Challenging the Center (Santa Fe Bobcats) (24 page)

“Why not use my lawyer?” A bit of her feisty fire was back, and he relished it.

“Do you have a lawyer?”

“No,” she admitted.

“Then we use mine. He’ll be yours too.”

“Michael, your mentoring. Your camp…”

“Let me worry about that. This isn’t going to stop anything. Watch me.”

“What would you tell one of your mentees if they were in your place?”

“I’d tell them to fight like hell and don’t lose the girl.”

She sighed, and he could almost picture her closing her eyes in resignation. “You won’t let me save you from this, will you?”

“Nope.” He felt damn near cheerful now. He always felt like that when he sensed a challenge coming on… at least on the field. This time the challenge wasn’t a linebacker but a video and a scandal. And maybe Kat, trying to be selfless by stepping away when what he needed most from her was to cling closer.

He flexed his sore hand, the one he’d used to punch the wall, and relished the feel of pain.

Bring it on.

K
at’s bags
were packed before she heard from the lawyer. He’d been brisk, seemingly undaunted by the whole thing. God only knew what that meant. He’d either seen worse or trained himself to pretend like it. What a career he must have.

He’d asked her to go stay somewhere else for the night, just in case. She decided a hotel was a bad idea—not to mention expensive if she didn’t want to end up in a dump. So she called Gary.

Which was how she ended up on his sofa two hours later, drinking a bottle of water and sitting in silence while the clock ticked. Gary sat in the armchair beside the couch, looking a bit weary.

“So you’re… having sex in this video.”

“No.” Somehow she’d been spared that much humiliation this time. But… “It’s pretty suggestive though.”

“Hmm.” Gary sat back, unusually subdued compared to the festive green and orange hummingbird shirt he wore. “And this is at the tennis center.”

“Yes.” Her face burned with embarrassment. “Gary, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It never… I never meant… I didn’t…” She scrubbed at her face and swallowed a sob. “Sorry.”

“I assume you didn’t set this up. Did the big guy do it?”

She looked up sharply. “No. Definitely not. He’s pissed for me.”

“Good.” Her coach nodded once, looking pleased. “He didn’t strike me as the type to pull that sort of stunt. Keep him.”

“I shouldn’t,” she muttered, then shrugged when Gary raised a brow. “What? I’m a walking disaster. I should let him go. Give him a chance to escape with his reputation intact. He’s got a name for mentoring. He has these plans for an amazing camp for kids who can’t afford…” Her breath hitched at the thought of all those lovely, beautiful plans that would benefit so many boys. “What if nobody wants to send their kids to his camps because of this?”

“Then there are a lot of stupid mothers in this country.”

Kat snorted before she could catch herself. “I should get out of here. Spare him the embarrassment.”

“I’m disappointed.”

She blinked at that. Gary hadn’t moved a muscle, but frustration radiated off him. “What?”

“When that first tape released—”

“I didn’t release that.”

“Did I ask?” He waited while she shook her head. “When that first tape released, you fought back. You told the truth even if nobody else believed you didn’t do it. And you fought back by letting your behavior swing the opposite direction.
I’ll be what they think I am. I’ll show them.
”

How… Kat sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. Of course Gary would have known. Would have sensed. “So?”

“So… you could have slinked away. Found some dark hole to lick your wounds in, occasionally poking your head out to see what the weather was like. You stayed active, you stayed out there. Why quit now? Why walk away because things are tough? Too old? Too tired?”

“I’m not too tired,” she bit out.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes, I… yes.” She nodded and clenched her fists in her lap. “I love him. So what if the best thing for him is to distance him from this?”

“He’s going to get pulled in regardless. No way people aren’t already trying to figure out whose head they’re seeing the back of. Add that in to the fact that you’ve been spending time with Lambert thanks to the auction stunt last week… they’ll know before dinner,” was his final prediction.

“Great.”

