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Chapter 4
Nolan
My assistant handed me the extra-large to-go cup of coffee from the shop on the corner, nervously chattering away about the fact that my lawyer had yet to arrive and how sorry he was that he hadn’t found anyone himself. Stewart was a fantastic assistant. Didn’t get overly personal and attempted to keep the surprises in my life to a minimum. He worked six days a week, some of which were eighteen hours long, depending on what time of year it was. But his salary was huge, and he got six weeks of paid vacation starting in the off-season.
I just stood there, letting him talk, while my gaze stayed glued to the elevator. I hadn’t needed Stewart to find me a lawyer or agent to handle this situation for me. Even though Zariah hadn’t given me an answer the night before—fuck, all she’d really given me was a threat to bash my face in with a baseball bat if she did see me—I knew she wouldn’t let me down. She might appear to be an emotionless ice queen on the outside, but I knew her heart.
Despite her threats, I knew she would show up. Even if she was still pissed and hurt because of my fuckups in the past, she would show up and dominate the meeting I was minutes away from having to attend.
She just wanted to make a dramatic entrance, show everyone—especially me—that she was the one in complete control of the situation. I refused to consider that she wouldn’t show and I would have to deal with all of this on my own.
But if I had to, then I would. I wasn’t scared of facing the consequences of my own actions. Not when it had felt so damn good to finally unleash my rage on Billy.
An assistant appeared, her gaze flickering over me before she puffed out her chest a little more. The action caused her tits to nearly fall out of her low-cut top and over the cups of her push-up bra. I averted my gaze and took another swallow of coffee while Stewart practically choked on his tongue, looking at what she was so willing to display.
“Mr. Krenshaw,” she husked. “They are ready for you.”
Grunting, I shot one last look at the still-closed elevator doors and tossed my now-empty cup into the trash as I followed her and Stewart to a conference room where the general manager, the manager, several of my coaches, the team owner, and what seemed like an entire army of attorneys were already waiting for me to join them.
Nervously, my assistant took a seat at the end of the conference table, and I calmly dropped into the chair beside him.
“Six games,” the GM announced without preamble, taking over the meeting, despite the owner sitting right beside him. He always thought he was in control. The man had a god complex that at times reminded me of my father, which hadn’t endeared the asshole to me in the least. “You are suspended for the next six games you were scheduled to pitch. And the league has decided to fine you $200,000 for the assault.”
I cocked a brow at him. “Does the commissioner want that paid with a check, or would he rather I pay in cash so that it will be easier for him to put straight into his pocket?”
The old man’s nostrils flared in anger. “You know that every dime from fines is donated to MLB charities, Krenshaw.”
Before I could make a condescending reply, the door opened, and every head in the room turned to see who had dared to interrupt. My breath caught at the sight of her just as I heard many of the other men around me release a hiss through their teeth when they saw the goddess who walked into the room.
Dressed in a two-piece black skirt suit that molded to her perfect ass, with a white cashmere top beneath her jacket, Zariah entered the male-dominated space as if she owned the world. In one hand, she held a briefcase, the other, a legal binder. Her long dark-red hair fell all the way to her waist, the ends bouncing with the loose beachy waves she tended to favor styling it in. Her makeup made her blue eyes pop, and her lips were a dark shade of red that every man in the room with a working dick wanted wrapped around his cock.
Fuck, she was so beautiful, just the sight of her made it impossible to put together a complete thought for several moments. All I could do was sit there and memorize the way she looked, so stunningly gorgeous, it literally caused me chest pain. For so long, I had felt as if I was only half alive, and then she stepped into the room. My fiery little badass taking over like she was born to do, and everything fell into place, my world finally right once more.
Behind her came several men in suits, one man I knew from past experience was her security detail, and the other was, without a doubt, enemy number one when it came to the Boston Red Sox. Even the owner of the Yankees was in awe of Zariah Donati and kept several paces back from her. Whether that was to watch her ass bounce with each step she took, I wasn’t sure, but just the thought of him doing that made me want to give him a beating even worse than the one I’d laid on Billy.
“Sorry for our late arrival,” Zariah said as she walked to my end of the conference table and set her briefcase beside Stewart. “Traffic on the way up from New York was a total bitch.”
“I don’t remember inviting you to this meeting,” the Red Sox owner sneered at his rival.
“As I’m here on behalf of Krenshaw. I didn’t need an invite,” the other man said with a cold glare.
“Gentlemen,” Zariah interrupted before either could start throwing insults at each other. “We’re not here to determine who has the bigger cock. Please keep your dicks in your pants and your snide remarks to yourself.”
Everyone but Zariah and her guard sat down. The bodyguard stayed close but out of the way as Zariah opened the binder still in her hand and took over the meeting. The Red Sox legal team looked crestfallen at how easily she handed them all their asses. She then proceeded not only to get me traded to the Yankees, but she also got me a bigger contract and even arranged for the Boston owner to pay my fine himself.
“You want him even though his hand is fucked up?” my old GM tossed in the direction of my new boss.
Before the other man could answer, Zariah spoke up. “After a full analysis of his MRI and X-rays, the doctors found no lasting damage. Just some bruised tissue that will need a little time to heal. Which works out perfectly since the original six-game suspension will stand firm in New York.”
“I have someone already looking for an apartment for you,” the Yankees’ owner informed me, his smile grim but genuine. He wasn’t stupid. This trade was going to be good for him and his team. I was a hella good pitcher, and his boys had been on a losing streak over the past few seasons. I’d personally struck out nearly every single one of his batters in our last game against each other.
“No need,” I muttered. “I already have a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. It’s where I stay in the off-season.”
Zariah’s blue eyes narrowed on me for a moment before her brow cleared and she turned back to the other men at the table. “If I can get a few signatures, we will be on our way.” She smiled charmingly. “I’m sure you don’t want us taking up any more of your precious time than we already have.”
The GM’s gaze slithered over her, spiking my anger even before he opened his mouth. “Did you have to suck the commissioner’s cock to get him to approve this trade so fast?”
I jerked to my feet, a red haze darkening my vision. But before I could take a step toward the old man, Zariah shot her arm out, holding me back with nothing more than her hand on my chest. Her blue eyes turned to ice as she tilted her head at the GM, but when she spoke, her voice was calm, even bordering on sweet. In other words, Zariah at her most dangerous. “Unlike some people, I don’t have to exchange sexual favors to get business done. The commissioner is a close family friend. In fact, my uncle played golf with him last weekend.”
“I was with them,” my new team owner said with a smirk. “Cristiano has a hell of a swing. It was actually then that it came up that I was interested in Krenshaw. Lucky for me, Zariah took an interest in her old friend’s sudden situation.”
Old friend?
I had never been, and never would be, just Zariah’s friend. She was mine, plain and simple. My heart, the soul that lived outside of my body. And now, just as I knew she would be, my salvation. Billy might have brought back the past with a vengeance, but he’d also offered me a solution to win back what was missing from my life, to make the world complete for me, once and for all.
