Chapter 2 Onyx
I watched her as she left the boardroom, her head held high, her cheeks bright with color. It wasn’t with embarrassment; it was anger, and I hid my smile as I watched her slip out the door, closing it quietly behind her.
She was full of shit.
I knew how bad her temper was, and I knew it would have taken her immense restraint not to slam the door behind her.
Actually, that was juvenile. Angel wasn’t juvenile; she wouldn’t slam the door.
She’d quite happily slam my head off the door if she thought she would get away with it, but for that display of temper, I’m betting she would punch me first.
I’d been on the receiving end of her fist once before, and it still made me laugh when I thought about it.
Angel was whiter than white. She was so pale that she gave the impression she was frail.
She wasn’t frail; she was ruthless and cunning, and her slender frame, long black hair that hit her ass, and her paleness gave people the wrong impression of delicacy.
She was as delicate as a stiletto to the back of the head. Only Angel wouldn’t hit you from behind, which was one of the only things I liked about her. The fact was that she would look you square in the eye when she knifed you in the heart.
My attention returned to the boardroom as Neil droned on about the potential clients we were either pursuing, trying to keep, or trying to lose.
Being a sports agent had never been my calling when I was younger.
I went to college playing football like my father before me and like my brothers and cousin after me.
I was already aware of how good my younger brothers were.
The twins excelled at most things, but put a football in their hands and they shone.
Jett and Gray were going to explode in professional football with the right team and the right coach.
Add in our cousin Ash, and they were an offensive line to fear.
During my junior year of high school, as I watched and waited for the scouts for myself, I started really listening to my uncle when he spoke about good representation.
In my freshman year of college, I focused on sports management.
I was good at the game, but by then, I knew the twins and Ash were better, and I would not allow anyone to take advantage of them.
If that made me an overprotective prick, I didn’t really care.
My dad and my uncle both played. Uncle Kage went on to play for several years, but my dad never made it past the draft. Through choice. A bad choice, but a choice, nevertheless.
He chose love. My mom, or Sable as I called her, asked him not to go pro, scared she would lose him. And . . . he agreed.
My snort of disgust in the boardroom was loud, and I ignored the attention I brought myself.
Thankfully, that weakness had passed me by, and Jett too, but my brother Gray worried me that he had too much of my dad’s sentimentality, and I watched him like a hawk.
Jett would be fine; he knew how to play the game, and even currently besotted with his girlfriend, I knew Jett’s focus had never wavered from his goal, which was to play professionally.
Gray’s might. Ash . . . he was good, better than good, but he also enjoyed his studies, and I kept a close eye on him, too, for other reasons.
I’d worked too long and too hard to get them in the position of where they were today. Scouts were already looking at them, all of them, and they had just finished their sophomore year of college. Twenty years old, and pro scouts were checking out their games.
Thinking back on Angel’s last challenge to me a few weeks ago, I frowned. She said she had a team lined up for all three of them. The same team. I’d sent out all the feelers, double-checked everything, and I had no idea which team she had been speaking to.
So, when Trent Hudson called late Friday night looking for his potential new sports agent, Angel Balan, to talk about her proposed contract, instead of being a good team player and passing on the message, I flew out to Colorado on Saturday morning and had him signed with me by Saturday evening.
She’d left the contract with legal to double-check it.
All I needed to do was tweak it to suit my needs and replace her name with mine.
Taking a sip of my water, I relished my victory. It was shitty, it was mean, but it was the same company he was signing with, just a different sports agent within that agency.
“Onyx?”
My attention snapped to Neil. “Yeah?”
“Help Johnathan with the proposed sponsorship deal for Winters. I don’t like the fine print,” he said as he looked around the room.
“Winters . . . the hockey player?” I asked, turning to look at my colleague.
“Yeah,” Johnathan said, and I noted his body language. “He’s my client, Onyx.”
My smile made him whiten until he was almost as pale as Angel. “We’re all the same team though, right?”
Which was bullshit. They got paid a salary here, but their money was made from the deals they got their clients and the cut they took.
