Chapter Five

“What the hell was that?” Dodging left, Reed stepped in front of his first-string quarterback as he huffed to the sidelines like an ornery bull.

“Sick of playing with a bunch of pussies!” Donnie yanked off his red and black helmet to reveal a mess of sweaty blond hair.

“You’re gonna get hurt if you keep putting yourself in front of those tackles.”

“Wouldn’t have to if someone else would run the damn ball!” The bitter words flew over the kid’s shoulder setting off a wave of rolling eyes from his teammates.

Reed bit back a grin. Donnie was full of the same piss and vinegar he’d had at seventeen, and part of him wanted to clap the kid on the back and tell him to keep up the good work. But safety always came first in football, and today would be no exception.

“Look, I love how fired up you are and how badly you want to win, but if you don’t start playing smart, I’m going to have to put you on the bench.”

“I bust my ass, and you want to stick me on the bench?” The kid’s dark eyes flamed with rage, then he slammed his helmet into the grass with a roar.

“Eight laps.” Reed pointed to the quarter mile of track surrounding the field.

“What?” The kid blinked up at him, his scowl quickly replaced by wide eyes. 

“You disrespect me or the equipment, you run. Now hit the track.” No, he didn’t want to pull his best player from the line right before the Homecoming game, but rules were rules. And Donnie needed to remember that this wasn’t a one-man show. They were a team. A family. All twenty-six of them.

Muttering what sounded like every curse word he could think of, the kid took off at a disgruntled jog, and Reed turned back to the team.

“You want your captain on the bench Friday night? If not, you better get your crap together and fast. This is the biggest game of the year, boys. Not only are you playing for yourselves, you’re playing for the alumni, too. You gonna risk a loss with all of them watching?”

“No, sir,” a few of his offensive men barked in unison while the rest of the guys stood a little straighter, realizing he was serious.

He had a good team. Strong kids. Dedicated. They were damn good players, too, and they were already well-positioned for another conference championship. But Reed knew all too well how quickly things could change. How one bad game—or one wrong move, for that matter—could turn everything upside down.

Nine years ago, at the ripe ol’ age of twenty-two, he’d blown out his knee one week into his rookie season with the Broncos. He’d never even played a fucking game in anything other than practice gear. Hadn’t even put on an official NFL jersey and it was already over.

Did he have regrets? Of course, he did. He could have a Super Bowl ring right now. Traveling from city to city every weekend and living out the dream he’d had since he was seven-years-old.

But he loved coaching, too. Loved these kids and wanted for them what he hadn’t been able to achieve himself. Donnie, Zack, and Ty...they had just as much talent as he’d had. More, if he was honest. And he’d be proud as hell if they took that talent all the way to the top, knowing he’d helped them build their foundation from the bottom up.

He grinned behind his whistle, then gave it a blow. The team hurried to the line, red against black, friend against friend. The best years of their lives and they didn’t even know it yet.

Lucky bastards.

* * *

“Excuse me?” John Bishop, CEO of Bishop Technologies, leaned in toward the conference room table, eyebrow cocked. “I don’t believe I heard you correctly.”

Mia smiled. “I don’t want your company, Mr. Bishop—I want to help you save it.”

The middle-aged man with thick, silver hair chuckled disbelievingly. “I bet that’s what you tell everyone, isn’t it? A dagger to the heart disguised behind a sweet smile.”

“No.” She shook her head. Of course he’d think she had an ulterior motive. Day in and day out, she helped Ben and Connor buy out suffering companies for proverbial pennies only to tear them apart and make millions. But not today. “I could do that, Mr. Bishop, but I won’t.”

“Why not?”

This is where she and Ben differed. Why later on tonight he’d tell her, once again, that she wasn’t cut out for this kind of work long term. She was too soft. Too human.

“Because last year, despite your financial hardships, you gave more than thirty percent of your profits to charity.” Charities that had helped families and kids, the elderly and the disabled. The same organizations she’d given a substantial portion of her own income to, as well. “You have heart, Mr. Bishop, and if Bishop Technologies goes under, those charities are going to suffer, too.”

He blinked at her across the table, his gaze humble. “I’ve heard about you, Ms. Carderas.”

“Good things, I hope.” Though it was certainly possible they weren’t.

“Your approach is different than Montgomery’s. Adler’s, too, though I’m told he’s been known to show heart from time to time, too.”

“Connor’s a good man.”

“But Montgomery’s the one you’re engaged to.” Mr. Bishop’s focus dropped to her left hand and the ring she’d put back on, despite Ben’s infidelity for reasons that were...complicated. “How can I be sure your offer to help is genuine and not a ploy?”

