"Hello, it’s Hayden Dunn.” He paused and chuckled before saying, “I’m great, thanks. I’m actually calling you regarding the advertisement for Mind Lash. I just wanted to do a quick check-in. What do you have so far?" Hayden spoke loudly enough to be overheard, but not so loud he would get ugly stares. "Oh, that sounds great. You know, I was also thinking we should go even bigger," he proposed. "Yes, that’s what I’m talking about! Advertising on a major scale is definitely the way to go. I’m glad you’re looking into it already. So where would those billboards be?"
As Hayden continued with his call, I stopped and stared towards him. I had walked in to my hotel lobby thinking about what was becoming of my life. I knew I needed a plan or at least to know what my next step was. However, as I walked in and looked towards the elevators, my eyes landed on him and put a stop to my thoughts. There he was, smug as ever and speaking rather loudly.
I couldn’t believe he was there yet again. He wasn’t even staying at this hotel so what else could he be doing there other than waiting for me? I rolled my eyes and walked directly towards him. Hopefully he had come to his senses and wanted to work something out, but I doubted it. As I stopped in front of him I couldn’t believe what I heard.
"Make sure to get those TV commercials lined up. I don't want anything going wrong or we will never be able to work with KTSF with dignity again. Oh they're going to tie them with deals on the Internet as well? That’s a great idea," Hayden wanted to make sure that I heard every single wonderful thing about Mind Lash and his life.
I tried to stop him once and now he was going to make sure to rub salt on the wound. Seeing me there with that stone face listening to his conversation gave him a gratification not much else could. He wished he could read my mind right then.
"We should have the billboards up in Las Vegas and Times Square go up around the same time the deals with those three big chains of game stores is announced. That would be smart.” He paused and nodded his head, listening to whatever the other person was telling him. “Yes, that is how you work the magic! I want Via Mace’s picture e-very-where!” He broke down the last word and stared directly at me, the corners of his mouth slightly curling up into an unkind smile. “Mind Lash will be on everyone’s mind."
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, or rather tuning into seeing as how he was very clearly having this conversation for my benefit. How was I going to stop my life from falling apart if this man seemed determined to destroy it? Were billboards, TV commercials, and Internet ads on such a large scale all that necessary? All the media exposure so far had been bad enough, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like if he got his way. All that was going through my mind was how I could possibly compete with all of that while keeping my reputation intact.
I could feel the anger flush my cheeks red. I was going to give him a piece of my mind. How dare he come to my hotel and wait for me just so I could hear this conversation? He was taking this too far. He was enjoying it too much. I couldn’t believe I admitted to myself that I had feelings for him. How could somebody be that vindictive? I wanted to slap him as he looked at me with that cocky smirk, boasting of arrogance and eyeing me from head to toe.
Slapping him wasn’t the answer. I wanted to turn around and walk away, but for some reason I couldn’t. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction I knew he was looking for with this gross display, but I was rooted to the spot. While all of these thoughts flooded my mind, his conversation carried on and all I wanted was for it to end. All of it.
"That all sounds great." Hayden went on. "I want this game to be the biggest of the century. With its current traction, it will be. Alright. Keep me posted.” As Hayden ended his call, he stood up and looked directly at me. He could see my cheeks were flushed and that alone gave him an even greater sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. He wanted to bask in all of his glory right in front of me. Just as he opened his mouth to give me a snarky hello a phone rang. He closed his mouth and waited for the ringing to stop.
We were both staring at each other and I didn’t want to break the eye contact, but the phone ringing was mine. I looked away from him to reach in to my purse and pull it out. It was my boss. My stomach sank. This was the last thing I needed.
"This is Ali," I answered, hoping it would be a quick call. My blood had been boiling while I listened to Hayden. I had been ready to give him an ear full, but that would have to be placed on the backburner for now. My stomach was churning with a mixture of rage and anxiety. "Is everything okay?” I paused as I listened to my boss. My eyes went wide. “Wait, what?” I practically shrieked right there in the lobby. “What do you mean?"
I felt like I had been slapped in the face for the second time that day. My boss called to let me know I didn’t need to come back to work– at all. I didn’t know what in the hell was going on. Sure they had asked me to take some time off, but I figured it was to give the whole Via Mace debacle time to blow over or until they figured out a way to deal with it. This was unexpected. It was a moment I had feared, but I never expected it to actually happen. I knew Hayden was studying my every move. I didn’t want to give him anymore reasons to gloat at my expense.
There was a longer pause during which my boss droned on and on, but it only incited me more. I was done. I had lost my job and everything I worked for. So I was also done trying to remain calm and show respect. My ex-boss would get what was coming to him, as would everyone else who had aided in the collapse of my life.
"Vacation?!” I shrieked. “This was not something I up and decided to do! You asked me to step away for a bit so I don't know why all of a sudden it became something you’re claiming was 'without proper notification'!" I couldn’t help it any longer, so I let it out. I was fed up with everyone pointing fingers at me as if my life was fine and dandy at the moment. "This was YOUR idea! You said the–" I stopped abruptly.
