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The glass of whiskey was suddenly back in Nico’s hand and he downed the drink in two swallows. “It doesn’t matter how I feel.”
“That is a ridiculous statement.” When Nico snarled at his cousin, Filippo smiled sheepishly. “Respectfully.”
“You think this is easy for me? It is not.” He braced his hands on the desk and leaned over, exhaling. “I hate it, but I am also realistic. If he were part of our world, I would find a way to protect him—this I would know how to do. But his world is too high profile, too public. We would be discovered and his team would retaliate. Maybe not the players, but the management and the league. I have no way of keeping him safe from a world so unlike our own.”
“Allora . . . what of our world? What of our enemies?”
This was easy. “I would slaughter anyone who dared to target him.”
Filippo nodded as if this was the answer he expected. “But as you said, they won’t target him because he’s too high profile.”
“It’s not our people I am worried about. If we were discovered, he would lose everything and then come to resent me for it.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
The liquor and heartache combined like a ball of string in Nico’s brain, tangling and making it impossible for him to reason through Filippo’s words. “What does this mean?”
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe Verreault needs someone like you to protect him? Someone who can put the fear of God into those uneducated motherfuckers and scare the shit out of them?”
“The players, you mean.”
“And the coaches and staff. All of them. Who would dare to retaliate against Bennett for his sexuality when they know the powerful Nico Marzano is standing beside him?”
Hmm, this was something Nico hadn’t considered. But it didn’t matter. “There are other methods—legal methods—they can use to ruin his career, things I have no control over. He could lose playing time. He could be traded away.”
Filippo’s mouth twisted into an irritating smirk. “This has such an obvious solution, cugino. And I cannot believe you have not already considered it.”
CHAPTER 28
Three weeks later
Season over.
The Reign just lost in the first round of the playoffs. Yes, they’d pushed it to game seven, but it still stung. Bennett had played terribly, probably the worst series of his entire career. He finished with only three points in the seven games, which was far below what he expected of himself.
Standing in front of his stall, still dripping with sweat, he tried to brace himself for the media and the fans. Both could be brutal in Toronto, and it was deserved this time. He’d let everyone down.
“Hey,” Noah said quietly, unclipping his shoulder pads. “How are you feeling?”
Bennett dropped onto the bench, still facing away from the room. “How do you think?”
“Just wasn’t our year, man. And it’s not your fault.”
“I should’ve been able to keep the team focused after what happened with Alex.”
“Again,” Noah said. “Not your fucking fault.”
But it was. Bennett was the captain. The team was his responsibility, except he’d been so miserable that he hadn’t been able to give his best. A sharp ball of regret tightened in Bennett’s chest, a choking feeling he hadn’t been able to shake for weeks. Not since Nico Marzano walked out of the penthouse.
He’d asked for more and Nico had turned him down. It had been the scariest thing Bennett had ever done, to admit he loved someone and hoped to be loved in return. But Nico didn’t feel the same and Bennett had broken it off. It was the right thing to do, but part of him wished he’d never raised the issue of feelings at all. That he’d kept all those parts of him buried and hidden forever.
Even if it killed him.
You deserve to be loved, Lauren said when he told her about his final conversation with Nico. Someday, you’ll find the right person.
But Bennett had found the right person. That person just didn’t feel the same.
The locker room was quiet as the boys grappled with the loss. Then soft voices reached Bennett’s ears, low phone conversations with wives and girlfriends:
