Breeding My Stepsister on the Ice novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Not for Sale

"My silence isn't for sale," I said.

"Everything's for sale, dear. That's why I own a hockey team." She waved a hand at the couch. "These gentlemen are my lawyers. Gentlemen, tell her."

The older one stood and buttoned his jacket.

"The club is prepared to fund a research position for you this summer," he said. "Sports medicine outcomes. Paid. With your name on the paper."

The younger one didn't stand.

"And a letter," he said. "For your orthopedic applications. Signed by our chief medical officer."

"Dunne," I said.

"By whoever holds that title in the fall."

The owner smiled at me.

"I've read your file, Miss Molloy. Former paramedic. Two hundred and fourteen thousand in loans. A fail on your sports rotation and a referral that will follow you into every interview you ever have."

She'd done her homework in one afternoon.

"A letter from this club erases that fail," she said. "It tells every program in the country you're one of ours."

"And Tate?"

"Tate's pay is restored on Monday, with an apology. We'll pay for the surgery. He'll rehab with our staff."

"Dunne's staff."

"Our staff."

"And the other four?"

"Will be taken care of quietly."

"Quietly," I said.

"Dear, I've owned this team for nineteen years. Quietly is how everyone gets what they want."

The younger lawyer slid a folder across the bar toward me.

There was a pen clipped to it.

I looked at the folder.

I thought about the nine hundred dollars. About my rent. About the eleventh floor in Chicago and a man in his socks.

I thought about the goalie handing me his box in my kitchen and calling me doc.

I put the lid back on the shoebox.

"Here's what I want," I said. "I want Dunne off your bench tonight. I want every one of those five men scanned by someone you don't pay. I want Doug's name on the order that put testosterone in his own son."

The older lawyer looked at the owner.

"That isn't an offer," he said.

"No. It's a list."

The owner's smile thinned.

"You understand that if you walk out with that box, you walk out with nothing."

"I came in with nothing."

I picked up the shoebox and held it against my hip.

"Enjoy the game," I said.

The security guard opened the door for me.

I think he was trying not to smile.

I made it to the escalator before my knees started shaking.

I made it to the garage before I started crying.

Tate was out of the truck before I reached it.

He'd seen me from the window, I guess, walking fast across the concrete with the box.

"What happened? Did she..."

"She knew," I said. "She signed the budget line."

His face went hard.

"And she offered me a research job and a letter for my applications. Pay restored for you. All of it, quietly."

"And you said..."

"I said no."

He looked at me for a long time under the yellow garage lights.

Then he put his left arm around me and pulled me against his chest, shoebox and all.

"You turned down your residency," he said into my hair. "For five guys and a box."

"For you."

"Lainey."

"Mostly for you. Partly the goalie. He called me doc."

He laughed, wet and shaky, and held on.

I drove us to Bay View.

Gemma had left a note on the kitchen table under the salt shaker.

Library all night, cranial nerves again. Chili in the fridge. Use the good sheets. I'm so proud of you I might throw up. G.

Tate read it over my shoulder.

"She knows about the owner?"

"She knows I was going. She always knows."

The radiator knocked twice.

He stood in my kitchen in his sling, too big for the room, and looked at me.

"It's tomorrow," I said.

"It's ten-thirty."

"Close enough."

He took a breath.

"Okay," he said. "What do you want, Lainey?"

"You."

"I can't give you..."

"I didn't say a baby. I said you. If that comes back, I want that too. If it doesn't, there are other ways to fill a backyard. I've seen you hold babies like they're glass. That's not going anywhere."

His throat moved.

"You don't know that it'll come back."

"No. I know you. That's the part I'm sure about."

He didn't say anything.

He crossed my kitchen in two steps and kissed me.

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend