Pucking Around With My Ex's Older Brother

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Rhys

Cole was downstairs in my lobby threatening to call reporters up to my penthouse, and Lena was standing in my kitchen in my hoodie looking like she wanted to throw up. The doorman was still waiting on the intercom, nervous and quiet, and I kept my eyes on Lena while I answered.

I said, "Tell him if he steps into this building I will have him arrested for trespassing, and then tell security to walk him out."

The doorman said, "Yes Mr Maddox."

The intercom clicked off, and Lena let out a breath she had been holding, and her shoulders dropped an inch.

She said, "He will just go to the press anyway."

I said, "Let him, he has nothing left that I cannot bury."

She looked at me then, really looked, and she said, "Who are you right now."

I said, "I am exactly who I have always been, you just never needed to see it before."

Her phone buzzed again on the counter, news alerts stacking fast now, Vipers physio scandal, captain's new girl, Maddox brothers love triangle, each headline worse than the last.

She turned the phone face down without reading them, and her hand was shaking.

She said, "I need to go down there and talk to him, make him stop."

"No." I said,

"Rhys." She said

I said, "He does not get to see you, not today, not tomorrow, not until I say so."

She crossed her arms, and the hoodie sleeves swallowed her hands, and she said, "You do not get to decide that."

I said, "Someone has to, because you keep trying to be reasonable with a man who leaked fake drug footage of you to the league to cover up the fact that he was cheating."

She flinched, and I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth, even though they were true.

I said, "Sorry."

She said, "Do not be sorry, you're right."

She nodded once, tight, and she said, "Okay, then what do we do."

I picked up my phone and called Silas, and he answered on the second ring like he had been waiting.

Silas said, "You have about thirty seconds before I come up there myself."

I said, "Cancel the press conference."

Silas said, "I cannot cancel it, the league is already in the building."

I said, "Then change the statement, Lena Hart is not terminated, she is taking a personal leave."

Silas laughed, short and humorless, and he said, "You want me to pay the girl you stole from your brother after she caused a league investigation."

I said, "I want you to keep the best physio in the conference on our payroll, because without her my knee blows out by January and then where is your run Cup."

Silas was quiet for a beat, and then he said, "You are really going to do this."

I said, "I already did it."

He sighed, heavy, and he said, "Fine, personal leave, two weeks, after that she is gone if the league does not clear her."

I said, "Four weeks."

He said, "Three, final, and you owe me."

I said, "Put it on my tab."

I hung up and looked at Lena, and she was staring at me with her mouth open a little.

She said, "What was that."

I said, "You still have a job, three weeks paid leave, effective immediately."

She said, "How did you do that."

I said, "I am the captain, and my knee is worth more than Cole's pride."

She sat down hard on one of the barstools, like her legs gave out, and she put her face in her hands.

She said, "Thank you."

I said, "Do not thank me yet."

She looked up, and her eyes were red, and she said, "Why, what else."

I said, "The video is fake, someone cut the footage, I need the original server files to prove it, that takes time, until then you stay here."

She said, "Rhys, I cannot hide in your penthouse for three weeks."

I said, "You can, and you will, because the second you walk out that door alone, someone puts a camera in your face and asks if you slept with both Maddox brothers."

She winced, and she said, "Did I."

I said, "No."

She said, "Technically I kissed you while I was still technically with Cole."

I said, "Technically he was cheating on you in your own treatment room, so no, you did nothing wrong."

She stared at the marble countertop, tracing a vein in the stone with her fingertip, and she said, "Everyone will think I did."

I said, "Let them think whatever they want, I know the truth."

She said, "That is easy for you to say, you are Rhys Maddox, the whole city loves you."

I laughed once, quiet, and I said, "The whole city thinks I am a cold bastard who cares more about hockey than people, you are the first person in three years who looked at me like I was human last night."

She went still, and then she said, soft, "That is not true."

I said, "It is."

The intercom buzzed again, and we both tensed, and then Mara's voice came through, bright and annoyed.

Mara said, "Hey captain grumpy, I have a suitcase and a very angry ex boyfriend getting escorted off your property by two very large men, buzz me up before he tries to climb the planters."

I hit the button, and I said, "Come up."

Lena stood up fast and smoothed down the hoodie, and she said, "That is Mara, she brought my stuff."

