Breaking Away (Assassins, #5)(12)

“Go,” Coach Baxter said, tapping Phillip’s helmet, and off he went. Rushing the puck, he looked left to see E. Titov waiting for the pass. Whipping the puck over to him, a forward from the Sharks stopped it, and passed it to his right wing, but Phillip was there, stealing the puck and rushing down the ice on a breakaway with Karson King, with Erik right behind him. He could have dropped it back to either of them, and they would have had a clean shot, but he knew he could deke the goalie out and get it in when the goalie went the wrong way. After doing just that, the Sharks’ goalie laid on the ice, slamming his fist as the King, Erik, Adler, and E. Titov wrapped him up in a hug. As the guys headed to the bench with the crowd going nuts, the biggest smile came across his face. God, he loved a home crowd. It was his first goal since Claire came home with him and, when he glanced up to where she sat, she was on her feet, cheering. He didn’t know if it was the atmosphere of the crowd cheering or if she was really cheering for him, but it made his heart swell. A little ounce of hope was renewed as he watched her smiling face.

Maybe they would be okay.

Or maybe not.

Phillip was starting to think Claire was drunk at the game because, the next day, she was back to her angry self. Throwing her things in a box, she pinned him with a look that said she was pissed. He moved a packed box into the hall as she yelled.

“If you think I’m going over there and being her personal babysitter, you got another thing coming!”

Phillip shook his head. “Harper isn’t going to ask you to do that.”

“Whatever, that’s probably the only reason she agreed to let me stay there, free babysitting,” she sneered at him as she slowly packed her music stuff.

“No, Claire. She agreed because I needed the help.”

“Help? You act like I’m a burden or something! If you don’t want me, get rid of me. I don’t f*cking care.”

Phillip was two seconds from pounding his head against the wall.

“Claire, I do want you. I love you, as I continue to tell you. This is what you wanted. You said you didn’t want to travel with me. This way, you can go to school at a really great private school. You can make friends, and you can enjoy being a teenager.”

“I don’t want to live with a stranger. I want to live with you,” she said, before turning to look at him. Her eyes were so sad, and he felt like the bad guy.

Wasn’t he doing the right thing?

“Claire, I’ll be home in four days, and then you will come back to our house. The great thing about Harper’s house is that it is eight minutes from here, so it’s not like you’ll have a different school or different friends. Everything will be the same. Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”

She slowly shook her head, falling back on the bed. He watched as she moved her hand along her cheek before looking up at him.

“I feel trapped.”

“Trapped?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

She shook her head as she said, “I just do.”

“No, you’re not trapped, Claire. I am giving you options. I am going to give you a better life. I promised you that. Everything will be the same; the only thing that will be different is who the guardian is. It’ll be like a kid with divorced parents. You will spend some time at Harper’s, and then some time here. When I’m home on breaks, I promise you won’t go anywhere but here. In the summer, we’ll go on trips. It’s all going to be okay.”

She looked down and took in deep breaths before shrugging her shoulders. He wanted more from her. He wanted her to talk to him, tell him if she thought everything he said was a good idea. He wanted her to tell him why she felt trapped and what he could do to make it better, but he knew that she was done talking. How many times did he have to tell her he loved her… that he was looking out for her best interest? Shaking his head, he knew he could say it until he was blue in the face, but it would mean nothing to her.

After getting everything in the car, they made their way over to Harper’s house. The Titov’s lived in a nice one-story, ranch-style home in Belle Mead. It had huge windows with blue shutters, which made the house seem whiter, if that was possible. Pulling his car into the driveway, he turned it off, but neither of them moved.

“So I’m just supposed to, like, have Harper to drive me around and shit?”

He rolled his eyes. He knew what she was really asking, but first he needed to get her language under control.

Turning to her, he said, “First, you have to watch your mouth. They have a toddler, Ally, and you can’t say stuff like that.”

She folded her arms across her chest and looked away.

“Fine.”

“And the deal still stands from when you first came to live with me. You show me that you are ready for a car, and I’ll give you this one,” he said, petting the wheel of his BMW Z4 Roadster.

“This car is ugly. I want something else.”

He couldn’t believe she just called his baby ugly but, then again, that meant he could keep it, even though he hardly drove it. He rode his bike more than he drove the car, but that was beside the point, the roadster was hot.

“Fine, be good for six months, and we’ll go shopping.”

“Six months!”

He looked at her, blinking his eyes.

“What, did you think we’d go tomorrow? I’ve caught you drunk, in bed with a rookie, and your attitude stinks, so yeah, we will wait six months. If you don’t mess up, I’ll buy you whatever car you want.”