High Risk Rookie Read online

  High Risk Rookie

  A Vancouver Wolves Hockey Romance

  Odette Stone

  Odette Stone Publishing Inc.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Preview

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Epilogue

  Note from Odette

  Books By Odette

  Follow Odette

  Excerpt from: Puck Me Secretly

  Excerpt from: Home Game

  High Risk Rookie

  A Vancouver Wolves Hockey Romance

  Copyright © 2021 by Odette Stone

  www.odettestone.com

  ISBN: 978-1-9990538-7-1

  First edition, January 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by: Amanda Bidnall Editing and Writing

  Edited by: JO’s Book Addiction

  Cover Design: Lori Jackson | Lori Jackson Designs

  Dedication

  To my readers. The people who love romance novels as much as I do. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. And for being so incredibly kind.

  Preview

  Krista

  (Preview chapter from the back of The Penalty Box)

  I sat at my desk, looking over the latest contracts. I was making a mental note to call my lawyer when a figure appeared at the door.

  I glanced up, pausing when I saw Mark Ashford standing in the doorway.

  He smiled—his charming smile. “Sorry. No one was at the front desk.”

  “I haven’t yet found a replacement for Charlie while she’s on mat leave.”

  “You busy?”

  “Not for you. Come in.” I stood up and ushered him towards my couches. “Have you recovered from your celebrations?” The Vancouver Wolves had just won their second Stanley Cup, and I could see it in their GM’s face.

  He smiled. “Still celebrating.” I sat down, and he took a seat on the couch across from me. “You’re looking good.”

  “Quit buttering me up, Mark. What brings you all the way to my side of town?”

  He leaned forward, his gaze intent. “I’m interested in a player.”

  Intriguing. “All my players are signed with you. Who is it?”

  “He’s gone through two agents, and word on the street is that his third agent is about to fire him.”

  “Sounds like trouble.” I studied Mark. “Exactly the kind of trouble you tend to avoid.”

  “He’s an unbelievable talent. I want him to sign with the Wolves.”

  “That’s something you should be discussing with his agent.”

  “His agent hasn’t talked to him in over four weeks.”

  My eyebrows shot up.

  “He can’t find him,” he added.

  “What the fuck?” I breathed.

  Mark cleared his throat. “I want you to headhunt him.”

  “I don’t headhunt my clients, Mark. I don’t need to. Those days are long over.”

  He looked at me, thinking. Mark was a sharp businessman. If I was a shark, he was a wolf. We respected and understood each other. Right now he was trying to figure out how to get me into the game.

  I tried again. “Why is his agent firing him?”

  He leaned back and crossed his arms. “He’s wild. Completely out of control. The list of his infractions is a mile long.”

  I frowned, curious. This sounded exactly like the kind of player Mark avoided signing. “Why do you want him?”

  “He’s the best rookie I’ve seen in a long time.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “He’s a rookie?”

  “He’s played three years in Europe, but he’s a rookie to the NHL. He’s looking to sign on, and that process hasn’t been going smoothly.”

  “How old is he?”

  Twenty-two.”

  “He sounds high-risk.”

  He nodded. “Yup.”

  “But you want him.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why me? There are a dozen bigger agencies with longer arms than me.”

  “You’re the only one who might have a shot at controlling him. This guy is going off the rails. He’s going to ruin his career before it starts.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “And you think some good old-fashioned stability will give him a chance at success?”

  “I know it will.”

  “You don’t want any other team to pick him up.”

  “Nope.” He sighed. “I don’t. I want him. Bad.”

  “I think I’m done with managing wild players.”

  “But you’re so good at it,” he said with a wolfish smile.

  “How do I even know he wants to play here?”

  “You don’t.”

  “You’re trying to sell me a wild-goose chase.”

  He put a file down on the table. “As you know, I can’t offer you compensation for your efforts. Conflict of interest. But I can pass on what I’ve dug up. In this file, you’ll find everything you need to know about him and his location. There is also a demo reel of him.”

  “Where is he?”

  He paused. “Last report from nine this morning, he was living the high life in Ensenada, Mexico.”

  I blinked. “Mexico? You’re shitting me. What the hell is he doing there?”

  “Surfing.”

  “Come again?”

  “The guy is a wild athlete. He loves to surf.”

  I shook my head and said dryly, “This conversation is madness. You know I’m not going to bite.”

