Las Vegas Sidewinders: Brock

by Kat Mizera

  Las Vegas Sidewinders: BROCK

  Kat Mizera

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Other Books by Kat Mizera

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  There are always so many people to thank, I never know where to start, but I can’t forget the team that gets me through every book:

  Lisa Sealey, my irreplaceable P.A.

  Heather Roberts, my publicist

  Tiffani Lynn, my writing partner

  Elizabeth Swain, who makes me smile every day

  The incredible Vegas Vixens, who cheer me on

  And special thanks to Patti Correa, Jackie Ziegler and Jackie Forquer for jumping in at the last minute to get this done!

  Always thankful to Kevin, who keeps me grounded.

  Other Books by Kat Mizera

  The Las Vegas Sidewinders Series:

  Dominic

  Cody’s Christmas Surprise

  Drake

  Karl

  Anatoli

  Zakk

  Toli & Tessa’s Wedding

  Brock

  Vlad (2018)

  The Inferno Series:

  Salvation’s Inferno

  Temptation’s Inferno

  Redemption’s Inferno

  Inferno Novella (2018)

  Romancing Europe Series:

  Adonis in Athens

  Secrets in Santorini (2018)

  Stand Alone:

  Tropical Ice (part of the Barefoot Bay Kindle World)

  Copyright © 2017 by Kat Mizera

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design: Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

  Editing: Tera Cuskaden

  1

  Ashleigh Hunter always imagined she was in a life-sized fish bowl whenever she was in her attorney’s office. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the forty-ninth floor gave the appearance of being in water, with just the occasional cloud to swim through the view. It was a little bit eerie, and she always tried to sit with her back to the windows. Today, she’d been a little late and the only seats available forced her to look out into the blue-sky abyss, so she kept her eyes focused on the bitter young woman sitting across from her.

  Angel Reardon was blonde and blue-eyed, a beautiful nineteen-year-old who’d been dealt a crappy hand in the card game of life. Her parents had been killed about eighteen months ago, leaving a barely legal teenager sole custody of her seven-year-old sister.

  Barely twenty-five years old, Ashleigh’s chances of adopting a child were probably small, but she’d found a lawyer and started the process anyway. Because of her money and success, it shouldn’t have been too complicated, but Angel was determined to make this as hard as possible. It came down to money, apparently, but Ashleigh didn’t want to start a precedent of paying her every time she asked, so she’d opted to offer her a check for ten thousand dollars in exchange for giving up custody. It didn’t appear to be enough and now they sat in a veritable stalemate; Angel wanted more, Ashleigh wasn’t sure what would be enough.

  “Ten grand isn’t shit,” Angel groused, folding her arms over her chest. “You’ve got a hell of a lot more.”

  “I’m going to take care of your little sister,” Ashleigh said quietly. “It takes a lot of money to raise a child, as you’ve discovered. By taking care of her for you, you’re free to do anything you want. Go back to school, get a job, anything—and the money is there to help you get started.”

  “Ten grand will pay first, last, and security on an apartment,” she snapped. “It won’t even cover a few months’ rent. How am I supposed to get a job and shit if I don’t have a place to live?”

  “I’d be willing to pay the deposits on an apartment,” Ashleigh said. “In addition to the ten grand.”

  “It’s not enough to buy a car, and without a car, how will I get to work?”

  “Bus? Walk? Friends?” Ashleigh’s attorney, Wilfred Cumberland, arched his brows, as though he, too, was getting tired of the game Angel was playing. “Ashleigh’s offer is extremely generous, and frankly, she’s already Bella’s foster parent. After the stunt you pulled not sending her to school, it’ll be a long time before the courts are inclined to put her back in your care.”

  “That stupid private school was too far.” Angel pouted, her lower lip protruding dramatically. “Tito didn’t wanna drive out to Brentwood every day.”

  “Tito is another problem,” Wilfred continued. “Dating a known gang associate isn’t going to get your sister back. Ever. Why won’t you let Ashleigh adopt her so she can give her the life she deserves? She’s agreed to visitation, so you have nothing to lose.”

  “She’s my blood,” Angel groused. “She should be with me, and Imma keep fighting for her.”

  Ashleigh tried not to sigh out loud. This was a waste of time. She’d wanted to make it easy on both Angel and Bella, with a little bonus for Angel to help her better her circumstances, but it appeared she would have to go through the long and arduous adoption process through the court system. That would be a problem on almost every level, and part of her wanted to shake Angel for being so difficult. There was nothing she could do about it, though, so she got to her feet, indicating the meeting was over.

  “Well, thank you for wasting everyone’s time today,” she said, giving Angel a hard look.

  “That’s it?” Angel looked shocked. “We’re done?”

