Pinned Down: A Triple Threat Sports Romance (15 page)

Kendra

I didn’t recognize the number when I looked at the screen, but that wasn’t uncommon in my line of work. I was often answering calls that could have been related to work just because there was the chance that it would be beneficial to the cause, so to speak.

“This is Kendra,” I answered, figuring it had to be a donor calling me back, though I usually tried to save numbers after speaking with someone the first time.

“Kendra Isaacson,” the voice on the other end said.

My blood froze and my jaw dropped. I almost dropped my phone. I couldn’t find any words to speak. I hadn’t heard the voice speaking to me in years. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had spoken to either of my parents.

My father laughed. “It’s okay, honey. It’s a surprise to hear your voice as well.”

His voice was deep and smoky and reminded me of my childhood. It was warm and comforting, but it was also hard and stern. I had grown up privileged. As a child, I had been given everything I wanted. My parents had spared no expense. They were also on the road or in the studio a lot, and their job took them away from home quite often.

There was never a local artist who needed them. They were always being whisked away to New York, LA, England, even Atlanta. They rarely went down the street or around the corner for work. They would drag me along when they could, of course, but there were plenty of times when I had to stay in school or just couldn’t come along because it was a tour and they were going to be moving from city to city night after night.

When I left home, I stopped accepting money from them. There had been some money in the beginning, but I got away from it as soon as I could. I needed my financial independence. I wanted to make my own way in the world. I didn’t play any instruments. I didn’t sing. I didn’t want any part of their world, other than what I had already experienced. The money was great, and they had made a ton of it working for the right stars. Their lifestyle just wasn’t stable enough for me.

I wanted to be in one place at a time. I didn’t want to see the whole world at once the way they had. I wanted to see as much as I could, but I didn’t want to rush. I just wanted to do some good in the world. And I had wanted to do it without my privileged past getting in the way.

“How did you find me?” Those were the first words I said to my father after not seeing him or speaking to him for years.

He had a good sense of humor about it, thankfully. He got a good laugh out of the question instead of scolding me for not being grateful to hear from him. There had been times in the past when he’d been angry with me for distancing myself from them. I knew they didn’t have my current number, though. I had made sure of that.

“It doesn’t matter how I found you, does it?” he asked. “I found you. I always find you.”

“Yeah, you do.” I sighed. It seemed like it never really took that long for him to find me either.

“So, how have you been?” he asked me.

“Something tells me you already know. I’m sure you’re not calling just to catch up,” I said in an accusing tone.

“You’re right. I heard it through the grapevine that you’re struggling and need some financial help with your current venture,” he explained.

“Maybe,” I said, carefully waiting to see what he would say back. I wanted to know what he knew about my situation and how he knew. I was sure there had to be something in the news about the troubles I was facing with Older Brothers.

“So, tell me a little about your current charity,” my father said.

People always expected my parents to be sentimental types in touch with their emotions because they were musicians, but they were so disconnected at times. They were cold and business-like, despite the warmth in their voices. Instead of trying to make small talk and catch up with me after all the time that had passed, he wanted to get right down to business.

A small part of me was thankful we were skipping the catching up part.

I told him about Older Brothers, everything from trying to connect successful men in the area with Younger Brothers from struggling families or other disadvantaged backgrounds, to inheriting crippling debt from the previous director after she was arrested for stealing money from the charity. I told him about Lucky.

“We were paired up with the local football team, and you know how I feel about sports. I hated the idea of telling these kids the best they could ever hope to do was get into sports.” It felt natural to complain to my father about it.

“I know, honey, but sometimes it’s the easiest way out for some of them,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. I ended up meeting the new kicker, a guy they call Lucky. As part of a PR stunt for the team, he made a pretty decent donation and agreed to be one of our Older Brothers. He was trying to clean up his image, and since I’m not much of a sports fan, I didn’t know just how bad his image was,” I confided in my father.

“How bad was it? What happened?” he asked, and I realized that we were actually catching up a little bit.

“Well, I ended up in the tabloids as his new girlfriend, and I didn’t think that was so bad, so I agreed to actually start dating him. It was supposed to be just for show at first, but it started to grow into more.” I closed my eyes and took a breath. I was telling him too much, but it was so easy to open up to my father.

