Page 42 of Wild Hit
“What happened?” Hope prompts.
“I bargained with the worst person to do that with.” All the air expels from my lungs. “My dad.”
I don’t even know how to explain this without sounding completely out of this world. Then again, Dad doesn’t live in anormal society. He has the means to make his word law above the actual law if he wants.
Straightening out, and glancing from Hope to Rose, I explain, “Remember when Hope almost got fired for dating Cade, and Rose got put on probation for using the team’s social media to help them?”
“How could we forget?” Hope grimaces.
“Best risk I’ve ever taken.” Our other roommate folds her arms and lifts up her chin in defiance.
“Remember also how there were no real consequences?” I ask softly.
Hope bobs her head. “It was a really well executed plan.”
I hug myself and duck my face. “It worked because I made a deal with Charlie Cox, who… is my father.”
You could hear a pin drop after this.
Long enough passes in absolute quiet that I lift up my face. Hope is absolutely shocked, eyes and mouth wide in a way that would be funny in any other circumstance. Rose is glaring at Miguel for some reason.
“Why aren’t you surprised?” she asks him.
“Er…” The guy squirms a little, rubbing his hands over his powerful thighs. “It happened by accident.”
The journalist zeroes back in on me. “What did you promise?”
I fist my hands around the fabric of my skirt. “It—It’s complicated.”
Now Hope folds her arms as well, brow crashing. “We have all night if necessary.”
They won’t let me get away with just this much information, and I’m too tired to fight them. I take a deep breath.
“I proposed to reopen contact and show up at events with him and telling everyone I’m his heiress, but that wasn’t enough for Dad. He wanted that, plus marrying someone he approvesof”—I say this with air quotes—“as condition for me to inherit the team so I can do whatever I want with it and protect whoever I want in it. Somehow I didn’t think he was serious, but now he wants to hitch me up with Henry Vos, who by the way is a complete slimeball and tried to hit on me at my brother’s freaking funeral.”
Something like a cross between a scream and a wail comes out of me, and my hands fly to my face to hide the horrible shame that’s burning up my skin right now.
I hate that this is my life. I hate everything about it.
I never asked for it to be a low budget telenovela with no happy ending in sight. And even more, I hate that no matter what I try, I can’t escape my tyrannical father.
“What the—” Rose catches herself. The couch tilts as she jumps to her feet. “Why did you never tell us any of this?”
“You had a brother?” Hope gasps next to me. “And your dad is the freaking team owner?”
“Does your father not know that this is the twenty first century?” Miguel shakes his head in utmost stupefaction.
“What does the word inherit mean?” Marty asks.
“To have wealth pass down from parent to child,” her dad explains.
“Audrey!” Rose throws her hands in the air. “This is the kind of ish you have to tell us about with enough time to plan!”
“Is wealth a good thing?” Marty wonders.
“You had a brother?” Hope repeats, tilting her head in confusion. “Wait, you had broken contact with your dad? Even though he’s the team owner?”
“It can be,” Miguel tells his child. “When it’s earned ethically and given willingly. Not like this.”
