Page 14 of Under My Skin

“Um, hi,” I sniffed. “My name’s Daniela Ramos. My sister, Amara Ramos?—”

“Oh, my God. What iswithyou people?!” she screeched, cutting me off. “What part ofharassment chargesdon’t you understand?”

“She’s dead,” I choked out. “She died from a postpartum infection four nights ago. After she gave birth to his son. Can’t you just pass on a message?—”

“I don’t care if she was abducted by aliens! Braden isn’t interested! He had her calls forwarded to mebecausehe didn’t want to deal with this!” she exclaimed. “Now, if I hear from you again, Iwillbe pressing charges and filing a lawsuit against you. Do you understand me?”

Angry tears stung my eyes and spilled over my cheeks and a sob tore out of my throat. How could she be so cold and calloused? How could she not care that someone wasdead?

“Oh, grow up,” she grumbled, hanging up on me.

A soft coo came from the bassinet, and I threw my phone on the bed and went to pick my nephew back up, kissing his forehead.

“It’s just you and me now, little man,” I sniffled. “But we’ll get through this. Together.”

And Braden Hicks, God’s gift to football? He could choke to death on his own vomit and burn in hell for all eternity. He might have given me the most precious gift in the world – this sweet little boy – but he was the reason my sister was dead. And he didn’t even care.

CHAPTER SIX

BRADEN

THREE WEEKS LATER

As I approachedVicki’s office door, I groaned while hitting the block button on yet another email containing an unsolicited nude picture. This was getting ridiculous. Over the past few weeks, ever since my arrest, the emails had increased from once a week or so to almost every day.

I was almost at the point where I wanted to hire a private investigator to find out who was doing this so I could take real steps to make them stop. But I was just reluctant to take that step since it wasn’t like this person could physically do anything to me from behind a screen. If I’d been getting things delivered to my doorstep, it would have been a different story, but thankfully, that hadn’t happened.

“Braden,” Vicki crooned as she came out from behind her desk and tried to hug me. “It’ssogood to see you. I’m so sorry about your uncle, sweetheart. How are you holding up?”

I huffed out a sigh as I looked at her long blonde hair, green eyes, and the fire-engine red dress that hugged her petite framejust a little too tight, making her tits practically spill out of the top.

If this woman’s horrible personality hadn’t been such a turn-off, I might have actually been attracted to her. But the second she opened her mouth, anything appealing about her vanished, and all I could focus on was the grating, entitled attitude that oozed from every pore of her being. Even when it seemed like she was being nice or personable, it was beyond evident that she was always working an angle, trying to figure out how to turn the situation to her advantage.

“I’m fine,” I muttered as I twisted out of her arms and sat in the chair across from hers. “So, you called. I’m here. What do you want?”

“I wanted to talk a little about how we can salvage your image in the press,” she said as she walked back around the desk and sat down. “I’m sure you know Jeff Hollister has been milking your little spat at the bar for all it’s worth. Between that and…well, the reputation you have with women, you’re pretty much public enemy number one right now. But they don’t know you like I do, so I want to figure out a way to let the rest of the world see the real Braden Hicks.”

I groaned quietly. This bitchdidn’tknow me and never would, because she’d never bothered to find out the first thing about me. She’d devoted all her energy to throwing herself at me every chance she got instead. Honestly, it bordered on unprofessional, and I’d almost fired her a bunch of times over it, but unless she did something insanely inappropriate or was negligent in some way, I was basically trapped in my contract with her for another year.

But shewasright. Jeff had been playing up the incident as much as he could, and they’d been a pain in my ass ever since my arrest. Thankfully, because I had a kickass lawyer and this was my first offense, I hadn’t had to serve any time in jail, butI was under a microscope now. I’d had to pay a fine to the city, plus another one to the League, and the League had also put me in mandatory anger management. And because the media loved drama and gossip, this one incident had tanked my image. I wouldn’t have believed something that simple would be all it took to turn the entire country against a person if it hadn’t happened to me.

“You’re right,” I admitted. “So, what do you suggest?”

“How do you feel about picking a charity or two to support with donations, public events, and such? I think letting the world see that you have causes you’re passionate about would really help.”

“Sure. Any organization I want, or do you have a list you want me to pick from?” I sighed.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do charity work. I just didn’t like the idea of doing it as a publicity stunt. Charity was supposed to be something that you did out of the kindness of your heart, because you believed in the cause, not something you did to get Brownie points with the media.

“This isn’t a joke, Braden,” Vicki pouted.

“I know it’s not. I just don’t like the idea of using something that should be done out of kindness as a way to suck up to the press.”

“It’s not sucking up,” she chuckled, flashing me a coy smile. “It’s just letting people see a different side of you. Giving them a glimpse at who you are behind that football uniform. Aren’t there any causes you’re passionate about?”

Well, when she put it that way, it didn’t sound so bad. And therewas, in fact, one cause I was very passionate about because I knew people who had been personally affected by it.

“Yeah, there’s one. Well, two, but they sort of go hand-in-hand. Are there any good charities that support domestic abuse and sexual assault survivors? Like places that help the victimsget out of bad situations and give them resources and stuff to get back on their feet if they need it?”

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