Fuck. I forced a smile and got out.
“You good?” Massi asked as we walked toward the building.
“Fucking perfect,” I lied to the sanctimonious prick.
“Why are you such an asshole all the time?” Massi muttered, and my eyes widened. This didn’t sound like he hated me.
“I’m exactly the asshole you’ve been imagining me to be.”
Massi’s eyebrows shot up, and he grinned. “I’m well aware.”
When I didn’t respond to the teasing, he cocked his head and looked at me for a long moment. “Something you want to tell me?”
I pressed my lips together. “Just make sure Eva’s okay after the game today, all right?”
He blinked then narrowed his eyes, squeezing his hand on my shoulder until it felt like my bones ground together. “What did you do?”
I swallowed, knowing what I had to do. The only way to take my father down was to get close to him, and the only way I could get close to him was to fool him into thinking I was playing his game.
“My fiancée is attending the game,” I muttered. “Sitting with the team guests. Wearing my jersey.”
Massi went very still. “Fiancée. I thought she was your girlfriend.”
“She was. My father’s in a hurry to close the deal.”
“And Eva?”
My jaw clenched. “Make sure someone checks on her after the game. Please.”
“What are you doing, Carter?”
“Playing my father’s game.” I met his eyes. “He thinks I’m falling in line. Getting engaged to the right girl. Giving up hockey for the family business. But if I can get close enough, if he trusts me…”
“You can destroy him from the inside.”
“Maybe.”
Massi studied me for a long moment, as if he knew exactly what I was feeling. Not for the first time, I wondered what secrets he hid, what price he’d paid to his mafia family to be able to play hockey. “That’s going to cost you everything. The team. Your future. Eva.”
“I know.” My voice cracked, despite my best efforts. “But I can’t let him keep hurting people. Can’t let him keep using me as a weapon.”
He nodded slowly then glanced over my shoulder at Tristan, who watched us from the team entrance to the arena. “Does he know?”
“That I’m protecting Eva? Yes. That I’m going to take down my father? No.” The admission tasted like betrayal. “If I tell him, he’ll try to stop me. Or worse, he’ll try to help.”
I’d go to work for my father. I’d pretend to have a relationship with Delaney. I’d do whatever he asked—anythingto protect Eva.
Massi’s hand dropped from my shoulder. “You’re capable of being a good man, Carter.” He turned toward the tunnel. “Now fucking prove it.”
28
ALEKSANDR
The man’snose broke under my knuckles with a wet crunch.
He spat blood onto the warehouse floor, still defiant, even zip-tied to the chair. “I was just doing my job, just watching them?—”
“Watching them,” I snarled as I grabbed his collar and yanked him forward. “You mean following them, taking pictures of them, reporting to Jedediah Carter on where they go and who they see and what they do.”