Last Shot (Minnesota Raiders #3), page 1
Last Shot
A Minnesota Raiders Novel
Pippa Green
Contents
Prologue
1. Alexi
2. Victoria
3. Alexi
4. Victoria
5. Alexi
6. Victoria
7. Alexi
8. Victoria
9. Alexi
10. Victoria
11. Victoria
12. Alexi
13. Victoria
14. Alexi
15. Victoria
16. Alexi
17. Victoria
18. Alexi
19. Victoria
20. Alexi
21. Victoria
Epilogue
The End
Also by Pippa Green
About the Author
Last Shot © Copyright 2021 Pippa Green
Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Last Shot
It was love at first sight. The instant Victoria Newhouse took my hand, I was a goner. I wanted her with every fiber of my being.
Except she was the daughter of the team’s owner and I wasn’t allowed to want her.
Her father made that very clear, and if I wanted to keep my contract with the Minnesota Raiders professional hockey team, then I’d do whatever he said.
Fast forward nine years: Victoria now sees me as merely the grumpy Russian. I play well. I keep my head down. I make sure to stay out of trouble. Still, trouble seems to find me.
Fate throws me and Tori together again and again. It’s getting too hard to keep my hands off of her, to stop myself from kissing her senseless.
Especially when she starts to kiss me back.
The sparks are still there, but with threats of the past coming back to haunt us, I know I need to keep my distance, for her sake and for my kids. I know a guy like me isn’t allowed to have what he wants. And yet I don’t want to be the strong and silent type anymore. I want Tori today, tomorrow, and always.
This might be my last shot at redemption. And I’m willing to risk it all for love.
Last Shot is Book 3 in the Minnesota Raiders series following sexy single hockey player dads on and off the ice.
Prologue
Alexi
9 years ago
I was trying to play it cool as I strutted into the posh upper level offices of the Minnesota Raiders. This was the big league. The NHL. National fucking Hockey League, and they wanted me. They wanted me.
If there was one thing I’d learned throughout the years of struggling to make the big time, it was that image was everything.
People thought that I, Alexi Griffith, was a badass.
So on the outside, that’s who I pretended to be. The tattoos helped. The scar did too, although I’d long since learned to live with it. It was the result of an accident when I was ten years old. A neighborhood kid and I had been playing ball in a side alley when the empty wine bottle I’d been using as a bat cracked and the broken glass flew up and cut my cheek pretty deep. I probably should have gotten stitches but that was the thing about my parents: we couldn’t afford a trip to the doctor. They preferred to allow good old-fashioned Mother Nature and Father Time to heal me instead.
The resulting scar made me look like a tough guy who’d been through hell and back. Like I said, badass on the outside. On the inside, I was just a rookie who had achieved his dream of being signed to the NHL by this team. Talk about a lucky break. Things like that didn’t happen to people like me.
On the inside, I was still the underprivileged, neglected kid from Philly who used to go hungry and snuck into the ice rink because it was warmer there than on the street, safer there than in my violent childhood home with my immigrant parents who didn’t seem to remember they had a child half the time.
On the inside, I was still the one who was never wanted.
I was an outsider and I’d learned to live with that, but man, did I want to fit in now. Here.
All my years of training and learning and working had finally paid off in a big way. I was out of Philly, away from the people who’d never protected me. I’d never let anyone use me again. From this point on, nobody messed with me or my life.
I’d make sure of it.
I’d learned a long time ago not to look like shit bothered me, even when it did. Never show weakness. And that’s what I’d be doing here with the Raiders. Minnesota was a long way from Pennsylvania and I couldn’t be happier.
Happy, proud, nervous, and excited all at once.
I pushed through the doors to the office belonging to the team’s owner, unsurprised when a front desk complete with a pretty assistant greeted me instead of Mr. Elijah Newhouse.
The receptionist glanced up from her computer screen, the corners of her lips lifting in a smile. Her eyes scored me from top to bottom and I made sure to adopt a little bit of heat in my own gaze to match hers.
“May I help you?”
“I’m here to see Elijah Newhouse. Name’s Griffith. Alexi Griffith,” I told her.
She glanced over at the screen and her smile widened before she told me to take a seat. I did.
It wasn’t long before I heard a throat clear and when I turned, there was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen approaching me. Silky blonde hair fell loose around her shoulders and her eyes were wide with a cheer she didn’t have to force. Were people normally this happy?
I wondered because I’d honestly never seen anyone with such a dazzling smile. She looked like sweetness personified. Sweetness and light and everything good. I couldn’t stop staring at her, and something hard thumped in my chest.
