Page 79 of Ice Devil

Sloane

“Sloane Winters. You are quite the reporter.”

The two men sitting at the table stood, both extending their hands. “No matter what you may have heard, my bite is much worse than my bark.”

Both men laughed. “Jesse,” the blond said as I shook his hand.

“Kyle and thanks for filling in. We were very excited by the chance to work with you.”

“I admit,” I told them, “I was surprised.”

“Why?” Jesse pointed to one of the chairs, positioned so I’d be forced to sit between the two hosts with our guest at the opposite end of the table.

“Because from what I understand, you’re not very fond of women in sports reporting. And trust me, boys. I don’t enjoy working with anyone who tries to belittle me or my accomplishments, which are significant.”

The two looked at each other. “Ouch,” Kyle said. “Well, you caught us. That’s the way we were when we started out, but not any longer. With reporters like yourself and a few others, we figured out you can run circles around us when you want.”

“And your accomplishments are amazing,” Jesse added.

“Well, I do pay attention and do my research. So how do you want this interview to go?” I asked as I studied the area. There were about fifty seats for people if they wanted to watch. That was fine as long as they weren’t plants who could interject. That I wouldn’t allow.

“You’ve watched the show before. Right?” Jesse asked as he sat down at the end of the table.

“A few of them.” I didn’t give them wiggle room.

Kyle shrugged. “More conversational than anything, although there isn’t a person out there who doesn’t want to know what he thinks about being a rookie and getting this far in his first year.”

“And how,” Jesse added.

He made it sound like it had never happened before. “I can answer that. By hard work.”

“I heard you had an in with Mr. Kendrick. I assume you convinced him we aren’t bad guys?” When the two of them laughed, I stared Kyle in the eyes. It felt as if I was the part of a joke in which I didn’t know the punchline.

“We’ve developed a good working relationship given the interviews I was lucky enough to obtain. As far as convincing him of anything, you’ll need to do that for yourselves. But he’s very astute and doesn’t like games being played.” It was a warning that I hoped they heeded.

“Great. Don’t worry. The fans are just eager to hear more about Beck and his brother if he’s so inclined.”

Jesse seemed genuine in his statement, so I nodded.

Even if there was a strange feeling that had managed to pool in my stomach. “Are there any formats for the questions?” I’d heard what had been said to me, but without a basic outline of questions, we could be stepping all over each other or make the subject very uncomfortable.

Applause and an open door prevented me from getting my question answered. As Beck came into the room, he had an entourage following him, several fans clamoring for an autograph.

“Would you look at that?” Kyle said, only he wasn’t speaking to me.

“A real hero to the ladies,” Jesse said in return to his buddy.

I kept my eyes on Beck, snickering when one of the women begged him to sign her chest.

“Wow. That must make you jealous.”

Now I turned and glared at Kyle. “Why would you say that?”

“My girlfriend would kick my ass.”

“Well, hopefully she does every time you fall out of line, which I suspect is all the time.” I returned my attention to Beck while issuing the last words.

Now I was getting a very bad feeling about the entire situation. However, the cameramen were already in position and backing out now would only make it appear as if I couldn’t handle the task. Fuck the assholes. If they wanted to play games, they’d asked the wrong person to sit in with them.