“They better take their heads out of their asses,” Bex groans. “At the rate they’re playing, they won’t make it to the next round.”
“I don’t know much about hockey, but Julian didn’t look like he was playing the same as last time.”
Bex shakes her head. “Nope, none of them are. My dad looked crushed.” She blows out a deep breath and sighs. “I want this win for him. It’s his first year as the head coach.”
“This game is a big deal, is it not?”
“Oh, yeah. Regionals are a big deal. Only sixteen teams make it to the postseason. But they need to keep going. All of the guys want this win. And I know it will help my dad keep his job. We’re not like most of the people at Strick U.”
“Neither am I,” I confess.
She nods. “Yeah, you get it. We have to work extra hard to keep our positions at a school like Strick U. The same goes for my dad. After all of the attention Preston and his teammates have drawn to the school, a lot of coaches want to jump ship to coach the Senators, and that makes my dad nervous.”
“Well, then they better win this game,” I say with a smile.
We stop in front of the concession stand and glance up at the menu posted on the wall.
“I can’t eat junk food,” Bex says. “It kills my stomach.”
“Do you have a gluten allergy?”
“Nah, it’s nothing like that. It doesn’t sit well in my stomach. I don’t know why. My dad never kept junk food in the house. I’ve trained to play basketball since I was old enough to hold a ball. You have to stay in shape if you want to play, am I right?”
“Yeah,” I agree. “I have to watch what I eat. I gain weight so fast it’s crazy.”
She glances over her shoulder at me, checking out my body. “You don’t look it.”
“I’m super careful about what I eat. My foster parents never fed us anything healthy. We ate all fried foods and heavy stuff like mac and cheese and pasta. I was so big by the time I graduated from high school that it was probably a good thing I couldn’t afford much food. That helped me lose a lot of the weight I’d gained over the years.”
She gives me a sad look, one that says she feels sorry for me. I’ve seen it so many times on people’s faces. They have no idea what to say when I tell them the truth.
“So, what are you getting?” I say to change the subject.
“A bottle of water and a pretzel, I guess. That’s about the only thing on the menu that’s not covered in grease.”
I remove a ten-dollar bill from my jeans pocket. “Same for me.”
Checking my pocket again, I sigh when I see there are only forty dollars left of my paycheck. And it has to last until next week. This sucks.
After we order and pay, we wait for our food. The lines are so long, spanning halfway down the long, busy hallway. Five minutes later, we gather the pretzels, bottles of water, and Jemma’s hotdog and head back, with only a few minutes to spare.
A man in a black suit, who looks out of place in this arena, stands off to the side by the entrance to the rink. He could be Julian’s much older twin, with his dark hair, tanned skin, and bright green eyes you can’t help but notice.
He moves to my side and says, “Briana?” Before I can respond, he clutches my wrist, scaring the shit out of me.
I almost drop Jemma’s hot dog on his expensive shoe when I shake his hand off me.
“Sorry,” he says, releasing his grip on me. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’m Jonathan Rivers, Julian’s dad.”
That explains why he looks so much like him.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” he asks.
After I hand over Jemma’s food to Bex, Jonathan leads me away from the throng and out of the way of the people clambering to get back before the final period starts.
“You care for Julian,” he says, once we’re further down the hall.
“Yes, I do.”
I have no idea where he’s going with this.
“And how would you feel if he had nothing?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”
“Of course, you don’t,” he snaps.
Confused, I narrow my eyes at him. “This isn’t a social call, is it?”
“Smart girl,” he growls, his voice deep like Julian’s. “I meant what I said to my son. If Julian chooses you, he will have nothing. No family. No money. And no future. Is that what you want for him?”
“Of course not,” I confess. “I would never want that for him, not when I grew up that way.”
He flashes a sadistic smile that sends a chill down my arms. “Yes, you do know what it’s like to have nothing and no one. I can make your life unbearable if you continue to see my son.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you threatening me?”
He shakes his head. “Just giving you a little incentive to walk away. It’s only a matter of time before Julian gets bored of you like he did last time. Men like us don’t settle for women like you. My son might think he’s in love with you now, but you wouldn’t last a second in our world, and once he sees that, he’ll toss you aside for someone better.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I never fit into Julian’s life, at least not in the same way someone with his upbringing would. When we’re alone, everything is fine. No, everything is perfect. But once we’re around other people, especially those like him, I can feel the tension in the air. I’m not one of them. Some of his friends and girls like Abby stare at me. Because I don’t belong.
Furious, I turn to walk away when Jonathan grabs my arm. He spins me around, his fingers digging into my skin.
Again, I have to shake him off. “Don’t touch me.”
“I know you understand how this works, Briana.” He removes a piece of paper from his inside pocket and hands it to me.
I don’t want to take it, but I’m also curious. But when I realize it’s a check, I shove it back at him.
He waves my hand away. “Hang on to it. I want you to sleep on it. This kind of money would change your life. You could start over anywhere in the world.”
