Page 38 of Violent Little Thing

I walked to the car with her, not bothering to reach for her door like I would have Lauri.

Charleigh was more than capable of getting her own, and she also looked like she’d bite my hand off if I dared.

“I heard that you got that cop fired that let her go, too,” I mused.

She pulled her seat belt across her chest before she answered.

“He cost someone their life,” she said. “I don’t want that kind of man policing my streets. Just because she has a nice set of tits doesn’t mean that she should be able to get out of a drunk driving ticket.”

“Agreed,” I said.

She looked to me. “I heard that the Cottonwoods have asked for a meeting with ‘the board.’”

“Wish that news wouldn’t have hit the news channels for a bit.” I gritted my teeth. “They don’t want me to be successful. Honestly, the only place they’d be happy with me being is in a grave six feet under or in a jail cell getting regular beatings.”

“Who set the meeting up?” she asked. “And don’t they know that you’re the majority owner now?”

“I offered to buy Seraphina and Benedict out. Benedict said he’d think about it.”

That meant that he was probably going to do it. He saw the writing on the wall. His daughter, however…

“And Seraphina?” she asked.

“She just laughed and turned her back on me,” I answered as I started driving back to work. “The board was already meeting to discuss the new head coach position.”

“Did you narrow it down?”

“I did,” I confirmed. “We’re going to send out a formal offer tomorrow before the meeting.”

“Before the meeting?” She laughed.

“Before,” I agreed. “Nothing they can say will sway me. Personally, I don’t think they’re even necessary anymore. Beau thought they may help with the transition. But I’m not used to other people adding their two cents into my decisions. I had enough of that in prison. I won’t do it outside of one.”

“And how did the head coach take it?” I asked.

“He hasn’t been told yet,” I said. “We’re going to have the other head coach I’m replacing him with slotted in before we do that. The head coach, Guzman, is pretty vindictive, I’ve heard. I’ve also been told to expect a lawsuit the moment that we relieve him.”

“Great,” she murmured. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already working on it. I don’t see Seraphina letting this ride without adding in her two cents.”

“She doesn’t know.” I pulled into the lot of our headquarters for the day and parked in a spot that was nowhere near Seraphina’s new top-of-the-line Audi that she’d replaced her other one with. Just seeing it gave me the creeps. “And it’s going to stay that way if the board wants to keep their job.”

“Do you think you’ll keep them on?” she asked. “I think without Benedict’s and Seraphina’s input, they’d be a whole different board.”

“They’ve had years to correct their behavior and haven’t.” I shrugged. “I don’t like that they’ve kowtowed to their every whim. I hate that they’ve pretty much bankrupted the business. I hate that they’re getting paid more and more each year to run the team into the ground. And I sure the hell don’t like what we’re finding with the forensic audit that we’re doing.”

Her eyes were huge when she said, “Tell me everything.”

Fuck, she was cute.

Eleven

I could eat a can of alphabet soup and shit a better argument than yours.

—Court to his parents

Court

I was elbow-deep in an engine when I heard the sound of a car pull up outside.