Trying to Score (Assassins) Read online

  Lucas and Molly shared a long, sad look before looking back down at their food. There wasn’t a day that passed where Lucas didn’t think of James Brooks. He was the man that taught Lucas to play hockey, he picked Lucas’ number out, he did everything in his power to give Lucas everything to succeed in the hockey world. When Lucas’ condition came into play, James did everything to get the best help for him, even if it didn’t help or broke his parent’s bank. James didn’t care, he just wanted Lucas to feel normal.

  James died the day before Lucas’ 18th birthday. Lucas would never forget the feeling when he saw his father fall at the end of their driveway, or how he screamed when James wouldn’t wake up. Lucas held his father’s body until his mother found them and pulled Lucas away.

  Lucas looked down at his finger, seeing the fingers that at the time had been bloody and bruised from where he tried to get to his father while his mother held him back. Lucas was in such a state of hysteria that he had dug his nails into the cement, popping off two of his nails as he tried to get back to his father.

  James was only 42 when he had the massive heart attack, and instead of getting the help he needed, Lucas turned to alcohol. Lots of it. He was drunk through the first year of college and pretty much through his first couple years of the NHL. He sobered up some for the two years he was with Fallon, but that was only when he was with her. When he was on the road, he was drunk because he couldn’t handle being alone. Even with Levi there, Lucas still felt alone.

  “You’re father once got a fortune cookie that said ‘Love is like war, easy to start and hard to stop’. He looked at me, and laughed before saying, ‘Isn’t that the damn truth?’” Molly laughed before looking up at Lucas, “She’ll take you back honey, once she sees that you’ve changed. She will.”

  Lucas smiled over at his mom, his rock. Lucas loved the little stories his mom would share about his father, they would always fill him with the love he missed from his father being alive. Most of all he loved Molly like a son should and would do anything for her. He believed anything she said, because he knew she loved him so much, but for some reason he was pretty sure it was gonna take more than Fallon finding out that he had changed for her to take him back.

  “We’ll see,” he said with a grin. “I’m going to head out early tomorrow, I need to get back.”

  “Alright, I just love that you’re only an hour plane ride away,” she gushed, reaching over the table to cup his face.

  “Me too Mom, me too.”

  “Can you do me one favor though?”

  Lucas smiled. “Sure Mom, anything.”

  “Shave your face honey; you look like a homeless person!”

  Lucas laughed. “Mom, it’s almost playoffs season.”

  “I don’t care. You know you better shave it, or Fallon might not take you back,” she warned with a grin.

  A bashful smile went across Lucas’ face. He knew for a fact that Fallon liked his beard.

  A lot.

  Especially the feel of it between her thighs.

  Chapter 8

  Lucas should have known when he walked into Rocky Top Wine’s main office that he was going to have a problem. Fallon’s poor ‘boyfriend’ almost jumped out of his skin at the sight of Lucas before rushing to shut Fallon’s door. Lucas found that odd because when he had called earlier, Rob had said Fallon was out on lunch and wouldn’t be back until two, and it was only one.

  Lucas stood in front of Rob’s desk that was surrounded by the flowers he had bought Fallon, begging Rob to do him a favor. As he looked around the office he wanted to laugh out loud. If she didn’t want the gifts, why were they still on display?

  Because she wanted them.

  “Okay now Rob, how much do I need to pay you to get you to do this for me?” Lucas asked, pulling his wallet out. Rob’s eyes became the size of quarters as he looked up at Lucas from his desk.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Brooks, but I cannot let you in Ms. Parker’s office. She’ll flip on me!”

  “Fine, I’ll give you the post-it notes I have for her and you put them all over her office,” Lucas said, pulling the pack of post it notes out of his pocket. “I’ll give you a hundred bucks.”

  “Are you kidding me?!” Rob exclaimed, looking as if his big eyes would fly out of his head.

  “Okay, 200,” Lucas said, pulling another hundred out of his wallet.

  “Oh my God, she’ll kill me and probably fire me! She specifically told me not to let you anywhere near her office!”

  Why was that?

  “Okay, 500 bucks and if she fires you, I promise I’ll hire you. I’ll pay you double too, but that’s only if she fires you,” Lucas added because he swore he saw dollar signs in Rob’s eyes.

  “Fine, but I need that in writing!”

  “Sounds good to me. Type it up and I’ll sign it.”

  After an hour of negotiation, because for some reason Rob really thought Fallon would fire him, and explaining what Lucas wanted Rob to do, Lucas finally walked to his truck with a satisfied grin on his face.

  If his plan didn’t work, he didn’t know what would.

  ****************************************************

  “Elli, he had no teeth,” Fallon said as she looked at the picture of the man that had volunteered for the Assassin/Rocky Top Wine campaign. Martin Sidorov was a nice-looking man, but he didn’t have any teeth! And he said he refused to wear his dentures!

  The horror!

  “Sidorov is the only guy who volunteered that you would even consider taking, Fal. What am I supposed to do? Make a guy do it? I can’t do that,” Elli said, causing Fallon to look up.

  “Consider taking? There was someone else?”

  Elli looked down at her finger, picking at the nail. “Um, yeah.”

  “Who?”

  Fallon knew it was Lucas before his name even left Elli’s lips. “Lucas Brooks.”

  “No fucking way,” Fallon said without thinking.

  “Jeez Fallon, cuss much?”

  Fallon giggled as her face turned deep red. “You’re just as bad.”

  Elli shrugged her shoulders. “True, so anyways, since you brought up Lucas…”

  “I didn’t bring him up,” Fallon countered but Elli went on.

  “Aiden, Lucas…”

  “Yeah,” Fallon nodded, waiting for Elli to look up so she could pin her with a glare.

  “He doesn’t know, I take it.”

  “You take right.”

  Elli finally looked up and Fallon could see the worry in her eyes. “Oh Fallon, why? You’ve struggled to give that baby everything he wants, when Lucas could have been helping. Along with the fact that he deserves to know about his son.”

  Fallon looked away. “I didn’t come to be lectured Elli. I know what I’ve done wrong. I don’t need you to tell me.”

  “Fallon, come on. I love you and Aiden, you know that. I’m not lecturing you, I’m worried about you.”

  “I’m fine, everything will be fine.”

  “I don’t think so,” Elli warned.

  “It will be,” Fallon promised, even though she really couldn’t do that. She didn’t know how Lucas was gonna take finding out about his son, and she really didn’t need to worry about it as long as she stayed away from him and everyone kept their month’s shut.

  Simple, really.

  “Why don’t you want to tell him? He’s a good guy, Shelli adores him.”

  “She’s four months Elli, come on. She likes the sparkly ball I bought her a couple weeks ago, too.”

  “Hey now, Shelli is smart for her age.”

  Fallon rolled her eyes. “I know that Elli, I’m just scared that he will hurt Aiden the way he hurt me. Of course, he will love him — hello it’s his kid — but what happens when he gets married and has another. He’ll totally forget about Aiden and I’m not doing it.”

  “I doubt that, you’re overreacting.”

  “I’m being practical.”

  “You’re being dramatic. Give him a