“So stand with him. It’s a video of two adults, in a private office,
your
office. Clothes still on… right?” he added hopefully.

“Yes.” At least at that point. The video suspiciously cut out before anything further happened. Thank God for small favors.

“Then this will blow over. It’s not a thing. You give me the date, I’ll check the security footage, we’ll figure out who was in the building and could have done this. That’ll at least clear the part where people assume you released it for attention.”

Kat didn’t know what to say. Her coach—the only coach that mattered—believed her. Her… boyfriend? Whatever Michael was, he believed her. They were the only ones who mattered.

Fighting through the emotions clogging her throat, she managed to say, “Thank you.”

“Until then, I’ve got a daybed in the guest room. I can’t promise it’s comfortable, but you’re welcome to it.”

She nodded, unable to speak as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Gary stood, and she stood with him. “I’d hug you, but… I don’t do that crap.” The gruff statement made her laugh, which only allowed a few more tears to spill out. “Go get your suitcase and take it to the back bedroom on the right. And don’t argue about dinner. It’s chicken and broccoli. Good for you.”

“Yes, sir,” she managed with a smile and had a brief moment of hope invade the darkness.

* * *

“
I
t’s
like a goddamn Greek tragedy. Every season. Every freaking season, I get to deal with this.” Simon Poehler, head of PR for the Bobcats, slid down onto a chair in the small conference room they’d snagged in the Los Angeles hotel. “Could we maybe get through one season without having someone do something insane for a change? That would be nice.”

Michael sat silently, knowing Simon would finish when he finished. He was a blowhard, and a bit too full of himself… but he was also damn good at his job. A shark, Cassie had called him before. A shark in a bespoke suit. Fitting description.

“Poehler, let’s get this over with,” Coach Jordan growled. “I’ve got a game to prep my players for, including this player right here.”

“This player needs a lesson in how doors lock,” Simon shot back, then sighed. “Yes, right. So I’ve studied the video several times. Definitely a cell phone shot and raw. No editing that I can see. It was uploaded to what appears to be a teen’s Instagram page, and though I haven’t had the time to investigate as deeply as I’d like, I would say the account is real. It dates back over two years. That’s a long time to set up for a punch if it were fake.”

“A teenager?” That took Michael by surprise. When Sawyer had mentioned that, he’d thought it was a fake profile. “What the hell would a teen be doing uploading that kind of crap?”

“If what is on her—definitely a female—profile is accurate, she was likely at the tennis center for lessons. Seems she’s homeschooled, plays tennis and swims, and has an inexplicable love for One Direction.” Simon shuddered. “Taste is subjective, I suppose.”

“Where does this leave us?”

“Well, as the video—less than fifteen seconds, thank God—shows you fully clothed, in what is clearly a private area given the video also shows the door opening and closing, we could be worse.”

Could be worse could also mean a million things. “Plain speak, please.”

“You’re in the clear.” Simon sat back, nodding his own agreement to his statement. Smug bastard. “Your face isn’t shown, though it won’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who you are. But you’re simply kissing a pretty girl behind what should have been a locked door. While a little embarrassing—I’ll use the word ‘chagrined’ in print communication, it’s more likeable—it’s not a big deal for you. We’ll treat it as such, and move on.”

He breathed a sigh of relief, and Coach Jordan nodded before slapping his shoulder. “I’m heading to my meeting with special teams. Finish up and get back to where you’re supposed to be. We’ve got a game to win tomorrow.”

“Yes, Coach.” He waited for the older man to leave, then turned back to Simon. “You said
for you
.”

“Hmm?” Simon was busy scribbling on a pad of paper, apparently ready to tune him out.

“You said, ‘It’s not a big deal
for you
.’ Meaning me. Does this mean it’s a big deal for Kat?”

“Oh.” Setting the pencil down, Simon studied him for a moment. “You’re intent on this one, are you?”

“If you’re asking if I’m in love, yes.” God, that felt good to say out loud. “So what happens to her still affects me. If you were hoping to give up caring what happened to her, don’t. She needs help too.”

