Pinned Down: A Triple Threat Sports Romance (14 page)

Kendra

“I think I’ve got a plan to help you,” Lucky said when I got out of the shower. He was still harping on the money I needed for Older Brothers. He wouldn’t let it go! I was pretty sure all Lucky was going to do was find a way to channel his own funds into the charity anonymously.

I had already told him time and time again that I couldn’t accept his money. It was bad enough that we were still personally involved with each other. I couldn’t allow him to be associated with the foundation, not in any way. And even if he made an anonymous donation, it would raise questions that would eventually need to be answered. Eventually, any questions would lead to him, putting me in a bind.

“You really don’t have to worry about it,” I assured him as I started getting dressed to head to the office.

My concerns over his reputation went beyond simply not wanting him to donate money to the charity. I didn’t trust him to find legitimate money for me, and I didn’t want to accept money tied to any illegal activities.

Was it from gambling? A lot of pro athletes, coaches, and other members of the league were involved in gambling rings, whether they were ever caught or not. Or was it something more sinister?

Whatever was going on with him, there was something dark behind the façade of the caring man who sat on the bed in front of me. There was some truth to his reputation. The tabloids seemed to have it right with Lucky. Women were his weakness, and it permeated his life. His desires touched every aspect of his personality and even threatened to ruin his livelihood. He said he was trying to change that. He claimed to be trying to put his old ways behind him, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“No, I think I’ve got it figured out,” he insisted.

“Okay, what’s your plan?” I asked him.

I stood back and watched him on the bed as I slid on my skirt for the day and grabbed a bra from my dresser, which had been moved into his bedroom. He kept his eyes trained on my body even as I got dressed and hid it from him.

He sat on the edge of the bed with his sheet still pulled across his lap like he still felt the need to be modest around me. His broad shoulders framed his chiseled chest and stomach. My eyes followed the curves of his muscles in his arms, the lines of his muscles in his legs. Desire was already getting me wet between my legs while I stared at him.

I imagined the thick length of flesh resting underneath the sheet between his legs, just waiting on me to reach down and stroke it with my fingers, with my lips and tongue. He looked at me with his brown eyes, his brown, disheveled hair, and that freshly shaved face that could have been carved from stone.

He was the living statue of some great Greek god. I didn’t want to get dressed. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to let him take me again, this time in his bed. I wanted him to treat me like one of the girls he’d been in the tabloids with before I came along. I wanted, just for a moment, just to be another notch on his bedpost. Except, I wanted to be every notch he ever added again. I wanted him to treat me like a new notch every time.

It occurred to me that we were looking at each other in silence. He hadn’t answered my question. There was no plan as far as I could tell.

“Lucky?” I prodded. “What’s your plan?”

“I, uh, I can’t tell you,” he said.

“Okay, are you sure you have a plan or are you just trying to get me to call off the deal with Tommy?” I asked, reaching for my blouse.

“No, I have a plan. I’m not just trying to keep you to myself or anything. It includes getting someone else to handle the funds for me. It won’t include any of my money, if you’re worried about that. Don’t worry, I’ve got it. It’s a great plan, and you’ll be surprised at how well it works,” he insisted.

“Let’s hope so. I’m looking forward to hearing more about it when you’ve actually got it together,” I told him. I didn’t really believe he had anything, but I was willing to humor him with a smile and pretend I had confidence in his ability to get the money for me.

I had tried to boost his confidence earlier when it came to his case with Raven, but I wasn’t sure it had helped. I wished he would focus more on his own legal battles and stop worrying about my money problems. There wasn’t much he could have done to help. There was no way he was going to get me to accept his money, and I didn’t see him finding any additional funds somewhere else.

I figured his insistence stemmed from the fact that he was being so protective and possessive over me. I wasn’t even sure if I was actually going to go through with the deal with Tommy or find an excuse at the last minute. If I did that, though, there was a good chance I was going to lose the office. If I lost the office, there was a good chance Older Brothers would let me go with it.

There was always the option of letting go of the office and taking time to work with the board of directors to reboot the local chapter properly. Maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bad idea to let the dust settle, I tried to convince myself. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I did agree with Lucky that sleeping with someone to get the money wasn’t the ideal option.

He stood up from the bed as I was sliding into my shoes and throwing my suit jacket over my shoulders.

“Look, I’ve got it under control,” he said, approaching me and taking my shoulders in his hands.

