Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88463 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88463 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“This is a surprise,” he says into my ear.
“Hello, sir. It sounds like we have a situation.”
“If you’re talking about your idiot of an agent, no. There’s no situation.”
I feel my shoulders drop with relief. “He no longer speaks for me, sir.”
“I know that. But I can plainly see that he’s hell bent on fucking with you, son. What are you going to do about that?”
How is it that literally every single other person in my life is so damn supportive? How did I luck out this way?
“There are several moving pieces right now, but I have a feeling that Andy’s going to end up in jail. That’s between the two of us, of course.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “The team’s legal and PR teams are yours to use as you need,” he says. “You may no longer be on my starting lineup, but you’re still one of ours, and we’ll take care of you, Ryker.”
“He threatened my girl.”
“Then we’ll take care of her too. Like I said, whatever you need. Just give me the word.”
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“You don’t need to. You lived and breathed for this team for fifteen years. We haven’t forgotten that. Just let me know how to help.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“We’ll speak soon.”
I hang up and let out a deep breath. As long as Andy doesn’t send those photos to anyone else, everything is going to be fine.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Willow
All my voice work is done for the day, since I wrapped up a project, and then I took a couple of hours to prep the next. I haven’t turned my phone on today. I was worried that I’d get more photos, and I don’t think my mental health can stand any more.
Don’t get me wrong. Ryker did a damn good job of making me forget all about it through the night, and I love that he wanted to do that. That he needed to be as close to me as I needed to be to him.
But it doesn’t change the fact that it happened, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get all the photos out of my head. Seeing him in intimate situations with beautiful women honestly makes me sick to my stomach. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, how many women he’s been with. He’s been a professional athlete at the top of his game his entire adult life. Of course women threw themselves at him. I watched it happen.
It was disgusting.
But I’m no virgin. Sure, I’ve only been with four men in my life because I’ve raised Aiden for the past decade, and dating when you’re a single parent isn’t easy.
But there were men.
Four of them.
I bet I saw Ryker with fifteen different women, easy, in those photos. And I know that’s only scratching the surface.
Ugh, stop thinking about it.
I power on my phone, because as much as I’d like to leave it off, I use it for work, and I need to know if anyone has tried to reach me.
I pace behind my desk, trying to work off some nervous energy, and my phone pings with a few messages.
No missed calls.
“Thank God,” I mutter to myself when I see that the messages are just work related, and one from Gideon.
Gid: How you doing, baby girl?
Since he’s injured, I know he’s not working, so I simply call him. I know that I can always talk to Ryker, but right now, I need a best friend who isn’t my boyfriend.
“Hey, you,” he says.
“Hi, handsome. Wanna FaceTime, or is this okay?”
Suddenly, the phone rings with an incoming FaceTime call, and I accept it and set the phone up on my desk so I’m hands-free.
“I guess that answers my question.”
“I want to see your face,” Gid says, eyeing me. “You didn’t answer my text this morning.”
“I just turned the phone on. I left it off all day because I didn’t want to get any more pornographic photos of my man with random women.”
Gideon blows out a breath and cringes. “I’m sorry, Wills.”
“Unless it was you that sent them, you have nothing to feel sorry for.”
He shakes his head. “No one should have to see that. I’m tracking down the sender. I have calls out to your phone carrier.”
“The things you can find are kind of scary.”
He laughs and then just smiles at me. Gideon doesn’t often smile. He never has, so when I get one, I tuck it away in my heart.
“Is it always going to be like this?” I ask him.
“What do you mean?”
I blow out a breath and lay my forehead on the desk, close my eyes.
“Wills, talk to me.”
“I don’t want to anymore.”
He chuckles, and I squint one eye open and stare at him.
“He has baggage, Wills.”
“We all do,” I counter. “We all had tough childhoods—”
“I’m not even talking about that. He’s always going to be Ryker James, the phenom, the GOAT of professional hockey. Two-time Stanley Cup winner, MVP, and all the other things that make his ego big.”