Page 91 of Hart Breaker

“Put me on. I am totally going to give her hell for not sharing this.”

I tap a few buttons and nod to the screen. “It’s your favorite sister-in-law.”

“I’m a mixture of pissed off at you and bursting at the seams that I didn’t know you were going away with #13.”

“I feel like I should find it offensive that I’ve been reduced to a number, but fuck it, I’ll be whatever she wants me to be.”

“Riley, this is what you deserve—a man, not a little bitch boy.”

Riley looks at me. “If I had another sister-in-law right now, Ava would be demoted.”

I take her hand and lift it to my mouth, kissing the back of it while chuckling as Ava says, “Hey, I speak the fucking truth.”

“And that’s why I love you.”

“Do you mean that’s why …” She stops. “We’ll discuss this later. Are you two at this stage in your relationship that you can confide in each other about everything or just the four times a day epic sex?”

“That’s never going not stop,” I whisper.

“We’re sharing everything. Why? What’s up?” Riley squeezes my hand.

Ava recaps what she’s already told me about the case and then picks up where we left off.

“After I threatened, I was told that if I did not drop this, they would charge Hart and said they had sufficient evidence to make it stick and also said that the NFL would be given this new evidence and open their investigation back up. Hart, you could be benched for a couple of games, and fined, too.”

“He did nothing wrong!” Riley snaps

“What the hell’s going on?” Boone asks, sitting up and stretching.

Riley scowls at me. “This is your career. They can’t do that.”

“Let’s keep it real. They can do whatever they want, and they’re going to. I take a deal, this kid’s fucked. He will never get a shot. And straight up, I have all the confidence in this team to do this without me. Ryder Maverick, he doesn’t have shit but a public defender who’s done a shit job.”

“I knew you’d say that,” comes from the background. It’s Lucas. “I also believe that we can take care of business. That character of yours is solid. Those assholes, they’ll hang Ryder and keep doing this to the next kid, and the next. That being said, we’ve been trying to get information on the assholes who stormed the field after the Knights win against Vegas and, apparently, no arrests were made. Not fucking one. We do have some guys looking into it. We won’t relent, but I’m not seeing this as a problem we can solve overnight.”

“Obviously, this isn’t ideal for the team, and you guys own my ass, so in the end, it’s your call. But I’m not gonna ever feel good about rolling over on some kid. My mom’s boyfriend is a security specialist; I’ll have him look into this, too.”

“The more people you have in your corner, the better. We have a few days before we have to respond to them. Is that correct, Ava?”

“We have time, but I cannot wait to walk into in the DA’s office with the evidence I have, with the news crew behind me, to confront this.”

“I’m down for another trip to Vegas,” Riley interjects.

“Hold the fuck on Betty Badass. You have a liquor license. I’m pretty sure that there are some sort of … I don’t know rules against committing a felony where you’ll lose it.”

“Fuck that. Lo can get it in her name,” she snaps.

“Riley Mae Brooks, this is your Uncle Lucas. No good will come out of this if you get in trouble, too.”

“Love you and mean it, Uncle Lucas, but you don’t fuck with what’s mine, and in case you haven’t heard, Harts ass is mine.”

Snickers come through the line and, behind me, fucking Boone is trying to keep his shit together.

“Like it when you’re pissed. I’m sorry about this smile on my face right now, but damn, girl.”

She rolls her eyes, crosses her arms, and flops back in her seat. “I’m just going to put it out there right now, you can wear the pants when you want, but I’m not into butt stuff.”

“It’s fucking disturbing watching you drool over my sister and actually having confirmation that the two of you do indeed have something going on.”

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