Willow appraises me before answering. “I wasn’t going to, but then a job came up in Ottawa. I decided to take it, so I’ll be leaving soon.”
“What’s the job?” I ask, aware she’s a photojournalist but not knowing much past that.
“Oh, there’s some major student protests going on over a tuition hike. Apparently, thousands will be marching the day after tomorrow.”
Sounds dull to me.
“They’re worried about riots so in case it turns into more than just a march, the AP contracted me to take photos.”
Riots? “Is that dangerous?”
Willow shrugs. “Probably not. I mean… it’s a bunch of college students, right?”
“I guess,” I murmur, disappointed Willow will soon be leaving. “So… you’ll stay tonight?”
“Sure,” she replies. “I mean… why not?”
“Try not to sound so enthusiastic,” I reply dryly, and Willow laughs.
At least there’s that.
“Admit you had fun tonight.” It catches her by surprise, if her eyebrows shooting up are any indication. “Sitting together during the game and celebrating great plays with high fives—all while wanting to just kiss the fuck out of each other.”
“I most certainly didn’t want to kiss you during the game,” she says primly. It immediately makes me resolve to prove her wrong at the next game she comes to.
“What about now?” I ask. “Want me to kiss you?”
Her smile is sly. “Maybe.”
I’ve got a million different places I want to kiss her, and I expect I’ll be spending a good bit of time with my mouth between her legs.
“When are you coming back from Canada?” I ask, tapping my fingers on the arm of the chair.
“Unless things get hairy with the disgruntled students, I expect I’ll be at game three in Seattle. I’ll probably fly directly there.”
She’ll be gone for four days. It sucks, but I’ll survive.
“I invited your parents to sit in the box with me during any of the games,” I tell her, needing to extend the same invitation to her. “I’d love for you to join me for game three, but, more than that, I’d love for you to stay with me that night. I got a luxury hotel suite in Seattle with its own patio jacuzzi. Imagine the things we could do in it.”
“I imagine after four days without each other, we’d break it,” she says, and I love that answer more than any other she’s given me. That means she’s going to be missing me as much as I’ll be missing her.
And I dare not even ruminate about what that means.
CHAPTER 9
Dominik
The rules of mediation require us to meet in a neutral location. The place we’d agreed upon is a conference room in a downtown Phoenix hotel. Representing the Vengeance organization on one side of the long table sits myself, our attorney Fred Gruber, Christian Rutherford in his capacity as the general manager and the three individually named defendants, Dax Monahan, Erik Dahlbeck, and Sebastian Parr, who is our director of merchandising. All three are the victims of false accusations, which were made by the woman directly opposite me.
Nanette Pearson is nothing like I’d envisioned. She had been described by our attorney as a manipulative sex siren who masterfully set up three of my employees for a sexual harassment lawsuit in order to get a big payout.
The woman is very pretty, no doubt. But her own attorney has clearly had a hand in her “transformation”. Hair swept into a low-key bun, minimal makeup, and a drab black suit with a blouse underneath buttoned all the way up completes her ensemble. The piece de resistance is the strand of pearls at her throat.
She looks every bit the meek, humble victim she’s been portraying herself as since she filed this lawsuit. According to her, Erik, Dax, and Sebastian lured her into sexual relationships with the promise she’d receive something valuable in return from the Vengeance team. What she expects those “returns” to be is unclear, and I’m interested to hear their thought process today. However, it’s only for my own amusement. I’m not going to believe a fucking thing she says because I fully trust my guys.
She’s in it for the money and nothing else. Granted, Dax did in fact sleep with her, but there’s no law or rule against that. He wasn’t representing the organization in any official capacity, and he had no power or authority to make her any promises. Erik swears he never touched her, and Sebastian reported her directly to Christian after she tried to offer him oral sex in a job interview. She claims Sebastian demanded it from her in exchange for a job, but I don’t believe it. If that were the case, why would he have left his office immediately after and went directly to Christian to inform him about what happened?
Bottom line, I know these men.
They are my men and my loyalty is to them. Not to mention, through extensive investigation and interviews, we’ve been able to confirm this Nanette is plain batshit crazy and always coming up with get-rich-quick schemes. On top of that, she has a criminal history of petty theft and forgery. I’d stack her credibility against my guys any day of the week.
Regardless, the mediation today is simply an attempt to see if we can settle the matter. It’s something the courts prefer for expediency.
Prior to today, Fred Gruber had met with us to explain the process and what would occur. First, there would be a presentation by Nanette’s attorney to lay out their case and why they believe she’s entitled to compensation. Then Fred would have his chance to detail our defense and why we believe she’s not entitled to anything. After their speeches, a neutral mediator will supposedly work their magic to enter us into negotiations and agree upon a sum that is fair to all sides.
Fred had ordered us to keep our mouths shut, our expressions bland, and our tempers under control. It’s going to be hard to do, that’s for sure. Especially listening to this woman tell lies, knowing she expects me to reach into my wallet to hand her money.
The mediator is a recently retired older attorney who wears a bow tie and suspenders. He opens by making a few remarks about the importance of the mediation process and how we need to be respectful to both sides. Not a problem. I’m a businessman, after all, and I understand the art of negotiations.
The fight bell metaphorically rings when Nanette’s attorney clears his throat, then launches into his presentation of their case. It’s tough to listen as he methodically lays out supposed facts I know to be blatant lies, but Gruber will remind the group she has targeted people with bogus civil lawsuits before. Our investigation into her background yielded a lot of helpful information.
The nape of my neck heats a bit when he starts to recount how much his client has been traumatized. How she’s incurred immense pain and suffering. Nanette ducks her head as she toys with her necklace, a slight smirk on her face. This claim will also be shot down by Gruber, as our investigators have followed her around, and the woman is anything but traumatized. She leads a highly social life with lots of partying and flirting toward the opposite sex going on. In my opinion, she’s looking for her next mark. In addition, we’ve uncovered the fact she’s been shopping for high-end real estate, which she cannot afford in her current financial state. She’s attempting to spend her payday before it’s even received.