“I’m sure you do, but I’ve got to run,” I replied, leaning up to give him a kiss. I placed my hands at his sides, avoiding what I really wanted to do. I wanted to grab that exposed manhood of his and stroke it until it was awake enough to get in a quickie before work. He was distracting me from my work, and I liked it.

I had fallen for Cade Hendrix, but I still had responsibilities. I couldn’t lie around all day on what amounted to a paid vacation while the world fell apart around me the way Lucky was doing. I didn’t get the option to live the life of the playboy like he did. I knew that focusing on my problems kept him from having to worry about his own, but it was infuriating that he wasn’t taking it as seriously as he should have been.

“Alright. I’ll keep working out my plan. You’ll know when I set it in motion,” he told me, kissing me again. Our lips met and lingered a moment. I felt him pressing his bare shaft against me. His lean, muscular body begged me to stay and make love to him before going to work, but I couldn’t.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” I said, pushing myself back from him and smiling up at him. His chest was firm under my hand.

I tried to tell myself I could trust him. He had worked so hard to get through to me. As frustrating as it was to watch, he had put aside his own legal woes to focus on what I needed. I started to feel guilty again for even considering something as stupid and reckless, not to mention illegal, as the whole situation with Tommy.

I had pushed that guilt aside and convinced myself there was no other way, but I knew that if anyone could have helped me, it was going to be Lucky. No one else seemed to have the luck he did for pulling things off. No one who worked for me seemed to be trying to do anything. They were part of the problem, and a good solution for them would have been to let the charity shut down while working with the board of directors to start over.

They wouldn’t have gone for that. They had too much invested in making the program run continuously. At least that was how they acted. I didn’t intend to bring it up unless I had no other options.

I walked downstairs and grabbed my purse from the table by the front door. It always felt a little strange to leave his house alone, to walk out of it unescorted, like it was mine, too. It felt even stranger to leave alone with him there, to walk down to the front door like I owned the place, like I was staying there permanently instead of just until I got things sorted out.

I laughed at myself on the way to my car. I had moved into Lucky’s mansion in response to Tommy’s threats. He’d threatened to rape me if I didn’t sleep with him for the money I needed. Then I had allowed him into my office, where we nearly fucked on my desk. Even after realizing I was considering accepting Tommy’s offer, Lucky had still welcomed me back into his home and back into his bed.

Oh, what a tangled web I had woven. I began to question just how far I was willing to go to save the charity and my career. I was starting to question my unwavering devotion. What did I hope to gain? I wasn’t in it for the fame and fortune the way Lucky seemed to be. I wasn’t trying to see just how successful I could be. Was I really concerned about helping the inner city and disadvantaged children, or was I more worried about just tacking on another failure? What was I trying to prove, and to whom?

I got in my car and drove to the office. As I arrived, I started to consider that maybe I should have been packing up, just in case. I should have at least asked the rest of my team to pack it up. Then again, if I wasn’t expecting to have to move out, why would I have asked them to pack up?

“You still have options, Kendra,” I told myself as I looked at the ripped pieces of the contract I had drawn up for Tommy. Apparently we had left them sitting on my desk. A few of them also seemed to have fallen on the floor.

I smiled as I picked them up, not because of what the contract itself meant, but because of what had happened in the office with Lucky for the contract to get ripped and dropped all over the desk and the floor. It had been a pretty good gesture, but if I wanted to, I just had to print a new copy.

I opened my laptop and pulled up the contract. I stared at the document for a few minutes before deciding whether or not I wanted to print a new one out.

“Just in case,” I told myself out loud as I hit print on the screen. The printer came back to life and a new copy of the contract started to roll across the tray. I watched at the paper stopped at the edge.

The document was just one page, but there was a lot contained in the one page. There was a lot of protection included, and a lot of money on the line. My ass, quite literally, was also on the line with that contract. But I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through with it. Sleeping with Tommy was like stabbing Lucky in the back.

My phone rang, as if to answer my prayers.

Lucky

After Kendra left, I decided it was time to put my plan into motion. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to reach out to the people I knew would probably be able to help her the most. I didn’t have much to go on but her name. I remembered she had told me her last name was her mother’s maiden name, so I decided to start there.

