The Captain's Secret Baby

Chapter 6: Secret

Avery's Point of View

By the time I returned to the penthouse suite, my entire body felt heavy with exhaustion. My first day at the arena had been nothing like I expected. The paperwork had been manageable, the preseason medical reports routine, yet every second I spent inside that building had left me waiting for another unexpected encounter with Rhett. Even after coming back to the hotel, my pulse still hadn't completely settled.

Richard had insisted Jasmine and I stay in one of the hotel's private penthouse residences for as long as we remained in the city. He said it was family, and family never paid for rooms.

Although I appreciated his generosity, I couldn't ignore one troubling thought that kept creeping into my mind.

Richard wasn't just a successful businessman anymore. He was one of the largest investors in the city's NHL organization. Which meant players, executives, coaches, and sponsors frequently visited the hotel for meetings and charity events. Some even stayed here whenever their schedules became too demanding to commute home.

I didn't know if Rhett was one of them.

And honestly…

I was too afraid to ask.

The moment I unlocked the suite, Jasmine came running toward me so quickly that I barely had time to put my handbag down before she launched herself into my arms.

"Mommy!" Jasmine launched herself at my knees, her little sneakers squeaking against the hardwood. She wrapped her tiny arms around my neck, letting out a dramatically heavy sigh. "You took forever. Mr. Floppy and I were so bored."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," I murmured, burying my face in her soft, dark curls to ground myself. "Mommy had a really long first day."

"Martha let me watch a movie, but she's not you." Jasmine pouted, her lower lip sticking out in a way that squeezed my heart. Then she leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, "Tomorrow, you should just skip work. My teacher says family is the most important thing."

I couldn't help the breathless laugh that escaped me. "I don't think my boss would agree with your teacher."

While I thanked the nanny and sent her home early, Jasmine scrambled onto the sofa and immediately reached for the television remote.

"Can I watch cartoons, Mommy?"

Before she could even press the power button, a cold spike of adrenaline hit my chest. The media in this city was obsessed with him. Every local broadcast, every sports recap—his face was everywhere. If she saw him on screen again, she’d ask questions. Or worse, she'd call him Daddy in front of someone who could connect the dots.

"Actually, how about we do something better?" I intercepted the remote, gently pulling it from her hand before the screen could flicker to life. "You've been cooped up all day. Let's go downstairs and find a restaurant. You can pick whatever you want."

Jasmine’s eyes sparkled, her boredom instantly forgotten. "Even ice cream?"

"We can negotiate after real food. Go get your pink shoes.”

Ten minutes later, Jasmine was skipping down the carpeted hallway, her tiny hand tucked securely in mine while she clutched her stuffed rabbit under her other arm. I pressed the down button for the private penthouse elevator, praying the fresh air would clear the suffocating residue of Rhett’s voice from my mind.

Nonetheless, as soon as the elevator chimed and the heavy steel doors slid open, the world stopped rotating.

Rhett stood inside, leaning casually against the mirrored back wall. His team jacket was slung carelessly over one shoulder, his car keys dangling from his fingers. He looked exhausted, sharp, and utterly lethal.

For one endless second, neither of us breathed. Then, his dark eyes shifted downward.

Straight toward Jasmine.

Every maternal, protective instinct inside me violently exploded. Before his brain could even process that a child was standing there, I stepped directly into his line of sight, aggressively crowding Jasmine behind my legs until she was completely hidden by my trench coat.

"Oh," I choked out, my voice sounding tight and hysterical to my own ears. "I... I forgot something."

Rhett’s eyebrow slowly lifted. He didn't even try to peer behind me; his gaze simply crawled back up to my face, heavy with arrogant amusement. To him, my frantic movement just looked like a desperate, panicked attempt to run away from him.

"You forgot something," he repeated, his voice dragging over the words as he stepped out of the cabin.

"Yes. Something important." I backed up a step, desperately trying to keep my body perfectly centered in front of Jasmine as she shifts behind me.

The steel doors slid shut behind him, cutting off my escape. Rhett folded his arms across his broad chest, a mocking smirk touching his lips. "You've become a terrible liar, Avery. Are you really this terrified of being in an elevator with me?"

"I'm perfectly calm."

"Liar," he breathed, taking one slow, predatory step closer. The scent of cedar and clean cologne crowded my senses, dizzying and familiar. He leaned down, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper meant only for me. "I thought about our little chat this morning. You looked so beautifully offended by my offer. But watching you panic over a two-minute ride is—"

"Yo, Captain!"