I said, "I figured."

Two minutes later Mara walked in with a rolling suitcase and a tote bag full of what looked like medical textbooks, and she took one look at Lena in my hoodie and grinned.

Mara said, "Okay, wow, that was fast."

Lena said, "Nothing happened."

Mara said, "Sure, sure, that is why you are wearing his clothes and he looks like he wants to murder anyone who looks at you."

"I do want to murder anyone who looks at her." I said,

Mara blinked, and then she laughed, and she said, "Oh, you are serious serious, this is great, this is so great."

Lena said, "It is not great, I lost my job."

Mara said, "You are on paid leave, Silas just sent the memo, the press conference is now a wellness statement, you are taking time for personal reasons, very vague, very classy."

Lena looked at me, surprised, and I shrugged.

Mara set the suitcase down and pulled a folder out of her tote, and she handed it to Lena.

Mara said, "Your patient files, I grabbed them before security locked your office, and also your plant, do not kill this one."

Lena took the folder with both hands like it was breakable, and she said, "Thank you."

Mara said, "Do not thank me, thank your very intense fake boyfriend over there, he threatened to pull his endorsement deal if they touched your office."

Lena turned to me slowly, and she said, "You did what."

I said, "It was nothing."

Mara said, "It was a two million dollar nothing, anyway, I have to get back before they notice I am gone, do not do anything I would not do, which leaves you a lot of room."

She hugged Lena hard, whispered something I could not hear, kissed her cheek, pointed a finger at me and said, "Hurt her and I will poison your protein shakes," and then she left.

The door clicked shut, and it was quiet again, just me and Lena and her suitcase in the middle of my living room.

She said, "You did not have to do that."

I said, "I know."

She said, "Why did you."

I said, "Because you love that job, and you are good at it, and I am not going to watch them take it from you because my brother cannot keep his d**k in his pants."

She swallowed, and she said, "Where do you want me."

I said, "What."

She gestured at the suitcase, and she said, "Where should I put my things, which room."

I said, "Guest room is yours, second door on the left, bathroom is attached, sheets are clean."

She nodded and grabbed the handle, and she started rolling it down the hall, and I told myself to let her go, to give her space.

She stopped halfway there and turned back, and she said, "Rhys."

I said, "Yeah."

She said, "If I stay here, people will talk."

I said, "People already talk."

She said, "They will think we are together."

I said, "Good."

She stared at me, and I stared back, and the air in the room went tight.

She said, "Good."

I walked toward her, slow enough that she could stop me, and she did not move, and I stopped with a foot of space between us.

I said, "Lena, I can keep you safe, I can fix the league thing, I can make Cole disappear, but I need something from you."

She said, "What."

I said, "If we are going to sell this, if we are going to keep you protected while this blows over, we need to make it real in public, fake date me, just for three weeks, just until the investigation clears."

She sucked in a breath, and she said, "Fake date you."

I said, "Yes."

She said, "And in private."

I said, "In private you set every rule, I will not touch you unless you ask me to."

Her eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second, fast, like she could not help it, and then back up.

She said, "And if I ask."

My pulse kicked hard against my throat, and I kept my hands at my sides with effort.

I said, "Then I will not stop."

She was quiet for a long moment, and then she held out her hand like we were closing a business deal.

She said, "Okay, three weeks, fake, rules in private."

I took her hand, and her skin was warm and soft, and I did not let go right away.

I said, "Rules in private."

She pulled her hand back slowly, fingers dragging against my palm, and she said, "I need to unpack."

She disappeared into the guest room and closed the door soft behind her, and I stood in my own hallway with my heart hammering like I had just played triple overtime.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out expecting Silas or my agent, and instead it was a text from Marco, my driver.

Marco said, boss, that SUV from last night is parked across the street again, two men inside, they have been there an hour, want me to move them.

I typed back fast, do not engage, send me the plates, and then I looked down the hall at Lena's closed door, and I thought about the photo of her walking into the arena alone, and about Cole's gambling debts that I had been paying off quietly for two years without telling anyone.

My phone buzzed again, Marco again, and this time it was a photo, zoomed in through a windshield, two men watching my building, and the passenger was holding a long lens camera pointed right at my penthouse windows, right at the room where Lena was unpacking.