“That was before you realized just how bad things were, huh?”

“Right. I don’t think anything really happened, but his ex-girlfriend sent a bunch of pictures of bruises and stuff to the papers to make it look like he beat her. He didn’t. I was with him the whole time when she said it happened, but it was all over the papers, so I had to let him go and decline his donation to try to save face. Everyone pulled out of the charity then. Now, I’ve got nothing, and I’m running out of time.” I was starting to cry, but I wiped my eyes and sucked it up. I may have felt like telling my father nearly everything, but I did not feel like crying in front of him. That crossed a line.

“I didn’t realize it was that bad. I guess that’s why he didn’t tell me,” my father said.

“I’m sorry. Who didn’t tell you?” I asked. I was pretty sure he’d just admitted that Lucky had called them to tell them about my predicament. Behind my back, no less.

My father sighed. “Your boyfriend.”

“My who?” I hadn’t expected him to call them, much less to tell them we were dating. Hell, they probably knew everything already. Sure, I had told my father we were dating, but it was different. He was my father, not Lucky’s. It wasn’t Lucky’s place to tell my parents we were together.

Hell, it wasn’t even his place to call them. I was going to chew his ass out when I got off the phone.

“Your boyfriend. Cade Hendrix, the kicker. He called to tell us what was going on, since you won’t. He told me you needed money to keep the charity going,” he explained.

I didn’t know what to say. He had no business getting that involved in my affairs. I still wanted to believe I was perfectly capable of handling things on my own. I didn’t need someone calling my parents and essentially telling on me.

“Come on, now.  Level with me,” my father insisted.

I felt like a kid again, with my parents trying to get me to open up to them. I didn’t want to be the kid who needed help from home when things got tough. The weight of every single one of these conversations we’d had over the years pressed down on my shoulders. No matter how defiant I had always tried to be, I had always let them in eventually. I realized I was backed into a corner, and there wasn’t enough fight left in me to stand up to my father.

“The charity is in trouble,” I admitted through clenched teeth. “If I can’t find the money to keep the office, I stand to lose it all. I will probably be removed from my position and the local chapter will be shut down. My staff will lose their jobs. I’ve already sent them home until we have the money to get back to work. We’re at the end of our rope here.”

“And you don’t have any way to secure the funds? Lucky can’t help you?” He was calling him Lucky, like they were best friends or something. What the hell?

“I can’t accept his money until he’s been cleared of the charges he’s facing right now. And there are a few less honest options, but I want to be honest about what’s going on. I don’t want to have to hide where or how I get the money,” I explained.

“I understand. Lucky told me you need about three million,” he continued.

I wondered just how much Lucky had told him. I was sure Lucky was just using the number because it was what he and Tommy were trying to give me. I didn’t want to say anything to my father about Tommy. I certainly didn’t want him to know I was thinking of trading sex for a donation. My parents were used to going on tour with pretty big names in the music business, so they knew about how sex could get tangled up with work, but there was a big difference between running a charity and playing in a rock band.

“That’s how much he’s offering,” I said quietly, almost ashamed that I was turning that kind of money down.

“Is that going to be enough to clear the charity’s debt, pay your employees, and allow you to start helping these kids again so that you can start getting more donations?” he asked.

“Yes, sir, that should be more than enough.” Even though he was trying to help, it felt like a punishment.

“I can wire the money to you,” he said. “You’ll have it pretty much immediately.”

I sighed. “I don’t want your help.” I heard the reluctance in my own voice, shocked that I was actually telling my father what I really wanted and how I really felt.

“I’m not asking, Kendra.”

“You never do,” I said resentfully. My voice was low, but I hoped he got the point nonetheless.

“I shouldn’t have to ask to help my own daughter,” he protested.

“But you don’t ask to do anything. First, you’re helping. Then, you’re trying to make decisions for me.”

“How so?” he challenged me.

I realized I didn’t have an answer ready for him. It just always felt that way. It always felt like there were expectations put on any help he gave me, like I had to live up to something. I didn’t want to feel that way again. It was bad enough I was being made to tip-toe around to keep up appearances with the charity. I didn’t want to do that with my parents, too.

“I’m not telling you what to do with your life. I’m not telling you to stop with these charities. You’ve made it obvious more than once that this is what you want to do with your life. I can’t stop you. And I don’t want to stop you. I just want to make it so you don’t have to give up so easily,” he explained.