A loud, booming voice shattered the suffocating tension.

A few doors down the hall, a luxury suite swung open, and Miller—the team’s star defenseman—stepped into the corridor holding a pair of hockey sticks.

Rhett froze, his jaw tightening in annoyance at the interruption. His head snapped toward his teammate, his focus breaking away from me entirely. "Miller. What are you doing on the residential floor?"

The second Rhett turned his back to look at Miller, adrenaline surged through my veins. I didn't waste a single heartbeat.

Reaching behind my back, I grabbed Jasmine’s tiny hand, twisted the handle of my suite door, and gently but quickly shoved her inside the dark entryway. I pulled the door shut until it clicked softly, leaving her safe inside while I remained out in the hallway, leaning my back against the wood to cover the threshold.

By the time Rhett dismissed Miller with a curt, "Text me the clip, I'll look at it later," and turned back to face me, Jasmine was completely gone.

Rhett stepped closer again, his eyes narrowing slightly as he noticed I hadn't moved an inch from the door. He didn't look down; he just stared straight into my eyes, his voice dropping back into that harsh, quiet rasp.

"As I was saying... you're a terrible liar. And you're still running from me." He took one last step, his chest nearly brushing mine. "Tell me, Avery... which one of us is really afraid?"

I didn't give him the satisfaction of an answer. I reached behind my back, unlocked my door with trembling fingers, and slipped inside, slamming it shut between us.

I threw the deadbolt and collapsed against the wood, my entire body shaking so violently I could barely breathe.

Behind me, Jasmine looked up from the foyer floor, her wide, innocent eyes filled with confusion as she clutched her rabbit tighter.

"Mommy..." She tilted her head. "That's daddy!"

The word hung in the quiet apartment like a ticking bomb. A cold sweat broke out across my neck, and I lunged forward, dropping to my knees and desperately covering her tiny mouth with my hand.

"Shh! Jasmine, sweetie, please, lower your voice," I whispered, my eyes darting frantically toward the door as if Rhett’s gaze could pierce right through the solid wood. My heart was hammering so loudly against my ribs I was certain she could hear it.

Jasmine blinked up at me, pulling away slightly, her little brow furrowing into a stubborn, confused line.

A wave of sheer desperation crashed over me. I took her small shoulders in my hands, looking straight into her big, beautiful eyes—eyes that looked so terrifyingly like his. I had known this day might come, which was exactly why I had prepared for it before we ever boarded the plane from Heathrow.

"Jasmine, look at me," I pleaded, keeping my voice down to an urgent murmur. "Do you remember the secret game we practiced before we left London? The special spy rules?"

Jasmine’s expression shifted, the confusion instantly replaced by a spark of childhood intrigue. She nodded slowly. "The Undercover Secret Agent game."

"Yes, exactly," I breathed, praying her four-year-old brain would hold onto the narrative I had meticulously built. "Remember what Mommy told you? This city is full of bad guys and sneaky reporters who want to take pictures of us and print lies. If anyone—especially that tall man out there—ever asks you who your daddy is, what are you supposed to say?"

Jasmine puffed out her chest, taking her role as a secret agent entirely seriously. She lowered her voice to a theatrical whisper. "I have to tell the Agent Lie. I have to say my daddy is a brave astronaut who got picked for a super-secret, top-secret mission to Mars. He’s living on a spaceship right now, eating space ice cream, and he can't come back down to Earth for a really, really long time because he's studying aliens."

I closed my eyes for a brief second, letting out a ragged breath of pure relief. It was a ridiculous, elaborate twist of a lie, but it was exactly what I needed. If she told Rhett that story, he would just assume her biological father was some eccentric, vanished boyfriend from London who had filled her head with space fantasies before abandoning her. It would feed directly into his belief that I had completely moved on with a new family, protecting the truth while throwing him off the scent entirely.

"Good girl," I whispered, kissing her forehead as I gently smoothed down her curls. "You are the best secret agent. If that man ever talks to you, you tell him the astronaut story, okay? Never, ever call him Daddy out loud. It’s our special secret."

Jasmine giggled softly, saluting me with her stuffed rabbit's foot. "Roger that, Captain Mommy."

I smiled back at her, but as I stood up and glanced back at the heavy front door, the smile died on my lips. The trap was laid, the lie was set, but the tension in my gut only tightened. I was playing a dangerous game with a man who had all the power, and one tiny slip-up from my four-year-old would bring my entire world crashing down.