It was a mistake.
Step by agonizing step of listening to his footsteps right behind me.
But there was one saving grace – that I hadn’t made him go first.
For the hundredth time, I wondered whether it was smart to let him carry on working for me.Temptation at literal arm’s length.And for the hundredth time, my baser nature won out against my logic and reason.
Keaton Dunbar would stay.
And maybe one of these days I’d get awow.
I stalked directly to Ace’s office.He hadn’t bothered to close his door.I marched in with Keaton in tow.
“What the hell were you thinking?”I asked.
Ace was pacing up and down the front of the room.He had his arms folded across his chest and his shoulders bent forward as if he was trying to hug himself.He was starting to look miserable.The adrenaline was no doubt fading and he was realizing what he had done.
“He was so fucking annoying,” he said without missing a step in his pacing.“He just kept talking and talking andtalking.About how we couldn’t even get a sponsorship deal for the best athlete in the world and did we even have the right to call ourselves a sports agency if that was the case and couldn’t I afford a nicer suit.Just needling.Needle, needle,needle.And I – I wanted to shut him up but we can’t tell him that we know.Weknow, Harvey.It’s him.Did Keaton tell you, yet?It was him who delivered the contract and I just kept looking into his smug fucking face and thinking, you fucking fuck, you might have killed my career, and I…”
“You punched him.”This was bad news.Ace striking first left us without a leg to stand on.Brody Driver would be within his rights to press charges for assault.The hits on his side would be self-defense.
“I just…” Ace stopped talking and pacing and threw both of his hands up in the air.“I need a cigarette.”
“You stopped smoking six years ago,” I pointed out.I was in the position to know.It had been one of my stipulations if he was going to start working for me.I didn’t want him blowing second-hand smoke into the lungs of my athletes.
“I fucking know!”he exploded.
Ace Park was a lucky man.We had been working together for longer than anyone else.He had spent more time with me over the last six years than anyone else.I had grown to somewhat like him.He had become someone I considered part of my inner circle.
That was the only thing that saved him.
“This happens again and you’re fired,” I told him.
Ace shot a furious look at me.“He started it.”
“You escalated it,” I said.“If you were anyone else then I would have fired you already.”
Ace opened his mouth to reply and then bit his tongue.I watched him retract whatever wounded statement he had wanted to make.He dropped his arms to hug himself again and started pacing.
Keaton cleared his throat.“Do you want me to go get an ice pack for your lip?”
“No,” Ace said.
At the exact same time that I said, “Yes.”
Ace glared at me.
“I am not having my top agent walking around looking like he got into a bar brawl,” I said.“Notwhen we already have one drunken scandal on our hands.”
Keaton fled the room behind me.I didn’t have to turn to know he was gone.The warmth in the atmosphere dropped and the smell of fresh linen stirred on the breeze and was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Ace said at length.He stopped pacing and dropped into a chair.“It’s that asshole.He just gets right under my skin.He knows exactly how to fucking rile me up, every single time.It’s kind of a miracle I’ve lasted this long.Why does Coleman keep that fucking asshole working for him?”
I shrugged with one shoulder.“Why do we keep Quijada on staff?”
Ace paused.Then took a breath.Then choked out a laugh.
I surprised myself by chuckling along with him.
