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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

JESSIE

“ F our stitches? I’d say you got away lightly with that.”

“Yeah, guess so,” I reply to Jensen, rushing to button up my dress shirt so I can get out of the arena and call Mia.

“Coulson received more, apparently.” Zach sidles up alongside me, adjusting his tie. “All that was to do with Mia, wasn’t it?”

He doesn’t speak loudly enough for the others to hear, but Jensen’s head whips up at the mention of her name.

“You think he knows? I thought he was just being the asshole he’d always been.”

“Oh, he knows. And so does Jenkins, apparently,” I say, looping my tie and glancing down at my phone in my bag. “I don’t know if Mia does yet. Coulson made it out like it was just a secret between him and Graham right now.”

Jensen runs a palm over his mouth. “I don’t get it. Who would out you guys? There’s nothing in the press. If there were, we’d sure as shit know about it.”

Now fully dressed, I snatch up my wash bag and grab my phone. “By process of elimination, it has to be Mia’s roommate. She found out yesterday.”

“Has she got some kind of vendetta against you or Mia?” Zach asks.

“Not that I was aware of, but like I said, she’s the only one who knows.”

Swinging my bag over my shoulder, I wave my phone at the guys. “I need to call Mia. See you on the team bus.”

A tattooed hand comes to my forearm as I make to leave the locker room, and I turn to see a serious look on Zach’s face.

“Does this compromise your position with the team?”

I shrug and bite the inside of my cheek. “I did what you’d advised. Played hard and made myself un-benchable. Burrows is close to Jenkins, and, yeah, he’s gonna be pissed at me for rocking the boat.” I turn to look at him, the past few weeks with Mia flashing through my mind. “But at this point, there’s nothing I wouldn’t risk to be with her. I walked away once, and it was the biggest mistake of my life. There never has—and never will be—anything more important in my life than Mia Jenkins.”

I’m already scrolling for her contact when I step into the empty hallway.

Hitting dial, I bring the phone to my ear and lean against the wall, keeping a check around me for eavesdroppers.

Mia picks up on the first ring, her voice rushed and panicked. “Jessie, are you okay? I saw the fight, the way Coulson brought you down. I always thought he had your back in Dallas.”

“I’m okay, Sweetheart. It was a few stitches and bad bruising; I got away without breaking anything.”

“Oh, thank fuck.” She breaks off and goes silent. When she speaks again, her voice is way more measured than I ever expected it to be. “Dad knows. He texted me, saying he knew, but wasn’t ready to talk about it.”

“Fuck, this isn’t how it was supposed to be, Mia. I’m so sorry.”

“I know.” Her voice shakes, and I can tell she’s trying to hold back the tears.

I switch the call to video mode. If I can’t hold her, the least I can do is let her look in my eyes when I promise it’s all going to be okay.

She isn’t wearing any makeup, and her hair is unwashed and thrown on top of her head when she comes into view.

She’s never looked more beautiful.

“Jessie, your face.” She reaches toward the camera. “Coulson did this because of us, didn’t he?”

I nod. She has no idea what happened between him and me when her dad kicked me off the team, but it’s too much of a coincidence. “Yeah. That’s how I know about your dad finding out. Coulson told me right before my ass hit the ice.”

“Asshole,” she bites out, looking off to the side.

“I’m gonna make this right with your dad, I promise.”

She winces and looks down at the ground. When she looks back up, her eyes are red and glassy, and I want to reach inside the phone and pull her to me. This is exactly the way I didn’t want things to play out with Graham. This is worst-case scenario number one.

“Fuck!” I shout to no one in particular, my frustration and anger getting the better of me. “Why is it that no matter how hard I try to keep you safe, my life always finds a way to hurt you?”

She shakes her head and spins around to take a seat on a couch, and it’s then I notice that she isn’t in her dorm. “This isn’t your fault, Jessie. I shouldn’t have trusted Tara.”