Hockey allowed up to four percent for fees.
I didn’t particularly delve too much into hockey, but Slade Winters was an exciting up-and-coming player, and good sponsorship deals for him meant potentially more clients for us.
“I’ll look after we’re finished here. Send it to me.”
He didn’t look happy, and Neil noticed. “Send it to Angel,” he amended without looking at me. “And Onyx.”
Johnathan nodded slowly, and I knew he wasn’t happy, and I also didn’t care.
“Anyone else have anything they need to share?” Neil asked as he looked around the room. “No? Okay, have a great day. My door is always open.”
I remained seated while my co-workers got their things together and left. Relaxed in my seat, I watched as the man who fronted my company tidied his papers and then placed his tablet on top of them.
“Dick move,” he said when the door was closed.
“Was it?” I asked.
“She worked her ass off for that deal.” Neil frowned as he looked at me. His one great failing was that he had a soft spot for Angel.
“I know football guys better,” I shrugged. “She knows this. I don’t touch her basketball clients; she should leave football to me.”
“She knows her stuff,” Neil defended her. “She’s a good agent, she’s fierce and loyal, and her clients love her. They respect her.”
“And?”
“Whatever is between you two, it’s hurting the company.”
I scoffed as I pushed my chair back. “No, it isn’t. This is my company, and our profit margins are disgustingly healthy. There is nothing between us, and as long as this agency gets the client, I don’t give a fuck who signs them.”
“Then why take five of her last eight signings?”
Standing, I walked over to the window and looked out over Nashville. “I offered the better deal.”
“And?” Neil sounded resigned.
“And it makes me happy to know I make her miserable.”
“What did she do to you?” Neil asked me shrewdly. “You’re a cold-hearted bastard, nothing fazes you. You never show emotion unless it’s the boys or Angel.”
“She redecorated my office,” I reminded him.
“She made it better,” he countered.
He would think that, since he was old. “It looks like a hotel room . . . from the eighties.”
“It looks welcoming.”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I thought about my office.
Gone was the glass and chrome, and instead I had wood and fucking beige.
My office looked like a natural wood furniture showroom threw up in it.
The high-backed maroon leather chair she put behind my desk made me want to strangle the bitch every time I sat in it.
Instead, I complimented her on her design taste and refused to change it back.
I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing how much I hated it.
Bitch.
Signing Trent Hudson? That was nothing compared to the threat of getting the boys a deal with the same team. That was their dream, and I’d be damned if someone other than me got them it, and I would continue to fuck with her until she dropped it.
“Maybe you should both sit down and have an adult conversation?” Neil suggested as he leaned back in his chair.
“Maybe you should keep your suggestions to yourself.”
His lips twitched as he looked over at me.
“Look, you brought me in here, to this company. You needed someone who knew the game and had the experience. You brought your own connections with your dad and your uncle’s time on the field.
We’ve been together for five years. This agency is one of the most respected in the country.
” He paused, and I waited. When he looked as if he were uncertain to continue, I fought the eye roll.
“You want to tell me that my recent actions bring the agency into ill repute. You want to remind me that word gets out, and if I look to be playing hard and fast with my co-workers, not only will they leave, but they may also take their clients with them.”
“Yes, but if I wanted to say any of those things, would you listen?” Neil asked me carefully.
“No.”
“Onyx, son, listen to me,” he began.
“No, Neil, listen to me. I told you not to hire her. I specifically told you to stay clear of her, but you hired her anyway. And you went one better, because you publicized that she was a new addition, knowing that even I wouldn’t get rid of her then.
Because this is my company and this is my work, and I may be a cold-hearted bastard, but this company, these people, our clients, actually rely on me. On me.”
He held my stare before he turned away. Neil may front my company, which I needed when I was twenty and still in college, but I didn’t need him now.
My company, my agency, was well known. I was one of the best in the business because I worked hard, and I employed people who worked hard, and I didn’t take shit from players or opposing agents.
I did not hire Angel Balan.