Dirty Brawler: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (with bonus novel!)

by Teagan Kade

  “You’d be lying. You haven’t seen a thing,” I said. I could feel the heat of tears building in the corners of my eyes.

  “Does that really matter? It would be my word against yours, and I have this.” He flicked the photo in my hands. “You can keep that one, by the way. I have more.”

  “You can’t do this.”

  “Think about your career, Ms. Ellis. You’re so young. It would be a shame to see that talent wasted.”

  I didn’t have a choice and he knew it. I would be publically shamed, mocked, and run out of town if that picture was ever released to the press. I’d never work in this kind of job again, and that was unacceptable. I turned on my heel. I needed to get out before I broke down in front of him.

  “Oh, and Ms. Ellis?” I paused, but I didn’t turn around. If I looked at him there was the real possibility I would scratch his eyes out. I turned my cheek over my shoulder so he knew I was listening. “Break off all contact with Shaun. No calls, no texts, no emails. Nothing. If I catch one whiff of you anywhere near him, the picture’s doing the rounds.”

  Straightening my back, I walked away. I needed time to think. The worst part of it all, though? I’d never get to say goodbye to Shaun properly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Shaun

  I thought that the interview with Georgie was never going to end. I was mentally exhausted from the verbal sparring and I hadn’t done anything other than sit on a couch and talk to the hateful woman like we were old friends. Like I’d ever consider fucking her. It was the longest fifteen minutes of my life.

  Now that it was over, I searched for Tori as soon as I made it backstage. With the lights, cameras, and people gone, I needed to see her and have her quell the anxiety and anger I felt welling inside of me. She had become quite adept at that, and my psyche craved her calming presence as much as my body craved hers.

  The backstage area bustled with the show’s staff, but a quick scan told me none of them were Tori. Several people looked at me quizzically as it became apparent I was looking for someone. I remembered she had disappeared right after Georgie showed the pictures of us in the lip-lock. I could only imagine what was going on in her head if she had stuck around to listen to my answer.

  I made my way back to my dressing room getting turned around several times. A guy who looked like he should still be grade school finally took pity on me and pointed me in the right direction. I opened the door expecting to see Tori waiting for me, but instead found Nigel relaxed on the couch with a glass of scotch from the mini-bar he’d helped himself to.

  “Great interview, Champ!” he said, raising his glass to me.

  “Don’t bother with the pep talk. It was a complete blindside that only got worse the longer it went on,” I said, barely managing to keep the anger from my voice. “Where’s Tori? I need to talk to her.”

  “You mean, that wasn’t exactly what she had cooked up for this little feature?” Nigel said, taking a sip of his liquor. He swirled the amber liquid around in his glass. “That’s what you’re paying that girl the big bucks for, right? So you don’t get into any more sticky situations?”

  I didn’t think for a second Nigel had no clue about what had happened. When he was in charge of my appearances the reporters seemed to spring surprise questions on me all the time about who I was dating or had been seen with out on the town. Nigel always pushed me to focus on my sex life or lack thereof. He said the more available I appeared to the adoring public, the better. It gave some kind of false hope to all the random girls out there that they could be the lucky one to eventually get me to marry and settle down.

  Right now, there was only one woman I cared about. “Do you know where she is?” I asked again.

  He frowned. “She got a call or something from her office during the interview. I think she’s in a bit of trouble, to tell you the truth.”

  “Trouble for what?” I felt my fists clench against my sides. It was a rhetorical question. If Tori was in trouble at work, it was highly likely it was for one very specific thing.

  Nigel smirked at me. “Burning the candle at both ends, maybe? I mean, I didn’t want to say anything, but I’m not surprised you hit that. She’s got legs for miles and tits that would make a man sit up and beg for mercy.”

  “Don’t talk about her like that,” I said through clenched teeth. It was one thing to listen to Nigel spout off about random women we encountered out and about, even though I was never really cool with it. I wasn’t going to listen to him degrade Tori the same way.

  Nigel put his hands up in mock defense. “Sorry, Champ. Didn’t realize there was anything serious there. You just met the girl what? A month ago? Quite the whirlwind romance I take it?”

  That was the core of my entire issue. I had been reluctant to name it because Tori had been so adamant we needed to keep it secret. So I was stuck in the awkward position of potentially defending something that was nothing in the end and looking like a complete fool.

  “I just don’t like you talking about her like that. Show some goddamn respect,” I said. I started to yank the crummy tie off. I didn’t care if Tori said she liked it. I felt like it made me look like someone I wasn’t. I was a boxer, not some stuffy banker.

  “Well, I’m not sure what happened, but she took off right after she got that call,” Nigel said, continuing to sip his drink. “She didn’t say anything else to me about it.”

  I whirled on him. “Took off? Where?”

  He looked at me in surprise. “I imagine she had to report back to the office.”

  “Now?” I was in shock. Tori wouldn’t leave without at least saying goodbye, would she?

  Nigel shrugged again. “I think it was important. She was probably getting called out on the carpet. That place she works for is pretty strict about their whole ‘don’t fuck the client’ policy.”

