Player: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (72 page)

“
S
he’ll be back
.” Logan’s face is grim, and he’s not looking at me as the door to Hudson’s penthouse slams shut with my sister’s exit.

My whole family is here for my “ripping the band-aid” moment of spilling my guts about the last few days, about Javier, and about, well, everything else they don’t know about me. Hudson sits quietly on his couch next to Reagan with my little niece Christine burbling quietly between them, pleasantly innocent of the drama brewing around her.

“Logan, I-”

“I don’t really need to know the details of you and that fucking piece of shit, OK Chels?”

He’s still avoiding my eyes, looking at a blank spot on the wall opposite from where he stands with his arms crossed and his face grim. His sister Peyton shoots me a quick sympathetic look before she resumes playing the “everyone not looking at Chelsea” game while she rubs his back.

“Logan will you look at me please?” Logan’s gaze steels itself, unwavering from its piercing stare at the wall. The air is thick with tension with me sitting by myself in the middle of it feeling like I failed them all.

“So how long were you planning on having us think you were actually getting a masters in international economics?” Hudson isn’t overtly smiling, but I know that glint of humor in his eyes when I see it, and it gives me a
sliver
of confidence that my family will ever speak to me again.

“I-”

“School was part of her cover, Hudson.” Major Lawson has been quiet the whole time so far, standing by the window and looking out over Manhattan. My secret life has been cleared with my family as of one hour ago; all his doing. He turns, leveling his gaze at the three men in the room, one by one; “I’m sure you can all appreciate needing to
hide
a facet of yourself from even those love you.” Hudson grins, and even somber and quiet Bryce off by himself in the corner cracks a hint of a smile.

Logan maintains his steely-eyed gaze, unwavering.

“He’s not a bad guy, Logan.”

“Yes, he is, Chelsea.”

“OK, maybe he
was
a
-
”

“Agreed.”

Reagan puts Christine in Hudson’s lap before she comes over and gives me a hug, and I all but lose it right there; “I’m mad at you, you know,” She says, mashing her face into my shoulder as she squeezes me tightly to her; “But I understand, and I love you.”

I raise my eyes to Logan as Reagan pulls away from me; “He saved my life, you know.”

“It’s a start.”

“Jesus Christ, Dempsey, how long are you going to hang onto this?” Bryce growls from across the room. He shakes his head at Hudson and Logan; “Are the two of
you
assholes seriously going to hold falling for someone you shouldn’t over her fucking head?”

My face burns red and I raise my eyes to Bryce;
‘Thank you’
, I mouth to him, and he winks at me.

Hudson breaks first; “
Damnit
,” He huffs, standing and passing my niece to his wife before he comes over and scoops me into a big bear hug; “I guess I owe you for helping me sway this one.” He says grinning, jerking his head towards Reagan. “I don’t like him, you should know that; but I’m not going to get between two people who are going to crash into each other anyways.” I sniff back a tear as I smile at him, and he ruffles my hair like the kid-sister I am to him; “I’m just glad you’re ok, Chels.”

Peyton prods Logan in the arm, but he brushes her off, and then growls as she rolls her eyes and comes over to hug me as well.

Major Lawson clears his throat, and everyone - even stone-cold Logan, turns; “When I told William I’d watch his daughters,” The older man smiles and shakes his head; “Well, the job has certainly given me a bigger run for my money than I ever expected.”

I can feel Reagan move behind me and squeeze my shoulder, and I look up at her and grin; “Major, I hope you know that we-”

“I made a promise to your father, and I stand by that vow; no matter what.” He takes a deep breath, nodding as if choosing his words carefully; “Your father saw things in people. He saw the good and the worth in them when others didn’t.” Logan scowls and starts to turn away when the Major looks at him sharply; “Like,
for instance,
your adoptive brothers, Chelsea. Just like Hudson, and Bryce,” He looks at each of the men in turn; “Just like Logan. The three of them were,” He chuckles; “Well, I think we can agree that they were all works in progress when your father found them and when I first met them.”

Hudson and Bryce share a look and shrug as they grin at each other.

“But your father saw promise in them; the promise of the men they
could
be.”

“He didn’t see it in Javier,” Logan mumbles.

Major Lawson shoots him a look; “But
Chelsea
did.” He turns to me; “There’s a lot of William in you, my dear. Your sister of course as well, but you,” He nods; “You took a lot of him.”

I lean into Reagan’s embrace as she hugs me again.

“So, Javier.” The Major looks pointedly at me, and I blush, embarrassed and ashamed, and I hate that I’m ashamed of my feelings.

“Javier-”

“Is a good man, at heart, I’m willing to believe. Probably better than anyone’s ever given him credit for. He sacrificed himself to save you, which counts for a
lot
in my book.”

I sniff, and the tears I’ve been desperately and furiously holding back begin to trickle from my eyes.

