The Devil in Denim (28 page)

It boiled down to a choice. Did she want to take a lesser role with the Saints and preserve them as they were now or did she want to step up and step into the great unknown?

History or the future?

Was the choice that simple?

And was that a future with or without Alex? Her head was starting to throb and she walked blindly to the fridge, opened it, stared inside, then closed it again without reaching for anything. She could stuff her face with leftover cold pizza or ice cream or down even more coffee and none of it was going to help her decide.

The clock on the wall said it was approaching ten. Where would Alex even be? He said he was going home and then they were all going to meet at his Ice offices rather than head to Deacon.

This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in public so if she wanted to catch him at home, she should try now.

Her hand was strangely reluctant as she fumbled for her cell phone. At least she didn’t have to try to remember his number, it was right there in her favorites list. It probably dominated her recent calls too.

Bloody Alex Winters.

None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for him.

No, wait, that wasn’t fair. If he hadn’t bought the team, maybe Sutter would’ve been the one to make the offer to her father in the first place.

And she would have missed out on several nights of awesome sex and meeting a man who made her toes curl with ease.

So she couldn’t wish that away.

Even if life would be far less complicated without him.

Her finger pressed the dial button and, thankfully, the phone only rang a few times before Alex picked up.

“Maggie? What’s up?”

“Are you still home?”

“Just on my way out the door … Why, is there a problem?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“What’s happened?” His tone sharpened noticeably.

“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. Can I come to your place?”

“I really need to get to the office. People are waiting for me.”

Her fingers tightened around the phone. “I’d really like to talk to you alone.”

“It’s a pretty big building and it will be mostly empty. We’ll find somewhere.”

Damn. But she could tell that she wasn’t going to convince him to do anything different. So she was just going to have to suck it up and go meet him.

“Fine,” she managed, trying to keep the snap of frustration out of her tone with limited success. “I’ll just see you there.”

“The security guys will give you a pass. Just tell them who you are when you get there. Are you far away?”

She calculated in her head. “No. Half an hour maybe.” Depending on the trains or traffic. Alex’s offices were in the financial district, near Wall Street. Right where you’d expect a wheeler-dealer like him to play.

“Okay, I’ll see you then. We’ll talk after I get everyone organized.”

*   *   *

Maggie’s mood hadn’t improved much when she reached Alex’s offices, her brain still whirling with an endless recital of pros and cons and possibilities. It was ridiculous. Surely she was old enough to know what she wanted? And what Will was offering was what she had always said she’d wanted.

She cut the circle of thoughts off with an effort and accepted a security pass from the uniformed guard who approached her as she walked into the soaring glass-and-steel lobby of Alex’s building.

She’d been here before, had come to poke around the lobby and try to get a feel for the man on one of her weekends at home while she’d been studying him. She didn’t remember the design being quite so cold then. There was a huge sculpture of—an eagle maybe—some sort of soaring bird, wings back, beak thrusting forward in dark bronze dominating one corner of the foyer space.

Energy. Drive. Homing in on the target.

Yep, that was pretty much Alex.

The elevator whisked her up forty floors in about a quarter of the time it took the ancient rumbly lift at Deacon to travel four. The doors swooshed open like something from
Star Trek
and disgorged her into a discreetly lit reception space that was currently empty. It was less steely than the foyer downstairs but it was still heavy on gleaming surfaces and the minimalist approach to interior design.

She looked around but there wasn’t much to give a clue about which direction she was supposed to go. She couldn’t hear any voices. She couldn’t hear much of anything. Apparently the soundproofing was pretty damned good in Alex’s kingdom.

Hopefully the same was true beyond the reception walls. That was where she might have a chance of telling Alex about Will without anything else happening.

Or, she could just turn right around and go home and pull the covers over her head as the knots in her stomach were pretty much urging her to do.

But the knots were wimps. And she, Maggie Louella Jameson, was anything but.

No wimps allowed in baseball or anywhere else.

