“Love you too.”
“Well, strap on your lady balls and stop giving people who don’t know you the ability to hurt you. Talk soon, okay?”
I made promises to call her again in a couple of days. After she hung up, I did what she said. I womaned up and went in search of one of the men who made me so fucking happy.
We’d get through this shit. Together.
ChapterThirty-Five
RIGBY
Harvey Monderra wasrich as hell. He owned the majority of the IceCaps, and the better part of the west side of Detroit. He didn’t take shit, he protected his investments, and right now, he was pissed as hell.
He was scrolling through a file the public relations team had given him on a tablet, and hadn’t said a word to us, even though we’d been sitting here for at least fifteen minutes. Even Muss—who didn’t even need to be here because he’d done nothing, literally nothing at all—was starting to look a little panicked. He almost looked like he was wondering if he’d sleep-walked his way to Nova’s bed and just didn’t remember. That was the Harvey Monderra effect.
Finally, Harvey put down the tablet and looked at Caitlyn from PR. “How bad?”
“Memberships are down immediately, and we’ve had at least six requests for statements—four from the tabloid departments of nationally syndicated newspapers. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t have the Hefferman scandal less than five years ago.”
I winced. That shit was bad. Isaac Hefferman had gotten picked up by the cops soliciting prostitutes for blowjobs in the back of his Bugatti. It got rough, and the guy ended up losing his contract, being forced to retire.
I gulped. Surely, that wasn’t what was about to happen here, right?
River made an angry noise in the back of his throat. “We aren’t fucking hookers in dirty back alleys. I’m—I mean,we’rein a committed relationship with Nova. It’s no one’s fucking business who we date, and whether we date three women or one.”
River was angry. Like he’d jumped past seeing red and gone straight to seeing incandescent white. I bumped his knee with mine, trying to get him to calm down without giving away he was about to blow his shit like Vesuvius.
“Muss has nothing to do with this; we were literally at his house for dinner. All of us. If that doesn’t tell you the level of reporting, then nothing will,” I told Caitlyn from PR, and she shrugged.
“The truth doesn’t matter. Just the optics.”
Muss leaned forward. “That’s fucking bullshit. So how are we, as players, meant to protect against blatant fabrication by the media? You want us to become fucking monks? Recluses except for team-approved outings?”
Caitlyn gave him a cool look. “It would make my job easier.”
Harvey looked at Muss. “I believe you. Go to training.” He turned his gaze to us as I went to stand. “Not you.”
I gulped again, but tried to keep my face impassive. I reminded myself we weren’t doing anything wrong. We weren’t breaking any laws, clauses in our contract, nothing. We were in a committed relationship, even if it was unconventional.
Harvey stroked his jaw, looking between us. “The IceCaps have always been the family club. You can bring your six-year-old daughter and know she’s going to enjoy a good hockey game without the fighting and the drunk assholes. We’ve spent a lot of time and money cultivating the image that we are community focused. Toy drives, family events, peewee training and mentorships. Millions of dollars in marketing. And you guys come along and decide to all fuck the one girl like she’s group property?”
River was out of his seat with a roar. “You don’t fucking talk about her like that. I won’t hearanyfucker talk about her like that. Not you, not the press—no one.”
I jumped up before he could do something dumb, like hit the owner of the team that literally had us locked down in airtight contracts for the next year. I got in front of him, the big bastard. Fucking enforcers.
“Calm the hell down,” I hissed. “The last thing we need is you getting a fucking assault charge and ruining your career forever.” I shoved his shoulder until he paced to the other side of the room.
I sat back down, turning my body slightly so I could keep one eye on him. “With all due respect, Mr. Monderra, you don’t know shit about our relationship with Nova. And you don’t need to know. There's nothing in our contracts that dictates who we can and can’t date.”
“There is a clause about doing your best to maintain the reputation of the club,” Caitlyn countered.
I slid my eyes to her and curled my lip. “That would be relevant if we were out fucking hookers, or puck bunnies, or someone else’s wife. But we are all consenting adults, going into a relationship with full transparency, and just because it doesn’t look howyoufeel it should, doesn’t make it any less valid. If you want to make those kind of dictations, it won’t be long until you’re the owner of a team of desperate rejects who have nowhere else to go, because anyone with any skill will fuck off to some other team who isn’t meddling in their relationships, telling them what to do.”
Monderra looked at me, his eyes narrowed. He knew I’d walk if I didn't like what he said next. I might float around as a free agent for a while, but someone would pick me up eventually, scandal be damned.
Finally, he nodded. “Keep your noses clean and out of the papers until after the playoffs, or you’re out.”
River scoffed. “Good luck winning the Cup without us.”