More Than a Game (6 page)

“This is perfect!” he said with a broad smile.

They were sprawled out on the small throw she had rolled up in her backpack, the lunch she had prepared spread out around them. It had turned out to be a beautiful day for the hike and the picnic. The sun was out, but not too strongly, with a nice breeze blowing among the trees that was just enough to cool the air. There had been a threat of rain earlier as they walked up, but it had held off so far.

Leslie looked up at him, standing on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the city below. He looked peaceful as he stood gazing over the world below. Turning toward her, he held out his hand. She stepped forward and took it as they enjoyed just being together in this incredible place.

“It’s breathtaking. Isn’t it?” she said quietly.

“It is. Almost as breathtaking as you are,” he told her, glancing sideways in time to catch the flush that spread across her face.

“Charmer,” she said playfully.

“I wasn’t trying to be charming. I think you may be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes upon,” he told her.

“You’re going to make me blush,” she said.

“Again, you mean?”

“Yes, again.”

Shane kissed her, his lips lingering on hers as they leaned into one another on the edge of the world below. As days went, she couldn’t imagine a more perfect one than this. When he finally pulled away, he looked as if he wanted to say something, but then he smiled and brushed a lock of hair from her forehead instead.

“We should head back down before we get caught up here in the dark,” he said.

“Wow. Yes. I didn’t realize how late it had already gotten,” she replied, glancing at her phone.

She noted that she had no signal up here in the middle of nowhere, but she wasn’t expecting any calls anyway. It just always unnerved her a bit to not have access to the line in case there was an emergency. Shane took her hand and helped her over the steep rocks they had traversed to get to the upper portion of the cliff as they made their way back down toward the rough path that had led them here. By the time they reached the parking area where the car sat waiting, his phone was buzzing in his pocket.

“Welcome back to civilization,” Leslie told him with an uneasy laugh.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Somehow, both of them seemed to instinctively know that whatever news awaited him on his phone wasn’t good news. Tossing their backpacks in her trunk, they climbed in the car and pointed it toward home. Leslie drove while Shane raised the phone to his ear to listen to whatever messages had been left on his voicemail. A glance sideways showed the distress on his face as he pushed a button and dropped the phone on his lap.

“What is it?” she asked, unwilling to wait for him to fill her in on the details.

“They are going forward with the criminal charges against me. I have to turn myself in to the police for processing,” he told her.

“Oh, Jesus,” Leslie muttered. “When?”

“I have forty-eight hours. The attorney suggested I wait until Monday to avoid any weekend hiccups that land me sitting behind bars until associated offices and courts are open.”

“This is unbelievable, Shane. I’m so sorry you have to go through this. It’s absurd.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s just how it is,” he replied, his voice trailing off as he stared out the window.

As they entered the city, Leslie felt a sense of relief. The silence in the car since leaving the mountain had been almost unbearable. She felt like she should say something, but what could she say? There was nothing that made this situation any better. Finally, they were pulling into her driveway. She wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay here still, but his things were at her house so even if he wanted to go back to his place he would need to retrieve them. Inside the house, he took a deep breath and returned his lawyer’s call.

“So I don’t have to stay in jail then. I just go in and they do the formal arrest. Then, I have to post bail and I can leave. I’ll be free to do as I please until the trial,” he told her as he ended the call.

“When will the trial be?” she asked.

“I have no idea. They will set a date for it to go before a judge for preliminary hearing. The judge will decide if there is enough evidence for it to continue to trial. The judge can toss it out or set a trial date based on whether the judge thinks there is a strong enough case. My attorney says that he is surprised the D.A. is pursuing it at all and that he is confident it will get tossed out for lack of merit without ever having to go to trial,” he said.

“That’s good then, yes?”

“I hope so. There is still the civil case, which the NHL is now trying to settle out of court to avoid a trial for that,” he said.

“But doesn’t it make you look guilty if you pay them for their injuries?” Leslie asked.

“No, because I’m not the one paying them. The NHL covers players for incidents like this. Their paying out is simply a business matter. A player was hurt and needs compensation like any other worker’s compensation. In return, that player agrees not to pursue matters further as far as monetary damages. That means they accept what the NHL has to offer and call it a day.”

“Do you think Clarke will do it?”

“I don’t know. Clarke is a nasty piece of work. He seems to be out for blood. I have no idea why he is out to do such harm to me, but he seems dead set on not stopping until he drives me into the ground,” Shane told her.

“I just don’t understand any of it at all,” Leslie admitted.

“That makes two of us. Anyway, let’s try to make the best of what has been a pretty decent day so far. I was going to go home today, but I suspect that the reporters have overrun the place again with the announcement that formal charges are being pursued. I’ll have to have someone check on the situation over there for me.”

“We can drive by and look later on, if you like.”

“If I can’t find someone else to do so. At any rate, I’m going to have to go home to do some things before Monday. I may have to get you to sneak me back into the alley so I can rappel back over the wall. How stupid to have to break into your own home because people can’t just let you be in a time of crisis,” he groaned.

