Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92972 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92972 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
But I don’t, not of heart disease or “sibling abuse.”
“This is a lie,” I say, my voice too thin, too soft over the blood rushing in my ears. “It’s all a lie. He’s the abuser. Kai’s the one who was hurting Beatrice. Call her. Ask her. She’ll tell you. She’s in New Orleans and totally fine. She’s staying with my—”
“Stop,” the GM, Fisk, breaks in. “We aren’t here to play detective. We’re here to present you with the evidence. All the evidence. Play the audio file.”
Liam switches to his email app with a sigh, keeping his gaze on the floor as he mutters, “Morrison released this to the press an hour ago. Or someone did. It hit right after the press conference in Atlanta. His rep sent us a copy of the file, too.”
He presses play on an audio file, and a tinny, crackling voice echoes through the small room, “You’re a piece of fucking shit, Kai. You always have been.”
I freeze, my eyes flying wide.
What the actual…
That’s my voice. My grit, my intensity, my cadence. Even the way I drop the “g” in my “ings” when I’m angry.
But I never said that! Any of it. I haven’t spoken to Kai in years, and even at my most volatile, I’d never be dumb enough to leave a threatening voicemail. I’m impulsive and hotheaded at times, but I’m not stupid.
The recording continues, “my” voice growing lower, more menacing. “No one in our family ever liked you. You treat my sister like shit, and it’s past time for this thing between you to be over. You’re poison. We all know it. Bea will realize it, too. In time. So, give her time, motherfucker. Stay the hell away from her. She’s with someone who loves her now, and she’s never coming back to you. That’s not happening. No matter what. And if you try to come after her, you’ll regret it. You are never getting her back. Never. I’d rather Bea stop being with anyone, period, than go back to a man like you.”
The clip ends.
Silence fills the room, thick and suffocating.
I have to fight to pull in enough breath to wheeze, “That wasn’t me, guys. I swear. I know it sounded like me, but it wasn’t. I swear on my life. Please, you have to believe me. That was…” I trail off, shaking my head as sweat breaks out on my upper lip. “That was crazy. Maybe the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. Because I did not say that.” I stand up straighter as my shell-shocked brain connects the dots. “That was something Kai made. Or somebody made. With AI or something. It has to be.”
“This is exactly what I thought,” Keely pipes up, looking relieved. “The second I heard the recording, I told Fisk this had to be a deepfake. You aren’t the kind of person who would threaten a family member, not even if you didn’t mean it. Even if you were just trying to scare this guy away. You wouldn’t do that.”
“I didn’t think so, either,” Merwood says, but he doesn’t look nearly as happy about it as Keely.
“But it doesn’t matter one way or the other, Baylor,” Fisk says, his voice devoid of sympathy. “The league has a zero-tolerance policy regarding domestic violence. Especially in the current climate.”
“But I didn’t do anything.” A jagged laugh bursts from my chest. “I did not kidnap my sister. I’m not holding her against her will, and I would never hurt her. Like I said, you can just call her! Right now. Bea will clear this all up in two seconds.”
“The problem is that Morrison is saying Beatrice is scared to come forward,” Keely says softly. “That you have her phone. That you’re controlling her social media and have intimidated her into going along with whatever you say. He’s spinning a narrative that you’re the abuser, Baylor. I don’t believe it for a minute, but with your history… And what happened with that man on Bourbon Street…”
She trails off, but she doesn’t need to finish.
I get it.
My history. The fights. Letting myself be rage baited on the ice last year. The incident with the guy who hit his wife, the one Kai knows about because Beatrice probably told him all about it…
That fucking snake.
Kai isn’t just attacking me; he’s weaponizing my reputation to get to Beatrice. I want to wrap my hands around his scrawny neck and…
Well, it’s going to take more self-control than I’d like to keep from giving him the reaction he’s obviously looking for.
“Okay, well, I’ll get an expert, then,” I say. “Someone who can analyze the file and prove it’s fake. I don’t know where to find—”
“We already have someone on it,” Keely says. “But it’s going to take time.”
“And the optics are bad right now,” the GM cuts in. “They’re damned catastrophic. The league called ten minutes ago, demanding we take action.”