“Was it?” I asked.
“She worked her ass off for that deal.” Neil frowned as he looked at me. His one great failing was that he had a soft spot for Angel.
“I know football guys better,” I shrugged. “She knows this. I don’t touch her basketball clients; she should leave football to me.”
“She knows her stuff,” Neil defended her. “She’s a good agent, she’s fierce and loyal, and her clients love her. Theyrespecther.”
“And?”
“Whatever is between you two, it’s hurting the company.”
I scoffed as I pushed my chair back. “No, it isn’t. This is my company, and our profit margins are disgustingly healthy. There is nothing between us, and as long as this agency gets the client, I don’t give a fuck who signs them.”
“Then why take five of her last eight signings?”
Standing, I walked over to the window and looked out over Nashville. “I offered the better deal.”
“And?” Neil sounded resigned.
“And it makes me happy to know I make her miserable.”
“What did she do to you?” Neil asked me shrewdly. “You’re a cold-hearted bastard, nothing fazes you. You never show emotion unless it’s the boys or Angel.”
“She redecorated my office,” I reminded him.
“She made it better,” he countered.
He would think that, since he was old. “It looks like a hotel room . . . from the eighties.”
“It looks welcoming.”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I thought about my office. Gone was the glass and chrome, and instead I had wood and fucking beige. My office looked like a natural wood furniture showroom threw up in it. The high-backed maroon leather chair she put behind my desk made me want to strangle the bitch every time I sat in it. Instead, I complimented her on her design taste and refused to change it back. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing how much I hated it.
Bitch.
Signing Trent Hudson? That was nothing compared to the threat of getting the boys a deal with the same team. That was their dream, and I’d be damned if someone other than me got them it, and I would continue to fuck with her until she dropped it.
“Maybe you should both sit down and have an adult conversation?” Neil suggested as he leaned back in his chair.
“Maybe you should keep your suggestions to yourself.”
His lips twitched as he looked over at me. “Look, you brought me in here, to this company. You needed someone who knew the game and had the experience. You brought your own connections with your dad and your uncle’s time on the field. We’ve been together for five years. This agency is one of the most respected in the country.” He paused, and I waited. When he looked as if he were uncertain to continue, I fought the eye roll.
“You want to tell me that my recent actions bring the agency into ill repute. You want to remind me that word gets out, and if I look to be playing hard and fast with my co-workers, not only will they leave, but they may also take their clients with them.”
“Yes, but if I wanted to say any of those things, would you listen?” Neil asked me carefully.
“No.”
“Onyx, son, listen to me,” he began.
“No, Neil, listen tome. I told you not to hire her. I specifically told you to stay clear of her, but you hired her anyway. And you went one better, because you publicized that she was a new addition, knowing that even I wouldn’t get rid of her then. Because thisismy company and thisismy work, and I may be a cold-hearted bastard, but this company, these people, our clients, actually rely on me. Onme.”
He held my stare before he turned away. Neil may front my company, which I needed when I was twenty and still in college, but I didn’t need him now. My company, my agency, was well known. I was one of the best in the business because I worked hard, and I employed people who worked hard, and I didn’t take shit from players or opposing agents.
I did nothireAngel Balan.
When she interviewed, she hadn’t known it was my agency, because I had kept my involvement in the company very low-key when I first started it. Angel was two years older than me and had known nothing about me other than I was the guy she punched after a one-night stand in college after a night of Mayhem. She thought, like me, that we would never see each other again after college. And then in law school, we crossed paths again, and then a few years later, she was sitting in my boardroom, the new and shiny employee of the month.
