Cage's Misconduct (NHL Scorpions #3) (7 page)

“It’s really nice, Dalton. It’s small, but I think it suits you.” I walked over to the slim mantle under the TV and looked at pictures of what I presumed to be his family. Picking up a picture of two boys suited up in hockey gear, I looked at him over my shoulder. “Who’s this?”

He walked up so close behind me, I could feel his breath ruffling my hair. His hand brushed mine as he pointed to each boy. “This is my brother Jaden, and that’s his best buddy, Ethan. They’re inseparable. Ethan even comes with Jaden when he visits me in the summer. I think I’ve known him almost as long as I’ve known my little brother.”

I could tell by the softness of his voice, the raw emotion in it, how much those boys meant to him. “You really enjoy having them visit, don’t you?” I was still trying to put all of the pieces together to understand why Cage was such a loner. One thing I did notice was that he was night and day when he was with me compared to being around the guys.

“I do. It’s good for them to have a place to come to in the summer for a while. And they’re good for me, too. Believe it or not, scary as it sounds, I’m Jaden’s male role model. And Ethan doesn’t have a very good home life. His father drinks too much, and as hard as his mother tries, she can’t make up for that.”

“You really are a good guy, aren’t you?” I would have loved to know why he showed everyone else his worst side. What was he afraid of?

“No. Make no mistake. I’m not a good guy. Just ask around.”

Why was he okay with being painted as an asshole when he was obviously anything but? I only knew one way to find out—ask him. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Act so differently around the guys. I’ve hardly been around you, but I can already see how much you love to push everyone’s buttons. Why?”

Cage walked over to the fridge and pulled out two beers. He twisted the caps off and handed me one on his way over to the sofa. His legs spread wide when he sat down with a small thud and gingerly laid his head back so he was staring up at the ceiling. I could tell by the whimper that escaped his lips, his head was still hurting.

“People see what they want to see.”

There were two ways to look at that. “People see what you show them.”

He patted the seat next to him and I sat, taking a sip from my beer. “I guess you could be right. I think it started when my father left. Just before Jaden was born, the old man took off. Typical cliché story. We lived in a run-down house. Mom had trouble making ends meet, et cetera, et cetera. But at eleven years old, I felt like I had to be the man of the house. I suppose I grew a pretty big attitude trying to be tough, you know?”

“Well, why did you need to be tough? Were you bullied or made fun of?” I couldn’t imagine it. Cage was big, gorgeous, and looked like nothing bothered him. It seemed to me like he’d be the one everyone wanted in their group—or he’d be the bully.

“I wouldn’t call it being bullied, exactly. No one ever beat me up or anything. They wouldn’t have dared. I bloomed early and worked out a lot, but hockey was my life. Always has been, always will be, I think. Mom didn’t have any extra money for new equipment or good skates, so I used whatever equipment I could buy with money I got from working around the neighborhood. I’d fix things for some of my classmates’ parents and stuff. You know, clean their pools, rake leaves, mow lawns, fix cars. You can imagine how that went over. I’m sure you know the story. The poor kid working for the not-so-poor kids. Since I was a decent looking kid, the bored housewives were always extra nice to me, and I admit, I took advantage of that. Eh, it was a long time ago.”

Maybe that explained why he lived in such a modest cottage. From what I’d seen so far, the only thing Cage owned that indicated he had money was his BMW. “I’ll bet you make sure Jaden has the best equipment though, don’t you? Probably Ethan, too.” I knew I was right when Cage remained silent. “Told you.”

His eyes had been closed as we talked. He turned his head to me and just barely opened them, looking at me with a squint. “Told me what?”

“That you’re a good guy. Good guys take care of their families, and their family’s friends. You don’t have to do that. I’m sure your mother could get along just fine. She did when you lived at home, didn’t she?”

“Yeah. You know it’s funny. We didn’t have much, but we never wanted for anything either. We always had food on the table, clothes on our backs, and even went to the occasional movie or had pizza delivered on a Friday night. I never felt like money was important, I just felt like I had to make things better
—e
asier for my mom. She was always working. So maybe I assume the worst of people before they can show their true colors and disappoint me. People leave. And they only seem to care about you as long as you can do something for them. I heard from people I hadn’t heard from in years when I made it to the NHL and my salary was public knowledge.”

