“Your loss.”
“If you say so.”
“I do,” he tells me, walking out of the locker room.
“I’m with you on this. It gets old quick,” Glen says.
“How long have you and Sandy been together now?” I ask.
“Almost five years.”
“It can’t be easy for her. She has a job back home, right?”
“It’s not, and yes, she has a great job she loves. It sucks when we’re not together, but it’s amazing when we see each other again.”
“That’s how I think it’ll be with my girl. I mean, if I had a girl.”
“You so have a girl. Spill. No wait,” he says, looking around. “Let’s get out of here, and then you can spill.”
“I actually do need to talk it out, so if you really don’t mind, getting out of here sounds great.”
“Your place or mine?”
“Whoa, are you two together? I mean, I thought you liked chicks,” one of the rookies tells us, walking up just in time to hear the end of our conversation.”
“We’re all about the pussy, man, but there’s not much better than a good bromance,” Glen says with a smirk.
“Let’s go to my place,” I tell Glen. “I think I’ve got a bigger…T.V.”
“I’ll see you guys later,” the rookie says, practically running from the room.
We’re still laughing when we walk out to our cars. Reality sets in as I drive to my apartment. I want Sierra back. I need Sierra back. She hasn’t responded to the text I sent her, and I know proving my love to her isn’t going to be easy. I screwed up, and now it’s time to go big. She deserves nothing less.
I pull some sandwich stuff and pasta salad from the fridge so we can eat while we talk. Once we’re settled with food and water, he dives right in. “Spill it. Who’s the mystery woman?”
“Do you know Zack Taylor?”
“Not personally, but I’ve seen him around. Hold on. Are you banging his wife?”
I put down my sandwich and level him with a glare. “I would hope you’d know me better than that. Ainsley’s cool, but I don’t sleep with married women.”
“So why bring him up?”
“I was dating his sister, Sierra.”
“Sister?” he asks and pulls out his phone. “Oh, damn. She’s hot. Like smoking hot.”
“You have a girlfriend,” I remind him.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good looking woman. Getting back to the problem at hand, what’d you do to fuck it up?”
“I don’t even know where to begin,” I tell him honestly. I know I can’t tell him anything about the Society, but there’s so much more, and while most of it is really good, the bad was like a nuclear meltdown.
“The beginning is usually a good place. How’d you hook up with her?”
“The actual beginning was at Zack’s wedding. I asked her to dance, and she said no.”
“Smart girl.”
“I thought you were here to help.”
“I am, but helping means being honest. Carry on.”
“You know I’ve been rehabbing in Vegas.” He nods. “Zack invited me to a celebration party he was throwing for Sierra. She got a new job, and it was a pretty big deal to her. I had nothing else to do that night, and honestly, I wanted to see her again.
“My mom called while I was there, so I went outside to take the call. I ended it by speaking in Portuguese, which Sierra overheard. Turns out she needed to learn the language, and being the bastard I am, I told her I’d need some ‘things’ in return.”
“Jesus, man. No wonder she dumped your ass.”
“Calm your ass down. The deal fell apart almost immediately because I fell for her that fast.”
“But then you still screwed up.”
“We both screwed up, but yeah, it was mostly me.”
I explain the Marcus situation as her doing a favor for her boss, who’s an investor in his company. Since we’re in the public eye, it’s easy enough for me to convince him she was doing it to help his image.
“I’d probably have been shocked to hear she was at a party with someone else, but if she was with you almost every night until then, and she told you it was a work trip, you should’ve known she wasn’t cheating. You should’ve talked it out.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.”
It’s harder to admit what I did when she came to the game. He already heard about me grabbing the bunny’s boobs from D.J., but he didn’t have the context until now. He visibly cringes when I explain it to him.
“Dude. That…I don’t even know what to say about that.”
“I’ve told myself everything you can possibly think of and called myself all the names already, too.”
“And that was the last time you saw her? After the game?”
“No. I saw her yesterday in Sao Paolo. That’s how I found out about the publicity thing.”
“She was there? Pretending to be his girlfriend again?”
“Yeah.”
“It was too crazy to talk to her, huh?”
“We could’ve talked, but she made it clear that she was done with me.”
“Really? Or is that just what you want to think so you don’t have to face the hard stuff?”
“No, really,” I admit. “She brought up the boob thing and walked out.”
“You totally deserved that.”
“Your brutal honesty is really warming my heart.”
“I already told you I needed to be honest in order to help you.”
“What have you got in mind?”
“Nothing yet, but we’re two smart guys. We can do this. You can do this. You’ll probably have to embarrass yourself, and the guys are going to give you shit if any of it’s romantic. You okay with that?”
“Yeah,” I answer with no hesitation. “I’ll pretty much do anything to get her back”
“Grab some paper, and let’s get to work.”
