Jonah (Chicago Blaze 7)

I didn’t see her coming, the outspoken Cuban beauty who can’t cook for shit and swears like a sailor stole my heart right out from under me. It’s like when a puck I can’t get my eyes on slides right between my legs and into the net.

It’s worse, actually. I lost Lily, the only woman I ever thought I’d love, and then love somehow found me once again and now I’m losing Rey, too.

Kit looks around the room to make sure no one can hear him, then leans over and asks in a low tone, “Did you hear about that high roller friend of Durand’s getting arrested?”

“What’d he do?” I ask, answering his question with a question so I don’t have to lie.

“Some fucking awful shit, dude. The cops found child porn on his computers and they went to search his place on some island and he had twenty-four kids locked in a dungeon that he was renting out to his pals as sex slaves.”

“Holy shit, are you serious?”

Kit nods. “Durand isn’t connected to all that, it sounds like, but he looked like he was about to be sick when I passed him upstairs earlier. Can you imagine finding out someone you know is actually that kind of monster?”

“Sounds like he’ll be in prison for the rest of his life.”

I pick up the pace on the stair climber, working up a light sweat. Kit shakes his head and leans on the front of my machine.

“I hope his fellow prisoners will do to him what he did to those kids,” Kit says, his gaze darkening. “He deserves…the worst humanity has to offer, I’ll just say that.”

I’ve never seen Kit so upset about anything. Emotion is swirling in his eyes and he actually looks on the verge of tears.

“You okay, man?” I ask, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah.” He takes a deep breath and pushes off my machine. “I’ve gotta go, see you later.”

“See ya.”

I watch him as he leaves the training room, certain that he is not okay. Kit is one of those guys who keeps everything surface level. Everything is fun and games with him, and I’ve noticed something about him—he has women all over him when we go out, but he always goes home or back to his room alone.

I’ve never known Kit to spend the night with any woman, but anyone who wasn’t paying close attention wouldn’t know that. He flirts and I can tell when he really likes a woman, but he never pursues more than a little making out in public.

Maybe he had his heart crushed at some point, I don’t know. I won’t repeat what I’ve noticed or pry about it, though, because I know how it feels to want privacy.

More players and trainers come into the locker room, everyone buzzing about the arrest of our season-ticket holding VIP fan earlier today. I put my headphones on to signify that I don’t want to talk. I also don’t want to listen. Every word they say just reminds me of the reality I don’t want to face—Rey leaving.* * *“Where are you going next?” I ask Rey later that evening as we talk in my kitchen over Chinese carryout.

“I’m not sure. I have a guess, because I know there’s a task force working a big case out west, but I won’t find out until I’m ready to return to the field.”

I push a piece of Mongolian beef around my plate, feeling like a guy whose puppy just got kicked. I hate this feeling.

“I’ll miss you,” I admit.

Rey is quiet for a few seconds before she says, “I’ll miss you, too. So much. I’ve never…”

“What?”

She sets her fork down, meeting my eyes across the kitchen table. “I’ve never wished I could stay anywhere after I finished a job. I was always ready to move on and kick more ass. But this time…” She shakes her head and looks away. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does, though. What we’re you gonna say?”

Rey turns to look at me again, her expression sad as she says, “This time I wish I could stay. If I could…I’d ask you out, Jonah. On a real date.”

I give her a wry smile and say, “No, I’d ask you out. That’s how it works with real men.”

She lowers her brows. “Real men don’t accept when a woman asks them out?”

This woman. She gets me going in every possible way, and damn, do I love it.

“No, a real man doesn’t put a woman in that position. If he knows there’s chemistry, he makes the move. He doesn’t want to risk losing her. He wants her to know he’s man enough to put himself out there and ask, knowing she could shoot him down.”

The intensity in Rey’s expression matches the way I’m feeling right now. Our eyes stay locked, the air between us charged with energy, before she softly says, “There’s definitely chemistry.”