Laces and Lace (Assassins #6) (66 page)

“I would love to.”

Staring at his computer, he ran his fingers through his hair.

This was not good. Not good at fucking all.

Picking up his phone, he dialed JT’s number and waited for him to answer. JT had flown to Colorado after his last surgery and would stay there until he was done with his physical therapy. That was if they could keep a therapist to work with him. He had already driven off two in only two weeks. He hated the therapy though, and wasn’t shy about telling everyone. It was easy to say that Jordie Thomas was hard to deal with.

That being said though, Karson needed his best friend.

“What?” he answered and Karson rolled his eyes.

“Well, hello to you too, asshole.”

“You would be mad too if some dude was bending your leg in all sorts of ways and getting pissy with you because you won’t cooperate. I fired his candy-ass, fucking douche.”

Make that three he had driven off.

“Did you ever consider that maybe you should do what they want? They are professionals.”

“I don’t give two shits. It hurts. I don’t want to do it.”

“Then you won’t get better,” Karson reminded him. “And then you’ll never play.”

JT paused for a second and then said, “Fine, I’ll be nice to the next one.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Karson muttered. Remembering why he called, he said, “So I have an issue.”

“Okay?”

He explained what had happened in Chicago. As he retold everything, he still couldn’t fathom that Lacey didn’t believe him. Why the hell would he lie? There was no reason to and furthered the point that her father was the motherfucker who was trying to ruin them! But she didn’t see it that way. She had fucking daddy issues and was allowing them power to believe something that wasn’t true.

“Wow. That blows, dude. If I’d been there, I would have kicked his ass,” JT promised but Karson couldn’t even appreciate that at that moment.

“Yeah, I know, but that’s not the kicker.”

“No?”

“No, the dude somehow got pictures of her kissing me and put them online or paid her to do it or something. They are suggestive as hell though, and Lacey may not be mad now, but after she sees these, she will be.”

“Seriously?” JT asked. “Dude, send me the link.”

“Hold on,” he said as he sent the link in an email to JT. “Done.”

As he waited for JT to get the pictures, he looked at them with pure disgust. She was all over him, her long hair falling along her shoulders, her lips so close to his and from the angle the shot was taken, it looked like she was kissing him on the lips. He knew that Lacey trusted him, but she was not going to be happy that these pictures were on the Internet or that they had tagged Lacey’s business in the post.

Stupid Puck Bunnies R Us site.

“Oooweee. Not good.”

“I know. She’s going to rip me apart,” Karson groaned.

“Why did they have to tag her business though and make it seem like you came on to the girl? Have you contacted your lawyer? This is slander in a way,” he said and Karson nodded his head.

“Yeah, I did. He is contacting the site, but I just found it and it’s been up for hours. There are already over a hundred comments about how I’m a pig and then some of how women want me to come on to them.”

“Well, you are. But still, fuck those bitches. They don’t know you. This happens to everyone. Don’t let it get you down,” he said, but it did, and he knew Lacey was going to freak.

“I don’t even know how to tell her,” he said, his chest hurting. “She’s going to be so upset.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

“Thanks, I called for support, asshole,” Karson snapped. “Way to drop the ball.”

“Dude, my leg is burning with pain. I’m sorry I’m not holding your hand and crying with you.”

“You’re such a jerk,” Karson complained while letting out a breath.

“Yeah, I am. But hey, since I’m already on jerk-status right now, how’s your sister? I need to call her, see if she wants to come this way for another trip to pound town,” he laughed.

Karson could only blink. He did not just say that. Knowing that nothing good would come out of his mouth and that he would probably ruin his friendship, if that was what this was called, Karson decided to hang up. Laying his phone down, he shook his head before his eyes settled on the pictures of him and the girl. He didn’t even remember her name or anything about her, but that didn’t keep half the women on the site from calling him everything under the sun while the other half said they wanted a piece of him.

But he didn’t want them. He wanted Lacey.

Deciding that he had to call her, he dialed her number. They had only texted since their fight yesterday, and it was mostly just them checking in and telling each other they loved the other. Things were tense, and he knew this was going to make things worse.

“Hey,” she answered. “I didn’t expect to hear from you now. Aren’t you at the arena?”

“Not yet,” he responded. “I have another hour before I gotta leave.”

“Oh, okay. I was sitting here working on some drawings for a line I am thinking about doing for the Assassins’ wives. Elli had the great idea of sponsoring the Assassins and then doing like a campaign with them if I expand to Nashville,” she said with excitement lacing her voice. “It would be cool, I think.”

“Sounds amazing. So you hung out with Elli?”

“Yeah, we had lunch the day before yesterday. And then yesterday, I went over for movies with her, Harper, Reese, and Piper. Since Fallon is about to have her baby, she didn’t come. And then Audrey was sitting at home with her because she was bitching that Lucas wasn’t home or something. I don’t know, there are a lot of people to keep up with,” she said with a laugh and Karson smiled.

She sounded happy and he liked that a lot. He liked it even more that she was out doing things. For the last two days, he had convinced himself that she wasn’t going to stick around, but maybe he was overthinking the whole thing. She was obviously trying to adjust to Nashville, and maybe her dad didn’t have as much of an effect as Karson thought he did.

“Sounds like you had fun.”

