Game On (Entwined Hearts)

by Sheryl Nantus

  “Damn.” Hunter threw his arms around her and let out a sharp cry, emptying himself into her.

  They sat there for a few minutes, both of them breathless.

  “Sorry.” Hunter croaked into her ear. “Didn’t mean to set a speed record.”

  Angela kissed him and got to her feet. She reached behind her and took hold of the desk for support. “You’ve been faster. And slower. But always the best.”

  Hunter sprawled on the floor. “Still got a way with words.” He levered himself up and fumbled with his jeans. The condom went into the nearby garbage can, covered with a handful of paper napkins. “Want to come home with me?”

  “I wish.” She couldn’t help looking at her desk. “But I’ve got too much work here to play hooky for the rest of the day.”

  He got up, smacking his lips. “Yeah. Me, too. But I had to see you.” He cocked his head to one side and gave her a smoldering look. “I had to taste you.”

  Angela dug her nails into the varnished wood, steadying herself under the emotional onslaught. “Thanks for the visit.”

  “I’ll call you later.” He twisted the last word upward, making it a question.

  “Of course you will.” Angela pushed herself off the desk and went to the door. She flipped the sign around. “Thanks for the snack.”

  Jake stared at the line of cars waiting to edge around the accident site, the single college security guard attempting to direct traffic and failing miserably. The ambulance pulled away, lights flashing, and the firemen began cleaning up the mess. The tow-truck driver hooked the chain to the undercarriage of the wreck, preparing to take it away.

  Not what he’d planned for this time of day. If he’d been on schedule, he’d still be sound asleep, dreaming of Angela and eager to get off the night shift and see her.

  Jake plucked his radio mike off his shoulder and called in to update Grace. “They’re almost finished here. No casualties, thank goodness. Damned kids took the turn too fast. Safety rail kept them on the road, but barely.”

  “That’s good to hear. Sorry to pull you in early, sweetie. But Phil’s still in the bathroom, throwing up. Whatever he ate is still whipping his insides up something awful.” Her contrite tone helped soothe his anger at getting only a few hours of sleep.

  “Serves him right for getting a sandwich from the vending machine at the gas station. Tell him he owes me a half shift.” He stopped, seeing Hunter’s black Charger slide into a parking spot. “I’ll hang around for a bit longer, make sure we’re all good. See you soon.” He walked toward the coach’s car.

  “Hey.” Hunter got out and looked over at the accident scene. “How bad?”

  “Insurance people are going to be annoyed but nothing more than bumps and bruises. Kids got lucky this time. Hopefully, it’ll take and they’ll slow the hell down on that curve.” He eyed the basketball coach. “I thought you were out of town until tomorrow.”

  “Got a chance to come home early, so I took it.” Hunter gestured at his car. “Grabbed a rental and got back home a few hours ago. We had a good run, excellent teamwork. Players are hungry, and they’re channeling it into wins.”

  Jake studied the man as they got closer, his law-enforcement training kicking in.

  Flushed. Clothing in disarray.

  Is the son of a bitch fooling around on—?

  A light breeze drifted in, and Jake fought to keep from snarling.

  He was tired but not tired enough not to pick up the distinctive scent emanating from the basketball coach.

  It was one he was intimately familiar with.

  His emotions warred with each other, fluctuating between wishing Hunter had been with another woman and glad he wasn’t cheating on Angela.

  Hunter came within a few feet, his hands jammed in the front pockets of his jeans. “Thought you were on night shift.”

  “Angie.” Jake frowned. “You’ve been with her.”

  “Just came from her office. Took a long lunch.” Hunter crossed his arms and cocked his head to one side, eyeing him. “You got a problem?”

  “Maybe.” Nerves already stoked from sleep deprivation, Jake advanced on Hunter. “Seriously? Don’t you have any damned class? First in your goddamned car and now in her office.” He waved his arm around. “Woman like that deserves better than to be banged on her desk like you’re still students, sneaking around.”

