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“Fine by me,” Paxton said, lips twisting into a smirk.
I lowered myself into the chair opposite the desk, not taking my eyes off him for a second. “I know you don’t want to be here, and believe me, I don’t want to be here either,” I said in the most confident tone I could muster. “But we have to. So can we just agree to be civil with each other for the next twenty minutes? For the sake of the paper and your team.”
“When have I ever been uncivil toward you, Sienna?” Paxton asked, voice dripping with disdain.
“Well, there’s the glaringly obvious occasion that we really don’t need to discuss today,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “There was also the tunnel incident last month.”
“Tunnel incident?” Paxton cocked his head, feigning confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean,” I said in an acid tone.
He smirked again. “Sounds like another one of your false accusations.”
I gritted my teeth and didn’t reply. It wasn’t worth it. I opened my interview folder, unlocked my phone, and pressed ‘start’ on the recording app. “Let’s get started.”
“Before we do, you should probably make sure you have an exit strategy,” Paxton replied, leaning forward.
I frowned. “What?”
“A way to escape the room.” His smirk widened into an amused smile, but his voice was pure ice. “You know… in case I decide to finish the job.”
My back went rigid. “What the hell did you just say to me?” I asked in a low voice.
Before Paxton could respond, someone knocked on the door.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Jeremy said, stepping inside a second later. He held up a cell phone. “Justin just brought this to me. You left it out there.”
“Thanks, man,” Paxton said, rising to his feet to grab the phone. He looked slightly annoyed that his menacing power-play against me had been disturbed, but he didn’t say anything else.
“All right, I’ll leave you to it,” Jeremy said, glancing at me. “Sorry again for the disruption.”
“It’s fine.” I smiled at him and patted the arm of the chair next to mine. “Hey, why don’t you stay? You said you really like our articles, so it could be fun for you to watch one of the interviews. See how it all works.”
“Oh, no. I don’t want to get in your way.” Jeremy waved a hand. “Thanks for the offer, though.”
“It’s really no trouble,” I said, shaking my head. Please make him stay, I begged the universe. I couldn’t be alone with Paxton for another second.
Jeremy’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if he’d suddenly sensed the unease and tension in the room. Then his face brightened, and he nodded. “All right,” he said, sinking into the chair next to me. He raised his palms. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay quiet.”
Paxton’s face soured, but he didn’t protest Jeremy’s presence. “Where were we, Sienna?” he asked, cocking his head.
“We were just getting started,” I said, forcing a smile.
The interview questions were the same as the ones I’d used with Paxton’s teammates in previous weeks, including Justin Lamar. However, his answers weren’t as quick and easygoing as Justin’s answers. Instead, they were slow and measured. Far more calculated.
That didn’t surprise me one bit. He probably didn’t want to reveal his true self to the public, and hiding that sort of darkness took a lot of effort and control.
“What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome in your career so far?” I eventually asked, pen poised above my notepad.
I was sure he was going to talk about the Forrester massacre and how a certain girl’s ‘false accusation’ had nearly destroyed his life. Instead, he surprised me.
“I guess there’s two things,” he said, scratching his jaw. “When I first started playing, I had a really good friend who played with me. He died when I was fifteen. So that was a really rough time for me. But I always remembered how he encouraged me to take my playing to the limit, and that helped me deal with what happened. Helped me cope. I tried my hardest and best because of him, and that’s how I ended up getting scouted for the NTDP when I was sixteen.”
“Is that Tyler you’re talking about?” I asked. I hadn’t meant to say it, but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Surprise flickered in Paxton’s eyes, and he stared at me for a moment, brows furrowing. Then he nodded curtly, gaze turning cold again. “Yeah. Tyler.”
I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. “What was the second thing?”