  He stood up and winked. “You look like you could use some sun.”

  “I hate you, Mark,” I said without heat. I waited until Mark had disappeared out the door before I picked up the file. No way was I chasing some wild child through Mexico to try to convince him to sign with me, just so I could sign him for Mark.

  No way.

  But out of curiosity, I put on the demo reel and pressed play.

  Holy shit. I watched in awe. I couldn’t even comprehend some of the moves this mysterious player made on the ice. He was beyond good. He was fucking unbelievable. I wasn’t sure anyone had seen talent like that in a couple of decades.

  I looked at his file more closely. I had never even heard of this guy before. He was an unknown.

  Despite my best intenti
ons, I played the demo twice more before sitting back to think.

  This is such a bad idea.

  Such a bad idea.

  I reached for the phone to call my travel agent. “I need you to book me on the next available flight to Tijuana.”

  Chapter One

  Krista

  My driver navigated the town car through the grounds of the Mexican resort before pulling up in front of a beautiful hotel. My phone rang as he walked around the car to open the door.

  It was Charlie.

  “Hey.”

  “Is this a bad time?”

  “Just pulling up to my hotel.” I mouthed a thank-you to my driver as he set down my suitcase. “Any word from Terrance, our PI?”

  “He’s already there in Mexico. He dug up a bit more on Levi Ziegler, but not much. I’ve emailed you the file.”

  “Thank you. I’ll take a look tonight.” I walked across the lobby and nodded at the concierge.

  “If you sign this rookie, do you think it will get you on the list?”

  Charlie knew about my obsession with making the Forbes list of the fifty most powerful sports agents. My entire body went tense as I thought about how close I was to reaching my goal, and I almost didn’t say the words out loud for fear of jinxing myself. “I think this rookie could get me on the list.” If I could get him a multimillion-dollar contract.

  Charlie went silent, which meant she was thinking. “What’s your game plan with him?”

  My game plan was not to leave Mexico until he signed with me. He would be the stepping-stone that would put me in a position where I had more power than most of the men I worked with. I didn’t just crave that; I needed it like the air I breathed. “When I find him tomorrow, I’ll convince him to sign with me, and then I’ll catch the red-eye home.”

  Charlie mocked me lightly. “That sounds efficient.”

  I walked towards the reservation desk. “Tell me about Terrance’s report.”

  “His investigation indicates that Levi was a registered hockey player on an elite league in Germany, but, for confidential reasons, he was released from his contract eight months ago.”

  “Was he injured?”

  “There was no report of that.”

  “Did he have an agent in Germany?”

  “Not that he could find.”

  “Does anyone know what happened?”

  “Not at this point.”

  “Anything in the report about his American agents?”

  “Still working on that.”

  “Why is this rookie such an enigma? No one seems to know anything about him. He’s like a ghost, and there’s so much conflicting information on him.” I made a mental note to email Terrance tonight. “I appreciate your help, Charlie. I know you’re on mat leave—”

  “Krista.” Charlie stopped me. “I miss this. I’m grateful when I get to do adult stuff.”

  “I appreciate you and how you’re covering for me. I’m just about to check in, but you can call me if you hit any snags.”

  I checked in and then made my way to my room. I unpacked my bag and lay down on the bed. I stared at the ornate ceiling. It had been a long time since I needed to hustle this hard, and I felt insufficiently prepared for this trip. I knew nothing about this player beyond a paper-thin report that barely covered the basics. I didn’t know who Levi Ziegler was, how he operated, or what his family situation was. I had no idea why someone of his caliber had been unable to sign on for a professional hockey career in America. Was I walking into a land mine?

  But worry did me no good. I reviewed my game plan. It was simple and to the point. Find the rookie, and don’t leave Mexico without him. No matter what.

  I woke up to my phone ringing. It was Terrance, which meant only one thing.

  He knew where my rookie was.

  He launched into his news without bothering to say hello. “You said I should call if I found out anything definite about your client’s whereabouts.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Some big DJ is headlining at a hotel. Two peeps confirmed that he’ll be there tonight.”

  I looked at my watch. It was just after 9:00 p.m.

  “Can you text me the address?”

  “Already done.”

  “I appreciate it.”

  “I also found your client’s last three agents and their whereabouts. I emailed you their details.”

  “Did you talk to any of them?”

