Page 33

CHAPTER 33

ALKA

I ’ve canceled practice for the rest of the week. If I have to look at Doherty again before I’ve calmed down, I probably will kick him from the team.

I’m currently sitting in my office rewatching the clip Declan sent me for maybe the hundredth time. Every time, I see something new. The embarrassment of my players. Harper’s frustration. Roux’s guilt. The other team trying to hide that they’re watching. Even they’re embarrassed.

And yeah, about a thousand phones out and recording.

Quin’s right. I need to talk to the dean before the school is tagged in 4,236 videos of this and they’re forced to address it. It’s fine. I have all the evidence of my case. Harper’s on standby to talk to the dean or whoever she needs to. I have a copy of Roux’s email confirmation of his application, proving that he applied before we met. I have the reservation confirmation dates of my stay on Kala as well as Roux’s.

I have all my ducks in a row.

If I’m honest, I’m sitting here rooted in my chair because I’m scared. I have no idea what’s going to happen when I speak to the dean. I don’t want to be fired. I don’t want any backlash to come onto Roux .

I want to take back the moment when I thought it was a good idea to be forthcoming with the team.

There’s a knock on my door, and my shoulders stiffen. “Yeah.”

The door cracks open, and Declan peeks in. When he sees I’m alone, he enters. “What’re you doing?”

I shake my head. “Wondering where to go from here.”

“I got the notification that practice is canceled for the week.”

“Yep.” I bob my head a little absently. “I have an email drafted that says it’s canceled next week as well. I’m done.”

“I thought you were letting Harper decide.”

“I did. She wants to cancel the entire season, but that punishes the whole team. I can see the argument both ways. This is serious. We’re serious. But punishing the masses for the actions of a few is one of the biggest things wrong with the society we live in today. I don’t want to be that person, but I also want them to understand that we’re serious and won’t be putting up with bullshit like what Jeff just pulled.”

“Can I give you my opinion?”

I raise my eyes to his and smirk. “Sure.”

“Cancel next week. Don’t say anything to any of them. Hell, I’d say neither you nor Harper should be reachable. Like, vanish entirely. You can both work in my office. When you come back, kick Doherty off the team. Then move on and see if the team follows.”

“You think that’s going to fix it?”

“I think they’re used to being coddled. They’re not used to consequences that mommy and daddy can’t erase for them. Just to be clear, you do have that control, correct? You can remove them from the team?”

“Even if I strip away literally everything surrounding yesterday’s blow-out, the way he disrespected Harper alone is reason enough to remove him. He added onto it by disrespecting me. The fact that we have more than a dozen witnesses to his outburst is reason enough to remove him. Witnesses that include an entire team from another school. I spoke to their coach after the game. They suggested I kick them off the team, and they have no idea what’s going on. All of this corroborating the same story? No, there won’t be any arguments, reason for their outburst aside.”

“Good. Also, I’m sorry.”

I wave him off and sigh. “I’m tired. I never thought I’d dread going to work. Up until this moment, I’ve always loved my job.”

“How’s Roux?”

“Not great.” I rub my eyes with my thumb and fingers. “He wants to quit.”

“I really hope he doesn’t.”

“I get it. Not just because of the environment but because it’s not fun for him anymore. He has no interest in going pro; he plays because he loves to. It’s hard to love a game when you’re being shit on by your entire team. I can’t even argue.”

Declan shakes his head. “You’re right.”

My computer dings with an email notification, and I glance up. I have every intention of ignoring it in favor of giving myself today to agonize and mope over this decision I’m making except that the subject line catches my eye.

I tap the pop-up before it slides away, and my email comes up.

from:No Name [email protected]

to:Alka Lennon [email protected]

date: Oct 19, 2025, 9:42?AM

subject:Re: Youre team is failing

remove roux from the team or ill expose your relationship to the dean for your firing youre call

My first thought is, oh god, how did this person get into college? Between the lack of punctuation, capitalization, and the incorrect your, I’m cringing. However, not even all of that can take away from the message.

“Look at this,” I say and back my chair away from my desk so Declan can get in to look. He leans over me and reads. It doesn’t take long.

“I truly hope all that grossness is intentional,” he says and stands. “Also, what the fuck?”

“Will you ask Quin to come here? I want to see what he thinks.”

Declan scowls at me. “I hate asking him for help,” he mutters.

“Hey,” I say, raising my hands. “I’m not asking questions about what goes on at home and what you need help with—although I have questions for Zarek if that’s the case.”