  Hunter studied him with cool blue eyes showing no signs of regret. “I didn’t know we had set up rules about where and when we could be with Angie. Or that you thought you could order me around like one of your flunkies.” He licked his lips, sending Jake’s pulse soaring. “Maybe next time, I’ll call you over and you can supervise.”

  A red haze of rage enveloped Jake.

  Angela grumbled as she bashed her keyboard, writing yet another e-mail to the opposing lawyer regarding an ongoing paternity case. The prospective father was digging his heels in, determined to avoid paying child support and claiming the young woman was seeing other men at the same time they were dating.

  She finished off the e-mail and sent it, wishing she’d taken Hunter up on his offer to take the rest of the day off. But business was business, and she wasn’t at the point financially where she could take off on a whim, even if it was with Hunter.

  The ringing phone brought her up out of her annoyance. She cleared her voice and picked it up, trying to sound as professional and cheerful as possible.

  Until she heard the familiar voice on the other end.

  “Fuck. I’m on my way.” Angela slammed the phone down and let loose with a series of curses, using every one she knew and a few she made up on the spur of the moment.

  I’ll kill them both.

  The drive to the police station was long enough for her to work most of her fury out in the car, yelling with the windows rolled up and the radio at full blast. To anyone watching her, it’d seem as if she were belting out the latest Katy Perry song at the top of her lungs.

  It helped lower her blood pressure as she parked and got out, trying to ignore any curious looks coming her way.

  The afternoon might have started off well, but it was ending in the worst possible way.

  Grace stood up as Angela entered the police station. “Glad you could come straight over.” She jerked a thumb at the back of the office area, where the holding cell was located. “I figured you’d be the best one to deal with this.”

  “Oh, I am.” Angela walked up to her desk. “Thanks for calling me.” She couldn’t keep from scowling. “I thought Jake was on night shift.”

  “He is.” The elderly dispatcher pointed at the nearby whiteboard listing the different shifts and the officers assigned. “Had an accident on the college campus. Their security needed help dealing with it, and Phil was sick as hell from a bad lunch. I ended up calling Jake out of bed to send him over to supervise the cleanup and make sure everyone did the right thing.” Grace let out a huff. “If I had known what sort of trouble it was going to cause, I’d have let him sleep and told the security officer to make do on his own. As it was, I had to pull Phil out of the bathroom and send him over to scoop them up and bring them back here, toss them into holding so he could get back to throwing up.” She wrinkled her nose. “Makes me very glad we women have our own bathroom. I wouldn’t wish that cleanup on my worst enemy.”

  “Any idea what prompted it?” She hoped against hope it was something simple like a parking ticket or an expired faculty tag.

  “Word is, your name came up repeatedly while they were wrestling around on the ground like a pair of little kids.” Grace eyed her. “Can’t say I’m surprised. You shouldn’t be either.”

  Angela massaged her temples with both hands, trying to fend off the incoming migraine.

  “You going to be okay?” Grace touched her shoulder, bringing Angela back up to meet the dispatcher’s eyes.

  “I—” Angela pressed her palm to her forehead. “It’s complicated.”

  “Of course it is.”

  Angela fr
owned at the abrupt response.

  “Honey, I’ve buried two husbands and got my eye on a third if Eddie at the car dealership ever asks me. Strong men got strong feelings, and you can’t tell them not to be who they are. All you can do is point them in the right direction and hope they figure out how to make it work.” She glanced at the back of the room. “Neither of them wants to file charges against the other, but I told them to stay put, see if the college or someone on the town council wants to visit and chew them out.”

  “And they listened to you?” Angela smiled despite the situation.

  Grace laughed. “Looks to me like they’ve got some experience listening to a woman telling them what to do. I told them to sit down and shut up.”

  “Did you tell them you called me?”

  “No. Figured it’d be a surprise. No one’s called in the past hour, so I’m thinking they’re free to go.” She put a metal ring on the edge of her desk with a single key dangling free. “Haven’t told them yet. Thought you’d like to keep them behind bars so you could have a few words with them. The station’s pretty well empty, so if you want to yell, feel free. Might knock some sense into their thick skulls.”

