Furious, I turn to walk away when Jonathan grabs my arm. He spins me around, his fingers digging into my skin.
Again, I have to shake him off. “Don’t touch me.”
“I know you understand how this works, Briana.” He removes a piece of paper from his inside pocket and hands it to me.
I don’t want to take it, but I’m also curious. But when I realize it’s a check, I shove it back at him.
He waves my hand away. “Hang on to it. I want you to sleep on it. This kind of money would change your life. You could start over anywhere in the world.”
Staring down at the zeros on the check, my eyes bug out. I’ve never seen so many zeros strung together at the same time. My current checking account balance is nine dollars and seventeen cents. Including the forty bucks in my pocket, I’m not even a hundredaire. Jonathan is a billionaire. This massive amount of money means nothing to him, but it would mean everything to me. Julian’s trust fund probably accumulates more in interest per day than the amount of this check.
“We both want what’s best for Julian,” he says after a long pause. “I assume you’ll make the right choice.”
I try to hand the check back, but he turns his back to me and walks away. The paper feels like hot metal burning my skin. I’ve never felt so disgusting. Of all the horrible things that have happened to me, I’ve never been propositioned like this. I feel so cheap. Like a hooker. As if I didn’t already feel like a charity case.
Unable to keep the tears from spilling down my cheeks, I call Sadie.
“Hey, babe,” she says on the second ring. “Are you crying? What’s wrong?”
I sniff back the tears and move toward the women’s bathroom. “Can you pick me up?”
“What?” Her tone is clouded with confusion. “Why? What did Julian do?”
“It wasn’t him,” I choke out. “I just met his dad.”
“Oh, God,” she groans. “He’s a real piece of work. Don’t listen to anything he says, Bri. He’s an asshole. That’s why my dad won’t do business with him. No one with a moral compass will go near him.”
“He just gave me a check to stay away from Julian.” I enter the bathroom and rush into the last stall, slamming the door shut behind me. “Please. Can you pick me up? I have to get out of here. I’m not going home with Julian’s driver. I just want this to be over.”
“Okay,” she says without argument, even though I can hear the complaint on her lips. She wanted me to pursue a relationship with Julian
, but unfortunately, his dad comes with the package. “Give me a few minutes to get my stuff together. It’s about an hour drive, maybe more.”
“That’s fine. I’ll stay in the bathroom until you get here. I can’t go back to my seat and sit with his teammates’ girlfriends. I just can’t…”
“It’s okay, babe. I got you. I’m on my way.” I hear keys jingling in her hand. “Do you want me to stay on the phone until I get there?”
“Yeah, would you?”
“Of course,” she coos.
I sink to the floor of the back stall and lean against the wall for support. Sadie lets me talk, my voice slurred as I ramble on about my encounter with Jonathan Rivers. I pray she makes it here before Julian finds me, because I know I won’t have the willpower to have the conversation face-to-face.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Julian
I exit through the back door of the arena with my teammates, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Briana never returned to her seat after the second period. I’ve called her at least ten times since the game ended, all of my calls and texts left unanswered. And when I see Ramon parked off to the side of the team bus, my chest tightens with worry.
Where the hell did she go?
I tell Knox to save me a seat and then rush over to Ramon. “Where’s Briana?”
“I haven’t seen her since I dropped her off before the game.”
“Fuck.” I tug at the ends of my hair in frustration. “Where did she go?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I haven’t seen her.”