  I sat down heavily in the make-up chair and thought about all the times Tori told me about how much she loved her job and what a blow it would be to her if it got out we had slept together. She told me it was the equivalent of career suicide. I thought it was ridiculous. This wasn’t the Stone Age. If two people were attracted to each other, it didn’t make sense to have a stupid rule that would keep them apart or jeopardize a woman’s entire career.

  “This is my fault,” I said stiffly. “She told me she didn’t want to get involved, and I pursued her anyway.”

  “You are quite the ladies’ man, and you’re hard to resist,” Nigel said, his tone knowing. “But you can’t beat yourself up, Shaun. This isn’t your fault. Ms. Ellis is supposed to be a professional. That’s why you hired her, remember? Now in the span of just a few weeks she’s parading you around like a show dog and has you wrapped around her little finger.”

  “What she was doing was make me look like something other than a dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks athlete. She was making people like me again and think I had something worth saying other than rattling off fight statistics.”

  Nigel waved his hand in the air dismissively. “You want to support a charity? Write a fat check once a year like the rest of us. But you’re young, Shaun. If you play your cards right you could have the world by the balls. Victoria Ellis wasn’t helping you. She was hurting you. Then she got caught sticking her hand in the cookie jar when she knew it was against the rules. That’s not your fault. Whatever is going to happen to her now is on her.”

  I was barely listening to Nigel now. I pulled out my phone and dialed Tori’s number. It rang and rang and went to voicemail. “Dammit,” I said. I tapped out a quick text instead.

  Where are you?

  I waited a minute, but there was no answer.

  “I’m telling you, Champ, that girl doesn’t give a shit about anything other than her career. That’s what she cares about, and she’s running back with her tail between her legs to beg for forgiveness.”

  “She still works for me,” I said. “I’m still her client.”

  “You are Kommen and Russell’s client,” Nigel corrected. “
I’m sure the firm will send someone else who understands the vision better, someone who won’t be such a distraction for you.”

  “Tori wasn’t a distraction.” I didn’t even feel it inside of me to argue. She left me. Just like that. I stared at my phone again, but there was still no response to my text.

  “Come on,” Nigel said, standing up. He finished his drink with a long pull and slammed the glass down on the table. “After that shitshow, you need a drink.”

  For once, Nigel and I were in complete agreement.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tori

  I sat staring at the gate waiting for my flight, twisting my hands in my lap. I felt sick about leaving without offering some explanation to Shaun, but Nigel had neatly tied a bow around that.

  I hated the man, not only for what he was doing to me, but for what he was doing to Shaun. I’d never be able to tell Shaun how Nigel was manipulating him to make a quick buck. It was the oldest story in the book, and I was leaving him alone and defenseless with no warning.

  I stared at the screen on my phone.

  Where are you?

  There was no response to Shaun’s text on my end, and there wouldn’t be. It had physically hurt to hit the decline button when he tried to call right before the text came in. I struggled between rage and tears, my emotions swinging back and forth every few minutes.

  I could have handled the shame of getting caught sleeping with a client. In fact, that was no doubt exactly the situation was I about to walk into when I arrived back at the office.

  As soon as I made it through airport security, I called Kevin. “Does Martin know?” I asked without any further preamble.

  “You should always assume Martin knows everything, because he usually does,” he said. “But I have to say, who could blame you for a momentary lapse in judgement? That man is sex on a stick. Speaking of sex and sticks…”

  “Kevin! Focus. What does Martin know or what do you think he knows?”

  “A cut of the interview has already gone viral with everyone on Twitter and Facebook trying to figure out if it’s a random woman or an actress snogging him in that hallway. I think Martin has an inkling it might be you, but the camera angle is your one saving grace if you’re planning to lie about it.”

  “I’m not a liar,” I said stiffly. “I’m on my way back to the office. I’m going to come clean and ask to be replaced.”

  “What? You’re going to leave that hottie behind for someone else to scoop up? Are you crazy? Lie. Martin doesn’t have any proof. Just suspicion. If he even asks about you, you’ll get off with a warning. Don’t do something stupid out of a misplaced set of ethics, Tori. There’s a way out of this mess. Just say it wasn’t you.”

  I ran my hand over my face struggling to keep back to the tears. As if the grainy picture of me in a lip-lock with Shaun was the only thing I had to worry about. I pulled the picture Nigel had given me out of my purse and stared at it. How could I have been so careless? This was exactly the kind of thing I warned my clients about, and here I had managed to get caught in the act not once, but twice.

  “I am not going to jeopardize my career, Kevin. It’s better if I remove myself from it now. Hopefully Martin will give me a break and not fire me considering I’m coming forward and telling the truth.”

  “It’s your funeral. Maybe I’ll get reassigned to him instead.” Kevin’s voice held a note of glee. When I didn’t respond, he quipped, “Sorry, too soon?”

  “I’ll see you in the morning.” I cut the call short because I wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore. I shoved the damning picture back into my purse and waited impatiently for my flight. I was two hours early for the scheduled time, but I couldn’t risk waiting at the hotel and running into Shaun.

  I wouldn’t have been able to face him, plus it would have been worse to tell him to his face I was leaving. That was what I had decided. A clean break, and it was done. It wasn’t anything to begin with, right?