“Welcome to America,” she laughed.

“It’s funny. I admit I used to love the attention. Sports reporters interviewing me after games, wanting my opinion on how I thought the game went from a first-hand perspective . . . random people on the streets stopping me to ask me for my autograph. I have a feeling it won’t be quite as pleasant an experience in the future. Let’s face it. I can’t hide from them forever.”

“No, but you can at least keep a low profile until a bit of the storm passes. You don’t walk outdoors during a hurricane.”

“No, you don’t. Thank you for providing me shelter from the storm,” he said thoughtfully, pulling her toward him and kissing her on the forehead.

Early the following morning, Leslie took him back to his place, avoiding the front entrance and taking him to the alley behind his home. She crept into the small road that ran behind the wall and watched as he tossed his duffle over the wall and then threw the rappelling hook back around the protrusion in the fence and made his way over it. Once he was over, she pulled slowly out and circled the block, checking to see if there were still a lot of reporters. There were. He was going to have a herd to navigate through to get back out of his place come Monday morning.

“How are we coming on the game?” her boss asked, stepping into her office no sooner than she had settled in for the day.

“It’s going great. Shane and I worked out some more of the bugs in it and he suggested some improvements that I’m implementing on the fly,” she told him.

“He’s still helping you with it then?” he said.

Leslie froze for a moment, realizing that she didn’t know her boss that well. It was possible that he might reveal her acquaintance with Shane and then she’d have reporters all over her place too. Where would Shane’s safe place be then? She quickly backtracked.

“Well, he’s kind of in hiding a bit right now due to circumstances. He helped me remotely,” she said.

“Oh? That’s nice of him. I would have thought he wouldn’t be much in the mood for games during his current circumstances.”

“I guess everyone needs a break to think about something else. I caught him at the right time. Most likely on my own from here on out. I think he’s done all he can do.”

“Just as well, I suppose. Obviously we won’t be needing his name for the game with his current reputation. Even if this blows over, people remember.”

“I suppose,” Leslie replied, a part of her seething inside at how unwilling to forgive people were, especially when they had no idea what sort of person Shane was or the correct details of the situation.

“Well, keep me posted on your progress. I’ll let you get to work,” he told her, stepping away before she even had a chance to respond.

Leslie did just that, burying herself in work to keep from thinking about Shane and his visit to the police department. She had offered to take the day off and go with him, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

“Not only would it just make it feel even more awkward, but I think it is best that we keep our relationship private for now. I don’t want you being hounded by the press. If they see you, they will want to know who you are and they will follow you around too,” he had said.

The words filtered through Leslie’s mind. Relationship? What exactly did he mean by that? Was it just a reference to them being associated or did it mean something more?

“Stop it,” she said aloud to herself, a reminder to stop overanalyzing things between them.

Concentrating on work was difficult as the hours crept by without any word from him. He had promised to text her as soon as he was done with the process. What if something had gone wrong? Perhaps there was some sort of loophole and he had gotten more charges or things had changed. What if they had kept him and he was sitting in a jail cell? Everything went through her mind, all the worst-case scenarios. Lunchtime rolled around with still no word from him and she felt quite frantic, practically jumping every time her phone buzzed.

She was too distraught to work. She called her boss and told him that she wasn’t feeling very well and needed to go home. He was sympathetic, but she could tell that he was more concerned that whatever was going on with her might affect her productivity than he was about her actual well-being. There was no doubt in her mind that his main concern would always be how her actions affected his bottom line. She supposed that was what made him a successful businessman and she couldn’t really fault him for it.

Back at home, she tried to keep busy. She fought off the urge to text Shane. If he was having a bad day, it most likely wouldn’t help to have her making things worse by needling him for an update. Still, why hadn’t he messaged her? Waiting for word from him was nerve-racking. Just when she thought she might lose her mind with worry, her phone rang. She answered it, holding her breath rather than speaking.

“Leslie? Hello?” he said from the other end.

“Yes. I’m here,” she replied, slowly letting out her breath.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to get in touch with you. It’s been a crazy day and somehow my lawyer ended up with my phone,” he told her.

“How did that happen?” she said, her mind telling her it sounded like an excuse.

“I had to give him all the stuff in my pockets before going into the processing area and when he gave things back to me, they were in an envelope. I was thronged by reporters from the time we got out of the car until we got back in. Apparently, someone at the police department leaked that I was coming to turn myself in. Anyway, somewhere in the chaos, my phone fell out of the envelope and into his car. I didn’t know what had happened to it for a while.”

“I take it that he found it in his car then,” she said, steering clear of any questions about what had actually happened at the police station. Somewhere in her mind, she was afraid it would only bring about more bad news.

“Yeah. I had to navigate my way through another pile of journalists when I got back home. By the time I got into the house to call it,
he was already back at the office and it was in his car where he couldn’t hear it. I called his office instead and told him it was missing, so he looked for it when he went out for lunch and had one of his assistants bring it out to me so that I didn’t have to fight off reporters again.”