  “I might do that. Thank you,” Angela said.

  The senior dispatcher strolled away, headed for the break room at the opposite end of the floor.

  Angela sighed and picked up the key ring.

  She turned down the small hall at the end of the corridor and came to the holding cell.

  Hunter sat on one end of the long stone bench, sporting a black eye. At the opposite end, pressed against the wall, Jake sat with drying blood smeared across his upper lips.

  She glared at the two men, daring them to speak first.

  They stayed silent, their reddening faces the only reaction to her appearance.

  “I can’t—” She crossed her arms and paced back and forth in front of the bars. “We—You both agreed to—” The words stuck in her throat, choking her thoughts. All Angela could do was wave impotently at the pair, her heart breaking at the sight of the two men she loved most in this world at each other’s throats.

  She found the strength to fight past the pain and speak. “If you can’t do this, if you won’t do this, then tell me. Don’t lie to me and—and—”

  The wave of emotion shattered her, pulled her down onto the one visitor’s chair, where she covered her face with her hands and wept, unable to say anything more.

  “Angie.” Hunter got to his feet first, charging at the bars. “Don’t. Please, don’t.” He glared at Jake.

  The policeman jumped up and came over as well. He ignored Hunter, addressing Angela directly. “Look, I’m sorry.” Jake ran a finger over his blood-encrusted chin. He shook his head, his hands pulled up into fists. “He got out of the car, and all I could imagine was you, you with him. I lost it. I was wrong.” Jake pointed at Hunter. “But damn it, you can’t flaunt her in my face like that. I can’t—” He stopped and shook his head.

  Angela took some tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes. “Okay. Okay.” She sniffled, the throbbing at the back of her neck increasing in intensity. “All I want to know is—” She hesitated, afraid to put it into words. “Is this over?”

  “What?”

  “This. Us.” She gestured at the air between them. “What we had. What we have, what we were making together. The three of us.”

  Jake frowned, his deep green eyes searching hers. “No. Of course not.”

  “Are you sure?” She threw the key ring at him. “Because if you’re going to go around punching Hunter each time I’m with him—”

  “He got a lucky shot in.” Hunter’s smile was forced. He gestured at the cop. “I did a much better job, as you can see. Didn’t break his nose, though.”

  The attempt at humor didn’t work.

  “What I want to know, what I need to know . . .” She watched Jake fidget with the lock from inside the cell. “Was that night, that special night, just the two of you humoring me, going along with it to shut me up?” Her voice was hoarse. “Was it as special to you as it was to me, or am I lying to myself?”

  Jake dropped the key on the floor and swung the door open.

  He advanced on her as Hunter hung back, his right eye almost swollen shut.

  “I said I was sorry.” He spread his hands. She saw the dried blood on his uniform shirt, scarlet stains extending almost to his waist. “I just—” Jake closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. “I wasn’t ready to deal with it in the real world. Outside the hotel room.” He opened his eyes and jerked a thumb back at Hunter. “When we were there with you, it was our world. There was no one else, nobody else. But out here, there’s car crashes and dead people—everything I want to forget about when I’m with you.” His deep green eyes met hers. “I couldn’t wrap my mind around putting those two worlds together. But I’d like another chance to try.” He turned to Hunter and stood at attention, as if on the parade ground.

  He stuck out his hand and waited for Hunter’s reaction. “I’m sorry. I was totally at fault for this.”

  Hunter didn’t hesitate, taking Jake’s hand and shaking it. “I’m sorry, too. And there’s enough blame to go around. We didn’t talk about this before, and we should have. Back in the bedroom, when we’d calmed down, we should have set guidelines for something like this. I got back early, and I got greedy.” He gave a wistful nod. “I pushed you, and I shouldn’t have.” He looked at Angela. “We’re all new at this. I don’t think we should break up after one fight.” A sly smile appeared. “You didn’t break up with me when you believed I was screwing that cheerleader.”

  “What?” Jake looked at Hunter. “Are you kidding me?” He scowled. “Mary-Ann should have castrated you.”

