“What?” I asked, sitting up. “Is Hans okay?”
My dad cleared his throat.
“There’s not an easy way to say this…but your brother isn’t the man we came to see. The man that we’ve been giving you updates on over the last week was a young man named Easton Monroe. He’s a part of your brother’s team…but he’s not your brother.”
“Then if he’s not there, and not one of the dead…where the hell is he?”
“That’s the problem.” My dad’s voice was tired. “We don’t know.”Chapter 16Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a total bitch like you.
-Hancock, Age 7
Hancock
“Listen,” I told our general manager. “I’m not playing in the game. I don’t want to. I’m not paid to play in the game. And it’s not in my contract that I am required to play the All-Star Game. So, you can kiss my ass. Find someone else to use.”
“This isn’t something where we can just find another player to use. This is something that you were voted into. It’s good exposure for our young team. This is fucking perfect,” Ernie continued as if I’d never spoken.
“Ernie,” I looked at him. “I’m not doing it. Got it?”
“Hancock…”
“Not. Doing. It.”
Ernie’s lips pursed. “Just think about it, okay?”
He left before I could refute his comment, and I turned to glare at the man’s back.
“I’m not doing it!” I bellowed.
“Can you turn down a position in an All-Star Game?” Sway’s quiet voice from behind me had me starting.
I turned to see her standing behind me, arms crossed and eyes studying me like I was an interesting bug.
She’d heard, and I wanted to groan.
Instead, I turned and studied her before speaking, my words tight and clipped.
“I just did,” I pointed out the obvious, my words angrier than I’d intended them to come out. “Did you not notice?”
Her lips pursed.
“Getting mad and throwing attitude at me isn’t the way to go about doing this. I know you’re hurt. I know you’re scared. And I know you’re not meaning to, but you need to seriously stop acting like an ass to everyone. It’s not good for your team, and frankly, I don’t like it. You’re not you.” Sway’s arms crossed over her chest.
My eyes narrowed.
“You don’t like it?” I snapped.
She shook her head.
“You’ve got nothing to do with this. You don’t know my brother. You don’t even know me all that well,” I growled, the words falling from my lips before I could stop them. “So maybe I should just take my bad attitude and stay the fuck away from the people who don’t like listening to me.”
Her mouth dropped open, and her face paled.
But I’d already gone too far, and I wasn’t in the mood to apologize, even though it was obvious that I was acting like an ass, and she was only trying to help.
Regardless, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t apologize.
My head wasn’t on straight.
My mind was in the fucking clouds as I thought about where my brother could be. Whether he was okay. Wondering if I would ever see him again.
It was literally all I could think about over the last couple of days, and I didn’t see it getting any better. Not until I had some fucking answers.
Answers that I intended to get tonight when I spoke with Corvallis.
Corvallis, who’d reluctantly taken the meeting with me.
Lucky for me, and unlucky for him, he had business in the city to attend to.
He’d, of course, tried to get out of it, claiming a busy schedule.
I’d pulled the godson card, though, and he’d had no choice but to meet with me.
I was sure he was going to try to beat around the bush when it came to Hannibal’s whereabouts—because there was not a single doubt in my mind that he knew exactly where he was—but I wasn’t going to let him.
I was going to leave that place with the knowledge of where my brother was, and I wasn’t going to let him play me.
He knew something, and I was damn sure going to find out.
“That was kind of harsh,” Gentry drawled. “She was telling the truth, you know.”
I turned my head to glare at Gentry.
“Fuck you.”
His brows rose.
“You just told the girl you were falling in love with to leave you the fuck alone,” Gentry pointed out.
I glared at him.
“I most certainly did not say that,” I countered.
Not in so many words, anyway.
“And I’m not in love with her.”
Gentry’s brows rose even higher.
“You’re so full of shit I can see it coming out of your ears.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the locker that was directly beside mine. “And your fucking face is telling me something completely different than your words.”
I sighed.
“I’m not in the mood, Gentry.”
“You better get in the mood, or you’re going to lose one of the best things you’ve ever had in your life—and that’s saying something since you’re currently making forty-two million dollars over a five-year period,” Gentry argued.