Words are nothing without action. “I mean it, they didn’t even give her the right to explain.”
“I need to see the termination notice, but I’ll have something to you by the end of the day.”
“Not good enough.” I look over to Emma. Squid has made her a cup of tea, and Sage is stroking her hair. I’ve never seen Emma look this vulnerable. It has my emotions spinning more than they did when I needed to protect Squid. “Call me in an hour. I’m not going to training. I refuse to step foot on Mavericks’ soil until they make this right.”
I trusted the club. I trusted the Southern Mavericks were about community and handshake deals because a player should be as good as their word. Come on, Benz. Show me that there’s a player still inside that fucking suit you wear as COO.
“I’ll look into it,” he promises. “But in the meantime, keep your head down.”
I grit my teeth. “Not happening.”
“Dylan.” His voice is patient, like he’s trying to talk me off a ledge. “You can’t win a fight if you’re swinging blindly. You asked for an hour. Give me a few hours to pull together leverage.”
I don’t like it, but I tell him what he wants to hear. “Fine.”
I don’t have time to argue because I’m already dialing the next number.Kenzie. Be nice. She’s Cooper’s woman, and I need both of them on my side.
She picks up on the second ring. “Dylan, please tell me you didn’t …”
“Dawson’s asked for crisis PR support as part of his next contract,” I cut in. “If the Mavericks want me to wear their jersey again – if you don’t want to spend the rest of the season cleaning up the shitstorm I can bring down on the club, then Emma needs the same. I don’t fucking care who pays your checks, or whether it’s a conflict of interest because they fucking fired her. My lawyer is going to have the club begging Emma to come back. Whether you do it for the club, or because Emma doesn’t deserve to be thrown to the wolves and you want me to pay the bill, Cooper says you are the best spin doctor. I want you to protect Emma. I don’t care what that makes me, and I don’t care if you have to throw me under the bus to do it. Just make it happen.”
Kenzie hesitates. “Dylan …”
“I’m not asking, Kenz. Either you make it happen, or I do. And if I engage someone else to protect Emma, then the Mavericks will lose any ability to manage the narrative.”
A beat of silence. Then a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I hang up and immediately call for Squid. He and Sage come out of her room clutching their phones as if that’s the way they get oxygen. “Take my credit card and get food, coffees, and whatever else we need to bunker here for the day.”
“No school?” Squid asks as he and Sage high five each other.
“You saw the press. How are you going to focus in class with everyone wanting to know what’s going on?” I don’t wait forSquid to answer. But he’s not the one I need to convince. “Sage, I promise this thing between your sister and me is the real deal. I promise to do what I can to fix it for her—and for both of you. But I still need to make a couple of calls, and we all deserve to eat.”
Sage looks at me, and there’s a flicker of something in her eyes. Wariness? Confusion? I don’t know how she and Squid found each other, but I’m grateful they’re friends. “I get that you don’t trust easily,” I continue. “I get that you don’t know me and don’t have any reason to trust me, but I’m going to ask you to trust me until I give you a reason not to.”
When Sage doesn’t answer, I turn to Emma who’s watching from the couch, arms wrapped protectively around her body. “I care for Emma. A lot. Enough to put my contract on the line if the Mavericks don’t pull their head out of their ass and fix this.” I want to tell Emma I love her, but she deserves to hear the words for the first time when her sister isn’t listening. “Now, please. Take my credit card and use it like you mean it.”
“Fuck, yeah.” Squid grabs Sage by the elbow. “I’m thinking burgers, hash browns, coffees and hot chocolates, I mean, with his money we could fill a duffel bag with food and binge watch that show you wanted to watch.”
“I’ve created a monster.” I ruffle my brother’s hair, and he immediately slaps my hand away and goes to the bathroom to fix it. Perhaps he is ready to become a precocious teen. “Okay?” I ask Sage, and when she nods, I go back to Emma so she can hear the next call.
This is possibly the hardest call to make. Cooper Bradley isn’t just my team captain, but also Kenzie’s partner. For this to work, I need both of them on my side.
He answers groggily. “What the hell, Fleski? It’s early.”
“Kenzie hasn’t told you?”
“Told me what?” He clears his throat. “She was called into the office at stupid-o-fucking-clock. Are you the reason my woman isn’t keeping my back warm?”
“Dude, you’re the one who warned us off talking about sex and Kenzie in the same sentence.” I can’t help but laugh. They are the cutest couple and are the poster couple for PDA.
“Fuck you, Fleski,” he says without any malice. “You’ve woken me now, so talk to me. What do you need?”
“I met one of the cheerleaders before she joined the team.”
“Fuck. Have we got another baby daddy situation going on because I’m telling you that Dawson and Randii are already …”
“Emma Russell—one of the new cheerleaders—and I are together. We were together before she started the job, and we dialed it back to being friends until that didn’t work for us.” I keep talking before he can interrupt, while watching Emma’s face for any sign that I’m overstepping. “We are together. I am with her, she is with me. I was working on options with Kenzie to introduce her as a fake date for theAustralia’s Favorite Bachelorbullshit before shit happened.”
