Page 16 of Reckless Love

“Jesus, Rosalind. I’m just asking if I have another problem on my hands. Am I going to be cleaning up another scandal? It’s Nashville all over again.”

My gaze snagged on the glittering Super Bowl ring, ignoring Edmund’s attempt to rile me up. This wasn’t Nashville all over again. Not even close. My fatherstill thought the scandal he cleaned up was what happened at The Secret.

And if he truly thought that, then there was no way he had anything to do with what was happening now.

I turned back, fixing my calmest possible stare on the man who I shared some DNA with. “This is nothing like Nashville. I’ve repaid you many times over for my mistake.” It wasn’t the mistake he thought it was.Edmund believed five of his football players were involved in deviant sexual behavior with his daughter. (Those were his words, not mine.) He believed he paid those players off to disappear. He believed he gave hush money to authorities and news organizations to make the scandal disappear. There were pictures of us together at the club. There was video.

I released those photographs andvideos on purpose. I needed to cover my tracks when the authorities got entirely too close to discovering my involvement in fixing games.

I destroyed five careers to save myself.

I didn’t completely destroy my father but he lost the Nashville franchise and was banned from football—the sport he loved more than his children—for a decade. It cost him millions. It hurt him.

Itwas enough. At first I was relieved to escape all of it without going to prison. Later I realized how much damage I’d done. No matter what I did I never quite fixed it all.

“You’ve refilled my bank accounts, Rosalind. There’s a difference.”

Did he hate me? It felt like he hated me. It felt like he’d always hated me. All he really wanted was an heir. He got that with William. I wasthe mistake. He dismissed my mother and financially provided for me, but he had no use for me until he realized my ability.

“You have your football back. You’re the sole owner of the Renegades.” Notpart ownerlike in Nashville. He should be thrilled.

“And yet,” he snarled, suddenly standing up from the desk, coming at me with alarming speed, “you’re fucking with me again.”

I stumbled backward, my heels betraying me as my ankle rolled. I managed to catch my balance and moved for the door.

“It’s locked, Rosalind.” He dismissed my attempt at escape. “Why? Why are you doing it again? I let you go. It’s what you wanted and honestly I don’t need a whore with my name. Your mother was enough.”

That hurt. It stabbed my chest just like a knife. “I’m not doinganything.” I should understand, but I didn’t. His train of thought didn’t match mine.

“Like hell you’re not. Ramirez just so happened to drop a touchdown that wasin his hands.Covington missed a snap. Do you know how many snaps he’s fumbled in his career? Zero. Not one.”

“Sounds like he was due then.” For some reason I tried the door again. When it didn’t budge I began looking foran alternate way out. Maybe I could get out a window? It was the ground floor. I just needed to get it open and then I could flee.

But what exactly was it I was fleeing from? Edmund wouldn’t hurt me. How would he explain that to the public?

“I don’t fix games.”

He shook his head, almost laughing at me. “I’m not as smart as you but I’m not completely stupid. I know what therumors were in Nashville, and I’m not talking about your slutty club. Games were being fixed and there’s only one person I know smart enough to do it, one person who also had access to the personnel and files.” He backed me into the bookshelves. “Stop it or I’ll make you stop.”

Intellectually I knew he meant he’d release the photos and videos from ten years ago. He’d threatened it manytimes over. I’d lose my job. No university would employ me again. My life and my research would disappear.

But with my back against shelves and nowhere else to go, it felt more immediate than that. I swear my father was one movement away from stopping me by killing me.

“I can’t stop what I’m not doing.” I was very careful with my words. The last thing I needed was for Edmund to recordme saying I had anything to do with Nashville.

“Who did you work with? You were far too young and naïve to have done it all on your own. I always believed someone in my management team got to you, convinced you to help him. That person is now most likely pretty well placed in the national organization. I’m guessing that’s why you’re doing it again, at such a grand scale. Do you know I’vebeen visited by the FBI every fucking day for the last two months?”

“Yes.”Well placed.And the timing...

“Yes what?”

“I know you’re being visited. They visit me as well.” I pushed my father out of the way. My brain moved fast as it spun through the data.

Who? Who was doing this?And why. This person chose this time on purpose. It framed my father perfectly.

“If you stopped maybe they’d leave us both alone,” he growled. “They can’t have anything concrete or they’d be arresting us.”

I hated the way he saidus. “You’re not hearing me. I’m. Not. Involved.”

But he kept speaking as if I hadn’t said a thing. “I’ll ignore you. I know you don’t need money so I won’t bother offering you any, but I can guarantee that I’ll leave you alone.I’ll never speak to you again. I’ll pretend you never existed.” His voice took on a desperate quality. “Just please, don’t take this from me too.”

“I’m not taking anything from you!” I threw my hands out in desperation that he’d finally hear me. “You’ve takeneverythingfrom me. My mother, my childhood, my brother...and even after I walked away and built my own damn life...you wantthat too. You’ve concocted this insane story all so you can justify—”

He choked off my last word as he slammed me against the office door, his hands around my throat. “You fucking slut. I heard you like it like this.” I gasped for air that didn’t come. He moved closer until we were nose to nose. “I’ll take it all from you. Your boy toy, your career, everything. I’ll destroy you piece bypiece.” He tightened his grip. “Do you like being choked now? Just as fucked up and pathetic as your mother.”

He let me go, stepping back to give me room to gasp for air, then he reached around me and opened the door. “Get out. Fix your shit. Or else the next time we talk it will be you begging me to stop.”

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