“Of course. We’ll be up in a minute. I just need to grab something.”
Quil nodded and walked off, leaving Brett and Madi alone.
“So, what do you think of him?”
Brett shrugged. “He seems excited. Won’t know until I’m playing with him.”
“You don’t look so eager to play with him,” Madi fished.
“You’re reading too much into it.”
“No, I just see an alpha squaring off with an alpha.”
“I’m the QB. I’m the only alpha,” Brett growled with no conviction, getting a laugh out of her. “I missed you.” He pulled her into his arms, and Madi couldn’t stop her heart from racing at his closeness. “I was hoping we could have lunch alone, but then you go and invite the newbie.”
Madi grinned at his pout; it was kinda sexy to have him jealous. She enjoyed it, she realized. “Oh, c’mon, you get me to yourself all the time. I just wanted us to have some time with him. I’m gonna sign him. I want to make sure I’m making the right decision here. I want you to tell me what you think of him. I value your opinion, you know.”
The way he was looking at her had her insides tightening up. She licked her lips because she felt like he was about to kiss her. Then she remembered why she was down here. Hunt’s locker.
She moved out of Brett’s embrace, toward it confidently. She could do this. She needed to do this. It was part of her closure.
“Mad, uh, are you sure you wanna do this now? It’s 12:15, I’m hungry.”
“It won’t take but a minute,” she contended and stepped in front of it.
“Madi…” Brett grumbled and placed his large palm on her shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s do it later. Please? It’s not going anywhere.”
“Jeez, Brett.” She huffed and turned as he pulled at her. “What’s your deal? Give me just a sec.” His eyes burned into hers—flashing some uncertainty she couldn’t place—but he protested no more and stepped back, removing his hand.
Madi moved the dial around, remembering the numbers, for they were the same as their alarm on the keypad at home. When it popped open, she braced herself. And stepped back in horror at all the pictures of herself lining the inner door. She gasped and covered her mouth in shame.
“Oh my God.” Nude pictures, shocking pictures of herself doing sexual acts on her husband, disgracefully greeted her eyes. She quickly pulled them all down, one by one, each worse than the last, and when the final one was in her hands, she looked back to Brett who had braced himself for the hit. “You—you knew about these!” It wasn’t a question. Of course he did. They all did. She fell, hitting her knees.
Brett was there, grabbing her before the shame ate her up and swallowed her into the ground. “Madi, listen to me.”
“Why? Why did he do this? Everyone…everyone saw these! How could he do that? This is—” She was speechless as she rambled. Her husband had taken something sacred and intimate between them and turned it vile. She felt sick. She felt horrified. She was pissed! “That asshole!”
She threw the pictures back into the locker and slammed the door shut, snapping the lock and turning the dial. She attempted to rein her anger in knowing her fight wasn’t with Brett; it was with the dead man who’d tarnished her image in front of the team she loved like her family. She was their CEO… and her husband had made her look like little less than a porn-star, a hussy, a prize. A prize—that’s all she’d ever been to him. It stung. It ripped her apart. It made her want to pull his carcass from the ground and beat him bloody.
“Madi, I’m sorry,” Brett offered, looking into her eyes as he continued to hold her up from the pit of despair. “For what it’s worth, I tried to stop him.”
She shook her head. She didn’t want his apology.
“It’s fine.” She pulled back and adjusted her dress, wiped the tears at her eyes, and held her chin up. “I’m signing Quillan Layton. We’ll have lunch with him and after, if you have any reservations about him, let me know. Otherwise, he gets Hunter’s locker…and maybe even his number.”
“Madi!” Brett stated with shock. “Surely you don’t mean that.”
Oh, I mean it alright, she wanted to say. And maybe, just maybe Quillan’ll get his wife too!
“He didn’t! Oh my God, what a donger!” Val gasped in surprise.
“Why would he do that?” Sky asked.
“What did Brett say?” Brooke inquired.
“He said that Hunt said it was to, and I quote, ‘Pump him up for our baby making.’”
“That’s some bullshit!” Brooke said. “He just wanted to show the guys what he had in the bedroom—a little sex kitten.” Brooke pinched Madi’s leg and meowed, getting an eye roll out of Madi.
“Have Linc and Travis said anything?” Madi looked down, embarrassed. She knew their guys had to have seen those pics, all the players probably had at some point.
“No, but they wouldn’t. They love you, Madi. Don’t let this bother you, hon.”
But how could it not bother her? Hunter had made her look like a floozy. Those scantily clad pics of her had fed wild imaginations; no wonder some of the guys looked at her like they did. Now she understood why!
The girls comforted her as best they could, but Madi had come home and swore up a storm. She wasn’t much for cussing, but she’d never felt more humiliated in all her life. She was so glad Quil had gone upstairs before she’d opened that locker. The mortification would have been tenfold.
“So, tell me about Quil,” Brooke said, bringing the conversation back to a lighter topic, something she was known for. “He looks like a well-bred Spanish stud.”
“Oh he is,” Madi agreed and they all giggled. She began to tell them all about what Quillan said, about his daughter, how excited he was for the team and how Brett