“Where are you?” I ask, my blood beginning to boil at the fact that she can’t even be in her own dorm.

“Kate and Jensen’s. When I got Dad’s text, it was halfway through the game, and I panicked. Only people I could think to text were the girls. Tara was out, so I packed an overnight bag, and Kate came straight over to grab me.” She brings a palm up to cover her face. “I can’t go back there.”

“And neither can I because I can’t be held responsible for what I might say to her,” I hear a voice say, belonging to Kate.

If there’s one person I’d want with Mia right now, it’s definitely Kate Jones.

“I’m gonna make this right with your dad,” I repeat and bring the phone closer to me. “I’m gonna go see him before I leave Dallas, and then I’ll charter my own fucking flight so I can get back to you ASAP. Then I’m bringing you back to mine, and you won’t leave my arms. I promise it’s gonna be all right, Mia.”

Just as Mia opens her mouth to reply, a throat clears from down the hallway, and I look up to see Graham’s ominous figure at the end, his arms crossed over his black suit jacket.

“I gotta go,” I tell Mia.

“He’s there, isn’t he?” she replies in barely a whisper. Her eyes wide.

I nod. “It’s gonna be okay, Sweetheart. I promise.”

“Jessie, I?—”

“Promise,” I tell her before I cut the call and pocket my phone.

When he uncrosses his arms, one hand finds the pocket of his dress pants, and the other reaches out and opens a door to his right.

Pushing off the wall, I stand up straight and face him. I’m a pro hockey player, and I have taken more beatings in my life than I can count, but this moment right here is intimidating.

This is the father of the girl I love. Whatever he hands out to me, I’ll take it. For her.

“You wanted to talk.” He points to the open door and steps through. “Let’s talk.”

The walk down the hallway feels like I’m making my way to some kind of death chamber, my palms cold and sweaty.

“Look, Graham,” I say the second I cross the threshold.

The door slams behind me, and in a millisecond, my back is against the wall, and his hand is around my throat. His face is bright red, anger twisting his features as he pins me in the same way he did in Mia’s bedroom.

“Give me one good fucking reason why I shouldn’t be in custody tonight,” he spits, rearing his fist back, ready to strike.

“Let go of me, and I will,” I choke out.

“I fucking knew it. I knew it when I saw her in Seattle. Just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you, Callaghan?”

“I love her.” My words are barely a whisper.

“Love. You don’t know the meaning of it.”

Raising an arm, I push him hard in the center of the chest, and his grip loosens.

“You failed me as a kid, and you’re failing me now,” I push out.

Graham grinds his molars. “Failed you? I made you. You were never hungry for it, for true success. You’ve always gone the easiest route in life. And now you have the balls to tell me that I failed you?!”

“Made me?!” I gasp, bringing a hand around my neck and stepping forward. “You’ve got no idea what I went through to even be here, do you?”

“Oh, I do. Half the fucking volleyball team and now my daughter!” he sneers.

Shoving my hands in the pockets of my dress pants, I look down at my loafers. A pair my best friend bought me last season.

I raise my head and look at Graham, I don’t care that he can see the tears in my eyes. “You wouldn’t see it. Because from the second I was born, I’ve spent my whole life hiding.” I point at my chest and step forward. “Do you know what it’s like to be hungry, Graham?”

He doesn’t respond.

“To go to practice on an empty stomach because the last beating you took caused you to throw up the last meal you had eaten. To puke up the food you’d had to steal from a fast-food joint because there was nothing in the cupboards?”

“I, um?—”

“Do you know what it’s like to pull on your hockey pads and inwardly scream at the pain? You can’t work out because of your back from sleeping on the floor night after night or the cracked ribs your father just gave you. Or maybe”—I pause and inhale a deep breath, the first tear hitting my cheek—“maybe it’s because you’re so fucking exhausted, trying to carry your mom up the stairs since your dad had left for another two days and she drank herself into the fucking abyss.”