  “I haven’t had time to take a piss or grab a coffee in the last thirty-six hours. Your client doesn’t sleep, and I lost him twice—once for sixteen hours.”

  I tried not to laugh. “What was he doing?”

  “Crazy hikes, cliff diving, surfing… you name it. I honestly couldn’t keep up. I’ll be going off the clock for the next twenty-four. I need to sleep.”

  “Thanks for helping out on such short notice.”

  He hesitated and then spoke. “Watch your six. He’ll keep you on your toes.”

  For Terrance, this was about as big a warning as he would give me. “The last time you said those words to me, I ended up in jail.”

  “If you get arrested, don’t call me until my twenty-four hours are up.”

  “In twenty-four hours, I’ll be on a flight back to Vancouver.”

  He paused, and a noise came out of him that resembled a laugh. “Good luck with that.”

  I studied my reflection in the mirror. My sleeveless, blood-red jumpsuit did a good job of accentuating my best asset: my breasts. I wore a necklace that dangled just at the top of my cleavage. Playing up that part of my body usually kept eyes off my ass, which lately had seen far too much wine and not enough yoga. My sky-high heels added inches to the short frame I had inherited from my dad’s side. I brushed out my auburn hair into big waves that cascaded over my shoulders, and as a finishing touch, I applied my signature red lipstick.

  Winners always show up, no matter what. Years ago, when I was a rookie myself, I had been bitching hard about some inconvenience. I will never forget when Mark Ashford looked over at me and said in a scathing tone, “Winners always show up, no matter what.”

  That was the first time he had ever spoken to me directly, and his annoyance at my attitude had both shamed and motivated me. I think that was the moment I started to take my life seriously.

  I picked up my clutch purse and looked myself over with approval. Perhaps that would be a good anecdote to repeat when they interviewed me for the Forbes list.

  The cab driver dropped me off at a mid-sized hotel that overlooked the water. I walked through the near-empty lobby and stopped at the entrance to the courtyard pool area. The bass of the music throbbed, and the place was packed with people. I stood and contemplated the packed courtyard.

  Locating my rookie would take a lot of hustle. I moved through the crowd. I asked every person who made eye contact with me if they knew Levi Ziegler. No one had seen him at the party yet, but I was surprised how many people actually knew him.

  “Jump, jump, jump.”

  I glanced around at the crowd. Everyone’s faces were tilted up towards the sky.

  High above us on the roof of the hotel, silhouetted against the black of the sky, stood a man. The light from the party illuminated his indifferent expression. He had a shaved head, and he casually stood on the edge of the building, staring down at us like a god looking down on mortals.

  “Jump, jump, jump.”

  It took me a moment to process that the crowd was encouraging him to jump off the roof. I didn’t know if I was scared for him or turned on by him, but I was unable to tear my gaze away. His dark, brooding eyes and no-fucks attitude mesmerized me.

  “He’s not going to jump, is he?” I asked the woman beside me. “That’s way too dangerous.”

  He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his muscular, bronzed torso. The crowd responded with heightened fervor. I tried to remember the last time I had felt this much lust rush over me for a man I’d never met, but besides the first time I’d s
een the movie Thor, I couldn’t.

  “Oh, he’ll jump. Levi loves to do anything dangerous.”

  My entire body froze as I turned towards her. “Did you just say his name was Levi? Levi Ziegler?”

  She grinned at me. “The one and only.”

  My gaze swung back to him. Oh shit. This was my rookie? I’m attracted to my rookie. And he was currently about to risk his life. This was the kind of scenario that we contractually forbade players to engage in because shit got messy when they died—or worse, got injured. My mind worked through every possible way this stunt could go wrong. I should have been thinking about how I would handle any potential emergency, but it was almost too horrible to contemplate.

  Without warning, he leaped into nothing.

  I screamed, a pitiful squeak, while he gracefully fell three stories before crashing into the water. Everyone went silent.

  I pushed my way through the crowd until I had a front-row view of the pool. I got there just in time to see him pop up above the water with a huge smile on his face.

  The place went berserk.

  I let out a harsh breath as I tried to quell the hammering of my heart.

  He swam to the edge of the pool, and two of his buddies helped pull him out of the water. Water streamed off his body like slow-motion porn. He laughed with his friends, looking impossibly sexy. A war raged in my mind between the hot guy I wanted to fuck and the rookie I wanted to kill.