The man glanced back at me, then started running.
I don’t know why I decided to react the way I did. Maybe it was all the frustrations from the past two days boiling over. Maybe I desperately needed a win.
But whatever the reason, I immediately sprinted down the hall after the man. I should have called the police, but I didn’t dare slow down enough to take my phone out. The person turned down a hallway ahead, and I slid around the corner to follow them. I was gaining—they were only fifty feet away now.
“STOP!” I shouted. “INTRUDER!”
He darted down another hallway, and I pumped my arms like I was a track star setting the record for the hundred yard dash. This might be the person who had caused so much stress and chaos to the team, to Rhett and Cole, two men I deeply cared about. They couldn’t get away. There was a conduit pipe running vertically on the wall, and I grabbed it and used it to swing my momentum around the corner, eager to keep the suspect in my sight.
He stood right in front of me, striking out with a fist.
My vision flashed bright from the blow, and then something hit me in the back of the head. I blinked at the ceiling; somehow, I’d ended up on my back. Even though I wasn’t moving, the walls were spinning around me whenever I blinked. There was a wet sensation on my face. I touched my nose and my fingertips came back red.
The man who stood over me had a strong nose and jet black hair cut short, like a soldier at boot camp. He looked annoyed more than anything.
I opened my mouth to scream, but only a squeak came out.
“You should have gone back to your office,” he growled. “You could have ignored me. Now Ihaveto do this. You made me, you stupid bitch.”
Something bright flashed in his hand. A knife.
This couldn’t be happening. It all seemed so ridiculous. Two minutes ago, I was bench pressing while jamming out toAbracadabra. And now I was about to die.
And the worst part of all: I never had a chance to make up with Cole. That felt like a horrible injustice.
As the man raised the knife, I hoped that Cole wouldn’t feel too guilty about it.
Suddenly, my attacker looked to the side. Someone barreled into him at full speed, sending them both tumbling down the hall.
Elias!
The two men wrestled for the knife, fingers gripping and grasping for wrists in a struggle that meant life and death. Elias won, and the knife slid across the ground toward me. The huge goalie was on top of my assailant now, punching him once, twice, three times. The man stopped fighting, and went still on the ground.
Elias stood, looming over him like a giant. “I could kill you,” he growled, “for what you did toher.”
He picked up the knife, squeezing it in a fist. His knuckles were white, his eyes wide and bloodshot as he stood over the man who had caused us all so much pain and trouble. For a briefmoment, I was certain Elias would kill him. He looked like a god, impossibly strong and full of wrath.
Then there were shouts down the hall. Security guards came running, falling to their knees next to the attacker. One held him down, while the other cuffed his hands and checked his pockets for more weapons.
Elias knelt, touching my cheek with a tenderness that I never would have imagined from the man I had seen only seconds before. He lifted me off the ground and into his arms like I weighed nothing, then began carrying me away.
“You are safe,” he said with more of a Swedish accent than normal. “I will not allow anyone to hurt you, June.”
And somehow, I knew he meant it.
36
Rhett
“Where is she?” I demanded when I reached the trainer’s room. “Where the hell is June?”
Elias put a hand on my chest. “She is fine.”
I knocked his hand away and stepped up into his space. “Get the fuck out of my way, Elias, or I swear to Christ…”
I trailed off as I remembered who I was talking to. Elias had several inches on me, and at least fifty pounds. I might as well have been picking a fight with a fucking polar bear.
He smiled like he knew what I was thinking. “Are you ready to be calm now?”
