Page 39 of Play Me
“Do I just let this season play out and deal with it at the end?” he asks. “Or do I assign you someone new and hope you canmanage to work with them in a respectful manner? These are questions I’m pondering this morning.”
“Whoa, wait a second.” I sit up, finding a break in the fog. “Why would you assign me someone new? Where’s Astrid?”
“She quit.”
Static infiltrates my brain, making every thought fuzzy.
There’s a tug-of-war inside my head.She quit. Why do I have to give up my bonus?But also …why did she walk away?
“Any other questions?” Renn asks. When my gaze shifts to him, it’s met with a pointed stare that feels a lot like I’m to blame for this.
“I guess the first thing I want to understand is why I lose my bonus if she’s the one who quit.”
“She quit with cause.”
I lift a brow as a hot brick burns a hole in my stomach.
“Astrid feels uncomfortable working with you, and I refuse to ask her to continue doing something that makes her feel that way.”
I flinch, struggling to repair the apparent disconnect between my brain and my ears. I hear what he’s saying, but I sure as fuck don’t understand it.
A cold chill snakes lazily down my spine as the memory of how she looked at me last night comes back to me.
Renn leans forward, resting his forearms on his desk. “I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but I will tell you this. Astrid Lawsen is one of the smartest, most capable, and most respectable women I know. It takes a lot to rattle her, Gray. It takes a lot to get under the shield she carries around every day. It’s unfortunate that the first person to do that was you.”
I lean forward and bury my head in my hands.
Renn knows Astrid, so he must know that she’s not a female you have to walk on eggshells around. She’s not exactly a doormat waiting to be trampled.She does the trampling. Sure,things between us may not have been a walk in the park, but she gave as good as she got.And she just quits?
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, butwhy 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?”
