Dare To Tempt (Dare Nation 2)

Chapter One

Damon Prescott’s life had gone from golden to shit in an instant. Or rather in one violent football play gone wrong. He refused to watch the reviews of his injury. The slam of his head against the turf and the shattering pain before he blacked out were vivid enough in his mind.

Another concussion should have been the worst of his problems. Instead he’d also tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in a random test and had been suspended immediately. As if he’d touch the stuff. No unknown supplements went into his body. Period. So how the fuck had he tested positive not just once but on a second check as well?

A knock sounded at his door and he pushed himself up from his couch, his head still pounding a week later. Even his ears continued to ring. He walked slowly to the front entrance, opened up, and let his family into his home. It was the second meeting since the results had come back.

The people entering his house weren’t just family, they were his team. That team included Dare Nation, a sports management firm his brother Austin owned along with their uncle Paul Dare.

Austin, his oldest sibling and his agent, strode in first, his executive assistant and girlfriend, Quinn Stone, by his side. Austin patted him on the back. Quinn smiled and murmured her apologies for what was going on.

Next came Bri, his sister and publicist. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered,” she promised him, pulling him into a hug.

He’d deliberately kept this gathering tight. He didn’t want his mother, Christine, here. She was already upset by the situation and his injury. His brother Jaxon was at baseball practice and couldn’t be here. And Braden was abroad with Doctors Without Borders. Paul was at the office, fending off the press and holding down the fort.

But they did need a plan. First of all, the season started in two weeks, and Damon didn’t want to miss being allowed on the field for the first four games due to a suspension. He was appealing and should hear soon what the verdict was.

Austin cleared his throat. “Let me start by saying everyone in this room knows you didn’t cheat. But we also know the likelihood of winning on appeal in this zero-tolerance era and it’s not good.”

Damon clenched his fists at his sides. “I did not take a banned substance.”

His brother stared at him, his expression somber. “Players are responsible for what is in their bodies and a positive test will not be excused because a player was unaware he was taking a prohibited substance.” He repeated the words from the players’ collective bargaining agreement.

Words Damon already knew by heart.

“Golden Tate was taking fertility treatments he didn’t know contained prohibited substances,” Austin continued. “And if that doesn’t tug on the committee’s heartstrings, I don’t know what will.”

“Tate self-reported before he tested positive and they still didn’t cut him any slack,” Bri said.

Despite the fact that Damon heard his siblings, he refused to give up without a fight, and believing in himself was priority one. “I still say we go forward as if we’ll win. We thought we’d hear by now. Maybe it’s a good sign they’re taking their time.”

His brother and sister glanced at each other and nodded.

“We figured you’d say as much,” Bri said. “So, I’ve got an idea. Well, thanks to Quinn, I have an idea.”

Damon grinned. “You’re the family fixer. Of course you do.” But he rubbed his chest, which grew tight any time he let himself think about the mess he was in.

Without admitting it to his siblings, even he knew that the only out given on appeal was when the testing had been compromised. He couldn’t prove his had. But he refused to give up until forced to.

He was one of the team captains despite his young age, and it was a contract year, for fuck’s sake. The positive test gave Ian Dare, his team owner, every reason not to offer him the deal he deserved as the up-and-coming star quarterback of the Miami Thunder.

“You’ve spoken to Ray Benson’s PI?” Damon asked of the lawyer Dare Nation used and Austin himself had used when his baby girl had been left on his doorstep.