“I don’t know,” I told him. I didn’t want their money. Their money was supposed to fix everything. That was how they had always used it, as a kind of cure-all for every problem that arose in our lives.

“Well, will you just think on it?” he asked.

“Sure.” I already had my answer, I felt. I didn’t need to think on anything.

“You have my number. Call me and let me know what you decide to do.” He didn’t sound pushy at all, but he never did. He always left it up to me, but he did it in such a way that I knew he expected me to take his help.

We said our goodbyes and hung up. I knew what I was going to do first. I was going to call Lucky and let him have a piece of my mind for going behind my back the way he did.

Lucky

The buzzing of my phone in my pocket felt like an accusation. I didn’t want to answer it because I already knew who it was, and I knew I was in pretty serious trouble. I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy call, but I also knew there weren’t any other options left for Kendra other than talking to her parents.

I was standing on the balcony outside my bedroom, looking out over the patio and pool. I was using what I had imagined her father doing as advice for what I should have been doing to keep from going stir crazy while I was stuck at home and unable to play.

It had been shaping up to be a beautiful day outside, but something told me all of that was about to come to an end. My stomach knotted up tighter with each ring. I was merely prolonging the inevitable by not answering right away.

I pulled my phone out. It was Kendra. The phone buzzed insistently in my hand, demanding that I answer it.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey? Is that all you have to say for yourself?” she snapped right away.

“How’s the funding going?” I asked, avoiding her question.

“Okay, fair enough. You want to know how looking for money is going? My
father
called me today. He called a number I never gave him to talk to me about my boyfriend and the money I need in order to save Older Brothers. What do you know about that?” There was no more playing dumb with her, even though I was curious to see how far she was willing to go before she actually came out and accused me of calling her parents.

“I know that he wants to help you, and I know that he’s worried about you, in his own way,” I added, dodging her remarks again.

“In his own way is right,” she said. Every word that came out of her mouth felt like a new accusation of wrongdoing.

“Listen, Kendra. You should at least listen to him. Your parents care about you,” I told her.

“Sure, they care. Of course they do. I’m their daughter. They pretty much have to care. But you don’t know what it was like growing up with them,” she insisted.

“What, they bought you everything you wanted? You had the best of everything?” I asked, challenging her.

“But I paid a different kind of price for that,” she continued.

“You’re right, Kendra, I don’t know what that’s like,” I told her. “You saw my parents’ humble home. I didn’t come from money. I didn’t have to deal with getting everything I wanted. I had to deal with busting my ass to make anything happen in my life.”

“But your parents didn’t try to control you, did they?”

“No more than any other parents, I guess. I mean, they weren’t overbearing, but they did try to establish rules and guidelines for my life.” I laughed, because everyone knew how well rules worked for me.

“But you play by your own rules, don’t you?” she asked, still trying to poke holes in my arguments and challenge me.

“I do, but it’s like what the teachers used to say in school. You have to know the rules before you can break them. I learned the rules. I broke the shit out of them. And then I made up my own. The reality of it all is that they can only exert as much control over your life as you allow them to,” I said, trying to break it down for her.

“If only it were that easy,” she continued arguing.

“You have a rebuttal for everything, don’t you? Kendra, you’re an adult. You have some authority over your life, whether you want to admit it or not. You’ve made it this far without their help. That gives you more than a leg to stand on when it’s time to put them in their place,” I told her.

“Yeah, I guess so, but their place isn’t in my life.”

All I could do was shake my head and laugh. She was so hell bent on being right and being independent. Maybe too much.

“Fine. Do what you will. But there’s a better option on the table than sleeping around to get the money. Once it gets out that you’re selling ass for Older Brothers, how do you think that’s going to go over?” I asked her.

“I know. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t just jump on the offer right away,” she admitted to me.

“Hopefully just one of them.” It was a loaded statement, I knew. That was why I used it. I wanted her to hear how badly I wanted to be one of her reasons, but I also wanted to sound like I didn’t care one way or the other. I felt like I was going to be on my way out the door after pulling that stunt, so it wouldn’t have come as a surprise if she told me to piss off.

“You had to find a way to bring this back around to
us
, didn’t you?” she snapped.