His eyes grow wide.

“That’s right; no one really knows what it’s like. Not unless they’ve lived in those four walls.” I swallow hard, bile rising into my throat. “Do you know how many times over the past four years my dad nearly got his wish? With dark thoughts taunting me and alcohol running through my veins, I convinced myself no one would miss me. That no one wanted to hear my story. That the only thing I was good for was hockey, and even that was a fucking shit show.”

“Jessie, I?—”

“Shut up!” I shout back. “Just shut the fuck up, Graham. You spent that much time focused on my stats; you didn’t stop to think about why they had been dropping. Or what I was trying to hide when I skipped massages and went home.”

We’re practically eyeball to eyeball when I step up to him.

“Do you know who didn’t fail me, even when I was failing myself? Mia.”

Silence stretches across the room. I give him a chance to speak, but he chooses not to.

“While you were busy making me , she was spending her life trying to make you happy. All she’s ever wanted is to make you happy and proud of her.”

“I am proud of her.”

“Are you?” I prod my finger into the center of his chest. “Are you, Graham? Because you sure have a fucking funny way of showing it. All I see is your patriarchy.”

More silence.

“Years ago, I walked away from the girl I loved. The girl who didn’t know what I was going through, but somehow got me. She wanted me for who I was. In the moments we had gotten together, I had fallen so fucking hard for her. My parents had stolen my childhood, and then I let you go and steal my girl too.”

Bringing my hands to the top buttons on my dress shirt, I undo the first few, and Graham’s eyes fall to the dove. “I got this the week I arrived in Seattle. For her, for me, for us. Maybe she did turn up in Seattle, hoping to find me; maybe it’s possible she has the same level of feelings for me that I do for her. But let me tell you one thing I do know, Mr. Jenkins: as soon as I get a chance to put a ring on her finger and make her my wife, you’d best believe I will. With or without your blessing. So, I’ll say it again. I love her. There is no one other than her . From the second my hazy, fucked-up brain laid eyes on your daughter, I wanted to know more about her.”

I step back and give us both space, my shirt still open at the front.

Graham swipes a palm over his mouth and looks back at me. “Is it true about your dad? Were you abused, Jessie?”

I hold up a hand. “I had a childhood I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and my dad is someone I work to keep as far out of my life as possible. The only person who looked out for me as a child was my papa.” Tears fall more freely from my eyes.

“I’m s?—”

“I don’t want to hear your apologies right now because I won’t be able to accept them. I just want to get back to Seattle and my girl.”

I turn to leave, my hand on the door handle, ready to walk out and find a flight, when I pause and swing back around. “Call your daughter and apologize to her. She’s just been betrayed by her friend and roommate. The least you can do is give her your support.”

“Wait. Roommate? What are you talking about?”

I spin back around and face him. “Tara. The only person who knew about us. Fuck knows how she knows you, but she just went behind Mia’s back and betrayed her trust.”

Graham pulls his phone out of his pocket. “It wasn’t Tara.”

My brows shoot to my hairline. “What?”

“I have a player on the program who is in her class and actually made friends with her. I asked him to keep an eye on Mia and make sure she was doing okay. I won’t name him, but he’s one of my most trusted, and when he saw you outside her dorm building last night, he sent me a message asking if I knew she was dating you.”

I look up at the ceiling and blow out a single harsh laugh. “You really are a fucking idiot at times, aren’t you?” I step back into the room, a smile spreading across my lips.

Who the fuck does he think he is, keeping tabs on his grown-ass daughter?

“I don’t need you to give me a name. I already know it. Leo.”

Graham’s eyes grow wide for a second time.

“If I were you, I’d be really fucking careful who you consider to be your most trusted. Last time Mia saw Leo, he tried to get in her pants.” I thumb over my shoulder to the hallway. “So, yeah, I’m gonna go and be with my girlfriend now. Right after I punch your latest prodigy square in the face.”