Thousand Yard Bride Read Online Free Page B

revealed that Victoria, his mother, was a highly regarded socialite known for hostessing charity events. Billionaire patriarch Hunter Daniels Senior was . . . well, there's no nice way to put it. He was a jackass, still riding the high from being the star quarterback of the Hawks in the early 1980s.
    The first time he was dubbed MVP was the same year he was awarded Rookie of the Year. Prior to being on the team, he’d grown up in the lap of luxury, attending—and getting kicked out of—boarding schools all over the States. There was endless family money to get him out of whatever scrape he found himself in.
    He wasn't much different than his son was, honestly.
    The Daniels name was synonymous with old money. When his son was drafted by the Hawks, he'd used some of that old money to buy the team that he’d played for, that his son was now playing for.
    As for the Hunter I was supposed to watch over, most of my research came from what was widely available online and in grocery store checkout tabloids. You didn't even have to go to a sports website to read about Hunter. He was everywhere. People were obsessed with whatever Hunter was up to, and I was joining the fascination.
    The biggest news, aside from the recent Vegas stripper debacle, was Hunter’s very messy breakup with heiress Poppy Van Hausen. A year before, Hunter and Poppy had dated for six months and been engaged for another six months. They were the it-couple. They were American royalty. Various theories about what caused the breakup surfaced, most of them pointing the finger at a cheating Hunter.
    However, when I examined the timeline of stories, it appeared that Hunter had straightened out during his relationship with Poppy. It was after the breakup that he became hell-bent on living the life of a consummate bad boy, except even worse than before. I searched through the articles to see what might have happened, what changed in Hunter’s world that caused him to lash out. Was it all about the breakup? What was he trying to prove with the self-destructive behavior?
    I didn't have any answers.
    So, I planned to find out from the source itself. This was my strategy when arranging a client’s P.R. campaign. It wasn’t unlike psychology, which was my college minor. In order to help a client navigate the media, you had to understand what drove them in the first place.
    While it might have seemed like Hunter was just doing whatever the hell he wanted, he might actually have had a reason, whether or not he knew it. I needed to figure out what his motivators were before it was too late. I had to figure out what made Hunter tick, to prevent him from being a ticking time bomb.
    It was a full hour before Hunter graced us with his presence. His parents were openly furious about their son's lateness, but I used the opportunity to learn as much as I could about Hunter’s relationship with them, the sort of stuff that you can’t Google or read in press releases.
    Victoria was distant at first, but I could tell that beneath a few layers of socialite armor there was a mother who was legitimately concerned about her son.
    Hunter Sr. was a different story. He was a big man like his namesake. Although he was tanned and fit, his greying hair gave away his age. His demeanor was less than kind, and I noted that he was callous, abrasive, and checked out every woman in the club. I suddenly started to see where my client got it from.
    By the time Hunter waltzed into the room, Victoria and Mr. Daniels had told me that they were prepared to pull their support of their son if he didn't shape up. Hunter Sr., as the owner of the team, actually had the power to kick his son off of the Hawks.
    Hunter’s dad explained it to me. “He thinks he’s the entire team, but the Hawks could still go all the way without him. He might not like to admit it, but the rest of the team could survive just fine. The boy doesn’t understand the meaning of the word team. Hell, I’d take the risk if it