I made a couple of phone calls to people we used in the network to get information on other players or people close to the league. It didn’t take long to get information back. I was able to get contact information for her parents, Gerald and Marie Isaacson. I had a phone number, and that was all I needed. My guys were pretty thorough, though, and I found out that they weren’t actually on tour or anything at the time. They were home, in between gigs. I considered myself lucky again.

I was a little nervous calling to introduce myself as their estranged daughter’s boyfriend, but I also knew they probably wanted to hear from her and were probably going to be more willing to help than she would have wanted to admit.

I sat and listened to the phone ring a few times, waiting for one of her parents to answer. I didn’t know whose cell phone number I had, but I felt pretty confident that her parents would have wanted to help her. Family was always there. As long as she had family who was able to help her, she didn’t need to worry about trying to sleep with men like Tommy, the sleazy local businessman who just wanted to get in her pants.

After a few rings, I expected to go to voicemail, but it didn’t. Her father answered finally. I made my awkward introduction, letting him know I was her boyfriend and a football player for the local NFL team.

“You have to be kidding me,” he said, laughing. “I’m sorry, son, but the idea that Kendra would date an athlete is pretty funny. You have to know she’s not that into sports.”

“Yes, sir, she’s made that pretty clear,” I said, letting myself join in the laughter a little bit.

“Well, I guess this is the best we can hope we for, huh? If we can’t expect to hear from her, at least we can hear from you. So, how is she?” he asked, and I could hear his voice changing. His amusement was leaving and being replaced but an almost somber kind of seriousness.

“Well, she’s fine, but that is what I called about. She needs some help,” I told him.

“That explains it,” he said.

“I’m sorry?”

“That explains why we’re hearing from someone all of a sudden.” He sounded disgusted.

“I’m calling you because she won’t,” I said. “She’s too proud to call and ask for help, and I wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t for something very important to her.”

He sighed. “What’s going on?”

“She’s the director of the local chapter of Older Brothers, and the foundation is in trouble,” I explained.

“What kind of trouble? Financial trouble? Legal trouble?” he asked, concern starting to trickle into his voice.

“Financial trouble.” I told him about how the last director had been arrested for embezzlement and how the charity was struggling to maintain enough funds to stay open.

“Well, Mr. Hendrix, you’re a pro football player. Why don’t you help her out?” he asked.

“I can’t. She won’t accept any donations from me, and she insists that the charity is better off without my money or my input,” I explained to him.

“It sounds to me like she really doesn’t want any help,” her father said.

“I don’t really blame her for not accepting my money. I’ve been in a lot of trouble, but she won’t even let me make an anonymous donation. She also doesn’t know I’m calling you right now,” I explained.

“You must have done something pretty serious, then, if you’re going behind her back like this to try to make it right.” He laughed a little.

It was almost refreshing that my name didn’t immediately tip him off. At the same time, I knew why Kendra didn’t really like sports or athletes. Her parents obviously weren’t big fans either.

The upside was that my reputation didn’t precede me. The downside was having to explain to her father what I had done that was so upsetting. That also meant he was going to wonder why I was still involved with his daughter.

I didn’t care if this conversation was the last thing I could ever do for her. I knew she would be furious if she knew what I was doing, and it didn’t take a genius to know that she was eventually going to find out what I was up to. She needed help, and I couldn’t deny how much I cared about her.

“It’s just a big misunderstanding with an ex,” I told him, not really wanting to get into detail about what was going on.

“It usually is, son. It usually is. Well, look, you didn’t call me just to shoot the breeze. What does she need?” he asked.

I was in!

While we were talking, I’d been sitting at the desk in my home office. I was bouncing a little pen on the desk between my fingers. When her father finally asked what she needed, I grabbed the pen and stood up from my chair.

“It’s not my place to go into the numbers with you,” I told him. “I’d really rather you call her and get it all squared away with her.”

“I’m going to do that, but it wasn’t your place to call me in the first place, was it? I’m sure she didn’t give you my number and tell you to call me when she needed help. You probably had to track us down. I also know she’s not going by our last name. I know she’s going by Kendra Boles. She has been since before she left. So tell me, how much does she need?” he asked again.

“About three million,” I finally answered. It was a lofty number, and there was no way she really needed that much, but it was in line with the previous offer that had been put on the table, and I didn’t want to leave her any reason to reconsider.