“It means something in my book and I know it meant something in your father’s.”

The front door to Hudson’s place bangs open again, and a teary-eyed Quinn storms in. She’s crying as she quickly crosses the room and throws her arms around me, and it’s then that I just go to pieces.

“Don’t ever go and get kidnapped again, OK?” She sniffs into my shoulder, making us both choke out laughs through our tears.

“He’s still there, with Blackriver,” I say quietly, wrapping my arms around her.

Quinn looks up at Major Lawson; “Javier; he saved her, didn’t he?” The silver-haired man nods, and she turns to Logan; “We’re not leaving him there to die then.” Logan’s jaw tightens, but I know I’m watching the facade crumble. She looks back at Major Lawson; “We can’t leave him there.”

“No, we certainly can’t.”

I look up sharply, but I’m not the only one. Reagan, Quinn, Peyton, Hudson, Bryce, and even Logan are also jerking their heads up to look at the Major.

“What?”

The Major grins; “I said we certainly can’t.”

“
Logan
,” Quinn says pointedly; “What if it was me? What if they’d been after me and he stepped in?”

Logan glares at my sister; “But it wasn’t-”

“It might have well been, man.” Hudson says sharply; “They were after her to get to us. It could have been Reagan, and it could have been Quinn, and the only reason she’s not hurt,” He nods at me; “Well, Javier Toro is the only reason.”

Logan closes his eyes, shaking his head for a moment before he opens them; “He called me, you know.”

I jerk my head up and stare at him; “
What!?
When?”

From before he broke you out, when you were there with Benson and Blackriver.” Logan nods slowly; “He called my old second line and just said that he was settling up with karma, and that he was sorry.”

My heart almost breaks right there, and I find myself clinging to Quinn as if I might shatter and scatter to the winds if I don’t.

Logan turns, and when he does, I can see him drop the rest of whatever he’s holding onto. He looks pointedly at the Major; “How soon could we do this?”

Major Lawson grins and cocks an eyebrow, looking almost excited; “Well the three of you are military trained, you all
own
planes, and I’ve got a SEAL team on speed dial and pretty much a blank check on matters I deem of interest to national security.”

Logan nods quietly, before he turns and shoots me a hard look; “Let’s go get our man.”

W
hen I was younger
, I used to have a lot more
machismo
, and a lot more bullshit swagger than I do now. When you’re young, and poor, and scrounging from the street, you talk a whole lot of bullshit to get you through each day. I can distinctly remember a gang of us, poking around the shadows of the market looking for pick-pocketing marks and bragging about how we didn’t care about death or dying; like that was some kind of badge of honor to not give a fuck. We’d make jokes about the devil telling us when and how so that we could pull all the shit we wanted to pull before he took us.

We weren’t fearless, we were just fucking idiots.

Because I can say now that knowing when, and how you’re going to die is…well, it doesn’t feel like I ever expected it to feel. I’m not standing there with arms wide open like the jackass kid version of myself who used to brag about it before stealing pocket change from old ladies. I’m not raging, or laughing in the face of it either.

I mean I’m pissed about it, because if this is my time to go, I’d just want one more day with her; one more perfect day with that angel. But I guess we’ll always want one more
something
when our time comes; one more day, one more drink with friends, one more time with a lover. But fuck it, if the last few days of this fucked up and broken life were the cards I got dealt, then I can call that a good run.

A very good run.

I can see the sun starting to peak over the treetops, through the barred window of the cell I’m in.

One more sunrise
.

They’re going to kill me today. Well, Benson’s been promising that for four days now, but there was something about the finality in him saying it last night that got me. And maybe it was that he’s just gotten tired of having me beaten, or electrocuted, or denied sleep, and wants to be done with me; not altogether different than most people I’ve known in my life. At some point, they just get
tired
of me and my bullshit.

Except for her.

I grit my teeth when I think of her; my one regret and the one thing I’m angry about having to leave. But I know she got out OK, and that’s all that matters. She’s safe, and if I’ve gotta take the hit for that, so fucking be it.

There’s the sound of yelling from outside the door to my cell, and I steel myself;
fuck it, let’s get this over with.

But the sounds of yelling are quickly drowned out by gunshots, a crashing sound, and something that sounds like an explosion in the distance.

What the fuck?

I’m wide awake then; well, as wide awake as I can be considering I’ve been tortured, beaten, and deprived of sleep for four days. But my eyes are glued to the door as I hear someone banging on the other side of it. The sound goes silent for a second, but suddenly there’s a horrible sound of wrenching metal as the door explodes inwards, rupturing in two in a cloud of black smoke.

And then suddenly Logan Goddamn Dempsey is standing in front of me, and it all makes sense.

I’m already dead. This is, in fact, death, and this is my afterlife. This is my judgment standing right in front of me, and when he pulls out a large, wicked looking knife, I find myself nodding and setting my jaw; “Let’s do this, devil,” I mutter, my vision swimming in and out of darkness; “Let the purgatory begin, demon!”

