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Chapter Twenty-Six

K nox

I open my eyes to the constant vibration of my cell phone on the nightstand.

Who in the hell is calling me at… I squint at the clock on the nightstand, four in the damn morning.

Kissing my fiancée on the temple, I carefully move out from under her to grab my phone before slipping out into the hallway.

It’s my agent, Tommy. He’s called five times and left at least a dozen messages. I ignore them all and call him as I pad my way down the hall to ensure I don’t wake Corie.

“Finally,” Tommy greets me.

“What’s so damn urgent you’re calling me at the ass-crack of dawn?” I ask him.

“A story broke.”

“Okay?”

“You’ve been sneaking around with Landry Reynolds’s little sister, and it’s against Rampage policy because you’re hiding it from them.”

My stomach drops, and I’m instantly wide awake. “Fuck. How? Only two people outside of my family know, and I know for damn certain none of them would leak this.”

“I contacted a few of my sources and have a name.”

“Who?” I grit out.

“Conner Johnson.”

“Motherfucker. How? How did he find out? We were careful,” I say as I begin to pace back and forth.

“He’s claiming he heard it from you. He said that you and Landry were fighting about it in the locker room, and he just happened to be walking by to overhear.”

“No. We were not fighting, and bull-fucking-shit he walked by. He was hiding in there. He had to be. The bastard had no business being in the locker room. Landry and I were the only ones there.”

“Clearly, you thought wrong,” he says dryly.

“Fuck! What do we do?”

“Is it serious?” he asks.

I laugh humorlessly. “I asked her to marry me. It’s that serious,” I tell my agent.

“Okay. Well, I suggest that you go to your coach, HR, and the team owner and plead your case.”

“We were going to tell them today. In fact, I sent an email last night before we went to bed, telling Sally in HR I needed about an hour of her time tomorrow after practice.”

“I’ll handle the meeting. Get your ass together, your girl, too. Be ready to head to the stadium when I tell you to.”

“Got it. Thanks, Tommy.”

“I’ll do what I can. You’re an asset to the organization and have never caused any trouble.”

“If I have to choose, Tommy, I choose her.”

“Understood. I’ll be in touch.” The call ends, and I brace my hands on the counter.

Fucking Conner. I’ll ruin him for this. I don’t know how, but I will. Even if I have to fly and meet with every single client, his boss, and whoever else listens, he’ll get what’s coming to him. If I wasn’t already in such hot water, I’d just kick his ass. Honestly, that idea is not off the table.

Grabbing my phone, I head back to my room and slide into bed. I place soft kisses all over Corie’s face until she starts to wake.

“What time is it?” she asks groggily.

“Just after four.”

“Why are you awake?”

“I got a phone call.”

This gets her attention, and she rolls over to face me. “Is everything okay?” I can tell from the tone of her voice that she’s nervous.

“It will be,” I say before explaining my call with Tommy.

“He’s setting up a meeting with the powers that be.

He said to be ready to head to the stadium at any time, so we need to get ready.

” The nerves have not hit me yet, and I don’t think they’re going to.

I chose her before this started, and I knew the consequences.

It sucks, sure, but a life with Corie will more than make up for it.

“Okay.” She nods, tosses off the covers, and heads to the shower. She peeks her head out of the bathroom door. “I don’t have clothes.”

“I know. I’ll shower, and we can head to your place to get you what you need. We should pack up your stuff and move you in tonight,” I tell her. She nods and starts to get dressed again, much to my dismay.

“Knox. Things are blowing up all around us, and you want to talk about moving me in with you? Tonight?”

“You’re all that matters, Corie.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true. I’ve made my peace with all of this. I’ll choose you every damn time.”

“Get ready,” she says, disappearing into the bathroom. I give her time to handle her business before grabbing some clothes and quickly showering.

Twenty minutes later, we’re headed toward Landry’s.

We had to drive through the press that recognized my truck.

The story has already reached far and wide.

Fucking Conner. Thankfully, we made it away from my condo and were able to stop at the local fast-food drive-thru and pick up breakfast, adding a few extra sandwiches for Landry.

Corie eats on the way to his place and disappears upstairs to shower, leaving me to explain to a groggy Landry why we’re here so early.

Now, all we can do is wait for Tommy’s call, and then we’ll know for certain what the future holds for us. Regardless, my future is with Corie by my side. While we wait, I call my parents and fill them in on what’s going on.

