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Matthias leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. The guy didn’t look much older than him, but somehow the way he stared Jeff down made him feel like he was a schoolboy getting scolded.
Like everyone on the team, he’d read all about the new team owners. Matthias Hoffman and his friends had purchased the team at the end of last year. From what Jeff understood, Matthias was the only owner who took any kind of active role in the team.
They’d all been holding their collective breath as they waited to see what changes the new owners planned on making. So far, they hadn’t done much. The team was all waiting for the shoe to drop. He just prayed it didn’t drop too hard on top of him.
Matthias stared at him for several seconds, not saying a word. Jeff tightened his core muscles to stop himself from squirming under the intense stare.
“Matthias,” Cal started.
“Save it, Cal. I know what you are going to say,” Matthias replied. His body never shifted from his leaned back position.
The man had the whole intimidating thing down to a science. “Mr. Hoffman, I’m…” Jeff began.
“You’re the one?”
“I’m sorry?” Jeff asked. The one? The one what? The one who’d fucked up and word vomited all over the press room? The one who shit-canned his career? The one who fucked up his relationship with the most important person he’d ever met because he couldn’t get his head out of his ass.
“I’m glad Saskia found you. I like you for her.”
“Pardon?” Jeff’s mind raced. How the hell did he know Kia?
A slight smile twitched at the corner of Matthias’s lip. “I like you for her. She’s a strong woman. She needs someone with the balls to stand up and be heard.”
Jeff’s mind reeled. What happening here? “You know Kia?”
A genuine smile split Matthias’s mouth. “Yes, I know Kia.”
What the actual fuck was going on? “So how do you know her exactly?” An instant flare of jealousy swirled through his gut. He clenched his jaw. Shit. He closed his eyes briefly and took a breath to tamp it down. His jealousy had fucked things up between them enough already. The last thing he needed to do was let it rear its ugly head when he was already in enough shit to bury him.
Matthias smirked. “Okay, you can control your mouth when you need to. Good to know. So going off in the press room was a choice then?”
Cal sputtered a cough that he quickly tried to cover as Jeff winced. “I’m not sure how to answer that exactly.”
Matthias sat up straighter in his chair. “That press conference today was a shit show.”
“Yes, sir,” Jeff mumbled. His mind kept jumping back to how Matthias knew Kia. “I’m sorry. How do you know Kia?”
“Man, you have it bad.” Matthias laughed. “I met her in Vegas at a tattoo convention a few years ago. The convention was at one of our hotels and I decided to get some work done. I wanted the best, and that was Saskia.” He absently touched his forearm where Jeff imagined his tattoo must be. “She did my sleeve that weekend. Then I had her come back out to Vegas about a year later to do a back piece for me.”
“Did you two date?”
“What? Of course not. She’s my tattoo artist.” Matthias stared at Jeff. “She’s the most talented artist I’ve ever seen. I respect her. Got to know her a bit over the sessions, so I know how important Max is to her. What you did in that press conference. Defending your kid.” Matthias shrugged. “I can respect that. Kia deserves someone like that for Max. For herself. From what I understand, she hasn’t always had that.”
“No, she hasn’t.” Jeff’s mind raced. Why didn’t Kia tell him she knew his boss? Why was she living the way she did if she had this kind of clientele?
“I’m not going to say I like the way you went about putting the press in their place, but I can respect the reason behind it,” Matthias told him. “Clearly we are going to need to do some damage control.” He shook his head. “This is going to be a PR nightmare.”
“I’m sorry I should have talked to Kirsty first. I let my emotions get the best of me in the meeting and I know better.”
“I would hope so.” Matthias tapped his fingers on the top of the desk. “It might be good if you and Kia did something together. I’m sure Kirsty will know the best outlet for that.”
Jeff winced. There was no way Kia would want to do an interview with him. She barely wanted to look at him at the moment, let alone do any favors for him.
Matthias raised an eyebrow. “What’s the look for?”
“Let’s just say she’s not too thrilled with me at the moment because of all this media stuff.”
“Understandable. Kia’s pretty low key.” He chuckled. “I can still picture her when they dragged her up on the stage at the convention after she won.”
