The Striker (Gods of the Game, #1)

by Ana Huang

Our relationship was built on unspoken words. We’d gotten better at expressing them over the past two months, but there were still a few words that remained locked away inside me. Three, to be exact.

“What are you doing after training?” I asked, breaking the ice. “Why? You planning to ask me on a date?” I snorted. “DuBois, I wouldn’t ask you on a date if you were the last living creature on earth.” Not this DuBois, anyway.

“It’s Scarlett.” Her voice sounded tiny and far-off beneath the sudden thunder of my pulse. “She’s in the hospital.” * * * The drive from my house to the hospital should’ve taken forty minutes. I made it there in twenty flat.

“But it’s against Holchester. It’s…Asher. You have to go. I’m fine.” She coughed again, her breathing growing labored. “There’s no point in you staying here when I’m sleeping.” “There is a point.” My jaw tightened. “When Brooklyn called and told me you were in the hospital…there are no words to describe how I felt. It was like the world had collapsed and buried me beneath its rubble. And even though she told me you were alive and that you weren’t in serious danger, I couldn’t think, couldn’t even fucking breathe until I saw it with my own two eyes.” I shook my head, my throat taut with emotion. “If I left now and went to the match, it wouldn’t matter. I’d spend the entire time thinking about you.

Prior to Scarlett, I would’ve crawled through a sea of broken glass before I missed a match. Football was the most important thing in my life. It always had been, and I thought it always would be. But I’d finally found something—someone—that I cared about more.

“You might think the world revolves around you, but Scarlett is her own person. She confides in you because she respects you—God knows why—and she cares about you, not because she has to. And I think you’re doing her a great bloody disservice to insinuate I’m only interested in her because she’s your sister and not because she’s incredible on her own. She’s smart, beautiful, talented, funny…believe me when I say her relation to you is her biggest con.”

The future would always be there, but today, we’d finally laid the past to rest.

I’m sorry you missed it. I know how much it meant to you.” “I’m not,” he said simply. “It doesn’t mean as much as being with you.”

“No wonder the public is eating it up. The nation’s star footballer ditching a big match so he could race to your bedside after you got hurt? Swoon. It’s the stuff movies are made of. Not that we wanted you to get hurt,” she added hastily. “But you get what I mean.”

now, there was nothing to keep me from free falling into a place I’d sworn I would never visit again. No harness, no safety net. I thought it would be scary, but it was exhilarating because I knew who’d be waiting at the bottom. I trusted him to catch me. He always did.

I was racing. I knew three words would have the power to change our relationship. I just hadn’t expected it to be those three.

I couldn’t force him to change nor did I want to. The change had to come from him, but if I stayed knowing he was still on that path of self-destruction, I would be silently condoning his actions. I loved him too much to do that.

The sound of my phone ringing snuck past the music playing on low in my ears. It wasn’t Scarlett; I’d set a different ringtone for her so I’d know if she called. She never did.

I was surrounded by the best luxuries money could buy, but I would give it all up for the chance to see her again.

I can take criticism, but not if it’s the only thing I hear.”

“You never answered my question from the hospital.” Your team or your son? I needed to hear him say it. My father looked back at me, his face unreadable. “The team will always be there,” he said. “But I only have one son.”

“How can we help?” “And why do we need to meet in person for it?” Gallagher yawned. “This could’ve been an email.” “No, it couldn’t,” Vincent said. “You’ll see when Asher explains step number one.” Gallagher frowned. “Step number one of what?” I smiled a genuine smile for the first time in two weeks. “Of our latest playbook: Win Scarlett Back.”

“If we think we’re perfect and there’s nothing we can improve on, we’ll never grow. If there’s no growth, we stagnate. And greatness doesn’t come from stagnation; it comes from progress.”

My heart stopped when the two players in the middle parted, revealing a familiar head of dark hair and emerald eyes. How…what… My brain sputtered, at a loss for words, as Asher walked past his teammates and toward me. His mouth curved into a small smile. “Hi, darling.” It was a simple greeting. Two words, which I’d heard plenty of times before. It shouldn’t have elicited such an instant, visceral reaction—but it did.

Hi, darling. The only words that always made me feel like I was coming home.

“My whole life, I focused on football and winning. That was it,” Asher said, a touch of vulnerability softening his voice. “Then you came along and shattered every preconception I had of who I was and what I wanted. You made me reevaluate my life and want to be a better person—not just for you but for me.”

Most of all, I don’t want to ruin my chances of spending as many days with you as possible because I love you. More than football, more than racing, more than anything else in this universe—Pluto included.”

“I love you,” he repeated, his words thick with emotion. “I’m so fucking in love with you, darling, and the only reckless thing I want to do is explore how deep this rabbit hole goes with you. Together.” I laughed again, my own voice embarrassingly watery. “It goes pretty deep, I imagine.” He smiled. “I think so.”

But the greater the risk, the greater the reward, and Scarlett deserved something more special than just a fancy dinner.

I didn’t always appreciate the way other people said my full name—like I was a brand and a commodity instead of a person. But when Scarlett said it, she said it like she saw every piece of me—the good and the bad—and she loved me because of, not despite, the different facets of my character.

I’d been surrounded by money and fame for most of my adult life. But this, right here, with Scarlett happy and content in my arms? This was all I truly needed.

I winked and blew her a kiss back. It was cheesy as fuck, but I didn’t care how many people groaned or how many front pages it would land on tomorrow. I meant it with all my heart.