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Chase smiled because it had been a mantra we’d come to rely on in the years since we’d started our business, and we’d repeated it to ourselves over and over every time a door had been shut in our face or someone had told us we’d never make it. There’d been a lot of logistics to deal with in the past few years, so we hadn’t actually started pursuing bigger name clients until a couple of months ago. We’d signed a few up-and-comers, but bagging Bomber Flynn had been a pipe dream for a firm our size. The business we’d get from word of mouth alone was mind-boggling.
“We got this,” Chase repeated and then he bumped my fist.
Tomás appeared a moment later and said, “Mr. Flynn to see you.” I wanted to laugh at how formal he sounded, considering he was probably dying inside. He too was probably fangirling all over Bomber, but for very different reasons than my brother.
Chase and I stood as Bomber and his agent entered. I stifled a smile as Tomás’s eyes discreetly fell to Bomber’s ass before he subtly mouthed the word nice to me.
“Bomber, Shirley, welcome,” I said as I went around the conference room table to shake hands.
“We’ll need to make this quick,” Bomber said as he gripped my hand.
Right before he checked me out.
Shit, not only was I dealing with a guy who could make the devil look like Mother Theresa’s bestie, apparently, I was also looking at a client with a very big secret in what was probably a very crowded closet of skeletons. The NFL wouldn’t take kindly to a player coming out.
Bomber wouldn’t be the first guy to be hiding the fact that he was, at the very least, bisexual from the world. But it would be the first time I’d have to deal with a closet case.
And if his hungry looks were anything to go by, he was a closet case who was making it clear he wouldn’t mind if I joined him in that closet for a few minutes.
There’d been a time in the past I might have considered the easy pickings with the good-looking athlete. But now? I didn’t want anything to do with the asshole playing Whose dick is bigger? through his handshake. I felt absolutely nothing as he checked me out, or even when his thumb stroked the inside of my wrist briefly before he dropped my hand.
“Of course,” I said smoothly. “We need to get you over to SNN for your interview with Marcus Tate.” Bomber seemed surprised that I knew about the interview he had scheduled with the sports news network’s lead anchor. “We’re your PR firm now, Bomber. Your business is our business from this point forward. And our business is to make you look good, no matter what the circumstances.”
Bomber nodded his head. “Looking good is what I’m all about, Mr. Vale.” The man continued to check me out, eyes sweeping my body in a slow perusal, a move that surprised me considering his agent was in the room. I wouldn’t have expected him to be so blatant about it around others.
I managed to keep the smile plastered on my face as I greeted the agent and took my seat opposite the two of them. As Chase began explaining all the papers that Bomber would be signing today, the man in question began texting on his phone. My eyes fell to his bruised knuckles and I automatically tensed as I remembered the altercation with his girlfriend. Everything I’d heard had indicated the fight with her had been a verbal one. Bomber had said some pretty shitty stuff to her that had been captured by a reporter, but he hadn’t laid a hand on her, as far as I knew. The idea that he might have gone after her physically at some point had me on edge.
And then my thoughts shifted to Ash.
Ash had never admitted to any kind of physical abuse, and beyond the brace I’d seen him wearing those first few days when he’d started at the coffee shop, there’d been no signs he’d been physically hurt since then. But I couldn’t discount his continued jumpiness. He’d gotten better about me touching him, but he still tensed whenever there was a loud noise or someone raised their voice around him.
What if he’d just gotten better at hiding things from me?
My worry suddenly shifted to full-on panic.
“Um, excuse me a moment,” I said as I climbed to my feet, pulling my phone from my pocket as I went. Three sets of eyes shifted to me.
“Aiden,” Chase said, his voice carrying an edge of disbelief to it.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, trying to reassure him. “Go ahead and continue reviewing the documents, okay?”
Chase narrowed his eyes at me but nodded.
Once I was outside the room, I dialed Ash’s number and it again went to voicemail. “Ash, please call me back. I’m… I just need to know you’re okay. I… please, Ash, I need to hear your voice.”
