I fell into my plush white hotel bed fully clothed. I didn’t think I could move if I wanted to. Between the time difference and another brutal game that went down to the final at-bat, I was exhausted.

I knew I had a message from Zoe but I hadn’t listened to it because I wanted to do it in private—meaning away from Wes and his non-stop banter. Besides, she was most likely fast asleep by now. We knew today was going to be nuts for both of us and I told her to call me in the morning as soon as she woke up.

“Hey babe. I made it to LA. I hope your game went well.” She took a deep breath that worried me. It sounded heavy. “Call me as soon as you get this, okay? I need to talk to you about something.”

I really, really didn’t like that. Her voice was kind of shaky, like something was wrong but she was trying to sound like it wasn’t. I sat up and looked at the glowing red numbers on the clock.

It was almost eleven, which meant it was two in the morning for us. She was definitely asleep.

I collapsed back on the bed—sad we were apart and a little pissed I wasn’t with her to fix whatever it was that was bothering her. Since I couldn’t do anything I forced myself to strip out of my jacket and start getting ready for bed. As much as I wanted to just close my eyes and call it a night I knew I’d wake up in a few hours uncomfortable and pissed.

So off went the shoes and socks. Off went my shirt. I was just reaching for my belt when my phone started vibrating on the bed.

Call it instinct, but I had a very bad feeling about this phone call before I even looked at the screen.

And when I saw Zoe’s name flashing I knew without a doubt my instincts were right.

“Hey Darlin’.” I was still hoping I was wrong. I had to be wrong. What could have possibly happened in LA that could be that bad?”

“How was the game?” she asked, her voice so soft and weak I barely heard her.

“We won. What’s wrong?” My heart kept beating harder and faster.

“What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“I can hear it in your voice and you’re scaring me.” Better to be blunt. Zoe responded well to it.

“I’m okay,” she said quickly. “But I do need to talk to you about something.”

“Thank you for telling me you’re okay. What’s wrong?” I was going to have a heart attack before she got to the point.

“Tony’s here.”

Tony.

Tony’s here.

Tony was there.

I couldn’t wrap my brain around what she was saying. “Right now?”

“I’m with Lucy. From the production company? She’s sitting with me in my hotel room and helping me arrange security for the night.”

“He’s in your hotel?” I shouted, standing up. “You saw him?” I was going to kill the man. It was going to happen.

“Yes,” she whispered, close to tears.

Fuck. I needed to calm down. “Are you okay, baby?” All I wanted in that moment was to be in the same room with her so I could hold her.

“I’m okay. But Erik . . . ”

Oh fuck. There was more. “I’m here. I’m listening.” And planning. Could I get a flight this late? I knocked on the door that connected my room to Wes’s.

“He was on my plane.”

My fist connected with the door. “The same flight?”

“I think he intentionally booked the seat beside me.”

I was definitely killing him.

Wes opened the door with a What the Fuck face that was quickly replaced with Who Are We Killing face the moment he saw me.

“You think he intentionally booked the seat beside you? How?” I repeated everything so Wes could hear the parts that mattered.

She didn’t reply at first. The pause damn near killed me. “I think, from what he said, he’s been keeping tabs on me this whole time. And when that picture of us made the paper it made him very angry. Tony has a lot of connections. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he was capable of doing something like this.” She took a quick, shaky breath. “Erik, he knew where I was staying but I thought it was a casual threat. I didn’t expect him to be downstairs when I got here tonight. I can’t believe he was that bold.”

I muted the phone. “I need to get to LA.”

“The shithead?” Wes was on the same page.

“Yep.”

“I’m on it.” He disappeared back into his room.

I unmuted the phone. “You shouldn’t have to worry about things like that. No one should ever behave that way, Zo. You said you have security coming?”

“Yes. Lucy knows a good company and they’re sending someone over now. She’s going to stay with me until they get here.”

“Good. I’m coming too.”

“Erik, don’t.”

But I cut that off real fast. “It’s a quick flight. I’m coming.”

“You need to sleep. You have a game tomorrow.”

“Like I give a fuck about sleep or tomorrow’s game. Right now you’re the only thing I care about.” Wild horses couldn’t stop me.

She sniffled and I knew I was doing the right thing. “Okay.”

“You want to stay on the phone?”

“No,” she sighed. “I think . . . yes, the security people are here. I should go.”

“I’ll be there soon. Zoe?”

“Yes?”

I could hear how tired she was and that somehow made all my exhaustion disappear. “I love you.”

Her reply was a hundred percent brighter. “I love you too.”

* * *

“I’ve got you a flight but there are some complications,” Wes said, leading me out of the hotel room to the elevator.

“What’s that?” I punched the button for the lobby.

“When I told the guys I needed help getting you to the airport and onto a plane they were pissed.”

Like I cared. “I’ll be back in time for the game.” Probably.

“Yeah, that’s not the problem.”

“If I’m not, it will still be fine. Smythe is my backup for a reason.” My biggest fear used to be getting hurt and being replaced. But that wasn’t the case anymore. It barely even registered on the list. All my fears now centered on Zoe, with her wellbeing at the top of the list.

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open.

The entire team stood in the lobby.

“Yeah, that’s still not the problem,” Wes chuckled.

I didn’t find this funny. Not even a little bit. If they tried to stop me from getting to Zoe I was going to fight every single one of them. I was one mediocre member of the team. They could win without me. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“We’re all going with you,” Wes said instead.

I stopped dead in my tracks. “I’m sorry?”

“We’re all going with you,” he repeated.

“I don’t understand.”

Chris shrugged. “We’re all going. The team plane is fueling up right now.”

It still didn’t make sense. “But why?”

“Zoe’s got some trouble, right?” Wes said as he clamped his big ugly paw on my shoulder. “Well, the team decided we should all take care of it. It’ll probably be faster and easier that way.”

Everyone nodded but I still didn’t understand. This was my problem. Most of them barely knew Zoe. “Guys, this is ridiculous.”

“So is a guy bothering Zoe,” Wes said with a hell of a lot of anger. “Look, this is your fault, Bear. You made us a team. You made us care. One of us has a problem, we all have a problem.”

“Whoever this asshole is who’s bothering Zoe? Let’s go scare the piss out of him,” Seth grinned.

Even jerky little Don was there smiling and ready to go.

And I had to admit, twenty men were a lot scarier than one.

“We should leave nine guys behind just in case.” At least enough to field a team.

Wes made a face. “This is not the time to be practical. Get your ass in the van.”