I’d never wanted to punch a girl so badly in my life. With the exception of the time my sister painted my fingernails pink while I was sleeping.
“You need to worry about fulfilling your contract, not Katrina Delaney. The way you were playing out there today, I’d say you’re better off without the distraction of that whore.”
“What whore?” Rhett asked, stepping up behind Lana.
She seemed nervous at his presence, no longer soaking up the glory of destroying poor Kat. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you earlier. I had to let Katrina Delaney go today.”
Rhett’s eyes filled with fury, his chin tightened, and for a moment I thought he was going to hit her himself. “Who gave you the authority to fire Katrina, or anyone for that matter?” he snapped, his tone icy and stern.
“I caught a player in her room this morning.” Lana’s smile of vengeance returned.
“I don’t give a fuck who was in her room. What right did you have in firing her?”
Lana lifted her chin. “Sir, with all due respect, she was a gold digging troll looking for a free ride after her daddy lost everything.”
How did Lana know about that? I pulled up the story on Bobby I’d seen earlier. The timestamp was around noon, well after Katrina was fired. “How did you know about Bobby?” I asked.
She glared at me. “It was all over the Internet. I am the social media manager after all.”
“Did you leak that story?” I demanded, not backing down. “It was posted after you fired Katrina.”
Rhett’s eyes pierced into her. “What story?” he asked, holding his hand out for my phone.
I handed it to him, watching him as he read the details of Spaceman’s financial demise. “Did you leak this?” he asked Lana.
Her body language oozed with guilt. “No,” she insisted.
“Give me your phone, iPad, and laptop,” Rhett demanded.
“No. That’s my personal property,” she hissed, pushing the leather bag that hung on her hip toward her back.
Rhett chuckled, reached around her, and grabbed the bag she tried to conceal from him.
She growled and handed the bag over. “That’s fine. You can’t get into them without my passcode,” she smirked.
“You seem to forget that these devices are team property, and your passcodes are a quick phone call away,” Rhett said calmly as he dialed the tech department.
Lana shifted her weight from side to side, and fidgeted with her hands as Rhett unlocked her phone, and then her iPad. Her face turned paler than usual as Rhett gave her a disappointed look. “You’re fired,” he said without revealing what he’d found on her devices.
The woman turned scary mad and took a step toward him before seeming to think better of it. She snarled and turned on her heel, stomping down the hall.
“I need to speak to you,” Rhett said to me.
There was a pit in my stomach growing as I followed him. We made it to the bar, where Rhett pulled out a chair and sat down at a small table tucked in the corner. Great, privacy. Is this where he fires me?
“I’m not stupid. I knew you two were an item,” he said nonchalantly.
My mouth hung open. I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t going to deny anything. It was too late for that.
“Lana did leak the story,” he said, pushing her iPad across the table.
There were images of checks, written to Bobby Delaney, from Rhett’s account. A deed to a condo was in Rhett’s name, with a lease agreement for Bobby at one dollar a month. I scrolled through documents, emails, all with personal information about Bobby’s addiction, including checks written to several rehab facilities.
“You’ve been helping him?” I asked.
“Yes. And I suppose Lana helped herself to my desk while I watched the beginning of practice.”
“Why would she want to hurt Spaceman?” I asked, confused by her motive.
“I believe there was some jealousy involved. That may have been my fault. I did bring Katrina on without consulting her, and I put her in a position that may have been out of her league. Lana is a smart woman, but a vindictive one. She knew something wasn’t right, so she was determined to prove it, no matter what it was.”
I listened to him talk about the relationship he’d developed with Bobby over the years. He’d offered Bobby a coaching position on the team if he promised to get help, and he was even continuing to pay for that. When he found out Katrina had a journalism degree, he checked out her work.
“Yes. Hiring her started as a helping hand to Bobby and his family, but once I saw what she was capable of, it was all on her own merit.”
“She’s turned off her phone and deleted all her accounts. She could be in real trouble,” I said, leaning in to talk softer in the empty room.
I explained what happened the night before, and why I was in her room. Rhett leaned back in his chair, his eyes drifting toward the ceiling as I told him about Bobby’s enormous debt, and the week he had to pay it.
“I’ll take care of everything. Including making sure Katrina is safe,” he promised. “So you really care for her, don’t you?”
My eyes itched as tears struggled to surface. I pushed them back, swallowing hard to clear my throat before answering. “I love her.”
“Then what are you doing here?” he asked. “Go to her.”
“What about practice?”
He laughed. “We’re almost done here anyway. You’re not gonna be worth a shit if you don’t go after her, tell her how you feel,” he stated.
“Thank you,” I said, scooting my chair out from the table. I reached out, shook his hand, and took off to my room to pack. Even if she didn’t want me, I had to tell her how I truly felt.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Katrina
I scrolled through my phone, erasing all traces of my existence online as I waited for my plane to start boarding. The airport was small, only offering a cart with apple juice, water, and a few snacks. I doubted the growling in my stomach was from hunger anyway. More likely stress.
“Now boarding to New York,” the woman called over a loud speaker from her small podium. There were three other people at the gate, all seated within ten feet of the woman. She continued to speak through her microphone regardless of the need.
I grabbed my carry-on bag and boarded the plane. I was relieved to find a couple dozen more people on the plane as I took my seat. I hated flying, and for some reason, the thought of only having a few other passengers scared the living shit out of me.
The plane was small, much smaller than the ones I’d been on before. My seat was in the back, all the way in the back. I could smell the cleanser from the bathroom at my seat. This was as far away from first class as you could get. I wondered if Lana had done that intentionally. I laughed, sure she did. The bitch.
A small elderly lady was seated next to me, her lap filled with balls of yarn. I stared at the colorful strings, smiling when she caught me looking. “Can you believe they wouldn’t let me bring my knitting needle?” she asked.