“I didn’t choose this business, John, it chose me.” Or rather, Ben had chosen her and not because she was the expert negotiator he was. Ben’s tactics were far less refined and professional. Rather, he’d moved her up from the legal department because he’d caught one too many of his clients gawking at her chest.

Sounded ridiculous, but it was true. When Ben couldn’t bargain with their bank accounts, she could flash some cleavage and seal the deal with their dicks, instead. Obviously, not her proudest life accomplishment, but over the past two years, her sex appeal had made her rich. Which, in turn, benefitted the organizations she was most passionate about.

“If I could be anywhere right now,” she began, relaxing her shoulders in an attempt to ease John, too. “I’d be working for one of those charities your donations have kept afloat. I’d be wielding a hammer on someone’s new home or I’d be serving gumbo at a shelter. The reason I don’t do it is because those things don’t bring in any money.”

Mr. Bishop sat back in his chair, listening.

“I was given an opportunity with Adler & Montgomery that most could only dream of, and I use it to my advantage every chance I get. I help the same people you do, John. In fact, they’re the only reason I do this.”

A slow smile spread across the older man’s face. “I have a feeling your fiancé doesn’t approve of that.”

“My money is my money, and his is his.” She lifted a shoulder and let it drop. No, Ben didn’t like a lot of her choices, but there were some things she refused to bend on. God knows she’d bent enough on others.

“So, how do you propose we fix the mess I’m in, Ms. Carderas? I can’t imagine it’s going to be easy.”

Considering he was about to be more than seven figures in the red, no...nothing about her plan would be easy. But, in the end, it would be worth it.

“Maybe I should get you a cup of coffee,” she offered with a wink that made him chuckle.

“That would be wonderful.”

She stood as her secretary, Lena, poked her head into the conference room. The typically bright-faced woman had a deep crease in her brow. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you have a call, Ms. Carderas.”

“Please take a message and—”

“It’s your mother,” Lena added quietly. “She’s upset.”

Oh. Um... She glanced back at Mr. Bishop. “Could you give me just a minute?”

“Of course. Take all the time you need.” His kind smile was probably meant to ease her mind, but it didn’t because her mother had never called her at work before. Ever.

“Line two,” Lena called after Mia as she hurried to her office. “I hope it’s nothing serious.”

Me, too. Closing the door behind her, she skirted around her too-big, too-expensive desk overlooking the Omaha skyline and quickly picked up the phone.

“Mom?” She tried to keep the panic from her voice but failed. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, baby!” Her mother’s cry poured through the line in a rush of sniffles and tears. “You have to come home right away. It’s your father.”

Papi? “What happened? Is he okay? Is—”

“He’s had a stroke, Mia. We need you here.”

* * *

“He just froze,” Pam Fletcher said in quiet astonishment, her knuckles white around the handle of a diner coffee pot. “Standing right there, over the grill. Forgot where he was, what he was doing...how to speak.”

Reed pushed a hand back through his hair and blew out the breath he’d been holding since his mother’s panicked phone call right after practice.

“Can I do something to help?” Reed glanced at the dirty tables neglected during the chaos of calling 911 and getting Jose off to the hospital.

“No, sweetie. We’ll be fine. Ashley will be here any minute to help me close up, and Bobbie Jo is in the kitchen.” His mother tried to smile, but her lips still trembled. Understandably so, considering she’d worked at the diner with Jose and his wife, Stella, for the last twenty years. They were family, and no one enjoyed when a tragedy struck a loved one.

“Come here.” Ignoring the ‘no customers behind the counter’ rule, he rounded the long row of seating, took the coffee pot from her hands, and wrapped his arms around his mother’s shoulders. She was a petite woman with graying strawberry blonde hair that barely brushed his chin and, not for the first time, Reed appreciated taking after his father in the size department. He knew next to nothing about the man, aside from the fact that he’d been a big guy. Broad shoulders, his mother had told him, and built like a football player, too.

“Actually, there is something you could do...” Pam pulled away with watery eyes. “Do you mind going over to Jose and Stella’s to let Buster out? They would have been home by now had Jose not...” Clenching her eyes shut, she shook her head.

Reed nodded. “Yeah. Of course.” Then he pressed a quick kiss to her temple and headed for the door. “I’ll pick you up in a couple of hours.”

She shook her head, still chasing off tears with the back of her hand. “I can walk, honey. No need for you to come back.”

“That’s my job, Mom.” Sure, their schedules conflicted from time to time, but since her car had taken a shit a couple weeks ago, he’d done his best to be there for her, especially when she closed the diner. Didn’t matter that she lived two blocks away or that this was quiet River Bend. She was in her mid-fifties. Just like Jose.

