Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
And I get fucked?
I lift my head, suppressing a groan.
Renn sits back again, this time crossing one ankle over his other knee. He peers at me with a look that I can’t quite name, and it makes me fidget in my seat. He and Astrid are close, so I get that he’d listen to her … but I need that damn bonus. There are no other options.
I blow out a hasty breath. “Can we talk about this?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“She hated me before she even knew who I was.” I have one shot at convincing him to hear me out. If I don’t take it now, I’ll never get it again. “How do you know she didn’t quit just to screw me over? Wouldn’t it be more logical to give me an assistant who doesn’t dislike me from the jump?”
“No.”
“No?” I scoot to the edge of my seat, imploring him to listen. “Why her? I mean, I don’t understand why you think I need a babysitter to begin with, but why her? Why not someone else?” I groan, slapping my knees as I sit back. “You can’t just do this. You can’t fuck me over like this.”
Renn shoves away from his desk and stands.
“I brought you here because you’re a highly skilled player,” he says, his jaw ticking. “But I also brought you here to keep you from ruining your life.”
I flinch at his words.
“Do you think I pay my players what I do without investigating them first?” he asks. “We have the highest payroll in the league—by far. Do you think I just sign those checks without knowing who I’m writing them to?”
This can’t be right. “No, but—”
“No one is fucking you over, Adler.”
I laugh in disbelief. “Oh really?”
“Yeah. Really.” He rolls the cuffs of his shirtsleeves up his forearms. “You think everyone is against you, but it’s really you against yourself. Face the facts.”
“I didn’t realize you were a philosopher on the side.”
He pins me in my seat with a sharp look. “Look around. I’m doing just fine for myself. It would behoove you to shut your mouth and take notes.”
If it were anyone else in the world saying those things, we’d brawl.
“I see me in you,” he says. “I’ve not been exactly where you are right now, but I can imagine it.”
“You can imagine it?” I lift a brow, not sure what he knows. Doubtful that Renn Brewer could ever understand my shit. “I find that hard to believe.”
Renn finishes his sleeve and adjusts it to his liking before he looks at me again. Once he does, I know the truth. He’s done his research.
He knows.
The room closes in, the walls rapidly encroaching. My heart kicks into overdrive, rushing blood through my veins at warp speed. I haven’t discussed this at length with anyone—not Brooks, not Hartley. No one. I’m not prepared to talk to Renn about it, and I sure as fuck don’t want to talk about it now.
Everything feels urgent, and I’m desperate with no direction. My life is slipping through my fingers, and I’m watching it happen. No matter how tightly I curl them, I can’t stop the grains from falling to the floor.
“A few years ago, my father did some very unscrupulous things to my family,” he says, his temple throbbing. “He’s now living the rest of his life in a cage—that’s how bad it was.”
I still.
“So I’ve been through some shit, my friend,” he says. “And I’ve battled a lot of demons. A lot of guilt. I’ve maneuvered a lot of blame.” He takes a breath, and it feels like the room does, too. “Do you know what I’ve learned?”
I subtly shake my head.
“Every loss doesn’t mean someone fumbled.” He tosses that into the room with the casualness of a weather report. He plants both hands on his desk and levels his attention on me. “I brought you here to try to save you—to give you an opportunity to save yourself. If you don’t want to do that, that’s on you. But you won’t take Astrid down, too.”
I rest my elbows on my knees and hang my head.
His words slice me like a thousand papercuts. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I was prepared—but I wasn’t. I wasn’t ready to have things brought to the surface and shoved in my face.
I didn’t want to look in this mirror.
As hard as it is to hear, knowing that Renn has some idea of what I’m going through does marginally ease the burden. Just enough to breathe. That small opening reduces the fog in my head and lets me think clearly.
And the first thought that comes through the haze is Astrid. She’s uncomfortable working with me. Renn’s statement echoes throughout my body, winding through my veins like venom. The words are deliberate. She doesn’t just dislike working with me, and she doesn’t just hate me. She’s uncomfortable with me.