Rumors & Roughing: A Slapshot Novel (Slapshot Series Book 5)

by Heather C. Myers

  She winced at what transpired between her and her father earlier this morning, hoping she hadn’t ruined things for Rhine with her behavior. Her father liked to pit the sisters against each other; if one acted out, he punished the other rather than the first. He hoped it would make them compete to be perfect children but, really, it bonded the sisters together. They knew it wasn’t their fault should he be hard with one of them for no reason. If anything, it made them work together to figure out better opportunities to try and get around his rules.

  As frustrating and as hurtful as it was, Madison didn’t care one way or another if her father didn’t show up to her graduation. To a degree, she felt the same way about her mother. However, she wanted to see Rhine. And keeping Rhine from her would be devastating. She just hoped her father wasn’t bright enough to figure that one out.

  Once she returned to her dorm room, she took a shower in the communal bathroom and packed up a couple of outfits she would take over to Alec’s. She wanted to be there when he came home in order to show him that he had her full support. She didn’t want to think that she believed that he would rape someone for one second, even if she did happen to know about his mole and his scar. Madison believed him. She would believe until there was damning evidence that said he raped someone.

  But there wouldn’t be because Alec was not a rapist.

  She headed to her parking spot and pulled out of the lot, heading down to Newport Beach. She kept the windows down, preferring the natural sea breeze to run through her hair rather than the air conditioner. It freed her mind, quieted her thoughts, and she let herself have this one moment of peace, knowing it would be gone before she knew it.

  Alec’s neighborhood was quiet as she drove through it. The majority of the homeowners were retirees who bought houses back when they were first built in the nineteen sixties at an incredibly cheap price compared to what their houses were worth now. She understood why he went with the officers last night. He liked his neighbors and they seemed to appreciate that regardless of his career, he kept things quiet and low-key.

  When she pulled into the driveway, she opened the garage door and slid her car inside. Alec had cleared a spot for her so nobody would notice a strange car out front and start questioning Alec about who he was seeing on a consistent basis. Once she parked the car, she closed the garage door and headed inside. She had her laptop with her, hoping to tackle some of the paper she needed to write.

  Instead, she plopped on the couch and hoped to find a Michael Keaton movie to pass the time.

  He would be home soon. He had to be.

  Chapter 6

  By the time Alec’s call came, Madison was nearly asleep on the bed they had shared for nearly two years. Though she had a dorm room that she did return to every now and then, she practically lived with Alec in every way except officially. She had a drawer, a toothbrush, and even some of her hair products over at his place. As of yet, he hadn’t actually asked her to move in. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the fact that they weren’t supposed to be dating each other or if it was because he wasn’t quite ready to have her move in. Her father was still paying for her dorm room – even though Alec had started a generous scholarship for the Gulls’ Girls, along with team owner and manager, Seraphina Hanson – which meant that if she suddenly stopped using her food allowance or was never spotted in her room, he might get suspicious.

  “Maddy?” he asked the minute she answered. “You okay?”

  “Am I okay?” Madison asked, relief flooding through her body at the sound of his low voice. “Are you okay? It’s been twenty-four hours since they picked you up from your place. Alec, why couldn’t I go in –“

  “Absolutely not,” Alec said, cutting her off. Alec was a typically playful person. It was rare for him to be firm about much of anything, but when he was, it always caused Madison to straighten, to listen closely, to be more aware of his unspoken social cues. Since she couldn’t look at him – she could only hear his voice – she took a deep breath and forced herself to really listen without reacting.

  “Alec,” she said, trying not to sound defensive. She didn’t think it worked that well.

  “Look, Maddy,” he told her, letting out a breath. “I’m on my way home. Why don’t we talk about it in person? I’m going to pick up Chinese food and I should be there in twenty minutes. Okay?”

  Except, Madison knew that okay really meant please. As in, please don’t push this any further. As in, I’ve had a rough twenty-four hours and just want to gorge on Chinese food with my favorite person in the world. As in, we’ll talk about this later, I promise, just let me decompress.

  “Okay,” she told him slowly. She knew it would take a few more breaths to keep her insistence at bay, but she would do it for him. He was worth it. And he did have a shitty twenty-four hours.

  So she waited for him by pacing up and down the front room. Images of them from two nights ago flashed through her mind and she couldn’t help but feel her pelvis twinge at the memory. She wondered if he would want to get wrapped up in her after everything. Maybe he needed his space.

  She saw a flash of headlights and the soft engine of a car outside, idling on her driveway. She nearly opened the door, wanting to run into Alec’s arms in the front yard. However, she held back and stilled her body. The car continued to idle. She heard the engine turn off and she furrowed her brow. If Alec was being dropped off by a driving service, the car wouldn’t turn off. It would stay idle until Alec got out and then drive off.

  At that moment, the doorbell rang and Madison jumped. Her heart started to pound in her ears, which was so stupid since this wasn’t a scary movie. Maybe it was one of Alec’s family members checking in on him. They dropped by every once in a while. Maybe his mother had tried to get a hold of him, and when she couldn’t, she decided to come to his house and check up on him herself.