Staring down at the zeros on the check, my eyes bug out. I’ve never seen so many zeros strung together at the same time. My current checking account balance is nine dollars and seventeen cents. Including the forty bucks in my pocket, I’m not even a hundredaire. Jonathan is a billionaire. This massive amount of money means nothing to him, but it would mean everything to me. Julian’s trust fund probably accumulates more in interest per day than the amount of this check.
“We both want what’s best for Julian,” he says after a long pause. “I assume you’ll make the right choice.”
I try to hand the check back, but he turns his back to me and walks away. The paper feels like hot metal burning my skin. I’ve never felt so disgusting. Of all the horrible things that have happened to me, I’ve never been propositioned like this. I feel so cheap. Like a hooker. As if I didn’t already feel like a charity case.
Unable to keep the tears from spilling down my cheeks, I call Sadie.
“Hey, babe,” she says on the second ring. “Are you crying? What’s wrong?”
I sniff back the tears and move toward the women’s bathroom. “Can you pick me up?”
“What?” Her tone is clouded with confusion. “Why? What did Julian do?”
“It wasn’t him,” I choke out. “I just met his dad.”
“Oh, God,” she groans. “He’s a real piece of work. Don’t listen to anything he says, Bri. He’s an asshole. That’s why my dad won’t do business with him. No one with a moral compass will go near him.”
“He just gave me a check to stay away from Julian.” I enter the bathroom and rush into the last stall, slamming the door shut behind me. “Please. Can you pick me up? I have to get out of here. I’m not going home with Julian’s driver. I just want this to be over.”
“Okay,” she says without argument, even though I can hear the complaint on her lips. She wanted me to pursue a relationship with Julian
, but unfortunately, his dad comes with the package. “Give me a few minutes to get my stuff together. It’s about an hour drive, maybe more.”
“That’s fine. I’ll stay in the bathroom until you get here. I can’t go back to my seat and sit with his teammates’ girlfriends. I just can’t…”
“It’s okay, babe. I got you. I’m on my way.” I hear keys jingling in her hand. “Do you want me to stay on the phone until I get there?”
“Yeah, would you?”
“Of course,” she coos.
I sink to the floor of the back stall and lean against the wall for support. Sadie lets me talk, my voice slurred as I ramble on about my encounter with Jonathan Rivers. I pray she makes it here before Julian finds me, because I know I won’t have the willpower to have the conversation face-to-face.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Julian
I exit through the back door of the arena with my teammates, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Briana never returned to her seat after the second period. I’ve called her at least ten times since the game ended, all of my calls and texts left unanswered. And when I see Ramon parked off to the side of the team bus, my chest tightens with worry.
Where the hell did she go?
I tell Knox to save me a seat and then rush over to Ramon. “Where’s Briana?”
“I haven’t seen her since I dropped her off before the game.”
“Fuck.” I tug at the ends of my hair in frustration. “Where did she go?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I haven’t seen her.”
I hold up a finger. “Give me a sec.”
I run back to the bus and move through the aisle, stopping in front of Preston. “Can you call Bex? Briana disappeared, and I think Bex was the last person to see her.”
“Yeah.” He peeks up at me with a strange look on his face as he removes his cell phone from his pocket and calls his girlfriend. “She never came back,” he says after he asks her about Briana. “Some guy stopped her? What did he look like?”
Preston describes the man to me, and I want to punch a hole in the ceiling of the bus. “It’s my dad.”
He hangs up with Bex and shoves his phone into his pocket. “What’s going on?”
Jamie, Drake, Trent, and Tucker crowd around Preston. The five of them are always together. Knox, Harker, and Nash are on the other side of the aisle. Harker gives me a worried look. He knows better than anyone what this means. Once my dad gets involved, he doesn’t stop until his problem is solved.
“Bex said your dad stopped Briana,” Preston says. “And then she handed her Jemma’s food and never came back to her seat.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“He didn’t.” My anger shakes through me, the force so uncontrollable I can’t help myself and kick the vacant bench next to me.
“Is there a problem, Rivers?” Coach Bryant growls from the front of the bus.
Yes.
“No, Coach. Sorry.”
“Take a seat,” he says, and then plops down on the front bench closest to the driver.
“Your dad kidnapped your girl?” Tucker says.
“I don’t know.” I sink to the bench next to Harker and pull out my phone. “But I can’t get a hold of her, and no one has seen her.” My father answers on the third ring. “What did you do to her?”
“Oh, hello, son. Nice to hear from you.” The condescension in his tone makes my blood boil. “Whom are you referring to?”
“You’re the last person to see Briana. Where is she?”
“She’s probably halfway to Hawaii by now.” He laughs in my ear, a wicked cackle that chills me to the bone.
“You didn’t,” I snap.
I can hear the smirk on his lips. “She’s not like us, son.”
“Yeah, and that’s a good thing.”
“She took my check, Julian. Do you want to know how much you’re worth to your little girlfriend?”
I ball my hand into a fist and try to stifle my anger. “I’m gonna fucking kill you.”