Thankfully, she didn’t argue with him. Just nodded and went back to work, serving the customers that remained after the chaos. He, on the other hand, made quick work of driving across town to Jose and Stella’s. A house he’d spent a lot of time at as a kid. Not so much as an adult, now that Mia was gone, but—

Mia.

Fuck. Had Stella called her already? She’d come home, wouldn’t she?

He’d hoped their time together in Omaha would have helped break down some of the walls Mia had built around herself since leaving River Bend, but that didn’t happen. In fact, not only had she not come home to confess what she’d really been up to, her calls to Jose and Stella became fewer and far between. At least that’s what Jose had confided in Reed last week before his stroke.

After returning from his trip to Omaha, she disappeared. Not literally—he’d poked around to make sure she was okay—but she’d stopped responding to texts and forget answering a phone call.

The shiny black BMW in her driveway when he’d returned to Omaha a month later said everything that needed to be said. She was back with Montgomery.

Yeah, he’d been disappointed. Maybe even a little hurt, which was an emotion Reed rarely let himself get caught up in. Mia was different, though. She wasn’t a convenient fling. They had history together. Friendship. Mia wouldn’t have slept with him without those things in place, he was sure of it. Casual sex...it just wasn’t her style.

Which is why he let her do her thing, whatever it was, with Montgomery. He just wanted her to be happy and, though he doubted Ben did that for her, who the hell was he to judge? He’d had enough screwed up relationships of his own. Jenny, Carissa, Heather... His love life was a hot mess and had been for years.

He didn’t—and wouldn’t—judge Mia’s choices. He would, however, offer continued support, because that’s what a good friend would do. And something told him that, right now, Mia needed that more than anything.

Pulling into the Carderas’ driveway, he dug his phone from his pocket and brought up Mia’s number.

I’m here if you need me.

He sent off the message, got out of the car, and found the spare key to Jose and Stella’s modest ranch-style home stuck to a magnet beneath the back porch light. The same place it had been for the past fifteen years.

Buster, their ten-pound, mutt of a dog, barked behind the door as Reed let himself in.

“Hey, little buddy.” He bent to ruffle the furball’s curly black ears. “You feel like going for a ride? I could use some company right now.”

* * *

“You’re where?” Ben’s voice rose through the Bluetooth in Mia’s car, and she blew out a slow, intentional breath, already knowing where the conversation was headed.

“On my way to River Bend. My dad had a stroke.” She shouldn’t have to say any more. To anyone else, those two sentences alone would suffice, but Ben Montgomery wasn’t anyone else. He was the selfish jerk she’d foolishly thought she could marry.

“Is he dying?”

She flinched at the cold, heartless inquiry and gripped the steering wheel of her Lexus a little tighter. “He could,” she ground out, trying to keep her cool behind the wheel. She was upset enough, trying to get across the state knowing her father lie in the Intensive Care Unit unable to form words. She didn’t need Ben’s shit on top of it.

“Well, do what you have to there and get back here ASAP. We’ve got a lot on our plate right now.”

Breathe, Mia, breathe. “I’ve already talked to Connor. He’ll handle my clients for as long as I need.” Which is more than Ben would ever offer.

“You talked to Connor before you talked to me?”

Unlike you, he answered my call the first time I called. “Look, it’s getting dark and there are a ton of deer out tonight. I’ll call you when I know more.”

“Tonight. Call me tonight, Malia. I want to know when the hell you’ll be back.”

Maybe I won’t come back. “Uh huh. Gotta go.” With the flick of her thumb, she ended the call and slapped a hand against the wheel. “Damn it!”

How could anyone be so self-absorbed? So twisted in their sense of reality that they couldn’t spare even a moment of sympathy for another human being?

And this was the man she was engaged to. God, she’d been foolish to put that ring back on her finger. Twice.

Ben had been so charming in the beginning of their relationship. He’d claimed to be so impressed with her charitable generosity. Stated that he’d shared the same goals and dreams of helping others, which is why he did what he did for Montgomery & Adler. He wasn’t really the bad guy everyone thought he was. And for a while, she’d believed it.

Two years later, she knew better. Not only was he a liar, but he was a master manipulator and class A fake. And let’s not forget that he was a man incapable of being faithful. That probably should have insulted her the most, but after seeing his true nature come through the more time they spent together, his infidelity honestly hadn’t been a surprise. What really hurt were all the broken promises he’d made in regard to her youth foundation. All the support he’d sworn to give her. All the kids they had planned to help together. He’d helped enough to reel her in and then his interest disappeared.

And now he was going to give her crap about missing work because her father might not make it? The silent tears streaming down her cheeks turned to anger and then rage. She worked the extravagant ring off of her left hand and slammed it into the console.

“This time, I’m not putting it back on.”