Page 46 of Recruited By the Billionaire

Which one of his children was in trouble this time, was all Robert could think. “Who this time?” he asked Jerry. “RJ again?”

“RJ? No.”

“Everly?” He would be surprised if it was Everly.

“No, Robert. Your children are fine. It’s not them.”

“Then who?”

“Francesca Clark.”

Robert was floored. “Francesca? What would you know about--”

“Her best friend works in the Human Resources department for the team. She called Laine to let her know she won’t be in to work tomorrow. Laine asked why, she told her, and then she called me. She’s very concerned it could blow up in our faces. Another distraction for the expansion Admirals, I can see the headlines now. Laine’s also concerned because she works in our recruiting office, and because of that plane incident that some in the media got wind of through our gossip mill.”

“You’re talking about the press? Who gives a fuck! What about Francesca? Is she okay? What happened to her?”

Jerry was surprised by his anxiousness. He’d never seen that side of Robert except when his children were involved. “She’s been arrested,” he said.

Robert knew he’d heard him wrong. “Arrested? What are you talking about? Arrested for what?”

“It’s murder, Robert. She killed a man.”

Robert jumped to his feet so fast the chair fell backwards. “Shewhat?!” He could barely get words out of his mouth. His heart was hammering. Francesca killed somebody? It couldn’t be true! “Who?” was all he could ask.

“Her neighbor. According to what I could find out from our security team, and what they were told by the cops, is that Clark and her neighbor had had a rendezvous in her apartment, things apparently got out of hand, and crazy as it may seem, she killed him.”

Robert was shaking his head. “No way,” he said as if he was saying it to himself. “No way.” Then he began hurrying out of the boardroom.

“Where are you going?” Jerry asked him.

“Pensacola,” Robert said, and began running for the elevators.

“You don’t have to go back. What are you doing? We’ll handle the press!” Then Jerry grabbed the fleeing Robert and turned him around.

When he did, he saw the pain and anguish all over Robert’s face as if he had just told him somebody near and dear to him had just died. And he realized in that moment that it wasn’t about protecting his team from bad press. It wasn’t even about the NFL scolding him again. It was abouther. Robert wasin love? Was that even possible?

“I’ll call Stu,” Jerry said. Stu was Robert’s long-time pilot.

Robert snatched away from Jerry and hurried to the elevators. Jerry pulled out his cell phone as he ran with Robert. If Robert was going back to Florida, he was going too. He always had his back.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Two of Robert’s team of lawyers, along with Laine Peters, were waiting at the limousine when the plane landed back in Florida. Robert and Jerry ran down the steps in a full sprint and were met at the bottom of the steps by a security detail that flanked them as they made their way to the limo and hopped in. Laine and the two lawyers got in behind them.

“Take me to the police station,” Robert ordered his driver.

But everybody in that car were mortified. “Robert, you can’t,” Laine said for all of them.

“You don’t tell me what I can’t do,” Robert snapped at her. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Everybody looked at Jerry. Surely he understood the implications.

He did, better than they did. But he also knew how Robert felt about the person at that police station. “The thing is, Robert,” he said delicately, “if you show your face inside that station, it’ll alert the media.”

“And it will elevate it,” Laine said, to get Jerry to make it clearer to their boss.

“Right,” said Jerry. “It’ll elevate it to a status you don’t want it elevated to because instead of a quick news report on the situation and the press moves on, it’ll turn into wall-to-wall coverage as if the Admirals can’t get their act together and it’s all about drama since this guy entered the league.”

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