“Yes, she does.” Simon sighed. “Look, Michael, I won’t lie, her past will come back to bite her on this one. She’s set herself up for a rocky go of it. Not impossible but not ideal either.”

Rocky wasn’t worrying to him. He’d conquered adversity before, he’d do it again for her. A hundred times. Thousand.

“I’ll tell you the biggest play will be to stand beside her. Unlike last time—”

“What do you know about last time?”

Simon gave him a look that asked,
were you dropped on your head as a baby?
“When one of our starters begins hanging around publicly with a notorious person, I start researching. It’s my job, if you recall. Anyway, unlike last time, where the other person involved in the video immediately bolted from her and made it sound like he was a victim of a con artist, you’re standing beside her, saying you believe she had nothing to do with it.”

“Because she didn’t.”

“Great. You can say it with conviction.”

“Because it’s true.” Michael’s gauze-wrapped hand clenched, and he hissed at the reminder of the pain. “Drop the PR speak, Simon. She didn’t do it. That’s the end of that.”

“Most likely, you’re right. So we’ll go with that angle.”

Simon was just doing his job, but Michael began to wonder if he could still perform his duties without his head attached to his body.

“We won’t wait for someone to find out. We’ll cut it off at the pass. Post an informal video of you and her together, speaking directly to the fans about it. That it was a violation of your privacy, that it was an unfortunate situation to be caught up in, that you hope others can use this as a lesson about what uploading videos of people you don’t know can do to another person’s life… play it from the mentoring angle. Make it seem as if it’s aimed more toward high school and college kids since that’s the best odds of who uploaded the video to begin with, and who struggle with proper social media behavior.”

Make it a mentoring thing. That, Michael could get behind. Simon was good, Michael had to admit. Hitting him right where it counted. “Right. So, when do we do this?”

“I’ll have Kat flown in this afternoon. We can do the video tonight, have it uploaded pretty soon afterward. I don’t want it to seem glossy and edited. I want it fresh, real. You kick some ass on the gridiron tomorrow afternoon, and the odds are it’s forgotten from your life before next week.”

“And Kat’s life?”

“Don’t push. She’s got a different situation and a different past. I’ll help, but she’s not part of my job. You’d do best to find someone freelance to work with you on that side of things. I’ll give you names.”

It was the best he could hope for. Michael shook Simon’s hand and started calling Kat even as he left the small conference room in order to find the assistant with their schedules for the weekend.

“Hello?”

“Kat,” he breathed, feeling whole again just hearing her voice. “Where are you? Are you at home?”

“No. I packed up and—”

“Don’t leave,” he barked out, then realized he’d scared a lobby full of people. The desk clerks froze, a mother pushed her small child behind her legs for protection. With a grimace, he ducked into an alcove and lowered his voice. “We’ll fix this, Kat. Please, don’t leave.”

“I’m not leaving. I was about to say I packed up and came to Gary’s place in case. The lawyer suggested I duck out of the apartment for the time being.”

The vise crushing his chest instantly let up, giving him much needed relief. “Thank God.”

“Michael… what’s going on?”

“You’re going to get another call from Simon, our PR guy. He’s putting you on a plane out here. Don’t argue. It’s for the best.”

“That’s too much.”

“I need you here, Kat.” He knew, if it were for him, she’d view it differently.

There was a brief pause. “Oh. Okay.”

With satisfaction, he smiled. “God, I love you.”

Silence.

That was a little deflating, but he pushed on. “He’s got a plan for a video addressing the situation. You and me, together. We’ll use my social media, then push it to yours after it’s finished. No official press conferences. Don’t want to make too much of a big deal about it. We act like it’s a nonstarter. There’s more, but we’ll talk about it when you get here.”

“You sound confident.”

“I am. Just… will you trust me?”

“I do trust you.”

“Good. I’ll see you tonight.”