I showed my badge and continued past security to the executive offices.
Hawk: Main conference room.
Great. I didn’t want to find myself alone with Hawk in his office so soon after last night.
He wasn’t alone. He sat at the boardroom table along with the President and CEO, Rick Coogan, Chief Baseball Officer Tanner Bloom, and General Manager Trace Cooper. How the fuck did I belong in this room?
The only notable person missing was AJ Jones, the Manager.
Hawk smiled when I arrived and passed out a packet to everyone. “Before we start, I should probably explain why AJ isn’t here. His contract has been terminated at his request. So that leaves us with another major hole to fill.”
Fuck. AJ was a fan favorite as a former player who was integral in one of the last Minutemen World Series wins. He was hot-headed and passionate, and had been kicked out of a few games for cause; his judgment on the field made him worth it.
“Is there a story there?” I asked.
“Of course there is. But it’s not one that HR is allowing us to share publicly, and we’ve got Public Relations craftinga statement that both AJ and the organization are good with releasing.”
I read through the packet, and it looked like the problem at second base had been solved. Negotiations with JP Anderson were nearing the finish line.
“No.”
I hadn’t realized I had said it out loud until all eyes in the room looked at me. Tucker Milligan—shortstop, top prospect, and the one person in this world whom I never wanted to see again.
Hawk’s eyes flew to mine, and he stared at me in surprise.
“No to what?”
“Not what, it’s who. Tucker Milligan is a powder keg waiting to blow. I went to Dartmouth with him.”
I read through his bio, finding that since we left school, he’d been playing AAA ball. His stats were outstanding, and I could see why he would be in the mix. But fuck. No.
“He’s squeaky clean. What happened at school?” Hawk asked.
Oh God, please no. And nothing official happened while we were in school. But that was only because I never pressed charges. The rape kit was stored at the Hanover Police Department, and it would be destroyed in the next two years if I didn’t move forward with charges. Or if he committed another crime and his DNA was entered into the database. So far, he had been clean. But I knew Tucker well enough to know he needed the power and loved hurting people.
“Nothing on his record.” My reluctant admission made it highly likely that the men in the room would befine moving forward with a contract for him. Even I had to admit that his skills were what the team needed next season.
Ugh.
We ran through the rest of the prospects, and while the group unanimously disagreed with my assessment of Tucker, they accepted every other suggestion. In most situations, I would take that as a win, but without me providing details I wasn’t prepared to share in a professional environment, I had nothing.
TEN
hawk
InvitingKendra to the meeting was not expressly in her job description, and my grandfather would never have included her in the decision. It wasn’t lost on anyone in the room that her immediate supervisor was excluded.
But her superior was useless. He was a holdover from my grandfather’s tenure who hadn’t embraced the changes I planned to make to the organization. He also tried to prevent her from having any input, likely because he understood her talent exceeded his own.
How had she become one of the most trusted people on my team? I couldn’t tell you. But every single time she opened her mouth, I got sucked in.
And it wasn’t only because I imagined how those lips would feel against mine. It wasn’t the filthy thoughts I battled about her almost hourly. It was her brain. Hot as fuck.
I had never realized how attractive smart women were. She walked into the room, sized everyone up even beforethey opened their mouths, and made quick, on-target decisions.
Was it wrong of me to test her? Probably, but she passed every single one with flying colors.
While the rest of the team had voted to move forward with Tucker Milligan, I wondered if there was more to the story than what she had shared. I couldn’t imagine Kendra responding so forcefully, only to have nothing to support her resistance to him, which is exactly what had happened.
