"Seriously?" Isaac asked.
I nodded. "Yeah. He basically said he wanted all the empty space on her and didn't care how much it cost. She's getting six figures every weekend from them, guys."
"Shit!" Jorge gasped.
But Isaac smacked my arm - then Jorge's. That he was looking up the hall? Yeah, we shut the fuck up real fast, because that was Donald Merrill, Antonio Sousa, and Nash Haynes heading toward us. Even worse, all three were glaring right at us.
"What are you doing here?" Mr. Sousa demanded when he was close enough.
"We were asked to be here," Jorge said, making a little gesture that made it clear I shouldn't say shit.
"And what are you wearing?" Mr. Merrill asked.
"That was my idea!" Chance called out.
I damned near sighed in relief. Together, all of us turned to see Chance, Braden, and Rhaven heading this way like some kind of power trio. Once again, Chance was wearing little more than jeans and a t-shirt, but in a way that made it look as impressive as a suit. Braden and Rhaven were both wearing Cody's shirts, the ones with that pink logo on them. Everything else they had on was black.
"Gentlemen," Chance said, gesturing to us. "I'd like to show you my idea."
Donald Merrill crossed his arms and glared at me. "Rainbows?"
"An entire spectrum of colors," Chance said. "Bright colors that make them easy to spot out there in the arena, no different from the colored jerseys the bullfighters wear now. The difference..." And he gestured for us to turn around. "My company's logo is on the back, right where the cameras and fans will see it."
"The current political climate doesn't make rainbow attire a good idea," Mr. Sousa said. "Now, if you want your logo on matching shirts, we can do that. I'm sure Charlie, Peter, and Stephen will gladly - "
"No," Chance said. "Gentlemen, let me make this very clear to you. I want the wolf pack."
For a moment, the three directors exchanged looks. I didn't need to be a mind reader to understand them either. They hadn't expected Chance to have a clue about bullfighting - let alone the PBR. That he knew the nickname people used for my specific team? They didn't like that at all.
"Impossible," Mr. Haynes said. "Tanner Burns is currently suspended."
"Then change that," Chance told him.
"That is not how the rules work," Mr. Merrill snapped.
Chance simply lifted a brow. "Oh, it's not? Then perhaps you'd like to explain Cody Jenning's scores to me? She's riding better and better, but she keeps being scored lower and lower. Her spurring is improving. Her displays of control are rivaled only by a few of your riders, and yet it seems those very hard and fast rules aren't applying to her." He looked back at Braden. "Did I get that right?"
"You did," Braden said. "Those were the fan comments we read on the YouTube videos."
"Mm," Chance murmured as he looked back to the directors. "Could the bias be because she's a woman? I'm sure that has nothing at all to do with it. Just like I'm sure the rumors theriders have been telling me about Tanner have nothing to do with his suspension. Then again, Deviant Games has no interest in tying our name to a public entity with a reputation for discrimination."
"There's no discrimination!" Mr. Merrill snapped, pausing to toss a warning look at me. But when he looked at Chance again, his tone had changed. "Mr. Hunter, would you like to step into a conference room with us?"
"Not really," Chance said, moving to one of the empty chairs to lower himself down. "Bullfighters?" He gestured to the chairs beside us. "I think this discussion is the sort of thing that involves all of us."
"Sir," Mr. Haynes tried, "we don't typically discuss contracts in front of the employees of the company."
"I'm sure," Chance said, sounding like he was taunting them. "I, however, am not like most of the businesses you work with. Deviant Games is a privately owned company. I'm not beholden to shareholders. I don't need to get approval from anyone else, and our reputation has been made by being transparent about who and what we support." He gestured to us. "Like a trio of men who have one hell of a reputation online."
"You know," Braden said casually, "the place where we operate."
Rhaven simply smiled in a smug way. She wasn't talking, but I was getting the impression her silence said more than words could. Then again, she was a "problem" just like I was, or Cody. J.D. too, but they didn't know about him yet.
"So," Chance said, clearly continuing whether the directors liked it or not, "we can discuss dollars privately, but I'm very motivated here. The riders my representative talked to all made it clear this was an out for them. From gang violence to poverty, bull riding gave them a chance when nothing else did. Theypulled themselves up by their bootstraps and bull ropes, and that's what we want to represent."
"Never mind that our demographic is the same as yours," Mr. Haynes pointed out.
"Yes, that is convenient, isn't it?" Chance asked. "You'd think that'd make me even more invested. However, I don't want second rate noobs. I'm not interested in having mouth-breathers wearing my logo."