  “I said ‘thought,’ not that I did. And trust me, that was a definite fear. She wasn’t too enthralled with me dating Angie in the first place, and this would have been a nail in my coffin. Along with a whole lot of other places.” Hunter crossed his arms, peering through his one good eye at the cop. “I most definitely wasn’t interested. Head cheerleader figured she’d add a little spice to her life by walking on the wild side. Wanted a notch on her belt for dating the bad boy.” He chuckled. “Came to me at my locker and asked me out to a movie. I told her to get lost ’cause I was faithful to Angie. She couldn’t believe I wouldn’t want a piece of her and started the rumor I’d dumped Angie and we were dating. Word got back fast enough, and Angie was having none of it. You should have been there when Angie confronted me at my locker and demanded I tell her the truth, in front of everyone. Thought we were over, right there and then.”

  “We’d been together only a few weeks, and I was still insecure about dating you. Perfect time for Trixie to start something.” Angela couldn’t help smiling at the memory as she wiped her face again. “But you told me the truth, and I believed you. We both told her to screw off, and she did, with her nose in the air, as if we cared.” She bundled the tissue into a tight ball before taking a staggered breath, centering herself. “Okay. We’ll call this a fumble on the field.”

  Hunter shook his head. “Football. You’re talking football. Right here in front of me.” He tugged at his bloodied shirt. “Right in front of the Badger.”

  Jake let out a sharp laugh, taking her hands in his. “Thank you.” He nodded to Hunter, who returned the gesture.

  She leaned in and brushed her lips against Jake’s, painfully aware of his bloodied state. “You better go make up with Grace. She’s in the break room, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”

  “Yeah. That gossip train’s about to leave the station, and we’re already on board.” Jake gave her a wistful smile. “People are bound to be talking, and we’d have to deal with this sooner or later.” He pointed at Hunter before swinging his finger back to Angela. “I’d much rather put the truth out there than have people ask if you’re two-timing one of us with the other. It’s not good for any of us to keep ducking and covering, and we can’t do it much longer.”
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br />   She swallowed hard. “I know. I’ll tell my mother before she hears the rumors. I’ve got to find the right place and time to break it to her.” She looked at each man in turn. “You know who you can trust with the truth. It won’t stop people from talking, but maybe if it’s out there, it’ll keep the chatter down.”

  “Understood.” Jake rolled his shoulders. “I’m off to thank and apologize to Grace, then go home and grab a fast shower and nap before I’m back on at midnight.”

  “When’s your next weekend off?” Hunter asked.

  “Next week.”

  “Let’s plan for next Saturday. My place.” He locked eyes with Jake. “Promise, we won’t do anything until then.”

  “Don’t.” Jake held his hand up. “I don’t want you to be miserable because of me. Do what you want, when you want.” One edge of his mouth twisted upward. “But maybe stop looking so damned smug. Because you’re going to grab a quickie and go straight to your practice, and your players are going to notice real fast and make a good guess where you’ve been. Might make it a little hard to be all tough guy on them.”

  Hunter gave a short, sharp laugh. “Agreed. That’s on me.” He looked at Angela. “Been out of practice in dealing with this type of thing. Relationships, that is.”

  Angela closed her eyes. She was, in a word, toasted. Between the romantic interlude with Hunter and the fight with Jake, her mind and heart were done for the day.

  “I’m going home.” She held up a finger. “No one call me. Please. I don’t think I can deal with much more today, and all I want is a stiff drink and to go to bed.” Her eyes narrowed as she glared at each man. “Alone. I’ll talk to you both next week.”

  She spun around, not waiting for an answer, and headed for the door.

  I might still kill them both.

  Except I’d have to figure out where to dump the bodies.

  Sally winced as she walked into Hunter’s office with the ice pack in one hand, a glass of water in the other. “He got you good.”

  Hunter looked up with his one good eye. “Hell yeah. Caught me napping. But I held back. Wouldn’t be good for the police chief to get beaten up in public.”