* * *
Sierra
I stayed in my old apartment last night. Zack insisted on buying it for me after he met Ainsley, and although I went back to Seattle for the year I was waiting for my training to begin, I kept it. Stella’s taught us that clothing can sometimes be the best armor we have, and I take that to heart as I get ready for my meeting. I put on skintight black leather pants with some cool zippers on the pockets, along with a slouchy black sweater and chunky, peep-toe ankle boots. I pull my hair back into a sleek ponytail and prepare for the biggest battle of my life.
Alex gives me a sympathetic look when I enter the Foundation lobby and tells me to go on back to Reina’s office. The doors open as I approach and I’m surprised to see all of the mentors inside, as well as Matt. I keep my shoulders squared and my walk steady, even though I’m scared out of my mind.
“Sit down, Sierra,” Reina tells me.
I do as I’m told and wait for the proverbial ax to fall. The tension in the room is palpable, so I’m fairly certain that I’ll be walking out of here for good once this meeting is over. I clench my jaw and will away the tears that are already forming in my eyes.
“To say that I’m disappointed in you is an understatement. You have wanted this since the day you found out about us, and yet you just threw it all away. For a man you’re not even in a relationship with. I don’t understand what was going through your head that would make you think this was the right thing to do.”
“Just because I’m not with Joel doesn’t mean I don’t love him. I had to do everything I could to save him. Wouldn’t you do the same for Matt? Didn’t he do the same for you?”
“Matt was Special Forces in the military, not a trainee. He knew what he was doing. Just as I would if I had to save him. We’re trained, Sierra. You aren’t.”
“I did okay.”
“Better than okay,” Faith chimes in.
“Really, Faith? She was tossed into the dining room. She couldn’t hold her own in that fight.”
“She killed him, Reina. I’d say that
means she was ready. I’ve been outmatched, even with training. All of us have. She may have gone in there for Joel, but she did a kick-ass job of helping everyone.”
“This is one of the biggest problems I have with that you’ve done. These women in this room think you did the right thing, but you didn’t. This isn’t college where if you screw something up, you fail a class. We deal with life and death. If you mess up, someone dies. Thankfully, that didn’t happen this time, but it could’ve. We have rules for a reason, and if I let you break them while getting pats on the back, what does that say to the other eight women who are training with you? The ones who follow the rules, while you get away with breaking them.”
“You broke the rules,” I say quietly. “Darcy stayed with me when all of you went against Jane Corrigan.”
“Yes, and I appreciate everything you did to help us, but again, we are trained, Sierra. We knew what to do on our own. You don’t. I can’t let you set a precedent with everyone else. There have to be consequences for what you’ve done so that no one else thinks they can just jump into a mission because they feel like it.”
“That’s not what I did.”
“It’s exactly what you did.”
“We gave her permission to go,” Stella says. “It’s not all on her.”
“You’re right. It’s not. I don’t know what to do with the rest of you. I need you here training the other recruits, so I can’t suspend you, and none of you would care if I docked your pay.”
“Are you putting me on probation?” I ask, hopefully.
“No. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with you, yet. I hate to make rash decisions without getting all of my facts together. Until I decide, you’re suspended. You can get whatever you need from your Corrigan apartment, but you cannot live there and you cannot enter this building.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
“That doesn’t mean anything when I know you’d do the same thing again. You would, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes.”
She nods. “Alex sent me a message that your friends are waiting for you in the lobby. You may tell them anything you want about what’s going on. I don’t believe in keeping secrets. I’ll call you back in when I make my decision.”
That’s my cue to leave, and I stand, planning to do just that. Darcy grabs me before I can go, pulling me into a tight hug. The others hug me as well. All except for Reina. She has tears in her eyes, but she doesn’t offer me any comfort. I know she can’t, but it still hurts a little. Matt puts his arm around her and gives me a sad smile as I turn and walk out the door.
Chapter 17
Sierra
“Hey there superspy,” Matisse says as I walk out into the lobby.
“Don’t call me that,” I say, looking nervously over at Alex.
“It’s fine. No one’s here but us. Alex locked the doors,” Rose tells me.
“So how was it?” Rhieve asks. “Were you scared?”
“Listen, guys. I love you, but I really need you to pretend like this didn’t happen.”
“Why would we do that? You rocked a mission and you’re not even out of training yet,” Harlow says.
“What I did is probably going to put an end to my training.”
“She wouldn’t do that!” Camari tells me. “Reina’s really fair.”
“It’s because she’s fair that she’s thinking of kicking me out. I broke the rules and set a bad precedent for all of you.”
“I’m not going to go out and try to do a mission just because you did,” Kalila tells me.
“Me neither,” Nev says. “I understand why you did it, and yeah, you should probably be on probation or something, but I wouldn’t do it.”
“Reina isn’t so sure about that. She’s not sure what she’s going to do to me. I have to move out until she decides. I can’t come here, either.”
“That’s bollocks. I mean, bullshit. Bloody hell, I’ll never be an American,” Jen tells me as we all laugh. “You all know what I mean, though. You belong here with us.”
