Page 29 of Violent Little Thing

Beau’s mother had enough after the death of their daughter and had washed her hands of Seraphina.

That probably chapped her ass.

We were officially in the finals with the Cowgirls. The Condors, however, weren’t nearly as good. They’d lost two games since I’d taken over as majority owner, and I was wondering if they’d ever see improvement.

“What do you think of the coach?” I asked Charleigh.

Charleigh was dressed in jeans that looked like they were from the kids’ section. Black skinny jeans with a hint of glitter, they were flashy and cute.

She was wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck and combat boots.

Her curly blonde hair was piled high on her head, with curly tendrils falling free at her eyes.

She had on minimal makeup, but what little she did have on enhanced the vivid blue of her eyes.

They were so fake looking that sometimes I wanted to poke them to see if they were real.

“I don’t know him,” she admitted as she saw the coach in question jabbering instead of coaching. “I don’t know football. I don’t really know sports. But what I do know is that he should be coaching, and not talking the entire practice.” She pointed to a man off to the right. “That’s the offensive coach. He’s good.” She pointed at the defensive coach. “I’m not sure he’s any better than the head coach. He does more talking to the players than coaching. Like he’s trying to be their friend.” She pointed at the team manager. “I like the team manager. He’s solid.”

I agreed with her assessment.

“I’m going to start negotiations with a new head coach. Once I’ve hired him and gotten rid of Guzman—the head coach—then I’ll talk with the new coach to fill in other positions as he sees fit. If he likes the lineup of support coaches we have, then they’ll stay. If he wants new coaches, we’ll reevaluate.”

She nodded.

“Are you bringing up the head coach spot to the board?”

“No,” he said. “I spoke with them last week about it, let them know my intentions. I won’t need their permission with hiring him, either. Not with yours and my majority.”

“You got the….”

My phone pinged, and I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at it.

Thinking it was the coach that I was considering an interview with, I hadn’t given it much thought on how rude it was to pull the phone out while I was talking with Charleigh.

I inwardly winced, expecting her to be pissed.

Lauri hated it when I did that.

Except, Charleigh returned her gaze to the field, unfazed.

I read the text.

Huxley:

Need some help. Thumper’s not doing good. Have to stay with Katana, but someone needs to come lock him down. He’s losing it. Katana lost the baby last night and she’s decided that she’s tired of fighting. Wants to let go.

“Fuck,” I grumbled.

“What?” Charleigh asked.

I texted back quickly.

Me:

I’m not in town. Let me know, though, if you need me later.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket before I answered her, explaining the text.