  “Yup. I have nothing else to offer, and I guess I’ll see you in court.”

  Angel frowned. “You don’t want to make me a counter-offer?”

  “A counter-offer?” Ashleigh laughed. “Why? So you can play games and try to eat through my bank account? I don’t think so.”

  Wilfred pressed a button on the telephone. “Sadie, will you show Ms. Reardon out?”

  “Of course, Mr. Cumberland.” His assistant appeared in the doorway seconds later, motioning to Angel, who was glaring at Ashleigh now.

  “This isn’t over,” she hissed as she brushed past her.

  “It most certainly isn’t.” Ashleigh watched her go and let out a long sigh as the door closed behind her. “Well, that was a bust.”

  “I’m sorry.” Wilfred shook his head. “You could have offered her twenty and said it was your final offer.”

  “With Tito pulling her strings in the background, I don’t know that anything short of all my future earnings will be enough,” she said. “I don’t know what else to do.”

  “One step at a time,” he said gently. “We’ll put things in motion and see what happens. For now, she’s legally in your c
are so it’s almost the same thing.”

  “It’s not,” Ashleigh sighed. “I can’t take her out of the country. I have to ask the state’s permission for almost everything. And Angel is going to keep trying to get her back, which upsets Bella because she doesn’t want to live with her again.”

  “It’s always difficult for a single young woman to adopt, but with your celebrity status and the money you make, I’m sure you’ll prevail. It’s just going to take a while.”

  “You think it would help if I found a husband?” she joked. “Know anyone?”

  He chuckled. “I’m sure I know a good number of men who’d agree to marry you, but probably not men you want to be married to.”

  She smiled. “Marriage seems like something far off in the future, you know?”

  “Well, as long as you let me take care of the prenuptial, it certainly wouldn’t hurt the process if you found a guy to settle down with. In the meantime, stay out of the tabloids and keep doing what you’re doing.”

  She nodded as she thanked him and headed down to the parking garage. This definitely wasn’t the outcome she’d been hoping for. Why couldn’t Angel take the damn money and sign the papers? It was so frustrating, especially when she was always worried about losing her job.

  She loved working on the hit TV show Vampire Legend. She had a supporting role, and her best friend, Rachel Kennedy, was the female lead. It was nice being together every day, and everyone they worked with got along well. Landing this role four years ago had been the culmination of her dreams as an actress, a level of success most people could only dream about, and she never took that for granted. She worked hard, but she made great money and lived a life she’d never imagined possible. It had taken a lot of sacrifice, but she didn’t have many regrets.

  Well, there were always regrets, but hers were minimal. Until she’d met Angel and Bella.

  Raised by a single mother in a tiny rural town in Alabama, Ashleigh and her mother had been homeless once and she remembered it vividly. As Ashleigh got more successful, she began volunteering at local homeless shelters, anxious to do her part for those who weren’t as fortunate as she was. She’d met the sisters about a year ago, and though eighteen-year-old Angel had been defiant, angry, and resentful, seven-year-old Bella had been sweet, shy, and loving.

  The death of their parents had been devastating; there had been no life insurance, no living relatives, no savings, nothing to help them start over. Within six months they were living in a homeless shelter, and that’s where Ashleigh had met them. She’d immediately fallen in love with Bella Reardon, with her toothless grin and heartfelt belly laughs. Angel, on the other hand, was sarcastic and moody, always yelling at the little girl and making a nuisance of herself. Watching Bella cower every time Angel opened her mouth ripped a hole through Ashleigh’s heart, and she’d known she had to do something.

  Ashleigh had become enamored with the little girl, sneaking away to see her as often as she could. They’d only been at the shelter a few months when Ashleigh had met them, and she’d known immediately that she wanted to do whatever she could to help. Angel seemed like a lost cause, but Bella wanted to live with Ashleigh just as much as Ashleigh wanted to raise her.

  She’d finally been approved to be a foster parent to Bella, and for two months things had been wonderful. Then Angel got a new boyfriend and decided Bella would be better off with her, so she’d taken Bella back. The situation went bad quickly, with Bella missing so much school the headmistress had called Ashleigh to find out what was going on. Ashleigh had offered to continue paying for the expensive private school she’d put her in even after Angel took her back, but Angel had been too lazy to get up and drive her every day. Child Protective Services got involved and Ashleigh got her back just two weeks ago. In the meantime, Wilfred had been working on not just getting her back as a foster child, but also on a formal adoption. The problem was that Ashleigh was young, single, and worked a lot of hours, but in Hollywood, that could change in a flash.

