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Camp doesn’t start until tomorrow, but I’m in town a day early. Travis invited me to stay at his place in his guest room, and that means we have the rest of the day to relax before we have to be at our first practice early tomorrow morning.

But relax means different things to different people. Travis said he’d have a few guys over, and it has turned into a party with the regular Thursday Night Crew.

“Coax tonight?” Cory asks me on the down low away from Deon and Patrick, who still don’t know about the members-only club.

I laugh. “As Travis said to me not so long ago, it’s probably not a good idea for me to go given the fact that I’m engaged to another woman and she’s expecting our baby.”

He shrugs. “Marriage didn’t stop you before.”

“That was different,” I argue, but it’s a feeble argument given the fact that he’s right. If anybody outside of my tight circle of friends knew about the third level of the exclusive club while I was still married to another woman, I’m certain judgements would be cast.

But they’d be cast no matter what I choose to do with my life. I can’t stop living just because people might not agree with every decision I make.

“How?” he asks.

“For one thing, it was a sham of a marriage I was being forced to stay in,” I point out.

“I’m sure that’s how outsiders would see it, too.” He moves onto Jaxon to ask him next, confirming my thoughts about what others might think.

It doesn’t matter, though. I’m in a good place now, and I’m not going to risk that by going somewhere I don’t even want Tessa to know about.

Travis declines since the party’s at his place, but as Cory and Jaxon make their way toward the door early, Patrick calls out to them. “Where are you two assholes going?”

They exchange a glance, and then Jaxon turns around to face him. “A sex club.” He says it in that way where you can’t tell whether he’s joking or not, and silence falls over the room before he bursts out laughing.

Travis’s wide eyes meet mine, and I’m not exactly sure how to react, so I just start laughing, too.

“You’re such a fucking clown,” I say as they head out the door still howling with laughter.

“Where are they really going?” Patrick presses, and I just shrug and tip my beer bottle to my lips.

Travis changes the subject, and an hour or so later, Deon calls it a night first. Patrick talks Austin into going to Honeys, and Travis talks me into a bar nearby.

It’s late in Iowa, but I send a text to Tessa anyway before we head out.

Me: How was your day?

Her reply comes quickly.

Tessa: It was a little strange.

Me: Everything okay?

My phone rings a few seconds later.

“Hey,” I answer.

“Hey. Yeah, everything’s fine. I, uh…I think I did something worthy of one of your punishments.”

I chuckle even as I think about where I learned those particular techniques. “Did you purposely do something worthy or was it an accident?”

“I texted Stephanie to see if she wanted to go to lunch with me today. I wanted to see if she has a tattoo on her neck,” she admits.

“And?”

“I couldn’t tell, and she was being super weird,” she says.

“Has she ever been normal ?” I ask.

“No, but she was like…I don’t know. Maybe I was imagining it.”

“What?” I press.

“She was imitating everything I was doing. If I tucked my hair behind my ear, she did it too. If I picked up my water, so did she. She followed me to the bathroom when I told her I had to go but I was really just trying to get away to tell my mom to text me an emergency so I could get the hell out of there.”

“Tess…I think you should stay away from her. It sounds like some weird Fatal Attraction type shit going on there and I don’t want you to get hurt,” I warn quietly.

She sighs. “You’re right. But what do I do if she just shows up uninvited?”

“You shut the door in her face,” I say thickly.

“You ready?” Travis calls from the other room. “Our ride’s here!”

“I need to run.” I sigh. I don’t really want to get off the phone with her. She seems to feel a certain way about what went down today, and I want to allow her the space to talk about it…but Travis is waiting for me. “I’m heading out with a buddy, but get some sleep, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Be safe. I love you,” she says.

“I love you, too.” I hang up, and I meet Travis by the door.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

I nod, and we get into the Lyft he ordered. We’re dropped at O’Leary’s, a bar not too far from Travis’s place. It tends to be a hangout for players who want to avoid the nightclub scene, but tonight I don’t see any of our friends from the team. We shouldn’t be out, either, considering we have an early morning, but we’re not here to get fucked up—just to have a drink or two before we call it a night.

