Struck By You: Players

by I. M. Hicks

  I got to The Palace about half an hour later. There was no line and Paul hadn’t removed me from the VIP list yet, so I had no trouble getting in.

  I went directly to the main bar but she wasn’t working tonight, so I asked one of the bouncers if they had seen Paul. He told me Paul was around but he would page him for me.

  “What are you doing here Mason?” he asked when I had my back turned.

  “Hey Paul, can we talk privately somewhere?”

  “Follow me,” he said, taking me upstairs to his office.

  He closed the door and offered me a seat. “What can I do for you?” he began. “You want to buy my 40%, is that it?”

  “I’m not here for that actually. I need to know how Riley is.”

  His eyes went dark and sat back in his chair. “I have no idea – she no longer works for me,” he said smiling.

  “She quit?”

  “No, I fired her,” he began. “Conflict of interest. After all, she’s the reason why this is all happening, isn’t it Mason?”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “You can’t tell me you didn’t become the least bit jealous when you found out she was with me. You and your brother schemed this whole fucking thing and now here we are,” he said. “So take it, it’s yours, and you can have her too.”

  “Paul, this was not my idea, I’m not my brother and I haven’t agreed on anything. In fact I haven’t even signed the documents over because I don’t know what to do. He doesn’t care for your club, he’s having a hissy fit over you banning him and embarrassing him and he gets even,” I said. “And yes, I was insanely jealous when I found out about the two of you, but I’m not vindictive. I care for her, more than you can possibly imagine, and now she won’t see or speak to me and I’m going insane trying to figure out what happened. All I can think of is that someone told her stories about me that are simply untrue.”

  “What is untrue? Your little secret society parties? You two are sick fucks that are beyond professional help. You sought her out didn’t you? And went to extremes to get her. You probably followed her just like you do with all your conquests.”

  “You told her that?” I was completely flabbergasted.

  “Maybe, I was drunk at the time,” he replied. “I could have mentioned the rape charges and how your dad paid them off, but I’m only about 40% sure I said that.”

  “Jesus Paul, I’ve been with a lot of women and yes, my brother and I have partied with many and sometimes things get out of hand. But we don’t stalk them. We never had a secret society – that was some made-up story someone from our past fabricated. And the charges had nothing to do with rape. I was eighteen when I started college and I got charged with underage drinking. My brother was hauled in as well for giving alcohol to a minor. Carl had to hire a very expensive lawyer to help me because I was after all going to law school, and my own father refused to help us,” I said. “The truth is, you don’t know a thing about me, no one does. And she does not need to know my history with other women just as much as I don’t care to know hers,” I said getting up and shaking my head. “I can’t believe this. She trusts you and it’s game over for me; she thinks I’m a lying piece of shit just like her ex.”

  I pulled the documents containing the contract and the shares out of my pocket and signed them. “Take them,” I said handing them over to Paul. “I don’t want them and my brother has no business with them so congratulations,” I began to walk out. “You should hire her back. The bar seems very slow without her.”

  I spent every waking moment at work. I found that was the easiest way to cope with her absence.

  A month had passed since I last saw her. I’d given up trying to contact or find her. My brother and I had a reputation mostly based on lies, but it was what it was and there was nothing I could do to change it.

  Tanner broke a couple of my ribs when he found out what I’d done with the shares. He waited till after the public announcement that Tuesday three weeks ago and bruised up my face pretty good as well. Paul managed to buy Tanner out and now he was sole proprietor of The Palace but Tanner was no longer banned and he was okay with that.

  “OK you fucking nerd, we’re having a party,” said my brother coming into my condo.

  I sighed and regretted ever giving him a key to my place. “No parties,” I said.

  “Too late, already invited everyone,” he said. “Food and booze are arriving shortly,” he said opening my fridge and grabbing himself a beer.

  I was sitting in the living room staring at the fire.

  “You have got to quit this moping around, it’s pathetic,” he said.

  “I’m fine,” I said taking a sip of my whiskey.

  He sat on the couch next to me. “I’ve never seen you like this. You’re not fine,” he said. “You need this, you’ll thank me later,” he reassured.

  Suddenly he got up and took the tumbler out of my hand. “Go get cleaned up, you look like shit,” he said.

  “Fuck off Tanner. If you wanted to have a party you could have done it at your place. It’s Saturday, I have the right to relax.”

  “That’s right, it’s Saturday and the night is young, so get the fuck up and go take a shower,” he demanded. “And besides, you still owe me for that shit you pulled with the shares.”

  “Not this crap again. You have no idea how to run a place like that,” I replied.

  “True. I would have hired someone to run the bar but I would have handled the entertainment,” he said grinning wide.

  “Yeah, that was my fear,” I retorted.

  I wasn’t going to win the argument so with much reluctance, I went to get cleaned up.

  When I got out of the shower, I heard a woman’s voice and my brother’s laughing in the living room. The guests had started to arrive, I figured. I took my time getting dressed – I was in no mood for this but I figured I could just drink too much and pass out early and my bother could party without me.

  I saw her as soon as turned the corner from the hallway to the living room. She had her hair out and was wearing tight dark blue jeans and white dress shirt.