The Logan Archangel in front of me frowns and rolls his eyes before hauling back and slapping me hard across the face. The hit jolts me back into the now, and I blink; holy shit, it’s
actually
Logan.

“You’re not dead, Toro,” He shakes his head as he slips the blade through the ropes tying me to the chair and cuts me loose; “Not yet at least.” He yanks me roughly to my feet, and I groan at the the pain lancing through me from the beatings and from the burn marks of the electric nodes.

“Look, shithead,” Logan growls, hauling me upright, his eyes piercing mine; “I haven’t decided that I like you, or if I forgive you.” I swallow, eyeing the knife in his hands. He nods at me; “But you saved her life, and you showed honor; more than I’d have given you credit for.”

I nod my head, wincing when he yanks me closer; “If you fuckin hurt her, I’ll bury you. You know that, right?”

I grin, raising my hand to clap him on the back; “Irish, if I ever hurt that girl, I’ll dig the hole myself, comprende?

Logan’s face splits into a grin right back at me. He’s nodding as the rest of them come crashing into the room; Bryce and Hudson, and some older guy holding a Goddamn revolver, and-

-And her.

I let myself drop into her as Chelsea shoves Logan out of the way and wraps her arms around me; “I love you.” She whispers, hugging me fiercely and crying into my neck; “You never let me say that at the airfield.”

“I love you, too,” I say, for the second time ever, feeling like the world is somehow aligning right; like somehow God and fate and karma are giving me a second shot.

“Ready to get out of here, princess?”

“You gonna steal me if I say no,
criminal
?”

I grin at her: “Definitely.”

C
hange is a funny thing
, and it comes in ways and shapes you’ll
never
see coming.

As it turns out, Javier was a
wealth
of information on illicit activities in the Americas; in particular, the drugs and weapons traffic routes through the Caribbean and Florida. So much so, in fact, that the State Department was willing to forgo all pending charges in order to put him on task forces with the D.E.A.

Yeah, bad-ass, criminal, smuggler, thief, extortionist Javier Toro is working for the good guys now; who would’ve thought?

“Informant?
Fuck
that,” He declared during the initial sit-down meeting with D.E.A. Commissioner on the offer; “Informant sounds like a fucking
weasel
.”

Yep, that’s the man I love; pushing buttons and trying to get cute at a meeting that literally determines his fate for the next twenty-five years to life. But I’ve gotta say, the man knows what he wants, and he won’t stop until he gets it.

And he does, of course. In the end, he even got them to
officially
grant his title as “Master of Secrets”; I swear I could
not
make this stuff up if I tried.

Family is family, and after they forgave me for all the secrets surrounding my job stuff, they slowly started to get on board with the Javier thing as well. My sisters - well, I mean
come on
; those two really don’t have a rock to stand on when it comes to getting involved with men they shouldn’t. It’s worth pointing out that things worked out
just fine
in those circumstances too, and I think once they realized I knew exactly what I was doing, they took it just fine.

“Will it be hilarious or awful if I get him a neck warmer for Christmas?” Quinn says with wicked grin. Yeah, we’re going to be just fine on that front.

Bryce oddly enough ended up being the first of the guys to warm up to Javier. Apparently, a mutual love of the Barcelona soccer club has a way of mending fences in ways I couldn’t - and honestly still don’t - understand. Hudson moved from standoffish to indifferent, and then eventually to casually friendly with him; Reagan’s helping me out there.

Logan we’re still working on. Life isn’t a cutesy movie ending, and saying that everyone just decided to be best friends after everything that’s happened would be a lie. Logan and Javier have some
serious
history to work through, though they’re trying. They’re apparently going to start boxing together, which should be, well,
interesting.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner too, and we’re actually going to have
all
of us together under one roof for the first time ever. The mercenaries, the soldiers, the politician, the mother, the doctor, the spy, the philanthropist, the recovering alcoholic, the ex-addict, the long lost sister, the princess, and the criminal. Because sometimes family is who we choose it to be, and I couldn’t have picked a better one.

And Javier and I? There’s supposed to be this big happy sappy ending where we get married and live happily ever after, right? Except that would be this big dumb cliche, right?

Well, then deal with it, because that’s exactly what’s happening. The spy and the criminal who stole her heart; how’s that for a happy ending?

The wedding itself isn’t until spring, but the happy-ever-after part we’ve already started on. I might add that we’re amassing a
very
colorful collection of straps, handcuffs, ties, and restraints in our bedroom as well.

We’re all capable of change, if we want it bad enough. We just have to try, because if you don’t try, what’s the point? For every shadow, there’s a light somewhere, and for every lost, there’s a found. And none of us is lost, as long as we can hang on to what’s good in this world.

Even if you have to steal it.