The booths are all taken, so we sit at the bar. Both Travis and I wear ballcaps pulled down low in an attempt to be discreet, but Travis has tattoos on his arms that make him instantly recognizable—and instantly hotter to women, by the way.

We’ve barely toasted to our first sip when a woman slips between us to talk to Travis. The music’s loud, but not loud enough that I can’t hear every word she says. “What are you doing here instead of Coax?”

“I could ask you the same,” he answers. “I hardly recognized you in jeans and a t-shirt.”

She laughs. “I like to dress up for the club.”

“And I like to grab a drink with my buddy once in a while,” he says, nodding toward me.

She turns to look at me. “Tristan,” she says, her eyes lighting up. I vaguely recognize her, but like the time I saw Brandi outside of the club, it’s harder to place the women I’ve seen there.

“Brandi’s meeting me here later,” she says, and I don’t like the way she says it like I stake some ownership over Brandi, like we’re somehow more than friends when we’re not. I took care of her a few times, and we had a friendship inside Coax. That’s it.

At least…that’s all it is for me. I can’t say the same about Brandi.

“Tell her I said hi,” I say with a press of my lips and a nod, hoping it’s enough of a hint to let her know I’m not interested in anything other than being friendly.

“I’m sure she’d love to tell you herself,” she says, and she winks. A new song starts playing, and she gasps. “Oh! It’s my song!” She runs to the dance floor with her group of friends, most of which I don’t recognize, and I can’t help but wonder whether they know about Coax. I recognize Sapphire, the girl who Troy Bodine punished my second night there. But she’s the only one who looks familiar, so I’m guessing they either aren’t local celebrities or they aren’t members. Or maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t been there in a long time, so I’ve lost sight of who’s who anymore.

“What’s her name?” I ask, trying to make conversation.

“Mackenzie,” he says. “She’s a good girl.” He winks, and I wonder what, exactly, he’s done with her.

It’s not my business, but running into her here and Brandi at the Big D Bash just tells me what a small world it really is—or what a small network of local celebrities Vegas proves to be.

Or what a big network Coax actually is.

I’m reminded of that moments later when Troy Bodine interrupts my conversation with Travis.

Now him I recognize outside of the club, and I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise since Sapphire’s here.

He slides in between us and tosses one arm around my shoulder and the other around Travis’s. The man has a large wingspan, and he wears a suit in a jeans kind of place. He’s imposing and a little intimidating and what he did to Sapphire for punishment still weighs on my mind.

Actually, I guess except for withholding aftercare, it’s similar to what I did to Tessa for punishment not so long ago. I may have picked up a trick or two from watching him.

Does that make Troy my mentor?

I nearly laugh aloud at the thought.

“I’m holding a charity event mid-May, and I would love to see you both there,” he says. He leans in and lowers his voice a little. “I always offer spots to members first.”

Travis glances at me. “I’ll be around, but this asshole is vacationing in the Midwest.”

I chuckle. I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation, but sure. “I’ll be around mid-May for OTAs. When’s the event?”

“Saturday the fourteenth,” he says, and he nods at the bartender. Just like that, the bartender gets to work on his drink, and I realize how goddamn powerful this guy is.

He’s not just a former baseball player. He’s part-owner of a club built for people with money, he’s got a shit ton of money, and he’s got women eager to get on their knees just for the chance to suck him off. He’s still involved with the game, too, but I don’t study his career enough to know in what capacity.

“That’s OTA weekend,” Travis says.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll have my secretary send you the formal invitation, but I will see you both there. Bring a date,” Troy says, and then he walks away—not even giving me a chance to decline or explain that my future wife probably shouldn’t be boarding a plane so close to her due date.

I guess I’m going to a charity event on May fourteenth…an event run by a sex club owner who demanded I bring a date.