My heart skipped a beat. Then two. And stopped. Finally, right when I thought I’d have to pound my fist against the damn thing, it started again.
The woman smiled at me with such warmth I might have felt uncomfortable had she not chosen the seat next to me, and I drew in a breath filled with perfume.
Flowers? Musk? I didn’t know, but the blend went straight to my head and left me dizzy.
“Don’t be nervous.”
Oh shit, she was speaking to me.
I glanced over at her as she commandeered the seat next to mine. “What makes you think I’m nervous?”
She grinned and pointed down to my knee. “You’re shaking.”
Men like me didn’t shake and I cut that crap right out before my foot could so much as bounce again.
“I’m Alexi,” I finally said, extending my hand.
She laid her hand down on mine. Long fingers and a perfect French manicure, I saw, before I wrapped my own meaty digits around hers.
Something clicked inside of me in a way I’d never experienced and I knew, on some deep intrinsic level, my life would never be the same again.
“Victoria. Most people call me Tori. It’s my first day and I’m joining the PR team. My guess is you’re here to play.”
Tori. The nickname fit her; it fit the spark of mischief in her eyes. She was breathtaking. My pulse pounded in my ears.
I grinned at her and she didn’t shrink away from me. Most of the time, women seemed attracted to the scar, and they liked the aura of danger. Something told me neither of those things would impress Tori.
“I’m definitely here to play,” I said, my accent deepening. “Can’t you tell from my voice? Russians always make the best hockey players. I’d be happy to show you sometime.”
Okay, where did the brash confidence come from? Without the help of alcohol, to boot.
A pretty blush stained her cheeks and she glanced down at her lap. “I’ve never played hockey but I’m looking forward to learning all about the sport. I think you’d be a good teacher, Alexi.”
I nodded slowly. “The best.”
Looking at Tori, for a fucked-up second I caught a glimpse of a bright future full of promise. The last of my nerves melted away and when she laughed, my cock hardened.
“The best?” she asked. “Seems pretty boastful.”
“Can’t help it if that’s the truth.”
The way she looked at me…it did something to me. I followed her into laughter even though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was laughing about. I didn’t care.
“I’m no good with a pair of skates,” she said with a conspirator’s whisper. “So you’re welcome to show me how well you play on the ice but I won’t be able to keep up, you know. No matter how good of a teacher you are.”
“I could give you a lesson this afternoon, if you’d like,” I found myself offering.
“I might take you up on it. Maybe it would help my brilliant public relations strategies if I actually knew how to play. Learn some of the tricks and tips that make you the best.”
Yup
I agreed without hesitation. “Oh, absolutely”
This was turning out to be the best damn day of my life. Hockey and her. I didn’t even know her. Except, for some messed-up reason, it kind of felt like I did. As if her smile spoke to some part of me I’d never been able to show to the light. Something lurking under the surface that I wasn’t aware of until this exact moment.
It didn’t make sense.
And yet it did seem to make sense.
Tori made me feel something new. She made me feel hope.
“We could—”
The door to the owner’s office swung open, interrupting whatever she’d been about to say, and revealing the grizzled gentleman standing there looking at me with thinly veiled disgust. His gaze darted down to where I still held Tori’s hand—I hadn’t let go?–and he really didn’t like that.
That was clear by the way his salt-and-pepper eyebrows drew down into a violent V.
He’d better not be hitting on the young women around here, I thought. That was not cool. Old rich men hitting on young women, staking their claims, made me sick to my stomach. Like their money somehow made them entitled to whatever or whoever they wanted.
Or maybe he knew I was just a brute on and off the ice, and whoever Tori was, he didn’t think I deserved to be anywhere near her.
I wasn’t good enough. Yeah, that might be it.
Too bad for him, I had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and if I set my sights on something, anything, I didn’t give up until I got what I wanted.
And I wanted Tori to keep smiling at me.
“Griffith, come in.”
It was an order, not a request.
I finally dropped Tori’s hand. “See you around.”
“I hope so. Have a great first day!” She spoke with a voice full of sunshine, waving me toward the office.
The old man let the door shut behind us with a decisive click and I turned to face the largest desk I’d ever seen in my life. Carved from a single piece of polished mahogany, it damn near stretched the length of the room, and the guy didn’t even offer me a seat before he slid into the leather chair on the opposite side.
“Elijah Newhouse,” he barked at me.
“Oh. Sure.”
