Fair Game: A Football Romance (17 page)

Adam looks at Grant and back to Harper. “I don’t know baby, when did you see her last?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long have you been at Kareem’s house?” he asks, but something in his voice says he doesn’t really want to know how long his baby has been with this man named Kareem.

“I didn’t go to school this week.”

It’s Thursday. She’s been there for at least four days. The guesthouse burned down last night, so why would she have dropped her off such a long time ago?

“Did your mommy say where she was going?” I ask.

She shakes her head back and forth.

“Was Kareem nice to you, baby?” Adam asks.

“I don’t like him.”

“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Adam asks, pressing her harder for details.

“Are you hungry, Harper? We could go and get some dinner if you want,” I say when she hesitates. This may be too hard for her to talk about right away, and a little girl her age might be afraid to open up about abuse to her father.

“Yes, I’m hungry. Kareem only gave me cereal.”

“For four days?” Adam says, loud enough to make her jump.

Harper’s eyes pop and her hands drop to her sides away from Adam.

“I bet that got boring, huh? What kind of cereal did he give you?” I ask, distracting her from her distraught daddy. I give him a look that says you’re-scaring-her and he turns away. From the looks of his profile, he’s trying to get his shit together, so I keep up the casual conversation with Harper.

“Frosted Flakes. They weren’t so bad,” she says, reneging on her earlier complaint.

“Maybe we could get a burger and some ice cream? How’s that sound?”

Harper smiles and surprises me by crawling from Adam’s lap into mine. I’ve never been around little kids. I’m an only child and I was never into babysitting, so this bold show of affection feels strange, but not bad strange, warm and tingly strange. The sensation starts in my chest and spreads everywhere when she snuggles against my neck. How could anyone leave this sweet little girl for more than an hour, much less a week?

Where is Cherry anyway? And who the hell is Kareem?

I wrap my arms around Harper, and she turns to sit in my lap facing her father. I can’t believe he’s a father, his public reputation is so dirty playboy but he’s really a self-sacrificing, loving daddy.

I lift my eyes and find Adam watching me. His expression is more relaxed and full of tenderness.

“Just like Lady,” he says.

“What’s just like Lady?”

“She’s taking to you just like Lady. You never had pets or siblings growing up. How do you do it?”

“I don’t know, just lucky I guess.”

“So you’re not angry?”

I smooth my hand down the back of Harper’s soft blonde locks.

“Not angry, just surprised or shocked maybe. I haven’t had time to process it all, but we will be doing some serious talking later for sure.”

He takes a deep breath and exhales through his nose, dropping his chin to his chest. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not judging, or freaking out, for being so accepting and understanding, for this …” he says, gesturing at Harper in my lap.

“You’ve been saving my life for six years, it’s the least I can do.” I lean in and kiss him on the cheek, but he turns at the last second and presses a soft kiss to my lips.

Harper drops her head back to watch.

“You like my daddy?”

“I do, very much.”

“Me too, he’s a good daddy.”

“He’s a good man.”

“Yep, you’re a good man, daddy.”

“You just want a burger and ice cream,” he says, tickling her tummy, and she screeches with delight. Ten minutes later, we are in the drive through of a fast food burger joint ordering one of everything on the menu. The cashier refuses to charge us when she learns the order is for the Redking’s one and only Adam Silver.

“I hope you send them the money, that girl’s paycheck is probably going to be seriously short next week.”

“No, you don’t think they’ll do that, do you?”

“Uh, yeah. Brea worked at Burger Bop and she gave out free food to a celebrity once, they docked her pay and threatened to fire her.”

“How is Brea these days? She ever marry that firefighter dude?”

Brea was hot and heavy with fireman Dan for about eighteen months, but she freaked out when he proposed and broke it off.

“Nope, she dumped him when he proposed. She’s got commitment issues.”

Harper is rummaging through the bags of food, popping fries and sampling everything she comes across. At this rate, she’s going to be barfing before we get back to Grant’s safe house.

“I always liked Brea, she was sassy.”

“Too sassy for her own good sometimes.”

I take a cheeseburger from the bag and scoot Harper back in the seat between Adam and me. I secure her seatbelt over her lap and open the wrapper of the burger so she can eat.

“I’m thirsty.”