“I did,” she gushed. “Loads. I had to stay the night though ’cause I drank too much wine. I woke up with Quinn on my chest and Cheetos in my hair.”

He laughed. “Sounds like a party right there.”

“It was. I ate breakfast with the kids and Elli and then finally left. She told me to stay, but I didn’t want to be a bother, plus I needed to get the ideas out of my head and do some work and clean before you got home.”

“I think we are flying out tonight instead of in the morning,” he said with a grin on his face. “I’ll get a ride home.”

“I’ll pick you up,” she said. “I want to see you.”

“It’s going to be stupid late. I don’t even know when, if so. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, text me when you land, and if I’m up, I’ll come get you,” she suggested.

“I don’t want to bring you out of bed,” he answered.

“Just text me okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed and then bit his lip. Maybe he shouldn’t tell her, but he knew that would be a terrible idea. Clearing his throat, he said, “I need to tell you something.”

“Oh crap, it’s not good, huh? You cleared your throat.”

He smiled and wanted to laugh, but before he could answer her, she said, “We are good, right? Like it’s been shitty the last two days, and I know that one of us has to swallow our pride and apologize. If it needs to be me, that’s fine, I’ll do it, but I just want us to be good. I love and miss you too much to fight with you.”

Ugh, she was killing him.

“Lacey, we will always be good. No matter what, I’ll love you, and I miss you even when I’m a room over from you. We are going to fight, and we are going to disagree—that’s what couples do—but don’t apologize, okay? Because it isn’t over, and I need to be the one to apologize.”

“What do you mean?”

Clicking send, he said, “Check your email.”

“Okay?” she questioned slowly. He heard her computer open and then it sounded of an email. “What is this?” she asked and he cleared his throat again.

“It’s a puck bunnies site where pictures of hockey players are posted. Are you there?”

“Yeah,” she said sharply. “And on the front page is my husband with some tramp practically in his lap.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how pictures were taken.”

“Oh, and look, they tagged my site. Bet I’ll get a lot of traffic from this,” she said, and he didn’t miss the sarcasm.

“Yeah, told you I was going to be the one apologizing,” he said, forlorn.

He didn’t say anything and the silence was killing him. Finally, she said, “I thought you said she kissed the side of your mouth.”

“It’s the angle. She didn’t kiss me full-on, I promise.”

“Hm,” she muttered, and it was as if she was slowly jabbing him in the gut with the butt of a hockey stick. “My dad said she kissed you but didn’t say if it was the side or not,” she said offhandedly and that irritated him.

“Talked to your dad about it?”

“Yeah, and he denied all your claims,” she said, the sharpness back in her voice.

Shaking his head, he said, “Don’t doubt it. Bet he told you he would never do that to you because he loves you so much and never wants you to be unhappy.”

“Funny, ’cause that’s exactly what he said,” she snapped and his blood boiled.

“You know he did this, right? He probably took the fucking pictures himself.”

“Oh, be real! Like my dad knows about this site.”

“I’m telling you, this is his doing,” Karson promised. “I have no way to prove it, but I wish you’d believe me.”

“I don’t know what to believe. You told me that it wasn’t that bad. This is bad. This looks like you guys are planning something.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Lacey, you know me better than that. I don’t want anyone but you.”

“So you say,” she retorted. “How do I know what you do when I’m not there?”

He couldn’t believe this. “So now you don’t trust me?”

“No, I do,” she cried, and even though he was mad, it cut him down to size. He didn’t like hearing her cry. “I can’t believe this has happened, and I wish you’d leave my dad out of it. I really don’t think you’d do this to me because I know how much you love me, but why bring him into it?”

“Because he is to blame for it. He set the whole fucking thing up!” he yelled, and when she took in a deep breath, he regretted saying that. It was over and he knew the truth. While it would be ideal for Lacey to believe him, he had no proof, and there was nothing he could do to change her mind. Her dad had some kind of hold on her and it drove Karson crazy, but he was her dad and he had to respect the stupid son of a bitch. So, swallowing his pride because he refused to lose her, he said, “But, you know what, it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for this girl coming up to me and taking a picture of her kissing me and posting it online. I am sorry they tagged your site, and I’m sorry that this looks bad. My lawyer is on it, and hopefully, everything will be taken down soon.”

“That would be great if that could happen,” she muttered as she sniffed back her tears. He wanted nothing more than to be there with her, to hold her and make it better, but he was six states away.

“I’ll make sure of it. I’m sorry.”

“I just want it all to go away, and I want you to stop blaming my dad for stupid shit. This wouldn’t have been a fight if you hadn’t blamed him. I had no problem believing you. I trust you.”

Biting his lip until he tasted blood, he held in his retort. If she fucking trusted him, then she would know her dad was a lying fucking dick. But fine, he wouldn’t blame her dad for shit anymore. He’d bite his tongue and pray that he didn’t come between them, but Karson couldn’t shake the feeling that Nate Martin would.

That he would succeed for a second time.

“Okay, I love you, Lacey,” he said, closing his eyes as he leaned on his hand. This was so exhausting, but he’d keep on fighting just to hold on to her. Nothing was going to come between them. He wouldn’t allow it. Lacey was his forever. “So much, and I’m sorry that we are dealing with this shit. I miss you and can’t wait to be home.”