“You win some, you lose some. But we’re winners, Julian. You’ll bounce back from this. How about I send the new Sports Illustrated model over to your house? Would you like that? I met her last week. I told her about you. She’s dying to meet you.”
“You’re fucking sick,” I shout, drawing the attention of my teammates in the front of the bus. “I know Briana. She didn’t take the money.”
“Yes. She. Did.” He annunciates every single word. “And you’d be wise to leave her alone. She’ll have a better life without you, and you’re better off without her.”
“No, that’s not true,” I challenge. “She would never do that. I know you would, but Briana would never…”
“You should have seen her face when she looked at all of the zeros on the check I handed her.” He breathes into the phone and takes a sip of something, probably coffee, his favorite. “You would have thought she had a billion dollars in her hand.” He laughs at the memory. “You deserve better, Julian. She knows it. I know it. At least she’s gone. Now, you won’t have to deal with her later.”
“I’m going after her,” I promise. “And you can’t stop me.”
“Good luck finding her,” he shoots back with venom in his tone. “I’m sure she’s long gone by now. And if by some chance, she doesn’t cash that check and comes running back to you, you had better keep in mind that you’re cut off. Done. You’re no longer my son. You don’t exist.”
I shudder at his threat. I don’t even know what it’s like to have a real family. My dad is a wealthy sperm donor, nothing more. My mother is non-existent. I haven’t seen her in so many years I can barely recall what she looks like. And because of my father’s attitude, I have almost no relationship with his side of the family and even less with my mother’s. If I choose Briana over him, I have to be damn sure this is going to work. That she won’t get scared again and run away.
I hang up on him, fisting the phone in my hand so tightly it feels like it could snap in half.
“Is she okay?” Preston asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
Drake leans over the bench in front of him. “Your dad offered her money?”
His mother’s side of the family does business with mine. Like the Rivers, the Carroways are old New York money. Drake’s grandparents are loaded. They own oil refineries, railroads, financial institutions, and just about every major business you can imagine. He knows what it’s like to deal with rich assholes like them. But Drake wasn’t raised that way. His dad is new money, his mom old, but she’s pretty cool for a Carroway. Most of my teammates are rich but very few know what it’s like to come from a family like mine.
“Yeah, he gave her a check,” I admit.
Drake’s eyebrows rise. “And she took it?”
I nod.
“Damn,” Drake says. “That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me about it,” I mutter, staring down at my cell phone.
“Sorry, man.” Drake slaps my shoulder.
“She won’t cash it.”
“You sure about that?” Knox chimes.
Why does he always have to be a dickhead?
I shoot daggers over my shoulder at him. “Yeah, I’m sure, Knox.”
I hope I’m right about Briana. Every single fiber of my being tells me she won’t keep the money and that I mean more to her than whatever my father offered her. Maybe if I give her some time to think she’ll make the right decision.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Briana
“Walk me through that night,” Dr. Saxon says, resting her heel on her knee. She shifts the notepad from her right to left hand and readies her pen to take notes.
I rehash how cheap and dirty I felt when Jonathan Rivers forced me to take his check. Her facial expression remains stoic, unreadable. I can never tell what she’s thinking. Therapists are good that way. No matter how many of them I’ve met, they all remain unresponsive whey they talk to patients.
“And you stopped speakin
g to Julian because of his father?”
I nod. “Sort of. Yeah, I guess. I didn’t know what to do. Julian called and texted at least a dozen times after the game. But then, he suddenly stopped calling. I haven’t heard from him in days. Which is weird. Even Sadie, who’s now dating Julian’s best friend, has no idea what’s going on with Julian. He hasn’t started dating anyone else. No one has seen Julian on campus with other girls. But he hasn’t contacted me again either. So, I don’t get it.”
“Why haven’t you reached out to him?”
I roll my shoulders against the chair. “I’m still trying to process it all. I feel disgusting after everything his dad said to me. Plus, he made it clear that Julian has no family, money, or future if I stick around. It’s better this way. He can have a good life without me. He’ll meet some pretty, skinny, rich girl and have beautiful babies with her and live in some mansion with manicured lawns and giant statues that spit water from their mouths.”
“And you feel like you’re doing the right thing by walking away from him?”
I can’t tell if she’s baiting me into saying what she wants or not. It’s hard to tell with Dr. Saxon. But she’s helped me a lot over the years, so I answer honestly.
“Yes, I do. I love Julian. I want what’s best for him.”
“Do you know for certain this is what Julian wants?”
“It must be. Why else haven’t I heard from him? His dad probably threatened to take away his trust fund again, and he decided it was better this way.”
“You’re making assumptions, Briana.”
“But…”
She raises her hand. “You don’t want to keep the money, correct?”
“No.”
“And you still have the check.”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure it’s not because you want to keep the money?”
“No, not at all. I love Julian. I want to be with him, money or not. But I don’t want him to suffer for the rest of his life to be with me. I’m used to getting the shit end of the stick, but someone like Julian doesn’t know how to make it in the real world without money and connections. I don’t want him to end up hating me for ruining his life.”
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