“Okay, fine. Let’s go.”

I sprinted after her as she bolted down the hallway for the elevator. We collected my car from the valet, and soon we were speeding down the side streets at her direction. I liked driving fast, and the streets were deserted this early in the morning, but she was taking the fun out of it with her constant bitching that I drive even faster.

Her house wasn’t far. In about ten minutes, we pulled up to a large house in a good Seattle neighborhood. Only then did it strike me. This was a family home, not the kind of place you’d expect to find a single woman. I had a very bad feeling about this.

Regardless, I didn’t ask questions. I wasn’t in the habit of screwing married women, and things weren’t looking good right about now.

“Thanks. Later. I have to go.”

The hair rose on the back of my neck, and I had the distinct impression something was wrong. “Are you married?”

Her expression in the dashboard light was one of guilt and fear. “I have to go. It’s been fun, but—” She didn’t finish her sentence but fumbled with the door in a frenzy to get out as car headlights appeared in my rearview mirror.

“Shit.” She glanced over her shoulder, her expression one of desperation.

“What’s going on?”

“My husband’s home early.” She leaped out of my car, then froze like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

I was ten kinds of a fool. She’d played me like a cheap guitar. I might be a player, but I didn’t sleep with married women. I’d seen the devastation caused by an unfaithful spouse in my own family, and I’d never destroy someone else’s family for a night of sex.

What happened next happened so fast it was a blur. I was yanked out of the driver’s seat by an incredible force and hauled to my feet. Before I had time to register what was happening, a fist slammed into my face. The sucker punch nearly knocked me out, and I went down. Hard. Hitting my ass on the concrete driveway and my head into the mud off to one side.

“You fucking bastard. What the fuck are you doing with Bria?” The angry voice sounded vaguely familiar, but my brain, in its confusion, wasn’t registering why. My jaw throbbed like the bass in a hard rock concert.

Bria? Wasn’t her name Heidi or something?

I blinked away the blurriness and focused on the man towering above me as I lay in the mud puddle next to the driveway. As the man’s face became clear, I gaped in stunned silence. A couple other faces were visible beyond him, all as stunned as I was.

Being a little loopy from his fist, I fixated on one thing. Why were my teammates here, and why were they glaring at me? I wasn’t putting two and two together. Bria stood off to one side, her hands covering her mouth and a horrified expression on her face.