The hits just kept coming. This one right to her heart. “Why? He’s doing exactly what Virgil hired him to do.”
He tilted his head back and looked down at her through his frosty gaze. “I hardly think my father hired Mr. Savage to fuck his wife.”
“You would trade a captain who’s led this team to the final round of the championship just because you hate me?”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Savage has become in volved with you, and I don’t want him or you anywhere near my team.”
Faith looked at the man in front of her, at the only man on the planet she’d ever feared and she lied to save the only man she’d ever really loved. She shrugged. “Trade him to Toronto, for all I care,” she said, mentioning one of the lowest scoring team of the season. “I doubt they’ll want him, though. He’s persona non grata in Canada these days. Although that’s exactly what the jerk deserves. To be forced to play on a losing team that hates him.”
“Don’t tell me he got tired of you already?”
“He’s decided he wants someone more respectable,” she said, giving Landon the one lie he would believe. “Most men want to have an affair with a stripper. Few want a relationship outside of the bedroom.” She shrugged and pointed to the photos. “Those pictures are old news, Landon. The captain and I are no longer…an item.”
Now it was Landon’s turn to shrug. “Which means the captain is smarter than I gave him credit for. Maybe I’ll keep Mr. Savage. Depends on if he hands me the cup.”
He believed her for now. Perhaps a little too easily, but she guessed she shouldn’t be surprised, considering what he thought of her.
“That doesn’t change your predicament,”
Landon said. “Sign the contracts tomorrow or the photos hit the newspapers the next day.”
The thought of Landon’s hands on the cup made her sicker than she already felt. She had to say something. Do some
“Yes,” he said, calling her bluff. He moved past her but stopped in the door. “Enjoy your last night in the skybox, Layla. After tomorrow it’s mine.”
Technically it wouldn’t be his until the sale was final in a few months, but she was in no position to argue.
“When will you make the announcement?” she asked.
“The night I’m handed the cup.”
Chapter 18
Faith sat in the owner’s box as the Chinooks were announced. One by one they skated onto the ice amidst the roaring cheers of the hometown crowd. Her face felt hot and her stomach burned from pent-up emotion. Sam and Marty and Blake. Her team. Her players. The guys she’d come to know over the past two months. Tension pounded the base of her skull and everything seemed unreal as she went through the motions.
There had to be a way. There had to be something she could do to keep from losing everything. But there was nothing. Nothing at all. She had no choice.
Her first instinct when Landon had left her office was to run. Run home, pull the covers over her head, and pretend everything would be all right. But she couldn’t do that. Everyone expected her to sit in the box tonight as if her world hadn’t just come apart.
“Do you want a glass of wine?” Jules asked her.
She looked at him. At her assistant in his peach-and-green silk shirt, obviously still suffering from a metrosexual crisis. What would happen to Jules?
“Faith?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want wine?”
She shook her head. “No,” she answered and her voice sounded hollow.
“Number Twenty-one.” The announcer’s voice filled the Key and bounced off Faith’s brain. “The captain of the Chinooks,
The crowd went wild as he hit the ice, their screams drowning out the painful sob that racked her chest. He skated around the rink with one hand in the air, and when he passed below, he looked up and smiled. Faith’s heart shattered right there. Right there in the skybox. A keening little sound threatened to escape her lips and she rose to her feet. She covered her mouth to keep it inside and ran into the bathroom, practically shoving her mother and Pavel out of her way. She shut the door behind her and wrapped her arms around her stomach as the first sob broke her throat.
“What’s wrong, Faith?” her mother called through the door.
“Nothing,” she managed. “I feel sick.” Another sob racked her chest and she knew she couldn’t stay there. She had to get home. “Could you bring me my purse?” She turned to the vanity and looked at herself in the mirror. At her red cheeks and watery eyes. She ran a paper towel under cold water and held it to her hot face. Her mother entered the room and handed her bag to her.
“You don’t look good,” Valerie said. “Are you getting the flu again?”
“Yes. I have to go home.”
“I’ll get Jules to take you.”
The last thing she wanted was to break down in front of her assistant. “No. I can make it,” she said as she opened the bathroom door.
“Call me when you get home,” her mother called after Faith as she hurried from the owner’s box.
She stumbled into the empty elevator and her vision blurred as she rode it down. She held it together as best she could on the short drive home, but once inside the penthouse, she broke down. Tears poured down her cheeks as she pulled her jersey over her head and she wiggled out of her jeans. Both dropped into a pile on the floor and she crawled into her bed. Jules called to make sure she got home all right and she managed to convince him that she “sounded strange” because she was sick. Then she hung up and pulled the covers over her. She’d lost it all, and she’d never felt so desolate in her life. Landon had ripped everything from her, and she was empty. Except for the burning sorrow in her soul. Just when she was starting to really enjoy her role as owner, just when she was really excited about being involved in the Chinooks Foundation, Landon had taken it all from her. Worst of all, she’d made sure he’d taken Ty, too.
She felt like a kid again. Alone and helpless. She’d worked so hard never to feel those two things again, and here it was back.
A sob racked her chest and Layla crept into her head. She wondered how much it would cost to have someone kill Landon. He deserved to die. The world would be a better place without people like him. Of course Faith would never do it. Not only because she wasn’t that sort of person, but she also had a healthy fear of prison.
Two months. It had only been two months since Virgil died, but her life had changed so drastically, it felt longer. She felt like a different person. Stronger. Confident. More sure of herself.
Two months to have gained so much, only to lose it all. Such a short time to fall completely and totally in love, only to lose him, too. And it was ironic as hell, really. For the last five years she’d let a man take care of her. Now she was giving up her team to take care of someone else.
There was just no choice. No way to save herself and Ty and keep the team. She had to give Landon what he wanted. She wiped a hand across her cheek and wondered what Ty would say if she told him about the photos and Landon’s plan to ruin them. She could predict what he’d say and what he’d ultimately do. He’d want to kill Landon, just like her. And just like her, he’d do what was best for the rest of the team. In the end, she’d still have to sell the Chinooks. She’d still lose the man she loved.
She’d always known she couldn’t have both. That it would end someday. That it would hit her hard and shake up her life. But it didn’t have to be that way for Ty. It didn’t have to affect him. And it wouldn’t if she didn’t tell him about the photos.