Adam opens a bottle of milk and hands it to her. “No soda?” Her face is pure Shirley Temple sweet.

“Wow, who taught you how to do that?” he asks, impressed with her antics.

“Do what?” she says, tilting her head to the side with wide, innocent eyes. I’m not sure if she’s messing with him or if she’s just that darn cute.

“Twist your daddy around your little finger, that’s what.”

She holds her hands over her lap and spreads her fingers out, examining them.

“This one?” she asks, pointing to her pinky finger on her right hand.

“That one and this one and this one …” he says, kissing every one of her fingers.

If I wasn’t sure about still being in love with Adam before, there is no doubt now. I’m still shocked that he has a child and I won’t lie, it hurts that I wasn’t the woman to give her to him. Our lives went different ways and we both made mistakes. Harper isn’t a mistake, more like a beautiful surprise. Her mother was the mistake.

“Are we going back to your place or Grant’s?”

“Grant’s for now, then if everything works out, we can go home tomorrow.”

“How are you going to figure out who did it if you can’t find …” I cock my head in Harper’s direction and mouth the words
her mom
. She’s so busy with her food she doesn’t notice we are talking about her.

“I’m having second thoughts about her being responsible since she left Harper almost a week ago. Grant’s going to concentrate all of his focus on Vinnie now that I have you and Harper safe with me.”

I wonder if getting rid of Vinnie will solve anything. If he’s involved with the Mafia, won’t there always be another Vinnie and another and another to take his place when he’s gone? Will Adam ever be able to shake these blackmailing criminals?

Chapter Twenty

Adam

She didn’t run. Relief is my best friend today; I’d expected Ame to be on the next plane to Florida when she found out that I had a daughter with Cherry.

“Whose house is this?” Harper asks.

Amethyst is sitting on the edge of the only bed in the safe house, tucking her in for the night. She helped her take a bath and change into pajamas that Grant’s housekeeper Mini picked up at Target along with a few outfits and some kid-friendly snacks.

Thankfully this is a temporary set up because I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off of this woman for long, and we are all going to have to share the same bed tonight.

“Your daddy’s friend Grant lives upstairs, we’re just staying here tonight because there was a fire at daddy’s guesthouse and there was a lot of smoke. We have to wait for the firemen to say it’s safe to go back inside.”

“My house was on fire?” she says with deep frown lines cutting in between her eyes.

Ame glances at me and I nod, indicating that it’s okay to tell her.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, honey. Did you leave anything there?”

“No, Mommy had our stuff, but we left it in the yucky house.”

“The one you were at today?” Amethyst asks.

“No, the cold one.”

She must mean the condemned building they ran from when Grant found them.

“Was there anything you really wanted? Anything special we could go back and look for?”

“No, Mommy didn’t let me bring anything, my stuff’s at Cameron’s house.”

“Who’s Cameron?” Amethyst asks.

“Cameron is her babysitter, she watches her before and after school and drives her back and forth,” I say.

“Well, maybe we can go and get your things tomorrow, or have Grant get them. How’s that sound?” Amethyst asks.

She nods, and we watch her long blonde lashes flutter as her eyes fall shut. I know I’m biased, but she’s an exceptionally beautiful child. She looks like an angel when she’s asleep.

“Come sit with me,” I say to Amethyst from the other side of the bed where she has me all arranged. She insisted that she should sleep on the couch, but there’s no way I’m spending even one night without her in my arms.

“Okay, but only for a few minutes. You both need your sleep,” she says, pointing her finger at me like a mother. She’s going to make a great mother someday. Hell, I hope she’ll make a great mother to Harper.

“Yes mother, what’s my punishment if I don’t sleep?”

Ame’s cheeks turn a dark rose color when she sits down on the outside edge of the bed. It’s funny how easily she gets embarrassed, there aren’t many things we haven’t done together but the mention of punishment makes her blush.

“Considering you’re torturing yourself by not taking your pain meds, I think you’re suffering enough. I’ll let you off the hook this time.”

She’s spot on with that one. I am in serious fucking pain, but I would still rather put up with it than be foggy headed. I am supposed to be protecting them, and how can I do that if I can’t think fast and move faster? I can’t wait to get home tomorrow and start physical therapy; with or without Amethyst, it’s happening. If I can use a wheelchair and fuck, I can get back on my feet.