She pulled out her phone again, getting ready to text Alex to ask where the hell he was, when Gardner appeared at the glass doors beyond the reception desk and came toward her with an apologetic expression on his face.

“Sorry, Maggie, I got held up on a call just after they rang to say you were coming up. You haven’t been here before, have you?”

She shook her head, grateful for the sight of a familiar face, for anybody at all at this point. “No.”

“Okay.” He gave her a quick orientation on where everything was as he ushered her through the doors and led her down a hallway. Her heels sank into plush dark gray carpet that silenced their footsteps. They walked past a series of offices, the walls between the doors hung with huge black-framed photos of craggy snow-covered mountains, before they came to another huge reception-type area with two desks that faced each other framing a big black door.

Gardner paused. “That’s Alex’s office. He pointed at the door. He said he wanted to see you first. My office is just around the corner and the conference room we’ve been using is down that way.” He nodded toward another hallway that led off to the right. “Call me when you’re done if you get lost.” He smiled again, distractedly, and hurried off. It was the closest she’d ever seen the unflappable Gardner come to looking harried, which said something about the current level of craziness that they were experiencing. She waited until he’d vanished down the hallway before she took a deep breath and walked into Alex’s office.

He was seated on the desk rather than behind it, one long leg swinging while he studied a sheaf of papers. He looked up as she came through the door.

His smile made her gut twist guiltily. Damn. This was just going to make everything harder.

“Hey,” he said, coming to his feet.

She pushed the door shut but didn’t walk toward him.

“Closed door, huh? I’m not sure if that’s a good sign or a bad sign.”

“Well, I’m not about to take off my clothes, so how you interpret that is up to you,” she said, trying to make herself feel better with a sorry attempt at humor.

“That’s disappointing,” he said, his smile flashing briefly. “But I wasn’t exactly expecting you to. What did you want to talk to me about?”

“I thought you wanted to talk to me later.” She was stalling now, her palms suddenly clammy.

“It sounded important so I thought we’d better do it first.”

There wasn’t a good way to say it so she was just going to come out with it. She took a deep breath. “I saw Sutter this morning.”

Alex came alert like a dog scenting a fox. “How?” The papers in his hand hit the desk.

“Actually he was waiting for me when I came downstairs.”

That didn’t make his expression ease any. Nor did it ease the sensation that she was suddenly a mouse and he was the eagle downstairs. “Waiting for you?”

“In the lobby.”

“I’m assuming that he wanted something; he hasn’t just taken up stalking for a hobby?”

“No, he hasn’t. I mean, he did want something from me.”

“Which was?”

Her arms crossed in front of her chest. She’d mostly seen easygoing, charming Alex up until now. This wasn’t charming Alex. This was intent Alex … drifting toward angry Alex if she was any judge. The air in the room nearly crackled with it. She didn’t feel scared … but she still wasn’t keen to ramp up the tension any further. Maybe this was how he had become so successful … he’d intimidated his rivals into giving up the game with this aura of “don’t mess with me” roiling off him like steam.

“Actually, he offered me a job.” There, she’d said it.

“What job?”

“CEO of the Saints.”

Alex laughed, looking suddenly relieved.

It should have eased her nerves. Instead it made her mad. “Why is that funny?”

The smile wiped off his face. “I thought you were joking.”

“Why would I be joking? Do you think that no one would want to hire me? You hired me.”

“Not as CEO.”

“Well, maybe that was your mistake.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You aren’t seriously considering this?”

“Why not?”

“For one thing, Sutter isn’t going to win his bid. I am.” His voice was flat, almost harsh.

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Are you trying to hedge your bets, Maggie?”

“I’m considering a job offer.”

“I thought you wanted to save the Saints.”

“I do.”

“Sutter won’t save them, he’ll tear them down and set fire to everything you love about this team. And, trust me, you won’t like what rises from the ashes.”

“You don’t know that. And, if I’m CEO I’d get to make a lot of those calls.”

