Page 14 of Here Be Dragons
"Bingo."
The three players in her room continued to stare at her with confusion. It was fine. She expected that would happen, which is why she had thought about how to tell all to them in an easy-to-understand way. It was kind of like how she would present any case to a jury and right now, her jury was three hockey players in her hotel room.
"OK, let me explain," she said.
"Really? I would love to hear this," Dylan said sarcastically.
Shane sat straighter and put up his hand. "I don't know where this is going, but I trust Ava," he said. "So let her talk."
He turned and gave her a small nod, and Ava realized why he was the captain of the Cleveland Dragons. He was a leader who commanded respect and right now, in his captain kind of way, he was letting the other players know that he respected her. She owed it to him to prove that his support was warranted.
"It all comes down to a business deal. This summer, Jason's company, which is technically the real owner of the Bears, negotiates a takeover of another gaming company. It would be a huge deal if they can finalize it. So Jason promises this other company that the deal would go through as soon as he got the money from something called..." Her voice trailed off and she opened the folder in front of her to check her notes. For some reason, she could never remember the name of this stupid video game. "It's called 'Strike Force.'"
"Oh, that game sucked hard!" Jordan looked around at everyone staring at him. "Well, it did," he confirmed.
"It definitely did," Dylan replied.
Ava smiled at them. They were actually paying attention to her now and, more important, to the case she was laying out for them.
"In fact, it sucked so hard that Jason's company lost money on it," Ava said. "The deal with these other gaming guys is now on shaky ground unless he can find another way to get the cash his company needs to finalize it."
Shane groaned from his spot on Ava's bed. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Wait, what am I missing?" Jordan asked.
"Jason told his lawyer to purposely hold up the contract negotiations," Shane said.
Dylan closed his eyes. "The company gets the cash if he doesn't have to pay our salaries."
"So he's trying to take the salaries and use that money for some business deal instead?" Jordan asked.
"Exactly," Ava said.
She could hear one of the players exhale loudly. Mark shuffled the papers she had given him as everyone else tried to digest what Ava just confirmed for them. There was an owner --oneowner -- sabotaging negotiations for his own personal gain, and the rest of the teams, all those players and owners, were paying for it.
Jordan stood up and walked over to the windows, staring out at the water as he tried to process all of it. "You have a better view than I do," he said quietly.
"Well, I am a lawyer for one of the owners."
Ava tried to say it in a way that would lighten the mood, but nobody laughed. Jordan especially seemed to be in shock, which was why he had probably defaulted to a flippant comment about the view. He continued to stare ahead, Dylan's eyes were still closed, and Shane was looking down at his hands, which were folded in his lap. It was so dour that Ava didn't even think about what his hands were hiding underneath that thin tracksuit. Mostly.
"I don't see any way out of this contract provision," Mark said as he tossed the papers down on the table.
"I couldn't find one either," Ava told him.
Dylan took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "So what do we do?"
"Well, we're kind of in a bind," Ava said. "Jack can't talk about it because everyone knows he doesn't like Jason so it'll look like sour grapes. Mark and I can't talk about it because we're the lawyers working on the negotiations." She folded her hands in front of her on the table and leaned forward, a smile starting to spread across her face. "But you can talk about it."
The three players were staring at her now, but it didn't make her feel uncomfortable. She liked it when she had the attention of the people around her during a case, and she definitely had their attention.
"This sounds like asuperidea," Dylan said sarcastically. "Except it's a really bad idea. I can't talk to the Bay City hockey writer to bad mouth the owner of my team no matter how much I want to."
"It's going to look bad if any of us go to the media to talk crap about another owner in the league," Jordan said.
"And I would never ask you to do that," Ava replied reassuringly. "But there are other ways."
She turned to Mark, who had a smile on his face now. The best lawyers knew how to keep a straight face and not let their body language tell a story. If a lawyer was smiling because something was going their way, it was because they wanted you to see the smile. Mark wanted her to see the smile. He wanted to reassure her that he was on her side, and he wanted her to know that he had a plan.