“You could have called me from the home phone,” she said, now getting past her previous concerns and feeling unimportant, though she knew she had no right to be so.

“Yeah. I would have, except I don’t have your number except in my cell phone. I’ve fixed it now. You’re number one on my home speed dial,” he told her.

“Really?” she replied, feeling better already.

“Really.”

Leslie knew she was being a bit like a needy schoolgirl, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. It was something she was going to have to get a grip on. No one had ever affected her in quite the same way Shane did. It was a very different experience for her, but she wasn’t normally a clingy person and she certainly didn’t want him to see her as one.

“I suppose I can live with that,” she said, smiling to herself.

“This is good news. What are you doing tonight? I want to tell you what all happened today, but I’d rather tell you in person,” he said.

“Why? Is it bad news?” she asked, again fearing the worst.

“No. I just want to see you,” he replied. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he added, “Are you okay?”

“What? Yeah. Yes. Of course,” she replied, realizing that he was picking up on how out of sorts she had been all day and how she was trying to regain her composure.

“Okay. It’s going to be hard for me to get out without being followed and if you come here, they’ll just follow you back home. I’m going to send a car for you. He’ll pick you up and bring you here, then take you back home when you are ready.”

“Won’t they just follow him back to my house then?”

“No. He’s trained to make sure they don’t follow him very far. Is six okay?”

“Yes, six is great. I’ll be ready.”

“Great. I can’t wait to see you, Leslie. I’ve missed you all day,” he said.

“When did you find time to do that?” she laughed.

“Every moment I was away,” he told her.

Leslie felt a little flutter of excitement. Something was happening between them well beyond friendship. It was nice that Shane wasn’t shy about letting her know just how much he liked her, but a part of her was scared of it. Relationships had never been her strong point and she was so afraid to let herself believe he might be someone she could actually trust. Despite her reservations, there was no denying that she felt a lot more than she was willing to admit. The hours seemed to crawl by until it was time for the driver to arrive. Finally, he arrived to take her to Shane’s.

“Oh, my God!” she said, drawing in her breath sharply as they approached the gates.

If she had thought that the mass of reporters around Shane’s gate was ridiculous the day they had arrived after the incident at the hockey rink, it was nothing compared to what it looked like now. There were people camped out everywhere around the entrance to his house, just waiting for a glimpse of him. She suspected that it was even worse now that they knew he had returned from wherever he had been hiding. The dark sedan he had sent for her prevented them from seeing in, getting a glimpse of who was inside, but surely they had seen him arrive earlier and knew it wasn’t him. Still, they surrounded the car, trying to peer in through the tinted windows.

“Vultures. I can’t even get through them,” the driver muttered, pushing a button on the steering wheel and waiting until another male voice answered through the phone’s interface with the vehicle’s speakers.

“What’s up, Monte?”

“I’m at O’Hannon location. I need some help to part the sea of reporters blocking my way,” he told him.

“Just around the corner. We expected as much. Sit tight and we’ll clear the way,” the other man replied.

A click sounded from the other end and the driver, who she now knew was named Monte, sat and waited. Reporters were practically lying on top of the car. She heard Monte groan and mutter something about the paint job and buttons. Then, there were reporters being pushed and pulled backwards, away from the car. Her eyes widened as about a dozen large men in black fatigues dispatched them to either side of the car. It was hard to make out what they were saying with the protests of the manhandled reporters, but soon they began to scatter on their own.

Finally, they were able to make it up to the gate, flanked on either side by the men keeping the reporters pushed back. It was the most surreal thing she had ever witnessed in her life. She wondered how people who had to deal with this all the time did it. It must be positively maddening not to be able to come and go freely from your own home, much like being a prisoner there. Hopefully, this would all boil over very soon so that Shane could get back to some sort of normal life.

“You are a sight for sore eyes today,” Shane told her, not waiting for the driver to open her door, but rushing out the front door to open it and greet her himself.

“So are you! It was just crazy getting in here!” she told him.

“I bet. I heard they were camped out there pretty heavily. Some tried to climb over the fence earlier to sneak up to the house, but I was ahead of them,” he groaned.

“The men in black?” she laughed.

“Are they? I have no idea what they are wearing. I just know who they are,” he said.

“Who are they?” she asked.

“A group of ex-special forces from various countries that provide private security,” he said.

“Yikes! How do you know them?” she asked, a bit concerned about the company he might unknowingly keep.

“I don’t. The lawyer recommended them and the driver to help me get around without too much hassle until this all settles into yesterday’s news,” he told her.

“I guess that is a good thing then,” she replied, though she wasn’t sure about what sorts of men they might be if they were recommended by a criminal attorney.

Rather than responding verbally, he pulled her into a kiss that curled her toes. There wasn’t a shred of doubt that she was falling for him, but something held her back. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Was it her own fears or something more? Despite any reservations, she responded to his kiss almost involuntarily, her body taking over when her mind tried to overthink everything.