Page 12 of Deadly Ruck
"Doctor Miller," I corrected.
"So she does," Ramsey agreed.
"You can’t have her," Storm growled. "You might as well get back in your car and fuck off right now."
Jones clicked his tongue. "Storm Keller. Is that any way to talk to the new owner of the Dusk Bay Smashers?"
Storm did a double take. "Bullshit. You don't own the team. Even if you did, you're not taking my woman."
"Our woman," Atlas said.
"Argue another time," Jay told them.
"You don't own the Smashers," Ramsey said.
Without taking his eyes off me, Jones smiled. "Not yet, but soon. I look forward to replacing all of you."
Frost snorted derisively. "Good luck with that. First of all, we don't believe you're getting your hands on the team. Secondly, the team is winning with us. Unless you want to lose."
"You're not the only, or even the best, players in the country," Jones sneered. "If you behave, I might let you stay. I can give… Doctor Miller her job back."
"Why would you do that?" I asked. Clearly he wanted something in return. I suspected the price would be too high for me to pay. My soul, perhaps? My body, definitely.
"Why would I not want the best working for me?" he asked.
"You just said you want to trade us out," Frost said.
Jones' gaze slid to him. "Who said anything about trading you? I said I wanted to replace you."
"I think he means he plans to kill us," Storm said. He sounded unimpressed.
"You know, I think you're right," Frost said. "I find that even more objectionable. Also unlikely. I don't know if you know anything about football, but usually if one team has more guys on the field than the other, they tend to win. It's called a numbers advantage. Have you heard of it?"
Jones glared at him, his eyes narrowed.
I thought back to the last time I saw him in Flirts, watching me disappear into a room with Storm and Dallas. He gave me the creeps then. That hadn't changed one bit.
What would I have done if he approached me back then? I would have had Divina's support to tell him no, but would he have come after me like this if I had?
Back then, I wasn't surrounded by six muscular rugby players. I would have been a much easier target. Why hadn't he made his move then? I supposed because people would have noticed me not turning up to work. Now, they wouldn't give a shit. I had no work to turn up to.
"I'm sure you're also well aware that a professional team, even with a numbers advantage, would destroy an amateur one," Jones said. "Do any of you even know how to use a gun?"
"I do," I said. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you right now."
"Because you want to return to the Smashers," he said. "I'm your only chance of doing that. Once the sale is finalised, I'll tell the press the report they published was all a pack of lies. They got you mixed up with someone else. You can get on with your life, treating the players. I'll even make sure you replace Doctor Stuart when he retires."
"You're not thinking about doing that, are you?" Dallas asked frantically.
"Of course she's not," Storm snapped. "Get a grip."
"What would you want in return?" I called out.
"You," he said. "That's all. You can get on with your life, more or less. The one thing that would change is you’d be mine. I'm a reasonable man. Also a very rich one. I can give you everything you want and need."
"As long as I'm your fuck toy," I stated.
He responded with a brief laugh at the back of his throat. "If you want to put it like that, yes. Surely that would be better than being a fuck toy for six meat heads?" He gestured around to the guys.
