Rush: The Season (Austin Arrows Book 1)(40)

“Yeah, well…” I peer up at Kingston, who is watching me closely. “I had a few people ask questions, but Kingston got us out of there in one piece.”

“Cool. Y’all comin’ to the bar?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I tell him. I need to call Noelle and make sure she’s cool with that. I know she isn’t expecting me tonight, but if things get out of hand, Noelle might end up needing me.

“I agree. Lemme talk to Rush.”

I hand the phone to Kingston.

“’Lo?”

I can’t hear the other end of the conversation, but I watch Kingston’s face, wondering what my brother is telling him. Whatever it is, Kingston’s expression doesn’t change. He looks to be listening intently, but I can only tell that based on the way his eyes dart over to me only once before he looks across the room.

“Yeah.” Pause. “I need to pick up Ellie’s car. Wanna come give me a ride back to the arena? Or I’ll meet you somewhere?” Pause.

This time I notice the tic in his jaw and I’ve seen that before. Usually before Mount Rushmore explodes.

He doesn’t. Explode.

But he doesn’t look happy, either.

“Yeah. I’ll bring the keys to you.” Kingston hangs up and hands the phone back to me.

“Everything okay?” I ask, curious.

“Spencer’s gonna get your car and bring it back. I’ll take him the keys.”

Whatever. As long as I get my car back, I don’t really care who brings it to me, though I do have a preference for Kingston at the moment. Clearly I’m losing my mind.

I shake off the thought.

“Thanks again for bringing us home,” I tell him. “And thanks for, you know, making my daughter Twitter famous.”

Something passes over Kingston’s face, but he masks it quickly, gifting me with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“I’ll see you later, yeah?”

I nod. Remembering he said we needed to discuss how this is going to work out, I consider asking him about it but think better of it.

Instead, I walk him to the door and watch as he disappears into the night.



Half an hour later, I’m parked on the couch with a glass of wine and my MacBook. The first thing I do is pull up Twitter and Facebook. Sure enough, I have a crap ton of new followers and friend requests, though I know I won’t know any of them.

From there, I pull up another browser and type in Kingston’s name and Detroit in the search bar. The first things that show up are quite a few links to various articles that’ve mentioned his name over the years. Because I’ve been an Arrows fan for so long, the ones that are related to previous games I’ve already read, but there are a few more recent ones that catch my eye.

While I sip my wine, I skim the articles. Eventually my wine is gone, and my eyes have nearly bugged out of my head.

Now, it only took one article for me to remember the situation everyone seems so heated about. In fact, I remember everything that happened. The way Kingston had been slaughtered by the press despite the fact that he denied the allegations. One of the biggest problems, though, was that some of the reporters got their facts mixed up. Since Kingston had broken up with his girlfriend at the exact same time as the girl claimed he had manhandled her, there are some articles stating he had actually manhandled Cheryl. Somewhere along the way, it looks as though the Arrows organization used that in its favor, claiming the facts were distorted. I definitely remember the allegation, but thankfully the team managed to quash it before it got out of control.

Or so I thought.

Apparently, it wasn’t the team who managed to deflect, but rather the woman who recanted her statement. Unfortunately, the deeper I tried to dig, the less information I came up with. Who the hell is the woman who said that Kingston manhandled her? And why the hell is this shit coming back up now?

Perhaps I don’t know Kingston as well as some of the people in his life, but one thing I know with absolute certainty is that he does not hit women. Hell, too many times to count, I’ve seen him stand up for a woman who is being harassed by some * jerk.

Leaning back against the cushions, I close my eyes. A renewed sense of purpose fills me. It irks the shit out of me that someone would make false accusations like that, then take them back as though they hadn’t already done damage. And though I wasn’t there, and Kingston hasn’t shared the details, I want to know why the woman would do that. All of the articles are the same, all lacking information, and it seems the woman still isn’t talking.

Well, she will be.

Because now I’m on a mission to find out why the hell she did it in the first damn place. It’s time someone held her accountable for her actions.





Kingston

I should be at home, or even at the Penalty Box, not driving my happy ass over to Spencer’s to drop his sister’s keys by. I wish I could say my frustration is due to all the hoopla from my announcement about dating his sister, but that’s not it.

No, the reason I’m headed over there is because the * had the gall to tell me I’ve done enough damage for one night. He hadn’t even wanted to hear my side of the story before he so easily passed off his opinion of what I’d done.

Now I wish I’d kept my mouth shut.