  The problem with that theory was that Alec’s mom never parked on the driveway. She always parked on the street.

  Madison pressed her lips together and slowly, silently, made her way to the front door. She looked through the peephole and saw a retreating figure of an unfamiliar man slide something in Alec’s mailbox. From there, he got into his car and drove off.

  Madison waited until her breath returned to normal before she slid out the door and went to the mailbox. She was practically running back to the house. The last thing she needed was anyone spotting her since Alec Schumacher was supposed to be single and definitely not dating a Gulls Girl.

  When she was safely inside, she locked the door and slid down into a sitting position, her heart still hammering in her chest. She took a deep breath and then another until her breathing returned to normal. In the dim lighting of the house, she glanced down at the card. It looked like a business card.

  Hector Roberts, Journalist for One Sports.

  She furrowed her brows. Why would a journalist…

  It got out. Somehow, word had gotten out about Alec getting arrested and they had been here… Certainly they knew that Alec was still…

  Where was Alec, then?

  He had to have been released, right.

  If his court date was the day after he got arrested, he would have bailed out and been released by now, wouldn’t he?

  She flipped the card around and saw a messy scrawl on the crisp, white material.

  Call my cell. I’d love an exclusive about the allegations against you. And it ended with a phone number.

  Madison crumpled it up, stood up, and threw it away. She didn’t have to ask Alec to know he would have done the same thing.

  People were assholes. How dare he come to Alec’s own home in order to ask him questions about this alleged rape. How completely unprofessional.

  She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to do a million things all at once but couldn’t. That was the worst part. The fact that she could fix everything but also couldn’t. Couldn’t because Alec didn’t want her to.

  At that moment, another pair of head
lights pulled into the driveway. This time, Madison could clearly hear Alec’s distinct voice talking to the driver about how much he owed. The car never stopped, and soon, Alec was at the door. Madison threw it open before Alec had the chance to unlock it. Before he could even say one word, she was in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist, her mouth on his. He dropped the Chinese food on the ground so he could accommodate her.

  He seemed surprised by her exuberant reaction to his presence but fell into the kiss naturally, his arms wrapping around her waist in order to support her after closing the door behind her.

  “Well, I didn’t expect this kind of reaction,” he mumbled as they found their way to the chairs. He had a small smile on his face but Madison noticed that it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  “Why wouldn’t you?” she asked, resting her chin on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, her entire body relaxing in his arms. It felt so good to have him home, so good to feel him underneath her. She didn’t want him to be taken away from her ever again and would do everything in her power to prevent that from happening.

  “I just…” He pulled his head back so she was forced to remove her chin from his shoulder. Instead, he rested his forehead against hers. “Girlfriend hears rape, it would make sense they would run. Even if it wasn’t true.”

  Madison snorted. “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not your typical girlfriend,” she pointed out.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever had a real girlfriend before,” Alec mused.

  “Consider yourself lucky, then,” she teased him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “I do,” he told her, his tone serious. “I really, really do.”

  Madison gave him a small smile and he looked at her with an odd glint in his eyes. He kissed her neck softly and sighed through it. She wanted to ask him how he was, what happened, what was going to happen, but she couldn’t bring herself to. If he was ready to talk about this, he would. For now, maybe he wanted to get away from it. Maybe he didn’t want to focus on it. And she could respect that.

  “I was officially arrested,” he told her after a long moment. “I bailed out. Now, the police are going to investigate but it looks like they’re actually going to try me.”

  “Even without evidence?” Madison asked, furrowing her brows.

  Alec sighed. “Yeah, I can hardly believe it myself,” he said. “Apparently, everybody already knows, which means I’m meeting with Seraphina Hanson tomorrow to explain myself. Which I should. This is clearly going to affect the team, whether it’s true or not. When I got out, photographers and the media were waiting outside of Orange County Jail just to scream things at me and snap my picture.”

  “Orange County Jail?” Madison asked.

  “Yeah,” Alec said. “They don’t have a holding facility at Newport. After someone gets booked, they transfer them to OCJ where they wait for their court date.”

  “Wait,” Madison said, blinking. “You mean you spent the night in jail?”

  “Where else do you think I went?” Alec asked with a soft chuckle.

  Madison shook her head. It made sense but she hadn’t put it together until now.

  “Oh my God,” she murmured, shaking her head.

  “It’s okay,” Alec reassured her. “It wasn’t terrible. I spent the night. Went to court in the morning. Bailed out.” He grinned. “And here I am.”

  “But you’re being tried for the rape?” she asked, raising a brow. Her voice was low and it was clear she didn’t like the situation they were currently in. “Alleged rape, I mean. Not that you raped her but maybe she was raped and –“

  “I don’t think she was raped,” Alec said, shaking his head. “Listen, I hate to bring this up but I feel like it’s only fair to you for me to be honest. You knew I had been with a decent number of women before you. So it’s not like other women didn’t know about that scar or that mole.”

  Madison glanced over at Alec, a curious look on her face. “Do you think one of your former lovers is doing this to you?” she asked.

