity.

              Everyone else was cautiously upbeat about this new change. It seemed that this new quieter, significantly less combative environment was beneficial for everyone’s focus and work ethic, as the journal was coming together a lot faster than usual. Or perhaps it was the pizza. Either way, it was shaping up to be a strangely awesome Monday.

              Without Brett hovering around the office it was easier for me to get through all my work quickly over the course of the morning, leaving me the afternoon to mostly just daydream about the very topic that was hounding every thought that crossed my mind: Kieran.

              We hadn’t seen each other since Friday night when we had sex, but he had sent me a million texts over the weekend, the two of us messaging back and forth from the moment we woke up into the wee hours of the next morning. I was totally caught in his snare, irretrievably entranced by his charm. Kieran wasn’t only insanely hot, wealthy, and talented, he was also incredibly witty and down-to-earth. Talking to him was as easy and natural as breathing oxygen. It felt like we had known each other for years already, cracking jokes and sharing stories about our respective childhoods. Granted, my anecdotes were often heavily self-deprecating, as I recounted all the torture I endured in school at the hands of my bullies. Kieran mostly talked about the ridiculous antics he and his little brother got into as kids, running their mom and dad ragged with exasperation.

              It was funny how our lives read like opposing sides of a similar coin. All of my suffering took place up until I turned seventeen, graduated high school, and went away to college where the bullying stopped and I finally came into my own. But for Kieran, his childhood and adolescent years were filled with mostly rose-tinted memories and the pain began when he turned seventeen and the accident killed his father and disabled his mother. Both of us had been through so many agonizing years, for very different reasons. Growing up, my family was certainly never rich, but we had enough to be happy and comfortable. Kieran’s family was distinctly working-class, his father struggling to make ends meet as a firefighter. But while he was a popular, well-liked athlete in school, I was the social outcast.

              I loved how we could bond over our very different circumstances. For both of us, it was like looking at the world through a totally new lens. We taught each other a lot about what it was like on the other side. I told him all about the sexism I faced in my career field, how everyone looked at me like a fish out of water, a wayward little girl who wandered into the wrong genre. And he told me about the toxic masculinity pervasive in sports, especially football, how everyone expected him to be tough and callous at all times, how they assumed he was a womanizer because that was the stereotype. But as he explained to me, he had never really been into the one-night stand thing. He was more of a serial long-term dater than anything else, always hoping for something serious and real.

              Reading those words on my phone screen made my heart skip a beat. It  was so validating to finally find a guy who treated me like an equal, opening up to me because he trusted and respected me and my opinion. He often asked what I thought about different subjects like politics and music, seemingly invested in my perspective. It was one of the first times I had ever felt like a man could actually see me for who I really was. And I assumed it was because Kieran knew that I could see him for who he really was, too. He was so different from the arrogant guy I used to see on TV, cameras flashing in his handsome, smirking face.’

              Even with all the stress he was dealing with in regards to Paul and Janet, he still found the time to constantly text me with silly jokes and questions. I accused him teasingly of turning the tables and trying to interview me. He sheepishly explained that he was just not used to having someone he could talk to openly like this. Kieran had gotten accustomed to having to maintain his superficial public persona for so long that he’d forgotten how nice it felt to finally be authentic again. I was grateful to be the one who brought him back to himself again. I couldn’t imagine how isolating and numbing it had to be, perpetually having to hide his true heart from the whole world watching him.

              Around four in the afternoon, I was beginning to tidy up my desk to head out, as most of the others had already left for the day, Chuck included. I stood up and stretched, then idly strolled over to the big glossy window on the opposing wall. I looked out over the Vegas skyline, feeling oddly giddy and content with my life, despite the fact that things were just as hectic and chaotic as ever. More so, in fact, now that I was getting involved with Kieran and his problems. But I had found a little niche of happiness in the eye of the storm.

              I glanced down at the street below and did a double take. The same sleek black Caddy that I passed driving into the parking garage this morning was still parked out front of the building. There were no other cars nearby, and something about the vehicle struck me as being slightly off. A little shiver ran down my spine. There was no good reason for this car to freak me out so much. For all I knew, it belonged to someone who worked at the pizza shop down the street or the corporate building beside us. But both of those places had their own parking areas. I desperately wracked my mind, trying to determine whether I’d ever seen what kind of car Brett drove. Because I couldn’t put it past him to stalk me.

              Then again, Chuck had told me he would make sure the security here was extra tight for exactly that reason. Still, what is Brett had hired someone else to watch me? Someone Chuck and the security team wouldn’t recognize or suspect? My stomach churned. Still, I couldn’t let fear keep me trapped here at the office all night.

              It was probably nothing anyway. I was overreacting.

