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"You're a good dude, Grayson."
"Oh, I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart, Jacks. I happen to like spending time with my wife. If you and Sterling are at each other's throats, I can't do that. And that'll piss me off, Jacks. She smells better than you assholes."
I drop heavily into the indicated chair, chuckling. I downed a few over-the-counter pain relievers on my way in. They've taken the edge off the headache, but I still feel like hammered shit.
"Sterling, you got a minute?" Coach G asks as soon as Jordan picks up his phone.
"What's up, Grayson?"
"Your sister is driving Jacks to New Mexico."
"What the fuck?" Jordan growls.
"Jacks can't travel with us, and I don't trust him to get himself to New Mexico without causing a fucking problem. He's a pain in my ass."
I lift my head to scowl at him, but he just shrugs as if to say it's true. Which is fair. I am a pain in his ass.
"He's still having symptoms. Since your sister is a nurse, she'll be babysitting him on the way to and from New Mexico."
"Are you asking me or telling me, Grayson?"
"Telling. You own the team, but when it comes to the day-to-day, I'm the one who has the make the calls down here on the ground," he says bluntly. "This is the right call. It'll keep him out of trouble and ensure we can keep an eye on him. Otherwise, we have to leave him behind."
He doesn't have to spell out that leaving me behind means everyone starts asking questions about the severity of my injury. That'll make sponsors nervous. Jordan is a smart man. He knows we need to play the injury down and keep sponsors happy. Like I told Gabbi, too much rides on this season. Jordan knows it as much as anyone else. More, perhaps. It's his money on the line.
"Son of a bitch," he curses. "Is Jacks there with you?"
"He is."
"Let me talk to him."
"You're on speaker."
"Jacks, if you put your hands on my sister, they'll be retrieving pieces of your body from here to the arena in Carson."
I could go along quietly. That's what I should do. But I'm not going to lie to the man. I'm playing for keeps here.
"With all due respect, what happens between your sister and me is between us, Sterling," I say. "I respect that you've been protecting her for most of her life, but you don't have to protect her from me. She's perfectly safe with me."
"She's got a degree to focus on," he growls.
"And I won't stand in her way. But she's capable of calling the shots in her own life. Trust her enough to let her do it, Sterling. You know she has killer instincts and is more than capable of putting me in my place if I need it."
"Keep your hands to yourself if you want to keep them," Jordan growls. "I'm not fucking around, Jacks."
"Neither am I. I'm going to marry your sister."
"Jesus H. Christ," Coach G mutters under his breath.
Chapter Six
Gabbi
"You told my brother that we're getting married?" I whisper-shout at Atlas as soon as I fling open my front door to find him leaning against the balcony railing. "Are you insane?"
His green eyes rove over me, a smirk on his face. Despite his expression, it's obvious that he's exhausted and in pain. A fine sheen of pain coats his eyes, tightening his expression "I thought you concluded earlier today that I am crazy, Temptation."
"Clearly!" I cry, staring at him like he's a foreign species. I think he may be. There is no one else on the planet like this wild man. "He's been threatening to send me to a convent for the last two hours because of you."