Declan swats at me, and I laugh. Yep, I deserved that, but really, I want to stop my heart from pounding. Soon, this is going to get out of control. No, it already is. It’s going to be taken out of my hands. I need to decide on a course of action now, but it needs to be a smart one.

Thus why I want to talk to a dean, and Quin is the one I trust personally. Even if he has nothing to do with me or my department, I trust that he’ll look at the situation with my best interest in mind as well as share what he’d do if this were presented to him as a dean.

While Declan calls Quin, I pick up my office phone and call Harper.

“Hey,” she answers. “I’ve been thinking about?—”

“Hold on. I need you to come here for a minute.”

“Sure. Everything okay?”

“I mean, could be better.”

She huffs. “That’s fair. On my way.”

The line disconnects, and I set the receiver down as Declan says, “He’s on his way. He’ll likely take more time to get here than Harper though.”

Harper knocks then opens my door, smiling at Declan as she approaches. I wave her behind my desk and let her look at the screen where the email is still pulled up.

Immediately, her hackles rise. “What the actual fuck is wrong with him?”

“Him?” I ask.

She gives me a deadpan look. “You and I both know that’s Doherty.”

“Harper’s not wrong,” Declan says.

I don’t doubt it either, actually.

Quin arrives thirty seconds later, and Declan looks at him with a frown. “You don’t ever run when I need something.”

Quin winks at him. “Sure I do.” Declan scowls at him. “I was at the café.”

Like I did with Harper, I wave him around behind my computer. Harper moves aside so he can read it. “Don’t confront him,” Quin says as he takes a step back, frowning at my screen.

“You think it’s Doherty too, don’t you?” Harper says.

Quin raises one shoulder. “Given what I’ve seen, yes. I don’t doubt there might be other reasonable suspects, but at the moment and given what everyone’s seen, I’d say it’s Doherty. However, we don’t know that for certain, and even if we did, this is a threat and needs to be dealt with as such.”

“It’s not a threat,” I begin.

“It’s a threat,” Quin says. “Just because it’s not a physical threat doesn’t make it any less of a threat.”

“Then what do I do? Tell me, because I’m so fucking wrung out and exhausted that whatever decision I make is going to be made on emotion, and that’s not what I need right now.”

Quin pulls one of the chairs around and sits. “Look at me.” It truly feels like a struggle, but I raise my eyes to him. “Do you have everything you need to prove your case printed?”

“Most of it, yeah.”

“Including moving some of your responsibilities with the team to Harper. ”

“Yes. We wrote up a temporary transfer of responsibilities and both signed it,” I say.

“Good. Gather it all together and put it into an envelope.”

“Now?”

“Yes. Right now.”

I hood my eyes but lean back and pull open my drawer. I print the email out as well as a couple documents that Roux sent me. Harper leaves the room to get a large envelope, and it isn’t long before I have it all together.

“I feel like I’m blackmailing someone,” I mutter.

“When in fact, you’re the victim of said blackmail,” Declan says.

Well, that feels heavy.

“Now listen to me,” Quin says, and I meet his eyes again. “I want you to go to the dean of athletics and give him much the same speech you gave the team—concise and only the facts that he needs to know. You’re also going to present the video from yesterday and the email from this morning. There’s only one thing you need to decide before you head there.”

I tense, knowing that I’m not going to like this.

“You need to have a plan for every scenario they might present you with as the outcome.”

I drop my face into my hands. Yep. I don’t want to hear that.

“You already know the answers to all of them,” Declan says. “You know what you’re willing to do and what you refuse to allow to happen. As for Doherty, I think you know how we all feel.”

Quin nods. “Remove him from the team, and if this email proves to be from him, charge him with harassment or blackmail or whatever it is you can charge him with. You have an entire team that needs to understand that there are consequences to their actions as well as what happens when you throw a fit when you’re not getting your way as an adult.”

“I really hate all of this. I wish I had a twin to do it for me.”

Declan snorts. “No, you don’t. Someday, ask him about the day Zarek yelled at him on campus because he thought Damon was me. Talk about awkward for everyone involved.”

I smile and take a breath. “Hopefully, he’s there.” Or maybe, hopefully he’s not.

“We’ll wait here,” Quin says. “Don’t be surprised if something doesn’t happen immediately. I can tell you right now, more times than not, something serious like Doherty can’t be a decision I just make alone. I need to present it to my superiors.”

“And don’t forget to work in the fact that dating a student isn’t against the rules. Case in point, the provost was sleeping with a student for two years and married him—all before the kid graduated,” Declan says.

“Yeah, thanks.”

“No, he’s right. It’s relevant and an important point in your favor,” Quin says.