Chapter Seventeen

Alex rolled his eyes. “With Sutter you’ll get to make exactly the calls he wants you to. Anything else and he’ll pull the plug so fast your head will spin.”

“You don’t even know him,” Maggie snapped.

“I’ve been studying. And I know his type. He’s arrogant.”

“Some might say it takes one to know one.”

“I’ve earned what I’ve got. Sutter hasn’t. He’s just playing with the toys his dad left him at this point. Who knows if he’ll break them or get bored and want to do something else?”

“Is that what you think of me? That I haven’t earned what I have?” They were still separated by about ten feet. Suddenly it felt more like an ocean of distance.

Alex shook his head, a finger tugging irritably at his open collar. “You’ve worked for the Saints. Sutter coasted until his dad died.”

“That’s not true. He worked for us. He’s done other things.”

“And every time he bailed or was fired or got bored and quit from what I can tell. I thought you didn’t like him. Why are you defending him?”

“No, I’m trying to understand why you think it’s so ridiculous that someone else might appreciate what I have to offer.”

“He’s appealing to your vanity. He just wants you in order to weaken my bid.”

“Doesn’t that mean that you just want me to strengthen yours?”
Say no. Say no. Say no. Tell me I’m more than that
.

“I value your skills.”

That wasn’t no. Her stomach was starting to feel like it was full of concrete, cold and heavy. “He thinks I can be CEO.”

“I thought we were on the same team here, Maggie. I thought you had decided you believed in what we were doing here.”

“I want what’s best for the Saints,” she replied.

“And you think that’s Will Sutter?”

“No, but it might be me as CEO,” she said bluntly.

Alex straightened his shoulders. “In that case, maybe this is the time when I remind you you signed a contract with me.” His voice was as controlled as his rigid posture. He looked like a man expecting to be obeyed.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you going to sue me if I go to work with Sutter?” Her anger spiked to a new level. She should’ve known. Should have known that when push came to shove he’d be one of those guys. The “my way or the highway” kind. The kind that did what was best for himself and the devil take everyone else.

“I’m saying Gardner writes a very tight contract.”

“You’d sue me?”

“I expect loyalty from my employees,” Alex said.

“Loyalty has to be earned.”

“When have I been disloyal to you?” he said.

“You don’t believe in me.”

“I do. But unlike everyone else in your life, it seems I’m the one who tells you the truth. Maybe you can be a CEO someday but you’re not ready for that yet.”

“How do you know? You weren’t much older than me when you started your first company.”

“My first company was tiny, not a multimillion-dollar sporting franchise.”

“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” she said. “Tell me, if you were me and someone offered you this sort of chance, you wouldn’t even stop to think about it?”

“Not if I’d made my mind up already about what I wanted. Which you apparently haven’t.”

“That’s not a crime.”

“No, it’s not. But this is the big league, Maggie. Literally. I don’t have time for this and you need to choose.”

“That simple. Damn it, Alex. I came to you. I told you what Will was offering, doesn’t that get me any points at least?”

“Some. But it’s not enough. I need a decision.”

“Give me some time.”

“I don’t have time. If you’re going to work for Sutter, then you can’t be party to anything we’re doing to defend our bid. Surely you can see that?”

“I can see that you’re being a colossal jerk.”

He shook his head. “No, I’m being reasonable. This is business. Not personal.”

“It sure feels personal,” Maggie said, wishing she knew how to break through that cool façade. “I knew it. I knew this was a mistake. This is why you don’t sleep with the boss.”

Alex held up a hand, palm down. “That’s a separate issue.”

“Is it? You want me to do what you want. You expect me to choose that automatically when we’ve only known each other a few weeks. That’s kind of ridiculous when you think about it.”

“I thought we had something.”

“So did I. But that’s not how I do relationships. There has to be give-and-take. You’re standing there yelling at me about loyalty and you don’t even know what my decision is. You don’t trust me enough to let me make up my own mind. So no, I don’t think we have something.”