I knew first-hand how hard it was to grow up in a not-so-perfect environment. That was something Cage and I actually had in common, which meant…“You know, you and Jody were almost the same age when you lost your fathers. He didn’t get that hard edge around him though.”

“You’re kidding me, right? Your brother hits first and asks questions later. No, scratch that. He never even asks questions!”

He had a point. “Yeah, but he’s not mad at the world, and he doesn’t have a problem making friends.”

I think maybe I pushed too hard because I could actually see his anger surfacing. His mouth pulled into a thin-lipped, cynical smile, and even that faded quickly. He leaned his head back again, shutting his eyes, and I noticed the grip on his beer bottle was pretty tight. I was pretty sure it was me saying that Jody didn’t have a problem making friends.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe I’m just an asshole. So tell me why Jody’s so damn protective of you. It seems a bit of overkill, you know?”

I decided to let his comment go. If I had to guess, I’d say Cage didn’t take part in a whole lot of soul searching conversation. Our current talk was probably the deepest one he’d had in a while, but I didn’t love the change in the subject. My experience with Freddy was not something I talked about much. So, I took a page from Cage’s book.

“That’s just the way he is. You know, kids stole my lunch money when I was little—that kind of stuff.” Even though we seemed to have this connection, I wasn’t going to share all my baggage if he was going to withhold his, right?

“I call bullshit. Protective brothers are one thing. Jody’s singular mission in life to beat any guy who looks at you is another.” He gingerly touched his previously broken and now realigned nose. “All I did was say how nice your—never mind, it’s not important. Anyway, there’s more to the story. Your brother broke my nose so I think you owe it to me.”

I’d finished my beer, and now I wanted nothing more than to get back to the hotel and climb into bed. I was exhausted, but I started talking anyway. I still wasn’t sure why I decided to tell him about my time with Freddy, but I did.

“Fine. Here it is. I met Freddy in high school. He was on the football team, best friends with the quarterback and an all-around nice guy. I was on the cheerleading squad. The ‘B’ squad because everyone who tried out made the team, but I had more curves than was deemed acceptable by Bunny Monroe. Her real name was Matilda, but no one dared call her that.” I looked over to see Cage watching me closely. He shifted to a more upright position and gave me his full attention.

“I never understood why girls tried to keep themselves so thin. If a girl is made that way, then fine, but why starve yourself to be something you think others want? I guess we were all just trying to fit in at that age.” He reached over and pulled a KitKat out of the coffee table drawer. “Want one?”

I chuckled at another one of his stashes of chocolate, wondering if he had them scattered all around the house for easy access. “No thanks.”

We sat there in silence for a couple of seconds—me watching him lick chocolate off his fingers. I can’t say it was a hardship.

“Well, go on. I won’t interrupt again.”

“It’s a pretty typical story. We went together for two years before I got pregnant in my senior year. Jody doesn’t know that part, so if you could keep that to yourself I’d appreciate it, not that it really matters now.” Cage was now only the fourth person on the planet that knew about the baby I might have had. My mother and I had agreed that Jody didn’t need to know about it then. He would most assuredly have wound up in jail for murder. It was hard enough reining him in as it was.

Cage reached over and held my hand. “So what happened to the baby?”

That was the hard part—the part that I had such trouble even thinking about. I doubt you could find a seventeen-year
-
old girl who actually
wanted
to have a baby, but when that decision was ripped away from you, it left you a bit broken inside.

“I was three months along and knew I had to tell Freddy about the baby. He had already asked me if I was gaining weight. Even though he was the one who picked me to be with, he constantly watched what I ate. It got worse the longer we were together. He became like a drill sergeant, making me stick to an exercise program and taking food off my plate that he said I shouldn’t be eating. I was young enough and thought I was in love, so I did pretty much whatever he asked of me to keep him happy, even when he started pushing me around.”

Now Cage was gently drawing circles on my hand that was still clasped in his. “If this is too hard to talk about, we don’t have to, Karen.”

