One woman, Niko would never forget, was small, couldn’t have been five foot tall because Niko was six at the time and she wasn’t much taller than him, and she’d been at the last class his dad taught before he died. At the funeral, that woman came up to their mom sobbing, her arm was in a sling, and she had a black eye. She told his mom that her ex found her, but because of what Niko’s father taught her, she was able to fight back and get away. Niko’s dad saved that woman’s life. Niko promised himself, in that moment, that he would follow in his dad’s footsteps. Not being a fireman, he didn’t want to die young. But that he would learn the tools he needed to teach those who were vulnerable how to defend themselves.
“And the benefit?” Niko glanced up at Jessie. “It says hometown. I was born and raised in San Francisco.”
“You spent holidays and summers here. In a custody situation, that would be considered an adequate parental split.”
He stared at her.
“Small town gives wholesome. Hope Falls is the personification of a small town.” Jessie waved her hand. “It’s like being in a snow globe.”
“It’s lying,” Niko pointed out, despite it feeling like his hometown.
“It’s creative marketing.”
Hope Falls not being his hometown was not a hill he planned to die on so he let it go.
Jessie rolled her shoulders back and placed one hand over the other as she sat up taller and exhaled. “I’ve bee?—”
“Holy shit,” Niko cut her off as his stomach dropped like a lead balloon into a well filled with cotton candy.
Those were all tics she had before delivering devastating information. He’d naively assumed this meeting was about cleaning up his reputation, but clearly it was about something much worse. He should have known. She was in Hope Falls. Why would she be in Hope Falls just to talk to him about cleaning up his reputation?
“Are you dying?” he asked.
Jessie blinked at him, and seconds of silence passed before she responded. “No.”
“Dropping me?”
“No.”
“Did you signBrock Bartlett?” He could barely say the guy’s name.
Her head tilted slightly to the left. “Why does it sound like, out of the three things you just listed,thatwould be the absolute worst to you?”
“Did you?!” Each word tasted of bitter betrayal in his mouth.
That was why she was in Hope Falls, to break the news to him that she’d signed enemy number one. Which was why Brock was in town, to rub it in his face. And he got his hometown info from Gianna. There were traitors all around.
He had to have someone on the inside who knew about Niko’s injury. Someone leaked the information. Brock smelled blood in the water, and he was going in for the kill. His manager. His ex. His “hometown.”
“If you need me to answer that question, we should not be working together.”
Shit.Jessie was right. He instantly felt like an asshole. She would never go behind his back and sign Brock Bartlett. Jessie had more integrity in her little toe than most sports agents had in their entire departments.
“I’m sorry,” Niko apologized for his accusation. “It’s just been a weird few months, and Brock’s here, in town. I don’t know why. And Gianna is, too. She’s with him.”
The second Niko mentioned his ex, Jessie’s expression tensed. “That was why I asked to speak to you today.”
That was why?Okay, now he was really confused.
“I have a source from People magazine that Brock just sold a story about their engagement. The magazine is coming here to do a spread with them, and it will go to print in two weeks. He’s choosing to announce it here. In Hope Falls. I’m assuming the location has to do with his ex-wife living here, but his fiancée is definitely connected to you.”
“Engaged?” Gianna always told Niko she didn’t believe in marriage, not that he’d ever wanted to marry her, but he wondered what Brock had done to change her mind.
“I think it would be best if you don’t stay in town.”
“What about the fundraiser?” On the schedule there was a fundraiser scheduled that he was chairing in town.
“You can come back for the day to do that. You and Brock in the same small town is a recipe for disaster.”