“Hopefully Reina will decide that, but if she doesn’t, can we still be friends?” I ask, finally letting a few tears flow.
“We’ll always be friends, Si. Always,” Jen says, pulling me in for a hug.
Everyone else gathers around and we hold onto each other for a few minutes. As we break apart, we see that the mentors have entered the lobby and are watching us. Reina looks conflicted and then runs over and hugs me, too.
“I want you to know that no matter what I end up having to do, I’m proud of you. For doing what you thought was right and for standing up to me. I may not agree with what you did, but I respect you, Sierra.”
“I respect you, too.”
“Will you be staying at your old apartment?” she asks, stepping back.
“No. She’ll be staying with us,” Ainsley tells her.
“I didn’t agree to that. My apartment is fine.”
“For you, maybe. Your brother is already freaking out about you going off on the mission. He’s going to go postal if he hears you’re staying alone.”
“He can get over it. All of it,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“He thinks that you might…um…I don’t know how to say it.”
I close my eyes and count to ten. “He really thinks I would hurt myself over this?”
“He’s just worried.”
“I’ll stay with you tonight, but Zack and I are going to have a talk. My heart is broken, and I’m emotionally beaten down, but I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t hurt or kill myself.”
“I know you wouldn’t. Like I said, he just worries.”
“I’ve worried way too much about him over the years, so I guess it’s his turn.”
“Go easy on him.”
“Never,” I tell her with a smile.
I love my brother, but he needs to realize that I’m going to fight for myself, not give up. Losing everything only makes me want to fight harder. He should know that already. He will by the time we’re done talking, even if I have to literally knock some sense into him.
* * *
Joel
Part one of Operation Kitten is starting today. Our game is being televised, and I’m taking advantage of the cameras to get my first message across. It’s only been two days since Sao Paolo, and I can’t allow myself to hope that Sierra will watch the game, but I hope it’ll get picked up and go viral. Or it will be an epic failure, and I’ll have to move on to part two sooner rather than later.
I walk out onto the field, and right on cue, Glen shouts out his question to me. “Did you get your Kitten back?”
“No,” I answer, keeping to the script. “I hope she’s not gone for good.”
“You lost a kitten?” a reporter from the network airing the game asks me, motioning for the cameraman to keep rolling.
“Yeah, man, and I’ll do anything to get her back.”
“She was here with you in Arizona?”
“I lost her here, yes.”
“I bet the fans would be willing to help you look for her. Especially the female ones. We all know you’ve never had a problem attracting the females.”
“I’m not looking to attract any female fans. I just want my Kitten.”
“What’s your kitten’s name?”
“Gatinha.”
I jog into the dugout before he can ask me anything else. Glen and I discreetly bump fists and smile at each other. I did what I could for now. It’s time to concentrate on winning today’s game.
Eleven innings later, we’ve fought our way to a one-point win. I’m exhausted and a little battered, but we got the job done, and that’s all that matters. Until I look up into the stands and see Sierra standing there with a smile on her face. I start to run to her, but her eyes go wide and she shakes her head. She holds up her phone and I get it. She doesn’t want pictures of us. I can’t completely stop without looking suspicious, so I still run to the first rows and high five the fans there.
On
ce I get away, and get back to the locker room, I grab my phone. I have to stop myself from jumping up and down when I see the text.
Kitten: I heard you were missing your Kitten.
It came through earlier, but I immediately respond, knowing she won’t be waiting for me outside this time. Or at least not where I can see her. I have no doubt she’ll be watching me with the bunnies to see if I really meant the message I sent to her.
Me: More than anything I’ve ever missed in my life.
Kitten: Even baseball?
Me: Yes.
Kitten: I was kidding.
Me: I’m not.
Kitten: Text me your address. If you want…
Me: Can’t you find that out with your internship?
Kitten: I’m probably being kicked out.
Me: Porra. Can I do anything?”
Kitten: You can give me your address. We’ll see from there.
We both know I was asking if I could talk to Reina for her, but I’m not going to argue with anything she’s offering, or wanting. I’ll give her whatever she needs from me. I text her the address and then hit the showers.
* * *
Sierra
I don’t know what I’m doing here. I was sitting at Zack’s house after our latest fight, channel surfing as I tried to calm down. When I saw Joel running onto the field, I had to stop. I just wanted to see him for a few seconds. I didn’t expect him to tell the world he was missing his “kitten.” I wonder how many women are running around this city, calling out to every cat they see, hoping it’s Joel’s “Gatinha.”
“I’m hoping you’re thinking about me with that smile on your face,” the man in question says, walking up to his apartment door, which I just happen to be leaning against.
“I was thinking about all of the women out there searching for your kitten.”
“Maybe I should tell them that I got her back. Have I?” he asks as he leads me inside.
Society Girls: Sierra Page 13