“Three million?” He sighed. “I
do
need to call her, don’t I?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s a lot of money. And you said this is because the last director of the local office ran off with a bunch of money and left them in the hole?” I imagined he was sitting at a desk, too, probably looking through tall windows at a patio where Kendra’s mother was kicking back on a lounge chair by the pool.

“Yes, sir. She’s been playing catch up and just can’t seem to get ahead. She’s already sent all the employees home because she can’t pay them,” I told him.

“And she’s about to lose the office, you said.”

“That’s right. Part of that money is for the mortgage on the office.

“I’ll tell you what. Keep my number in your phone. Call me whenever she won’t. I’m going to talk it over with my wife, and we’ll probably give her a call in just a little while. Now, you know she’s going to be mad at you for calling us, right?” His tone had changed to one of gratitude and acceptance. He didn’t sound irritated that I had called to ask for his help anymore.

“Yes, sir, I’m aware, but I’m prepared to face her anger after she talks to you,” I said, a smile spreading across my face.

“We’ll see what we can do to help her. Don’t call her and warn her that we’re calling, okay? I want it to be a surprise,” he added.

“That’s fine. I figure it will be anyway,” I said.

“Great. At least we’re on the same page, then. Hey, it was good talking to you, Mr. Hendrix,” he said.

“You can call me Lucky,” I told him finally. I had refrained from telling him that earlier just because I wasn’t too comfortable talking to him at first, but I figured if we were going to talk more, and if he had accepted me as his daughter’s romantic interest, I figured it was appropriate to ask him to call me Lucky.

“Lucky?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. Everybody calls me Lucky.” I felt like a high school kid meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time and trying desperately to make a good impression.

“Well, are you feeling lucky today, Lucky?” he asked with a straight tone of voice, miraculously managing not to laugh.

“I am, Mr. Isaacson,” I answered.

“Well, I’m supposing they call you Lucky because you are pretty lucky? I mean, so far, you don’t sound lucky to me. You’re in some sort of trouble that I hope you know I’m going to look into, especially since you’re seeing my daughter. Kendra isn’t accepting your help, which is not very lucky. And, frankly, you had to call me behind her back, which is
not
going to end well for you. It might end well for her, and I can only guess that’s what’s really important to you, but still.”

“They call me Lucky because I make kicks that no one can and because I can get myself and my team out of binds that no one else can. If you can help, I will consider myself very lucky, indeed,” I assured him.

“Okay, that helps. I’ll go talk to the wife. You’ll know what we decide, I suppose. She’ll probably call you raising hell about whatever we decide to do,” he told me.

“Thank you, Mr. Isaacson. It was a pleasure meeting you,” I said, ending out the conversation.

“You, too, Lucky. Thanks for calling us to let us know what’s going on with our daughter. We never really hear from her, so we both appreciate that. Hopefully this all goes over well and we get to meet you in person.”

“I hope so,” I told him.

We hung up, and I realized I felt like I’d been holding my breath. I exhaled slowly and hoped that Kendra wouldn’t call me before her parents had a chance to call her. I didn’t want to be on the phone with her when they called, and I didn’t want to feel compelled to tell her what I had done. She was going to find out soon enough on her own. I wanted to be as far away from the phone as possible until that happened.

I didn’t even know if her parents were going to be able to help her the way Tommy and I had both offered to. I hoped that they would at least convince her to let me help her out. At any rate, they were going to talk to her and reconnect. I had to give her father her number before we got off the phone because he didn’t have it. They talked that rarely.

I wasn’t looking forward to hearing from her after their conversation, but I knew that no matter what happened between us, she was probably going to be alright. I stared at the black screen of my phone in my hand. I knew there were other people I could call to get help for her. I knew that the guys would probably help me get the money to her. Plus, Jake and Harley probably would have been glad to hear from me. We hadn’t talked since I left.

I resisted the urge to call them up and set up additional donations from them. We would have made the three million from Tommy look like pocket change, surely. I also had to resist the urge to look into Tommy and see what he did for a living, where he got his money from. It seemed like anyone willing to part with that kind of money had secrets to cover up.

I wondered if her parents had any secrets to cover up, or if her father would become curious about my secrets once he looked into who I was a little more. On paper, I shouldn’t have had enough money to make large charitable donations. Then again, the paper didn’t show my secrets. Besides, I had already told Kendra too much about my money. I was sure she didn’t want to know anything else. But her father didn’t know me. His tone of voice told me he could get protective when he wanted to be.