  “Ah there he is,” said my brother grinning.

  I was speechless. I couldn’t believe she was there.

  “Hi Mason,” she said smiling at me.

  I kept staring at her like an idiot.

  “Don’t mind him, he’s been a bit of a workaholic lately and by the looks of it, out of touch with reality,” my brother sneered.

  “What are you doing here?” I finally asked.

  “Well, Tanner dropped in to my advanced yoga class about a week ago wanting to talk to me so I told him if he managed to make it through I would,” she said and smiled.

  “Much to my surprise he did, so we talked for a bit after class”

  I looked at my brother. “I didn’t know you did yoga,” I said.

  “I don’t, but now I’m a gold member there, and not just for the yoga,” he winked.

  “Yeah, you need to come back and keep him on a leash, he’s worse than you,” she joked.

  Suddenly she got up walked toward me and gave me a hug. I held on to her for as long as I could before she let go.

  “Alright, my job is done here. I’m off, places to go and women await,” said my brother grabbing his coat. “Riley my dear, I will see you next week and please go easy on me, I’m still in pain from the class on Wednesday,” he said, giving Riley a hug.

  She started laughing. “Spend more time stretching and less time doing whatever is you’re doing.”

  “Mason,” he said putting his arm around me walking us toward the door. “I like her, I can see why you’re so stupid for her. So don’t fuck it up or I’ll kick your ass, again,” said my brother quietly.

  “I can’t believe you did this,” I said and I couldn’t. Out of all people to help me with my situation, the last person I would have expected was my brother.

  “I’m an asshole but not a complete asshole. Go talk to your girl, we’ll talk next week,”
he said patting me on the back and left.

  When I closed the door I noticed Riley was sitting on my couch with her legs wrapped underneath her, staring at the fire.

  Chapter 18

  Mason came and sat next to me once Tanner left.

  “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” he said.

  “Same here.”

  He looked at me dejected. “Then why did you wait so long?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I needed time to think, figure things out,” I replied. “Paul called me the day after you gave him your shares and he apologized for what he said and took it all back. That was an amazing thing you did, by the way.”

  “My brother didn’t think so,” he replied.

  I smiled “I suppose not.”

  “Paul said some nasty things about you and Tanner, and I wasn’t sure what to believe,” I said looking into his eyes.

  “I did a lot of things I regret but I can tell you we never hurt anyone. Most of it happened during college. We were still kids.”

  “I know, Tanner told me a lot of it and in great detail, I might add. Which I really didn’t need to know but I can’t say I don’t appreciate how upfront he was.” I laughed. “He’s very proud of his accomplishments, isn’t he? It’s almost disturbing,” I added.

  Mason smiled and agreed.

  “I just have one question for you,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me your dad left you the firm? Not that it mattered, but Paul knew about it before I did.”

  He sighed. “The truth is, I made the mistake of having lunch with my brother after I found out. He said something to the fact that if I couldn’t stay loyal you could take most of it, like mom did with dad,” he said.

  “Oh,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. It sounded almost as if he was thinking long-term commitment, or Tanner was insinuating I was a gold digger.

  “I should have told you and I’m sorry,” “Riley, the truth is I’d give it all up if it meant you’d take me back,” he said suddenly.

  I smiled. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “So are you still working at the bar? Tanner said he hasn’t seen you.”

  “No actually. Paul offered me my job back but like I said, I needed time to figure things out. So my sister has me on five days a week,” I said. “And come January, I won’t have time to work two jobs anyway.” I added.

  “What’s happening in January?”

  I smiled. “I’m going back to school for my masters.”

  He smiled. “That’s great news. I’m proud of you” he said. “What changed your mind?” he asked.

  “I was madly in love with Jason and what he did destroyed all my faith in love and trust,” I said. “I thought I was happy living my life the way I was, and then you came along and somewhere along the line, we both lost the game. Then you told me you loved me and it scared me a great deal even though I knew I did too. So when all this happened, I wanted to fix what was wrong in my life and make it right again so I could come back and commit to you without all the baggage. Truth is Mason, I’m madly head over heels in love with you but I’m terrified at the same time, do you really think we can make this work?”

  He locked his hips with mine, picked me up and sat me on his lap. He kissed me deeply and passionately, holding me close.

  “I have no doubt in my mind Ms. Jones,” he said. “Don’t ever leave me like that again,” he whispered.

  “I won’t,” I exhaled.

  “I’ve been a wreck without you. I need you in my life. When you left, nothing made sense anymore,” he said. He kissed me some more and stopped. He looked into my eyes as if he wanted to say something.

  “What?” I whispered.

  “Move in with me. We’ll buy a new place just for us where we can start our lives.”

  “I…I don’t know, might be too soon” I replied. I was shocked he was asking me that but deep down I knew I wanted the same.

  He held my face and kissed me deeply again. “No,” he said, “that won’t do.” Then he looked into my eyes again, took a deep breath and said, “Marry me.”

  Coming Soon

  Addicted To You

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ingrid is a fashion designer and founder of her own uniform company. She lives in Ontario, Canada with her family and is currently working on her next book.