“By the way, you’re getting a daughter-in-law,” I tell them. We’re on video chat.

“What?” Mom breathes.

I smile into the camera. “Come here, Corie girl.” I nod for her to come sit next to me. She does as I ask, and I pull her close. “Mom, Dad, I’d like to introduce you to my fiancée, Corie Reynolds, soon-to-be Beckett.” The words are barely out of my mouth before my mom bursts into tears.

“Oh, Knox.” Mom covers her mouth with her hands.

“Welcome to the family, Corie.”

Mom swats at Dad’s chest. “She was already a part of this family.” She turns her watery smile to the screen. “We love you both. I’m so happy for you.”

“What she said.” Dad chuckles.

“Thank you,” Corie replies softly.

“When you’re ready, you let me know, and the girls and I will help you every step of the way,” my mom tells her.

Corie sniffs beside me, and I press a kiss to her temple. I know she’s missing her parents with the excitement of our news. I also know that my family will rally around her and make sure she has more love and support than she could ever need.

“We just wanted to tell you. I don’t know how all of this is going to turn out, and well, we wanted you to hear it from us.”

“It will all work out, son. The unexpected always does,” Dad tells me.

“Love you both,” Mom says. We say our goodbyes and end the call.

I pull Corie into my arms, not caring that Landry could walk back into the room from his shower at any moment. I need to love on her. She needs me to love on her, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

It’s a few minutes before seven when we arrive at the stadium. Thankfully, the employee and player lot is gate-protected, and we have security on-site to keep the press at bay. They’re here, though, hanging out, and just jonesing for a picture.

With Corie’s hand locked in mine, we head inside and to the owner’s office. Apparently, this infraction is going as high up as it can go. We’ll also be meeting with Coach Warner and Sally from HR, and Tommy will be there, as well.

“I’m sorry,” Corie says as we wait for the elevator to take us to our floor.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. We’re in this together. We are and will always be a team. We discussed our choices and chose what we thought was best for us. However that turns out is how it will be.”

“You seem so calm. I’m freaking out, Knox.”

“Because I have you.” I shrug. “I love this team, I love the sport, but it all pales in comparison to what I feel for you. So, yeah, I’m calm as hell because when I walk back out of this stadium, the only thing that matters is that you’re still mine.

” I mean it with my entire being. If my options are to give up the game or give up on Corie, it’s an easy choice. One I don’t even have to think about.

The elevator stops, the doors slide open, and hand in hand, we step off and turn right, toward Roger Hampton’s office. He’s the owner of the team.

I don’t bother knocking. They know we’re coming. Instead, I step into the room, Corie’s hand still in mine, and take a seat at the conference table that Tommy, Roger, Sally, and Coach Warner are already sitting at.

“Are we late?” I ask them.

“No,” Coach Warner answers. “We wanted some time to discuss our options before you got here.”

“So, you’ve already decided our fate?”

“No,” Roger speaks up. “But we needed to discuss our options. Now, we want to hear from the two of you.”

“First, Sally, I won’t be needing that meeting today,” I tell her.

She smiles and nods. “I assumed.”

“Okay, so here’s what happened.” I launch into our story, not leaving anything out. I tell them how I fought my attraction to her. How we hid this from her brother and that we had the best interests of the team and everyone involved in mind.

“Knox wanted to tell you, but I convinced him to wait until the season was over,” Corie says, her voice wobbling.

“We decided together,” I amend. Leaning over, I press my lips to her temple.

“That’s quite a story,” Roger says.

“She’s quite a woman,” I toss back. “Listen, I’m just going to lay all my cards on the table for you.

I love her. If I have to choose, I choose her.

Every breath, every second, every minute, every hour, every damn day, I choose her.

You need to know that if you trade me, and she doesn’t want to go, I’ll retire.

If she does want to go, then you will lose both of us.

That’s not a threat. That’s the facts. I won’t leave this city without her. ”

The room is eerily silent until Roger clears his throat.

“What I just heard is that we met last week about this, and we decided collectively to keep it a secret until the end of the season. We didn’t want the scandal of a player dating another player’s sister to take away from all the team has accomplished this year. ”

“It was just yesterday that Conner heard Landry and me talking. What if he recorded it?”