With the envelope in hand and my phone in my pocket, I get to my feet. “I’ll be back.” On my way out the door, I give Oz a call to explain what happened. I tell him not to let Roux know until we’re together in person. I don’t need him to be freaking out all day while he’s supposed to be focusing on classes.

Especially since Quin’s right. Not only will nothing be done immediately, but we won’t have a “verdict,” if you will, right away either.

I’m not sure if things are going my way or not, but when I tell the secretary I have something urgent I need to talk to the dean about, I’m let in after a brief exchange over the phone between them.

Dean Gideon Cooke is a huge sports guy with a wall of degrees behind him. It looks like he’s done a bit of everything. There are also signed jerseys, trophies, signed balls and sticks and pennant flags all over his office.

When I enter, he stands and offers me his hand. He has a big smile, the kind that wrinkles around the eyes because he smiles so often. “Hello, Coach. Good to see you. Have a seat.”

“Thanks, Dean. ”

“I assume this is about yesterday’s game.”

I wince. “I assume you’ve seen videos,” I counter.

He guffaws. “It’s hard not to. What’s unclear is what’s going on.”

“Yes, this has to do with that, but… There are other things that need to be stated first.”

Dean Cooke leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers together as if I’m going to tell him the most thrilling story of his life.

I do exactly as Quin suggested. “Now to get current. I thought I was doing a good thing in being forthcoming with my team. I assumed I’d have a little pushback but they’d get over it and play as a team. Obviously, things have gotten out of hand, and yesterday was the pinnacle of that mountain. Harper made the call to cancel practice for the rest of the week. This morning, I received an email stating that if I don’t remove Roux from the team, they’ll have me fired.”

Dean Cooke watched and listened impassively throughout the entire monologue, something that felt rather unnerving. Right up until the email. Anger flares in his eyes as he leans forward. “Let me see the email.”

I take my phone out and pull it up before handing it to him. It’s short, so it doesn’t take him any time to get through it. I also don’t miss the way he winces while reading it. “I really hope this is purposefully awful writing.”

“I thought the same thing,” I agree. “I have to think it is. I also have everything printed out to support what I told you.” I set the envelope on his desk.

Dean Cooke pulls it toward him and opens it. He peers inside but doesn’t pull anything out. “Forward me that email, please. IT will be tracking down the sender.”

I don’t offer that we think we know who it is. We’ve all seen the videos now.

“Thank you for your honesty and for coming to me with this. While I can’t guarantee the outcome you’d like, I’d like to know what you propose we do. In an ideal world, what future do you hope to see?”

“Harper and I agree that Doherty needs to be removed from the team. His behavior toward both of us is disrespectful, and he’s being hostile toward Roux and actively attempting to get others to do the same. There’s a copy of a chat exchange between Roux and one of my players stating as much to warn him. Regardless of my relationship with Roux, I wouldn’t allow this behavior toward any of my players.”

“Understood and not unreasonable. What else?”

I take a breath. “I’d like to continue the year and next in the capacity that Harper and I have worked out. Essentially, we’re swapping roles. I’m happy to swap salaries too. She refused to allow that, but I do think she deserves some compensation for the extra work.”

“Okay, what else?”

I’m not sure if he’s expecting more. I hesitate because I’m not sure what else I should say. Oh. Then I remember the one point I needed to make. “I would like to remind… you and whoever you speak to that it wasn’t long ago that the provost was dating and married a student while that student was still enrolled.”

Yep, that felt awkward.

Dean Cooke gives me a beaming smile. “Very good. Is there anything else you’d like to add?”

I shake my head. “I’m sorry. I thought we were doing the right thing, but I think that maybe I misjudged. Maybe honesty isn’t always the best way to move forward.”

“I think you did the right thing in coming to me. You should have sooner. Make sure you forward me that email immediately. The sender needs to be dealt with. I’d like to offer you some reassurance, but unfortunately, this isn’t something that I can decide on my own. I can , however, make a recommendation on the situation, and since you’re my employee, it will be taken into serious consideration. I will ask for the outcome you set forward. You have my support, Coach. ”

I take a breath. “Thank you.”

“I’m going to repeat that I don’t have the final say, but I will absolutely bring up Brevan and Provost Kendrick.” He gives me a mischievous smile. “It’s hard to be hypocrites when the highest position in the school has done the same thing, no?”

“No offense, but that’s what I’m hoping.”

He laughs. One of those laughs that comes from the gut. “Me too. Get out of here. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.”

“Thank you, Dean.”

He waves me off, and while everything’s still up in the air, I feel a whole lot lighter. Unfortunately, I don’t think Roux is going to feel the same relief that I do.