              So I packed up and headed down to the parking garage, trying not to worry. But when I walked out and saw the black Cadillac slowly make its way to the entrance, I immediately turned and got back on the elevator. As I frantically mashed the button to close the doors, I yanked out my cell phone and dialed the first number I thought of: Kieran’s.

              He picked up after one ring with a cheery, “Well, hello beautiful.”

              “Kieran,” I whispered fearfully. “I think there’s someone here watching me or something. I’m scared. I’m probably just overreacting but--”

              “Where are you?” he demanded, his tone instantly getting serious.

              “In the elevator at my office building. I-I saw a car. Black Cadillac. I think the driver might be after me. I don’t know,” I rambled hurriedly, my voice shaking.

              “Stay in the elevator and do not let the doors open for any reason. I’m already in the car and I’m on your side of town anyway. I’m coming to get you. Stay on the phone,” Kieran said calmly and firmly. I nodded and pressed against the back of the elevator, trembling.

              “I’m pulling onto that street, alright?” Kieran’s voice said in my ear.

              “Okay, okay,” I whispered, pressing the button to make the elevator go to the very top floor. Kieran continued describing his travel down the street toward my building, naming businesses and landmarks as he went to assure me he was close.

But the elevator had already gone up to the top floor and back down to the parking garage again, despite my attempts to keep it landing at each individual floor to stall for time. Someone had to have been pressing the button for the parking garage from the outside.

              “I think he’s right outside,” I breathed, hearing the doors ding as the elevator stopped.

              There was a beep in my ear as the call dropped.

              The elevator doors parted and my breath froze in my lungs, fear seizing my body. But when it opened, I saw Kieran standing there with his jaw set firm and his eyes blazing. I exhaled in relief and he took my hand, pulling me to his own Jeep parked right by the elevator.

              “I’m taking you with me,” he hissed, helping me into the passenger seat and throwing the Jeep into gear. It peeled out of the parking garage, bolting right past the Cadillac. For a moment I thought I had hallucinated the whole thing, blown it all out of proportion.

              And then I glanced back to see the Caddy tailing us, just a ways back.

              My stomach dropped.

              “He-he’s following us, Kieran,” I said shakily.

              “I know. We got this, okay? Don’t worry,” he assured me. He passed a whole line of cars, blowing way past the speed limit as he screeched onto the highway and took off in the direction of the desert. He careened down side exits and progressively smaller, less populated areas until we were on a nearly empty road.

              Except that the Cadillac was still behind us, a menacing black dot in the rearview.

              I tended to forget that once you left Vegas, the desert was right there. It was waiting patiently like a wild beast, willing to swallow you whole as soon as you left the city limits. I was terrified-- not of the desert itself, but of the lack of hiding places there were out here. It was just us and the Cadillac now on this winding, dusty road. Sandy-orange outcroppings loomed all around us, and before I could voice my fears, suddenly the Jeep swerved off the paved road and into the red dust of the desert.

              “What are you doing?” I cried, clutching at the seat in panic as the Jeep jostled and jumped across the rocky landscape.

              “Losing our tag-along,” Kieran replied simply, flooring the gas and maneuvering the Jeep with shocking expertise. The Cadillac was attempting to follow us, its shining black finish barely visible through the clouds of dust kicked up by the Jeep’s wheels. But Kieran swung the Jeep around a towering plateau so quickly it nearly tipped onto its side, causing me to yelp in fear. I had no idea where this was coming from-- Kieran had never mentioned any experience with off-roading. Still, I couldn’t be too picky about how we escaped, not with the Cadillac on our heels. And it seemed to be working! After a few more curves taken at nearly eighty miles per hour, I looked back to see only empty desert out behind us for miles.

              “He’s gone!” I exclaimed, shocked.

              Kieran grinned. “Finally! Thought the bastard would never give up.”

              I whipped around to give him a totally surprised expression. “Where the hell did that even come from? How did you learn how to do that?”

              “You forget I grew up with a brother. The two of us wrecked the family car drag-racing in the desert when I was fifteen,” he laughed, rolling his eyes at the memory.

              “You’re a mess,” I said fondly, biting my lip.

              “Mhm, but I’m a mess who just saved your ass. Speaking of which, who the hell was that? Something to do with that prick your boss fired on Friday?” Kieran suggested.

              I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe. But I didn’t think he would go this far…”

              “Well, let’s keep driving for awhile, just in case,” Kieran said. “Besides, it’s probably not safe for you to go back to your place tonight anyway.”

              I sighed. “I’m so sorry you had to come rescue me like this. I’m sure you had other things to do, and I didn’t expect this to--”

              “Stop, Dani. It’s fine. Nothing is more important than making sure you’re safe, okay? I was starting to miss your face anyway,” he added slyly. I blushed.

              “So where are we going?” I asked.