“Gee thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Want some Percocet?”

“No.”

She growls in frustration but even with pain levels of 8/10, she makes me hard. I take her hand and lift the comforter, sliding her warm palm over my solid cock. Her eyes shoot to Harper and back at me.

“Adam, no. I’m not messing around with your daughter in the bed.”

“I wasn’t asking you to, I just wanted you to know what you do to me when you growl like that. Even when my leg is throbbing, so is my cock.”

“You’re shameless,” she says, pulling her hand away.

“Yep, guilty as charged.”

Shaking her head, she leans in to kiss me goodnight. Her mouth tastes like soft serve ice cream and she smells like bubble bath. The combination is magnetic and the kiss goes on and on until I know her neck and arms are tired of the kinked position.

Taking advantage of her current state of weakness, I slide my hand behind her back and pull her over my body and into bed next to me.

“You’re not sleeping on the couch, you’re never sleeping anywhere but next to me again.”

“Mm, I like the sound of that, but we both have traveling jobs, you know. That might be hard. And don’t make a
hard
joke, I can see it in your eyes,” she says, swatting at my chest. She’s right, I was totally going to say something.

“I’m going to be off for a couple months and you’ll be here, right?”

I pull her in closer and hike her knee up over my waist. Her jeans are damp on the ankles and knees from giving Harper a bath and her feet are bare. Rubbing little circles into the bottom of her foot, I wait for a moan. She always loved having her feet rubbed.

“Yes,” she says, dragging out the word.

“Still like having your feet rubbed, I see.”

“Always.”

I stop and she whimpers.

“You’ll be here, right?” She never answered my question.

“Yes, of course, but not if you don’t keep rubbing my foot.”

“I’ll rub more than …”

“Ah uh uh, stop. I have a problem saying no to you, Adam. You know that, but I draw the line on hanky panky next to five year olds.”

I smile and continue rubbing her pretty little foot. She has deep purple toenail polish on and not a rough spot anywhere, unlike my calloused, battered feet.

“Did she say anything to you about Kareem?” I’ve been putting off asking because I’m afraid of what she might tell me.

“Nothing bad, she said she had to watch TV a lot and ate cereal all the time. She did mention a lot of men coming in and out of the house, but she couldn’t remember what they were talking about. She said they had guns. What is that guy into anyway?”

“Grant says human trafficking. We were lucky as hell to find her still staying with him. Cherry runs with a rough crowd.”

“Oh my God,” she whispers. I look at my sleeping beauty on the other side of Ame, and a shiver races up my spine at the thought of her being sold to some pervert. How on earth did we get so lucky? Maybe Cherry and Kareem had a deal, a trade of services so to say.

“I’m never handing her over to that woman again. Grant has all of this documented with videos and photographs. If the court tries to pull the mother card again, I’ll blow them out of the water.”

“That’s a relief. What will you do when you go back to work? She starts school this year, doesn’t she?”

That’s a difficult question, but I’m happy she’s assuming I’m going back to work, that means she has high hopes of getting me back on the field.

“Yeah, kindergarten. I’ll hire help and take her with me whenever I can.”

“You know that’s not feasible, there’s barely time to eat and sleep when the season starts, let alone take care of a little girl.”

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll do it. I’ll figure it out.”

“What about the public? Will you tell them about her?”

“Eventually. I’m hoping to keep it quiet until we stop Vinnie.”

“That’s another thing, how are you going to do that? I was thinking if he has Mafia connections, won’t they just send a new guy if Vinnie goes missing?”

“I’m not looking to kill him, I want to expose him and his bosses. I want to get to the root of the problem. Who knows how many other people are going through what we are? They need to be stopped, permanently.”

“And Grant is going to do that all alone?”

“Grant has help.”

“How much help?”

“You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”

“Yes, and I expect answers too.”

“He started all of this ten years ago when he had some personal problems of his own that required a lot more money than he was earning at the FBI. I don’t know the details. He’s pretty private.”

“Yeah, he’s a quiet one, I’ve noticed.”

“Hmm. Anyway, he’s got more than a hundred people on his payroll from what I can tell, all ex-military, cops, FBI. A few are computer hacker criminals turned good guys.”

