Page 19 of Ruthless Ambition
“That’s the little brother I know,” I said with a grin. “Tell Gray he needs to be better on the fake passes too.”
“You’re not our agent yet,” Jett mocked me.
“You better hope I still want to be,” I admonished him as I leaned back in the uncomfortable leather chair.
“Pah, as if you’d let anyone else control us.” Jett laughed, and after a quick catch-up, I went back to work.
He was right, I wouldn’t let anyone else represent them, and although I didn’t like the fact that Angel was making inquiries about them, I was fairly confident that they would stick with me. Unless she could actually get all three of them on the same team in the draft. Which would be a fucking spectacular feat, and if it wasn’t me pulling it off, then it would be no one.
How the fuck had she managed even a hint of that? I needed to know who she was talking to or if she was playing me. I wouldn’t put it past her. It’s the sort of shit I would do to her.
But then again, I was a bastard. Thinking about it, I corrected myself. I may be a bastard, but she was every bit the bitch, which is probably why our rivalry was still ongoing; we were well-matched against each other.
Moving in my chair, I cursed the hardbacked fucking thing for what must have been the tenth time today. I needed to get rid of it, and I needed to get rid of it yesterday.
“Liz,” I buzzed my PA. Moments later, she walked through the open doorway, pad in her hand, pen poised. Liz was old school; she took shorthand. I liked Liz. “This chair needs to have an accident.” I watched as she fought the smile as her head dipped. “It’s not funny,” I reminded her.
“It’s a little bit funny,” she hedged. “How long have you let it stay in the office?”
“Six months,” I growled.
“I think you win,” she teased.
Did I? I doubted it. “I’m out all day Thursday. I have to go to Denver,” I told her. “Get creative with why it’s not here on Friday.”
She hesitated, and then she bit her lip as her look turned speculative. “Promise me you won’t fire me?”
“I’m not the kind of man to make promises.”
Liz snorted as she checked that the door was fully closed. “I have a puppy.”
I waited.
“If I was to come back to work tomorrow night with said puppy to collect something, and it ‘hypothetically’ peed . . .”
“Make sure it’s hypothetical and not actual,” I warned her.
“But for the story, it will have to have happened.”
I nodded once to let her know it was okay. “As long asweknow itdidn’thappen.”
“Would I do that to you, boss?” Liz grinned at me over her shoulder as she left the office.
Which was a timely reminder to check the office surveillance, to see what my employees got up to in my absence, if nothing else.
Yeah, I was a suspicious bastard — better that than a stupid one.
