Page 46 of Ruthless Ambition
The tow truck was leaving the underground parking garage, and I took note of the number. On a whim, I went out to my own car, which I had left parked in the drive instead of the garage. With a flashlight and determination, I checked my car over from top to bottom.
Why would they tamper with her car and only her car? Was it truly an act of random violence? It wasn’t random if they planned to interfere with the cameras, though. I didn’t like things I couldn’t explain. It annoyed me.
Could it be Sasha? Clark? For all of Angel’s annoying tendencies, she was popular with her clients. Sasha was vindictive, but toward Angel herself? I didn’t think it likely, but Angel was attractive. Could it be jealousy? Was it from this morning’s news story? Too soon, I felt, but then fans were bloodthirsty. Thankfully, not many of them took it to that level.
Ugh, if I had to think about her safety at work, I was going to be very pissed off. Although, she did immediately accuse me, which made me satisfied that I still was able to get under her skin. Even small wins were better than losses.
But it pissed me off that she had been targeted. Even randomly targeted, it annoyed me. I felt slightly territorial that someone wanted to mess with her. Well, someoneotherthan me, that is.Of all people to randomly target, why would they pick on Angel?
Who could she have pissed off who wasn’t me? I mean, she was good at her job, and even though I knew it didn’t happen, she had been accused by more than one of her clients’ significant others of sleeping with their man, or woman. Sasha had been the most vocal in the earlier days of her contract with Clark and had actually burst into Angel’s room while she was on vacation,thinking to catch her with her husband, and instead scared the shit out of Angel’s parents. Which was kind of funny, but at the same time, not really. That was not the agency I ran, and for all our differences, that wasn’t who Angel was either.
She should have ditched Clark as a client then, but instead, she talked him and Sasha into marriage counseling. I’d said nothing in the boardroom that day, but my snort had been enough to convey my thoughts on that.
A bleeding heart for the wrong people, that’s what she was. Soft. Unless she was dealing with me, and then she was harder-hearted. Then she was an agent worth her percentage fee. Well, that was harsh; she was mostly worth her percentage anyway. Other agencies would love to have her, and to set up on her own, she would do well. She may do better than well.
My uncle had asked if that’s why I made sure she stayed. It wasn’t. Being a rival of Angel’s, whether she was in my boardroom or someone else’s, didn’t scare me. I was the better agent, and she knew it, and at some point, Angel would back off her clients, because for all intents and purposes of equality, she was still a woman, and I had no doubt that she would eventually want to spawn a mini vampire.
In my own mind, that’s why she stayed with me. People who knew me all said I was crazy to keep her with my agency, because she obviously hated me. Sometimes, she was quite open about our boardroom mind games, as she called them.
But on the flip side of that, why was no one asking why she was with me? I believed it was purely because she wanted the agency’s stability to have the future kids and future husband, though fuck knows what schmuck would end up with her.
She was good in bed; there was no doubt. I had been pleasantly surprised the night I slept with her. I had expected shy, reserved, unsure. I got confident, daring, and adventurous. She hadn’t even blanched when I tied her to the bed or when I’dintroduced mild breath play. Her orgasm had been so loud right before she passed out, I’d rewarded her well.
And her ability to suck cock had been an eye-opener too. She had no idea until afterward that I was younger than her, and I really don’t think it would have deterred her. No, fucking her hadn’t been a hardship at all; it had been a good night, and I’d been almost remorseful that I was only going to be in her bed once. But I knew that she wasn’t the kind of girl to do casual hookups; she’d want more than just sex, which was a pity.
No, sex with her definitely hadn’t been a chore. But working with her was.
As I got up to head to the den to watch some ESPN, I tried to be objective. Was it? I could do without it, if I were honest, but then on the other hand, if she weren’t there, I’d sleep through most of the Monday morning meetings. She did keep me on my toes in a working environment that, without her, did not challenge me.
Checking the time, I settled on my couch, flicked the TV, on and called Jer.
“Hey, man, how you doing?” he greeted warmly when he answered.
“Mixed,” I told him truthfully.
“What’s up?” I heard him call out a goodbye to someone and smiled to myself about his predictability. “You’re so fucking regulated; do you shit on time too?”
Jer laughed as I heard him get into his sports car. “Yeah,” he admitted. “I’m clockwork regular.”
“That was probably too much information,” I contemplated. “How was practice?”
“Ready for it to be September,” he told me honestly. “I was running up and down hills today and then bench-pressing Zac.”
“Actually bench-pressing Zac or his weight equivalent?”
“Actual Zac.” He sighed as he put me on speaker. “Balance or something.”
“How many reps did you manage?”
“Thirty.”
I laughed at his pride. “You bench-pressed your team’s six-foot-six tight end thirty times?”
“Course I did.”
“You’re unbelievable,” I told him with admiration. “That would make one hell of a charity fundraiser,” I mused.
Jer groaned loudly. “Do you ever stop working?”