  Alec blanched at the word choice. “Don’t call them that,” he told her. “There was no love lost between me and the girls that came before you. I don’t remember them. Can’t remember names or faces. None of them matter anymore. None of them ever did. Saying they were a lover is much more intimate than they ever were to me.” Madison felt thoroughly chided but couldn’t keep the delighted smile from slipping onto her face. “To be honest, it would make sense if one of them was doing this to me. I don’t know what for, though. I was always very upfront about what sort of relationship to expect from me. Fun, with no strings attached. They all seemed okay with that.”

  Madison snorted. “They are because they think they’ll tempt you into giving it all up for them,” she told him. Before he could comment on that observation, she continued, “Why won’t you let me be your alibi?”

  “I’m not letting you get involved in this, Mads,” Alec said. “And don’t think about it. You would risk everything. And you don’t deserve that.”

  Chapter 7

  Madison had to clench her teeth together to keep herself from saying something she might later regret. What the hell was he thinking? She could be his alibi – technically, she was his alibi – but he wouldn’t let her be his alibi because it would jeopardize her scholarship? The thought that she could do this for him frustrated her to no end and she nearly threw her cell phone across the room after getting off the phone with him.

  The sliver of good news was that he had bailed out and was home. That was good.

  The bad thing was the fact that the police were going to investigate this woman’s alleged rape, which meant a report was going to be written, which meant that Alec would be listed as a suspect/arrestee for a rape in the city of Newport Beach. Granted, if the charges were dropped by the district attorney, he would be able to go through sealing those records so they wouldn’t show up on his record, but still.

  The fact of the matter was, Alec was in the second round of the NHL playoffs. He shouldn’t be worried about this sort of thing; he should be worried about Keyli Hansel, a Swedish center that dominated the stat sheet and played first line for Vancouver, or Stefan Nelson, a Swedish-born Canadian goalie who was nearly as good as Brandon Thorpe, the Gulls’ goalie.

  She glanced down at his sleeping form, his lips slightly ajar as soft snores emitted from his nose.

  She couldn’t sleep. She wanted to, but she couldn’t. She could fix this whole thing, but he didn’t want her to. He was more concerned about her and her well-being rather than him. Apparently, he had a meeting with Seraphina Hanson about everything tomorrow.

  In a way, Madison almost felt bad for Seraphina. In the last two years, three of her players had had contact with the police: Brandon Thorpe was the suspect in her grandfather’s murder, Zachary Ryan had assaulted his current girlfriend’s ex due to the fact that said ex was harassing her, and now Alec Schumacher was being accused of rape.

  Madison knew Seraphina would back her players. She had set a precedence with Brandon Thorpe and she continued to meet it. By having utter faith in them, they felt confident in their management and continued to play well, regardless of what else was going on in their life. This probably would be the same thing.

  The only difference was, rape was not the same thing as defending his girlfriend or having a motive to murder. Alec was being directly accused by someone. And that could mean that Seraphina Hanson would handle it directly.

  She would be pissed if she looked at another woman in the face and told her she was lying about rape – even if the woman was.

  Everything came down to sex and gender. Seraphina was a female NHL owner and manager so she already had a target on her back. In fact, she recently called a press conference specifically to call out the sexist media for their portrayal of her the past two years.

  It was actually a glorious moment, truth be told. Madison couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride at the fact that she ha
d gotten to witness the event in person. Her fierce determination and the confident way she squared her shoulders and locked eyes with everyone there made Madison proud to not only work for this organization but be a woman. She knew Alec had his meeting today this morning with Seraphina, she just didn’t know how that would be handled. She didn’t know what Seraphina would do.

  She rolled over on her side so she could stare at the shadowed wall in front of her. She hated this uncertainty. She hated that she didn’t know who to trust to have Alec’s best intentions. She was certain Seraphina would do what she could, but that didn’t necessarily mean she would do what was right for Alec. As much as Madison hated to admit it, Seraphina was running a business and she needed to do what was best for the business, not what was best for an individual who took part in that organization.

  “I can hear you thinking,” Alec’s tired voice murmured behind her.

  Madison winced, closing her eyes and turning so she was lying down on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Alec began to rub his hand up and down her arm with the back of his knuckles, causing goosebumps to spring up, all over her body.

  “What are you worried about?” he asked.

  “What am I doing after graduation, Alec?” she asked and then stopped. How fucking selfish could she be? After everything he had gone through, everything he was going through, and she wanted to start talking about herself? Was she insane? She shook her head, continuing to stare up at the ceiling. “Sorry. What I meant was, how are you?”

  “Hey.” Alec’s hand stopped rubbing her forearm so it could grab her hand and lace her fingers through his. “You’re allowed to have your own concerns. You have a lot on your plate.”

  “Not like you, though.” She forced a small smile and craned her neck so she could look at him. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t ever say sorry for telling me how you feel,” Alec said. “I suppose I should realize just how lucky I am that you chose to stay with me, even after what’s going on. I know it’s everywhere now.” He clenched his jaw. Now it was his turn to stare up at the ceiling. “Why did you stay with me?”