I keep trying to get away, but I’m stopped at every turn. Security just keeps pushing me forward, despite the fact I’ve managed to give two of them black eyes with my efforts. When they finally push me into the locker room I’m instructed to get changed. I try to push through them again, but they’re all standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the door.
A towel is held out to me from my side, and I hear my dad’s voice. “We can try fighting them together if you want.”
I turn to face him and see he’s grinning, but also sporting a split lip. Now I’m really pissed, and I round on the security guards again. My hand pulls back to punch the first one in my sights. The moment my fist connects with his flesh, I’m tackled to the groundagain from behind. To my right, I hear my dad hitting the floor as well, cursing as they hold us down.
The locker room door opens, and through the scrum, I see Connor Kennedy Sr walk in looking like he’s the one who just won a gold medal. He tells everyone to get off of us. They do, but they stay kneeling around us, poised and ready to grab us again if we attempt to fight or make a run for it.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says, crouching over us. I move to grab him, but instantly my arms are kneeled on by a security guard on each side. I look to my right and see they’ve done the same to my dad. Connor Sr smirks. “As I was saying. You are going to get changed, then you and your father are going to be put on the next flight back to the States. Once there, you will discover that you’re suspended until you forget about my son.”
“And if I don’t?” I ask as I struggle against the weight of his security guards, trying to fight back, but they apply more pressure.
His eyes narrow in on me. “Then myself, and the other general managers and coaches in this league who are tired of you running roughshod, making a bad name for the NHL, will come together and enact our plan to finally have you removed from it.”
“Good luck with that.” I sneer.
“I don’t need luck.” He raises an eyebrow. “I have the Marshal Rule.”
A low growl rumbles through me. “What the fuck is that?”
“A rule that says two players can’t date.”
“He’s bluffing,” my dad grunts out.
Connor Sr looks away from me for the first time and turns his gaze to my dad. He looks menacing with his nostrils flared and his grin wicked. “I told you years ago that he had no business playing with my son.”
“So you do remember,” my dad says, locking eyes with him, engaging him in a battle of wills.
“You should have kept him in Alaska where trash like you belong.” He rises to his feet, then kicks my dad harshly in the ribs. “Enjoy your flight.”
TWENTY-ONE
Connor
In retrospect, kissing Gavin at center ice was a terrible idea. He never came back. He missed the medal ceremony. And I know as I sit here on the jet my father chartered, flying back to Chicago, that he’s the reason why.
“Where is he?” I ask. My jaw is set and tense from clenching it for the last eight hours. My phone was gone by the time I made it back to the locker room and I have no other way to reach Gavin. Especially considering my father hasn’t let me out of his sight or near enough to anyone else to ask for a favor in reaching him. I couldn’t even sneak away to find a payphone.
“I’ve already told you,” my father says. “He’s back in Buffalo. And as long as you both pretend this never happened, he’ll stay there and even get to keep his career.”
I throw up my hands in frustration. “How can you expect this to work? The entire world saw me kiss him. There’s no way to deny it. Just deal with it. I’m gay and I’m in love with Gavin Marshal.” My cheeks flush when I realize what I just said. I’ve never voiced it aloud, but it’s true. I’m hopelessly in love with Gavin and have been for quite some time.
“No. You’re not.” He stares at me cold and hard. “What you are is confused.”
I roll my eyes at him. “I’ve been gay my whole life, Dad. I’m not confused.”
His nostrils flare. “You are not gay. Bisexual maybe, but by the start of next season it won’t matter anymore as I will have remade your image. This summer you will announce your engagement. I’ll send a shortlist of options for you to choose from.”
“I will do nothing of the sort,” I scoff.
“You will if you want Gavin Marshal to keep his career.”
“Just do as he says,” my mother says, sounding tired from where she’s sitting beside my father, flicking through a magazine. She hasn’t spoken once since we got on the plane and she’s still wearing her sunglasses despite it being the middle of the night. I have no idea how she’s even reading right now.
Anger courses through me, and I look back at him. “So this is your big plan? Threatening Gavin’s career. You’re getting desperate and it’s showing.”
He changes the cross of his legs in his seat as he narrows his eyes at me. The look on his face is smug, like he knows something I don’t. Which, knowing him, is probably true.
“This is just my backup plan to keep the two of you in line,” he says. “My main idea is already in motion and has been since I figured the two of you out. By the time this plane lands, the paperwork for the Marshal Rule will be filed with the NHL for review and once it’s unanimously approved, put into immediate effect. Had you not kissed him on live TV like an absolute moron, you wouldn’t even have to worry about how this will affect you.”