It was the best I could do because fuck, I wasn’t expecting the team’s owner to be this kind of guy. The perverted, over-compensatory dude. By all accounts, he was usually very hands-off and I couldn’t imagine every new player received a personal welcome like the one I’d gotten, but I was not going to argue.
At last, he pointed to one of the chairs opposite the massive desk.
“Do you know the identity of the young woman you were just manhandling?” he began, steepling his fingers.
I could do without the attitude, I thought. The glare he shot me? I was used to the expression. Still, I thought I was here to discuss my contract with the Raiders. Not to talk about a friendly chat in the waiting room.
Besides, I wouldn’t have called it manhandling, but whatever.
“No, I just met her. She said it’s her first day, too,” I offered. “She seems nice.”
“That young woman is my only child.”
A surge of relief coursed through me. Okay, so he was not the sugar daddy, in this case. He was the real daddy.
My relief was short-lived as his expression darkened. I practically felt it on my skin as he took me in and found me wanting.
“It’s great you get to work together,” I managed to get out with the barest hint of politeness.
The silence stretched on for an eternity and although a small piece of me recognized it as an intimidation tactic, it took everything inside to keep my spine straight instead of backing down the way he wanted me to. The tension was thick enough to take a bite out of.
Much like what he wanted to do to me. The hostility in his gaze burned hot.
What had I done to deserve such a warm welcome?
Manhandled his daughter, apparently. It was an offense I hadn’t been aware of when I walked inside the building.
“I’m going to say this just once, Griffith, and then I will never mention it from this day forward,” Mr. Newhouse said at last. “If you so much as look at my daughter, let alone touch her, your contract will be terminated and you’ll never play hockey again. I’ll personally make sure of it.”
He let the words settle like he hadn’t just dropped an atomic bomb down on me.
Elijah took my stunned face as an invitation to continue with his threat.
“You’re a good player, but you’re an animal. I’ve seen you on the ice. I've heard the reports from the other players. I’ve spoken to a few of your mentors. A brute, some call you.” He craned his neck to the side as he took me in. Like he was waiting to see how I would react to what he said.
I couldn’t deny it. The rumors were true. I did whatever it took to win because I wanted to be the best. I wanted this NHL contract and the chance to better my life. To drag myself up out of the gutter.
“You are not now nor will you ever be good enough for Victoria,” he said. “There is no world in which the two of you have a chance to be together. She is out of your league, and if you wish to play with the Raiders—if you wish to play in the NHL at all—then you will do as I say and keep your distance. I saw the way she looked at you just now.”
“How did she look at me?” I asked.
Elijah’s brows formed a dark line. “Do I make myself clear?” he snapped.
Well, fuck me. All the hope I’d felt just minutes earlier evaporated faster than water in the desert.
I didn’t know what to say for the longest moment. The kernel of something wonderful I’d felt in my heart at meeting Tori shriveled up into nothing. Or maybe it shifted into the same dark corner, hiding, unwilling to be acknowledged ever again. Either way, I shrugged into my usual persona as easily as putting on a coat. A layer of numbing cold settled over me and I nodded to him. Once.
“Crystal clear,” I snapped back.
Because what else could I say? I needed this gig.
I’d done whatever it took to get out of my home life in Philadelphia, away from my parents. I’d practiced until my fingers bled and the calluses on my feet from the too-tight skates began to affect how I walked on solid ground.
I refused to risk everything for a woman I didn’t know, a billionaire’s daughter no less. I was the same old thug I always was, both on and off the ice, and no doubt in my mind: she was too good for me.
I might soon be signed with a contract worth millions, but deep down, I would always be that punk from the streets.
Elijah graced me with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Perfect,” he said in a low, cool tone. “Now let’s get on with the details and signatures for your stay with the Raiders, shall we?”
When I walked back to the reception area, Tori was still there, and she shot me a warm, wonderful smile. She felt it too, whatever it was between us.
Too bad whatever it was between us had to die. Even if I had to make her hate me.
“Alexi, how did it go in there? My father can be a beast sometimes but I know he’s so happy to have you on our team,” she told me. “He talked about you nonstop at breakfast this morning.”
I glanced away without answering her question. I was never intentionally rude to anyone, and I felt disgusted with myself for treating her that way. But now I had too much to lose. Too much was at stake. Now it was my job to convince her that what she felt wasn’t real. Ignoring her seemed the less painful path to achieve that.
I had told her I was there to play. This was part of the game, a game that now included a new rule.
Hands off Tori.
Make her hate you.
I didn’t like it but I had no fucking choice.