  She acknowledged she was being a little dramatic and that realistically she was highly employable. She was only twenty-five and had made good friends in the industry, so if her career took a hit, she had time to boost it. There were other roles, smaller parts on less popular shows that would pay the bills.

  A husband would make this moot. It was a fleeting thought, and she cringed. She didn’t know anyone she was even remotely interested in romantically, much less marrying. She could find a struggling actor willing to marry her for a specific amount of time; he’d help her get custody of Bella and she’d give him publicity because he was her husband.

  Just thinking about it made her chuckle. That was ridiculous. No one had marriages of convenience anymore…did they? She shook her head. There had to be another way.

  Ashleigh sat in the makeup chair the following day, her thoughts still a jumble of confusion, anxiety, and endless concerns. She hadn’t been sleeping well and it was beginning to show with the bags under her eyes.

  “Earth to Ashleigh!” Rachel’s laugh startled her out of her reverie and she blinked.

  “Um, what?”

  “Girl, you were a million miles away! I was saying, I need new lingerie.”

  Ashleigh groaned. “Do you and Vlad do anything but screw?” she demanded, referring to Rachel’s new boyfriend, a hockey player for the Las Vegas Sidewinders, Vladimir Kolnikov.

  Rachel laughed. “We’ve been dating two months—this is the honeymoon period—what else would we do?”

  “He’s certainly hot enough…” Ashleigh pretended to fan herself. Vlad was tall and blond, with broad shoulders and big hands that Rachel claimed he used quite well.

  “He has a few hot, single friends…”

  “Meh. You know how I feel about sex.”

  “That’s cause you’ve been doing it with the wrong guys!”

  “Whatever.” Ashleigh sighed, wondering if Rachel was right. Her sex life was so depressing she wasn’t willing to give it much thought, especially when Rachel talked about Vlad’s hot hockey player friends. She worried about dating men who would get her involved in things that ended up in the tabloids; she’d already been through that once or twice and wasn’t interested in experiencing it again.

  Rachel glanced back at her. “You’re way too stressed—why don’t you come to Vegas with me this weekend?”

  Ashleigh shook her head. “Oh no, I couldn’t impose like that. You go have fun with your new hunk.” She’d met Vlad and he was nice, but she sure as hell didn’t want to spend the weekend listening to them have sex.

  “Come on, you know you want to go.” Rachel’s eyes twinkled. “He knows lots of hot guys.”

  Ashleigh sighed. “I’m not in the market for a hot guy—apparently, I’m in the market for a husband. I made a joke about it to my lawyer and he said it wasn’t a bad idea. Go figure.”

  Rachel burst out laughing. “That’s a tall order, my friend!”

  Ashleigh had to smile. “I know.”

  “Would you quit making excuses? Come and hang out with me and the other girls—Vlad’s busy with hockey. Practice, meetings, morning skates, games, working out… Honest, unless we’re planning to go away or something, it’s business as usual for him and he’s always doing something for the team. The games are a lot of fun, though, so you’ll enjoy it.”

  Ashleigh hesitated. “All right. I guess I can get a hotel room. I don’t want to stay with anyone.”

  “Whatever you want, but you’re so worried about Bella you’re not yourself lately. I think it’ll be good for you to get away.”

  “I don’t know if I should leave Bella,” Ashleigh said doubtfully.

  “Normally I would agree with you, but you need a break emotionally. It has nothing to do with her, but for your own sanity, you need to have some fun. You have a wonderful nanny, and it’s only two days.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  “I know I’m right.”

  Ashleigh nodded. “Fine. Let’s go to Veg
as.”

  Two days later, they were flying down the highway, top down, hair blowing in the wind, music from the Struts blaring through the speakers. Ashleigh’s head was thrown back as she sang the lyrics to “Kiss This” and bobbed her head in time to the melody. It had been a long time since she’d been able to let her hair down, so to speak, and the tension of the last few months started to dissipate with each passing mile. Why hadn’t she thought of doing something like this sooner?

  “You okay?” Rachel asked when their favorite song ended. “You’re much more relaxed than you’ve been in ages. I can almost see the tension melting off of you.”

  Ashleigh shrugged, unsure what to say.

  “Anything you want to share?”

  “Now that we’re heading out of town, I just want to have fun.”

  “You’ve been more than a little distracted lately. This has to be about more than Bella.”

  Ashleigh stared straight ahead. “It’s a lot more than that. I don’t know what would come out if lawyers or judges started digging into my life. Not only could Bella be impacted, my career could be on the line, too.”

  “Do you have something to hide?” Rachel demanded, glancing at her in surprise.

  “Nothing terrible, but I’m no angel.”

  “You want me to talk to Bud? Maybe he can—”

  “No! Jesus. He’s part of the problem.”

  “What does that mean?”