  I was delusional if I thought for one minute a guy like Shaun would take me and my world seriously. Hadn’t he proved that, in his relentless pursuit to get into my pants, despite the fact I kept rejecting him? He had the ability to cloud my judgement and make me forget what was important to me. My career was what I lived for.

  For the first time in my life, that thought was shallow and empty. Tears pulled at the corners of my eyes again. I was relieved when they finally called for boarding. I needed to get away from LA before I did something stupid, like turn around and go back to the hotel, throw myself at Shaun and ask him to forgive me for being so reckless.

  The butterflies in my stomach raged as I got off the elevator and marched toward Martin’s office the following morning. I could have sidled into my office and tried to pretend I wasn’t there until I gathered my nerve, but if there was one thing I wasn’t, it was a coward.

  As I approached his office, I saw his executive assistant, an old woman named Betty, pop her head up from her desk. She smiled at me with what l imagined was pity. “He’s expecting you, dear,” she said, nodding toward his office.

  That certainly didn’t make me feel any better. Kevin was the only one I had told I was coming back. Why in the world would Martin have been expecting me?

  I opened the door carefully trying not to squeak the hinges. I sucked in one more breath and stepped inside. Martin looked up from his desk. “Victoria.”

  When he said my name like that, it took me right back to being five years old again and standing in front of my parents for punishment. I hated that Martin made me feel like that, but he was a partner at Kommen and Russell, and he had the power to fire me if he chose. He’d been my boss for three years, and I still had no idea if he actually liked me or not.

  “Hello, Martin,” I said. My voice sounded stronger than I felt. I was proud of myself for not coming across like some meek little mouse.

  He pointed at the chair across from his desk. “Sit.”

  I crossed the room trying to keep my pace casual. I sat down in the chair gingerly on the edge of the seat and crossed my legs doing my best to look poised and confident. “Betty said you were expecting me.”

  “Yes,” Martin said. He leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure you know why.”

  I felt my stomach drop. My smile faltered. “Of course. I can explain…”

  Martin cut me off. “I thought you were doing a great job with the Nichols case, but I understand why Mr. Nichols was upset with the interview yesterday afternoon. That’s the kind of thing we’re supposed to be out in front of, and Georgie is known for pulling that kind of bullshit. You should have been aware of it. You let your client, our firm’s client, look like a schoolboy who got caught with his pants down. In the very literal sense.”

  Why was he talking about the interview and not the photograph? “Georgie went off script. I had no idea she was going to spring that picture on him.”

  “That’s your job, Tori. To be in the know. When our clients get creamed in the press, that’s a reflection on our firm. I would have expected him to give you another chance since this was your first misstep, but he was quite adamant about it.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Who exactly was adamant about what?”

  “I received a call from Mr. Nichols business manager, Nigel Ross, this morning. He expressed Mr. Nichols unhappiness with what transpired. He requested you be replaced. I’m assuming since you are sitting in my office right now and not in LA he communicated that request to you as well.”

  “Not in so many words,” I mumbled. It was as if the blows just kept coming, but I had to admit the move benefited me. Unless Martin out and out asked me if it was me in the picture with Shaun, I didn’t have to tell him why I had returned home. He was taking the whole thing at face value.

  Martin watched me closely. “I think it’s probably for the best,” I said, raising my chin. “Nigel and I didn’t really see eye to eye on the go-forward strategy for Shaun’s image. It probably makes sense to send in someone who perhaps can be a b
it more convincing.”

  “And perhaps a bit less distracting,” Martin said. “Perhaps one of your male colleagues would be better suited to working with Mr. Nichols.”

  I realized then Martin knew it was me in the picture. He had known the whole time. The only thing I didn’t know was if Nigel had said something anything to him when he called, or if Martin had figured it out on his own. I wasn’t brave enough to ask. The request to be replaced allowed Martin to keep me on payroll without any further reprimand. I got to keep my job and a smidge of my dignity intact.

  “Whoever you think is best,” I said with a curt nod. “I have a client call in a few minutes. Is there anything else?”

  “I think that’s all, Tori. You’re lucky. Situations like that can be a hell of a lot messier. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that something like that can have much more severe consequences if it were to happen again.”

  He was talking about me sleeping with Shaun, not the interview with Georgie. We both knew it. “Thank you, Martin. I understand.” I gave him a brief nod and somehow managed to stand up and walk out without wobbling or giving any indication of how his admonishment affected me.

  Kevin was waiting in my office when I got back. He stood up with a look of concern. “How’d it go?”

  “I didn’t even have to say anything. I was informed Mr. Nichols had already called to fire me. Or at least, his asshole manager called Martin to tell him I was fired.”

  Kevin’s expression of shock was probably an exact replica of my own when I first heard the news. It seemed like too much to process.

  “Sit,” Kevin said, pointing at the chair next to him.

  I sat down and felt my face start to crumble as the sobs started to wrack my chest. Kevin looked alarmed, quickly grabbing the tissue box off my desk. He put his arm around me offering the box. “Sweetie, don’t cry. You’ll mess up your make-up and scare the clients.”