to release the punk who didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. Wilson tried, grabbing Kai’s shirt, then Pérez and Baker, then Ryder pulled on Hanson, at least getting the man to the ground, though Kai wouldn’t let go of the hold he had on him.
Then, that same sweet, rich smell that had wafted around his sinuses on the breeze earlier came whipping toward him right along with the soft, fearsome touch of Gia’s firm grip and her sharp tone. “Let go of him,” she told Kai, standing at his side, her hand wrapping all the way that it could reach around his forearm. “Mr. Pukui,” she said, her voice louder, her touch tighter, but all he wanted to do was bash Hanson’s flat nose into his stupid face.
“You hold your fucking tongue, you piece of…”
“Kai!” Gia shouted, getting between him and Hanson, her hands on his chest shocking him. “Let. Go. Of. Him.”
He obeyed immediately, glancing from the running back being pushed away by their QB, to the round, dark eyes of the general manager as she watched him. Vaguely, Kai noticed several of the coaches jogging toward them, Mills and a few of the conditioning staff, but thankfully not Ricks. Though, the way Gia glared at him had the man wishing for the loud, filthy berating yells their head coach liked to level at them when they’d fucked up.
“Explain yourself,” Gia told Kai when she dropped her hands from his chest. When he didn’t answer and glanced at his teammates, Gia shook her head, as though she already understood this wouldn’t be an easy situation, she could come in and resolve. “Oh, I see.” She stepped back, glaring at Wilson, who avoided looking directly at her, then to Baker who seemed consumed by the sudden interest in the full bottle of water he held between his fingers.
Pérez glanced at her, unblinking as he held her stare and Kai understood immediately why the man would always be single. “I saw nothing, senorita. Honestly.” The asshole could lie with very little effort. He’d always get away with everything because he’d always be able to convince anyone of his innocence.
“Glenn?” Gia said, staring at the QB, who’d already sent Hanson away from Kai and their GM. When he blinked at her, rubbing his hands over his mouth, she stepped back, shooting a final look to each of them, head moving as though she organized her own agenda in her head and it sealed the fate of everyone standing around her. “Fine,” she said, her voice sharp, cold. “Then every last one of you get off of this field and be ready for a conversation bright and early in the morning. Mandatory.” She whirled on Kai, her mouth hard, the muscles around her lips pulsing. “I’ll be starting with you, so I suggest you get some rest.”
One by one, the players left under the unshakable glare of their GM, each man worried what fate waited for them in the morning; each one unsure if they’d ever see that field again.
6.
GIA
GIA HAD NEVER SEEN Kai Pukui nervous. Even when he’d first sat in her office back in February, trying to sweet talk her into a small extended vacation that he turned into something he took advantage of, the man had carried himself with confidence. He’d looked her directly in the eyes, meeting her careful scrutiny with a genuine, warm smile and honest answers.
Now though, his smile wasn’t as easy to come, and Kai held himself with a lot less confidence. More than once, in the fifteen minutes that he’d sat in the chair across from her desk, Gia had spotted the way the lineman rubbed the pad of his thumb against the black pendant he wore around his neck. The obsidian pendant Gia was convinced was identical to the one Luka had hung around his neck every day twenty years before.
“Coach Ricks is disappointed,” she tried, wondering if the man had actually let her handle this like he promised. Ricks was demanding, maybe a little bossy but when it came to how their players interacted, he was out of his depth.
“You have to let me have this one,” she’d told him when she informed him the night before of Hanson and Pukui’s fight.
“They’re men. I’m not sure you understand how they function.”
“I have four brothers, Ricks.”
“Brothers aren’t players. It’s different.”
“I also have eleven male first cousins and have spent the past twenty years surrounded by men in this league in one capacity