Chapter 26 #2
“Whoever she is, she’ll wait. You need to see something.” While humming, I dropped my bags, pulling out the printed copy of the article. “Don’t ever say I didn’t play fair. Unlike you of course.”
“What’s this? What are you talking about, playing fair?”
“This is being printed in the Portland Herald in just a couple hours. You know those midnight deadlines. Plus, from I understand it’s going to go national since the subject matter is so…
interesting. In addition, since news of the subject matter accidentally on purpose leaked to members of the local television stations, in a dozen cities including Chicago and New York, I suspect by this time tomorrow night, there won’t be a single person on the planet who doesn’t know about your little scheme.
Now, the big corrupt executives of our paper will likely be none too happy, but you know what? I don’t give a shit.”
“What in God’s name are you prattling on about?” Matt appeared incensed.
“Prattling on? Please. The money you paid the boys of Sports Today was discovered. You should be more careful when you bribe someone, Matt. Amateur stuff right there. Plus, your buddies including Walter Braddock, you know, one of the owners of the Las Vegas Cruisers, will likely have a visit from the FBI as well. So will our bosses. They should all be much more careful in choosing bookies when betting on their own teams.”
I allowed the information to sink in, smiling the entire time. Maybe I was an evil person, but I very much enjoyed watching Matt squirm.
His eyes opened wide and he slowly glanced at the article. Suddenly, he was a voracious reader. “You can’t print this. These are lies.”
“You know every word is the truth. Are you worried about how it will make you look? You couldn’t control me even after hiring a photographer to snap risqué pictures in case you needed to use blackmail?
Or because it will ruin careers? Well, too bad.
That’s what you and your buddies were trying to do to Beck and his brother as well as to every other shifter in the world of sports.
In doing so, you thought you could use our past relationship, so I’d become your mouthpiece.
Then you even ensured you had blackmail information you could use if I got out of line and produced photographs of you and me together so that you’d put a rift between me and Beck. Well, guess what, buddy? You failed.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Matt. What’s going on?” The female’s voice sounded young. Very young.
“You might want to listen to this, sweetheart. Your boyfriend isn’t who you think he is.” The smile on my face was huge.
“You fucking bitch. You don’t know what you’ve done.”
“Now I’m a bitch. I take that as a compliment coming from you.
And don’t worry. The board of governors will all have a copy of this in their email in just a little while so they know what teams should be penalized.
You have no shame. Did you know about the life-ending altercation supposedly caused by Beck Kendrick? ”
I could tell by the sheepish look he did. “Not my call.”
“Not your call, but you knew ahead of time that he’d been played.
All in an effort to ruin Beck. What you didn’t count on was that I’d be there.
Do you remember when you reminded me to take pictures of everything?
Well, I took your suggestion to heart.” I pulled out my phone, maneuvering to my videos and hitting play. Now Matt was foaming at the mouth.
When he was stupid enough to reach for the phone as if he was going to destroy the evidence, I pushed my index finger in his face.
“Don’t try it, buddy. I have copies everywhere.
This was also sent to every news station I could think about.
There’s nothing wrong with Bronco. But I’m certain he was paid pretty well to fake his injuries. ”
How fascinating that suddenly Matt didn’t have much of anything to say. But he was a lovely shade of green.
If only Beck were here, he’d see there’d been nothing for him to be jealous about.
Now I was happy. There were no more tears and it was as if the revenge tour was well on its way. The domino effect would take it from here.
“You betrayed me,” he said, his face puffing out and red as if he’d been stung by a bee.
“No, you betrayed me. But that’s okay. I hope you enjoy your upcoming week.” When I turned to leave, I turned toward the extremely young woman dressed in a nappy robe. Funny how it was the same one I’d worn a couple of times.
My, I’d moved up in the world.
“Let me give you a piece of advice, sweetheart. Find another man. This one can’t usually get it up.” I strutted to the door, enjoying the moment.
“I won’t let you do this.”
“It’s already done. Oh, and don’t bother firing me, Matt, because I quit.”
“I will see to it that you’ll never get another job in media again.”
“You know what?” I said as I threw my head over my shoulder before grabbing my things. “That’s just fine by me.”
“Is that it?”
“Oh, that’s it. Enough, don’t you think?” I smiled sweetly.
And in truth, it was. Absolutely fine.
As long as I was with my mate.
I stood in the doorway for a few seconds, laughing softly to myself.
What the heck? I’d never get a better time to take out my aggressions.
I stormed back toward him and without bothering to second guess myself, I punched him in the jaw.
When he crumpled to the floor, I stood over him, hands on my hips. “Correction. Now, I’m done.”
Now I had a few additional calls to make, emails to send and texts to fire off. Some personal things to attend to.
My job never stopped.
Besides, I had a deadline approaching and it was one I refused to miss.