Keeper (Alpha Athletes 2)

The woman behind the desk looked up from her phone.

“You can’t go up there.”

“Okay.” I wasn’t entirely surprised. I knew my badge didn’t give me unlimited access in the village. “Can you call him or something? I haven’t been able to reach him. It’s extremely important.”

“Are you his coach?” She smacked a piece of gum in her mouth.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Are you a trainer?”

“Um, no.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “You can wait, but your pass expires in two hours.”

“What? Why two hours?”

She pointed at my chest where the badge hung around my neck.

“There’s a village curfew. The gates close in two hours and you can’t be in here. It’s only open for athletes and coaches.”

“But I need to see Lachlan. It’s important.”

“You can wait for him here, but in two hours you have to leave

.”

I pinched my forehead together. This was crap. I had to see him tonight. I thought about trying to explain how he was going to ruin my career. How if we had to push this game back or find another celebrity, he could ruin other people’s lives. People who had worked on the game. People in programming. People in marketing. His decisions affected an entire division of Revolution. I was their voice. Their champion. Saving the Kenzie game was bigger than me.

But as she smacked her gum and messaged someone on her phone, I realized she didn’t care what Lachlan Kenzie did.

I looked over my shoulder at the lobby accommodations. There were bright blue, red, and purple couches grouped together. Half of them were covered in athletes.

“Okay, I guess I’ll wait.”

She nodded her head. “Have a seat.”

I didn’t see what choice I had. She wasn’t going to give me his room number and there was no other way to find him in this chaos. I felt like I had stumbled into one of my old dorms, only instead of kids studying for finals, these people were built like gods and goddesses.

I straightened my pencil skirt and scooted into a corner of one of the blue couches.

I didn’t want to think what would happen if I didn’t see him in the next two hours.

I pulled up a picture of Lachlan on my phone. We had never met, but I was sure I would recognize that man anywhere.

I tried to look at him with a professional gaze. He was part of my portfolio. But in almost every picture I had of him, he was shirtless. His abs rippled with chiseled indentations. Most men weren’t made like Lachlan. He had jet black hair and eyes to match. He wore his shorts low on his hips, showing off the firm muscles of his chest and torso. Client. I reminded myself. Game ambassador.

But there was a reason Revolution had chosen him. He had fiery sex appeal. There was no denying how women reacted to him. Twenty-somethings thought he was a complete badass. The entire success of the game hinged on him being able to appeal to all ages. Our test markets in the US and UK liked him because of his bad boy image—but it had never been this bad before. I placed my phone face down, hoping I would see him walk through the lobby door any minute.

We couldn’t lose him. I smoothed the wrinkles out of my skirt and pulled my jacket together, covering my chest. There were two men having a conversation next to me in what I thought was Italian. They were clearly athletes. Arms and legs like that put them in the track and field category, but I wasn’t completely sure.

I wasn’t sure about a lot of things as the minutes ticked by.

Chapter Seven

Lachlan

I pushed through the door. I’d lost my appetite for partying tonight. Rick pissed me off. The team pissed me off. The media pissed me off. Everyone was coming at me and I couldn’t find any relief. I was knackered from the entire fucking day. I’d sleep it off.