“No. It’s okay. I’ve forgiven myself and moved on.” I had. Really, I had, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel sad or mad about that awful time now and again.

“I waited until Valentine’s Day to tell him. I thought that I could make it be a special event, you know? I had been noticing that he was getting quieter around me, and made excuses sometimes when I wanted to see him. I started to wonder if he was seeing someone else. Anyway, we went out to eat at a local place, and I reached over to grab his hand across the table while we were waiting for our food. He allowed it, but not for long. When he pulled his hand away, I knew. He was done with me. Of course, being the teenager I was and all those extra hormones going crazy, I was devastated. So I just came out and asked him point blank what was going on with him. I’ll never forget that moment. I was both so very proud of myself for addressing the subject and scared as hell of his answer.”

I fidgeted on the sofa and took a breath before I continued on. “He told me that he wanted to break up, so I decided not to tell him about the baby. I guess in my head I pictured me telling him and us getting married. You know, the whole happily-ever-after scenario? But what did I know? I was just a teenager in love. Pretty stupid, huh?”

“No. Not stupid. Naïve maybe, but not stupid.”

“Yeah, well he thought I was pretty stupid. We didn’t finish our dinner and when he drove me home, I’d changed my mind about telling him again and decided he needed to know. I invited him in.”

“It took me a minute to convince him to come in, but he agreed. I thought maybe if we had sex, he’d re-think leaving me. I guess I was desperate to hold onto him. When I finally told him about the baby, after we’d had sex, of course, he went ballistic. He said I’d ruined the rest of his life. I’d never seen him like that. He’d been angry at me—pushed me a few times, but I’d never seen his rage take him over so completely. The first hit landed right on my cheekbone. I was literally shocked into silence. I didn’t even scream. The second and third hits hardly affected me because I was still reeling from the fact that he’d actually hit me.”

Both of my hands were now encased between Cage’s. “I’m so sorry, Karen. God, no man should ever hit a woman.”

I took a deep breath, letting the memory go, and finished the recount of my story with quick sentences, just wanting to get to the end. “Let’s just say he continued to beat me until I couldn’t get up off the floor. He’d kicked me in the stomach so hard and so many times that I knew I’d lose the baby. There was just no way a baby could have withstood that kind of violence.” My lips curled up in one of those smiles that people show when they’re trying to forget the pain. “Hopeless and helpless. That’s how I’d felt. So hopeless and helpless; I curled up in a ball just praying he would leave before he killed me, too.”

Cage was trying to comfort me, but I could hear the raw anger in his voice. His grip on my hands tightened to the point of discomfort. “Where is he now?”

I didn’t answer right away. I shook my hands a little to loosen his grip, and took a cleansing breath. He looked down at our hands and let mine go. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. He’s long gone. He left me lying on the floor that night as soon as he heard the front door opening. My mother came in and he went out, saying goodbye to her like everything was right as rain. I never saw him again after that night. He just disappeared. The police came to me in the hospital and we filed a report. About a year later I got a call telling me that Freddy was killed while evading police when he and some of his buddies tried to rob a store. And that was that.”

“I doubt it was as easy as ‘that was that’. Have you had many boyfriends since then?”

A loud snort popped out before I answered. “No. I’ve tried dating now and then, but apparently the new way of dating is to sleep together after one or two nights out. That’s just not for me. I guess I’m holding out for the guy who thinks I’m worth getting to know.” That was one of the reasons I liked Cage. Even though he flirted with me, he wasn’t a threat to me in any way. I knew he’d never seriously be interested in me. He wanted the fast girls—the ones who were pulling their clothes off before they even entered the house.

“You’re definitely worth getting to know, Karen.”

We talked well into the early hours of the morning, and I fell asleep in his arms on the couch. He never tried anything, and even tried to position himself so that I couldn’t feel the tell-tale proof that he was, at the very least, attracted to me.

Anyway, my whole point was that I knew Cage had a sensitive side. I knew he cared so much more than he let on. What I still didn’t know was why he wouldn’t put some of his attitude aside and put some effort into making a friend or two.