Page 2 of Wild Hit
What he really taught me is to not trust him, but saying that aloud won’t help my case right now.
“In exchange, I’ll give you something you want.” I make a strategic pause but Dad shows no signs of being reeled in. Finally, I say, “Direct access to me.”
All along, that’s what he’s been angling for with buying the team and hovering nearby. Adam, my brother, has been dead for ten years already, and Mom moved to Paris the second her passport said Adalyn Winters instead of Adalyn Cox. I’m the last possible puppet Dad has left.
Rather than closing his jaws around me, the big predator in the room just shrugs. “How is that any different than how things already are?”
“Very different,” I hasten to add, thinking my argument aloud. “I’ll go with you to galas and country clubs, and pretend like we’re a happy family like you want.”
“Audrey, Audrey.” Dad shakes his head like he’s disappointed. “That’s not what I want.”
“Then what?” I ask even as I know the truth behind his words. If he’d really wanted a happy family, he wouldn’t have been the one to destroy it in the first place. But instead ofstarting out with a high and dangerous bargain, I’d rather try on the lower end.
“What I want is for you to accept your inheritance.”
My breath hitches.
That sounds good, right? Accepting a trust containing a multitude of businesses, among them a whole professional baseball franchise, billions of dollars in cash, jewels, properties, holdings, stocks, and bonds is probably anyone’s dream.
But it’s my personal nightmare, because it comes with strings attached. The kind you’ll never be able to cut.
“We’ve already talked about this,” I remind him. In fact, that was the subject of our very last fight before I went to college on his dime, before I decided that cutting off his money supply was the only way I could free myself from him.
Back then, I believe that the words I used werehellandno.
“I recall.” His amusement raises the other corner of his mouth into a full smile. “But surely you don’t expect that a few soirees will be enough for me to forgive your roommates.”
I bristle at that—not at the fact that he does know who Hope and Rose is. “Forgive? That word would only apply if they had offended you directly.”
He places a hand on his chest, right over the place where his heart is missing. “I am personally offended. Look at them, trying to sink the reputation of my team, when I kindly offered them their jobs in the first place.”
“They’re not in breach of their contracts and you know it.”
Ignoring that resounding argument, Dad just says, “That’s my bargain. Take it or leave it. Either you accept your inheritance with everything it entails, or I let HR take care of your little friends.”
Wow, I didn’t think I could hate my own father any more than I already did, and yet I just unlocked a new level of vitriol for the man.
Grinding my teeth and squeezing my fists, I ask, “Can we change the terms of my inheritance? I’m happy to leave most of it to the trust or something as long as I don’t have to…”
I can’t say it.
My throat closes up and I have trouble taking in oxygen, like I’m allergic to the rest of the sentence.
Dad finishes it for me without a problem, though. “No, you will have to marry a man I approve of in order to get your inheritance.”
My head swims. I regret power walking so far into his massive office because there’s nothing nearby for me to balance against.
“But I’m willing to sweeten the pot a little. I’ll guarantee that your friends will stay employed by the Orlando Wild for as long as they want, and I’ll even make you the team owner a year after your marriage. How about that?” He stuffs his hands in his pockets,aww shuckslike and not as if he’s uttering absolutely unhinged words.
“Your definition of sweet and mine are very different, Dad,” I say with a bitter taste in my mouth.
He checks his Patek Philippe watch, worth the entire salary of our All Star catcher. “I have a disciplinary meeting to go to in ten minutes, so tell me quick. Is that a no?”
Shit.
Even though my head races, I can’t find a single way to solve this, and I knew from the beginning that I was going to be the loser of this deal. I just didn’t think that Dad would charge me the full price.
But I have no choice. There’s no way I can stand by and watch an injustice being done against my friends. They’re like my family now—more than this man ever was, or than the woman who lives in front of the Eiffel Tower.