“Wow, that’s an interesting staff. I had no idea.”

“Nobody does, it’s all underground secret shit. The only way anyone ever knows about it is if they get in a mess like me.”

“How did you find him then?”

“He did a job for Coach, and he’s one of the only people who knows about my father and what he did to me.”

“Coach needed his help? What did … no, never mind, I don’t want to know.”

“Good, because I can’t tell you.” I say gently, tickling her under her ribs. She giggles and Harper squirms onto her side, facing away from us.

Ame turns to check on her and when she looks back, I waggle my brows.

“We can kiss now, she’s looking the other way,” I whisper.

“We are talking, you flirt. We can kiss later.”

I wasn’t expecting a compromise; I’d better quit while I’m ahead.

“What else do you want to know?”

“How the hell did all of this happen?” she says, hitching her thumb in Harper’s direction.

“How did I get Cherry pregnant?”

“Yes, how did you get Cherry pregnant?”

“Well, you see I put my dick inside her va …”

“Oh my God, you’re incorrigible.”

“Sorry, things between us have been so strained until now, it’s good to be myself again.”

Snuggling in closer, she murmurs something that sounds like agreement.

“And to answer your question in an non-biological manner, it was your typical drunken night gone bad. I was lonely and missing you and the guys on the team were going out, so I went along and had too much to drink. I went back to my hotel with her and the rest is history,” I say, looking over at Harper. For the first time since this afternoon, I notice her hair. It’s not as blonde as it usually is; somebody’s been messing with her hair. Was that fucker Kareem getting ready to move my daughter? Could we have been that close to losing her? I reach over with the hand that I’ve had around Ame’s back and rub a curl of Harper’s hair between my fingers.

“Ame, do you think someone’s been coloring her hair?”

She shifts against my arm so she can see her too.

“Yes, I was going to mention it earlier, but I forgot. It’s not permanent, some of it washed out in the tub. Is her hair like yours when you were little?”

“Exactly like mine, really blond and wavy. I think they may have sold her. They were getting ready to move her out of there. Fuck Ame, we were almost too late.”

Tears well in my eyes. I haven’t cried since I came to Virginia six years ago, but the thought of losing Harper in such a horrible way jolts me to the core. I press my head into the pillow and squeeze my eyes closed tight.

“Hey, almost …” she says, climbing over me and taking my face into her hands.

“She’s right here and she’s safe. Don’t dwell on what could have happened, rejoice in what did happen.”

Her lips press against mine and I snake my hands inside the waist of her jeans under her sweater. She’s warm and soft and I’d love to be inside of her, but the reason I can’t is the little blessing sleeping next to us, and that’s so okay with me.

Ame leads the kiss, nipping and sucking on my bottom lip while I explore the small of her back and the top edge of her luscious ass. When she begins to pull away, I guide her back and forge a trail of hot wet kisses up and down her neck, making sure to stop and pant in her damp ear once or twice.

Kissing is an art, and Ame and I are creating a masterpiece. She slides her hands from my face into my hair and curls her fingers in it, pulling tight enough to turn me on but not so much it hurts. She’s an expert at taking me to the edge and reeling me back in. No woman has ever had power over me like she does. When we are together like this, the world melts away and I am hers.

“We have to stop,” she says between kisses.

“I know,” I say, dragging her into a toe-curling, cock-twitching kiss that would tempt a saint.

“Oh, God, Adam, don’t …”

“Don’t what? Stop?” I ask, but she’s breathless and she doesn’t answer.

“Stop making me need you so bad.”

“I can’t help it, the feeling is mutual,” I say into her ear.

“I’m getting up now.”

“No, don’t leave, I promise to be good. No more lips, see?” I say, pulling away from her mouth and grinding my cock against her open legs.

“No
lips
at all, mister.” She grinds against me too. I get her crude joke, and I love it because it sounds like something I would say.

“I’m
rubbing off
on you, aren’t I?” I push into her and squeeze her ass, but she’s determined to drive me crazy before she settles down next to me again.

“You’re
hard
to resist,” she says, giving me another push.

“You think you’re
slick,
huh?” Just one more innuendo, I can’t help myself. She laughs and slides off of me onto the floor.