“I was just saying I didn’t want you to go off sacrificing your dignity and integrity for a little bit of cash,” I argued.

“For just a little bit of cash. What the hell is wrong with all of you? You all want to control my life. You get a little piece of ass and you think you can start making demands. My parents give me a little cash, and they think they can start calling all the shots. This is why I’ve drawn up an agreement with Tommy. Once I sleep with him and he makes his donation, there will be no room for expectations,” she yelled at me.

“That’s not—” I started to argue, but she hung up on me.

“That’s not what I meant,” I finished, talking to my silent phone.

Dammit! I was just trying to help, and it really seemed like I was still screwing everything up, even as I tried to do the right thing. I tapped the screen and tried to call her back, but she didn’t answer. I hung up, refusing to leave a voicemail I knew she wasn’t going to listen to anyway.

I still didn’t really know how her conversation went with her dad. All I knew was that he had told her I had called them to let them know what was going on with her. I didn’t know anything else. If our conversation was any indication, it was safe to assume she’d hung up on him, too.

I knew her father’s type, though. I recognized it from the tone of his voice when we were talking. He was the kind of man who would not take no for an answer, at least not easily. In Kendra’s case, that was a very good thing. She needed someone to make her take the help she needed from them. I wasn’t in a position to do that, but her parents were.

I laughed as I realized that they had apparently decided to help her. Her father told me I would know their decision from the call I received from her afterwards. I could only hope that she would eventually decide she needed the money enough to accept their help.

I tried calling a couple more times, but she wouldn’t answer any of my calls. There was nothing else I could do at the time, so I decided to leave it in her father’s capable hands. I had my own problems to worry about, and I had been ignoring them for hers.

It was time to catch up with my lawyers and figure out what they were doing to help me prepare for my case. I called them instead of Kendra the next time, but there still wasn’t any answer.

I laughed at myself. The last people in the world Kendra wanted to help her were trying to get her to accept their assistance. Meanwhile, the very people who were supposed to be helping me through my problems weren’t even talking to me. I had overstepped my bounds with Kendra. I knew that was why she didn’t want anything to do with me. I had no idea why I couldn’t reach my attorneys.

“Maybe I used up all my luck,” I joked to myself. It was beginning to feel like I had done just that, though, and I wasn’t comfortable with the thought.

There was still one thing left for me to do, the last resort. There was one option left that I knew could get me out of all the trouble I was in, one sure fire way to get all the charges dropped. Of course, if I called Raven and agreed to go ahead with sleeping with her to give her a child, I had to find a way to do it without it ending up in all of the papers.

If sex was going to be the answer to Kendra’s problems, then I was going to make it the answer to my problems as well. I had fucked my way into all this trouble. I could fuck my way out, right? That was my line of thought on the matter. I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing while my future hung in the balance.

I laughed as I thought about drafting up my own contract. Unfortunately, just like Kendra’s contract with Tommy, it wouldn’t have been possible, legally, to come right out and explicitly list the details of what we were doing. I was basically going to be paying her off with sex, paying her to leave me alone and go on about her business without so much as glancing back. I knew she was going to want to sleep with me until she got pregnant, but as long as my luck had run out, it should have been easy to do that.

I flipped my phone over several times in my hand, thinking about calling her, thinking about reasons not to call her, and trying to think about other ways to resolve the matter quickly. I still couldn’t bring myself to admit to Jake and Harley what had happened with Raven, so calling them to have the network fix it was completely out of the question. I didn’t want to have her disappearing on me. That was something I could not afford to have to explain.

The lawyers weren’t doing anything, and they weren’t answering my calls. I felt like I had been abandoned. I knew that if I called her to even talk to her about the possibility of giving her what she wanted, I was jeopardizing my case, but I couldn’t think of any other way. Certainly no faster way.

I tapped the screen on my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I came to her number. I stared at it for a minute, unsure of myself. Once I tapped the screen and told my phone to call, it was all going to be over. There would have been no turning back.

Hopefully, drafting up a contract was going to save me from having to deal with any future drama. Hopefully, I was going to be able to avoid having her come between mine and Kendra’s relationship. I doubted it, but I had also already done a fair amount of damage, so there was a chance that it didn’t matter if she started anything or not.