I saw the edges of Hayden's lips starting to curl and I wasn’t about to say the words I was sure he was hoping to hear. Bastard, I thought.
As my boss continued on the other end, essentially firing me for something he himself asked of me, I really couldn’t control myself any longer. I didn’t care if that smug bastard was right in front of me. What else could I really lose at this point?
"I have worked so hard for you, trying to prove myself, and something like this, that I had no idea was happening nor had any control over, comes along and this is what I get? You say 'Hey take a bit of an extended vacation' or whatever it was you told me and all of a sudden you dump me like a pile of shit?! You are the smarmiest, most fucked up person I can think of! And believe me when I say I’ve been around a scumbag as of late, but you still take the cake. I don't even know how I ever admired or respected you!" I felt my face red-hot. I was shaking but I didn’t care.
"You know what you ass, you can take your shitty job and shove it right up your cheap suit wearing ass! I'm glad I no longer have to work for such a lowly and deceiving piece of shit excuse for a human being like yourself!"
I couldn’t believe that I had just been fired. I had accepted the "leave" because I wanted to fix things so badly. I even traveled halfway across the world to figure something out with the man who essentially ruined my life. And now I just didn’t know what to do. I was lost. My eyes went blank.
This wasn’t the way Hayden thought his revenge would go. It isn’t like what he had heard wasn’t something that interested him. I had just gotten fired after all and that was a good start; however, something was off. As he had stood there and listened to my conversation with my boss he couldn’t help feeling something more, something other than gratification at my life starting to crumble. His eyes traced across my face as I tried my best to clench back a tear. His smirk had faded away and now he was looking at me with concern.
Was the guilt crawling back in again? He paused, but realized it wasn’t only that. Hayden took a second and realized that it was a positive feeling as well. Hearing how I confronted my boss and let him have it ma
de him admire me, much to his surprise. He had done his best to bury any feelings he had for me once he realized who I was, but this act of raw emotion had stirred it all up again. What he loved about me was coming together with what he loved about Via. He couldn’t ignore it and it made him panic for a second. He looked at me and felt a sincere smile starting to form.
I was red all over and shaking yet my eyes were glued to one spot. He could feel the anger radiating from me. Hayden shook his head. He felt conflicted. He felt that rush of passion and gush of feelings for me. I seemed to have a lot of Via in me at that moment, but was that enough to overpower years of resentment towards me?
"This can't be," Hayden whispered to himself. He wanted me to pay for the humiliation I had made him go through. How could he have such strong feelings for someone who, at one point, made his life so miserable?
Even if he could get past that, he couldn’t see how I could possibly get over everything that had happened between us. After all, his game had pretty much destroyed my career and reputation. And he hadn’t been the least bit sympathetic or helpful to my situation.
Thinking about that stung him with pain. He felt so mixed up inside. On one hand, the cut-throat-businessman inside of him smiled at screwing me over. But there was a deeper feeling he had bubbling up inside of him. He hated seeing me in pain and the thing that terrified him the most was that he had caused it.
At that moment his thoughts were interrupted by an angry voice.
Chapter 13-Stolen Words
It took a moment for Hayden to realize that the angry and loud voice he heard came from me. I had ended my call while he was busy thinking about his sudden rush of feelings. Before he had a chance to react, I turned on my heel and stormed off toward the stairs. He was intent on keeping me within range so his mind clicked and he started running after me, attracting a few strange looks from random people in the lobby.
“Ali!” he cried out. I didn’t turn around as I continued to charge up the stairs. When we finally got to my floor and stood in front of my hotel room door, I turned to face him.
“Are you just going to follow me around now?” There was a lot of anger in my voice. Hayden wanted to believe it wasn’t all aimed at him, but he knew I blamed him for getting fired. I had a whirlwind of emotions coursing through my body. They were the same feelings he felt many years ago when I caused him to get fired. And now he feared there was nothing he could do or say to calm me down. I huffed and turned around to open the door, not bothering to close it.
To Hayden, that was a green light to enter. We needed to talk. He wasn’t sure what we needed to talk about or what would come of the conversation, but he couldn’t just walk away. Just as he was about to say something to get my attention, Hayden noticed a few pieces of paper inside the trash can of my hotel room. He couldn’t tell exactly what they were, but something about them caught his eye.
I was mad at him and blaming him for something he never meant to cause in my life but I didn’t want to listen, much less apologize, for having done the same thing to him first. In Hayden’s mind, my offense was greater because it had been more direct. We had worked for the same company; it wasn’t some kind of “freak accident” like Mind Lash. The two situations were worlds apart and he didn’t have the benefit of a brother like Benjamin to bail him out or back him up. Hayden had been entirely on his own.
Quickly, he snatched up the sheets of paper from the trash can, waving them in front of my face and asking if that was how I found out he was in Peru. He didn’t even bother to look closely at them. I tried to grab them as quickly as I could and tear them from his hands. When my face drained of color and I became desperate to take them away from him, he got even more suspicious. He held them high up out of my reach. Never had he experienced such a strong and confusing set of feelings as he had with me.
He had gone from hating me, to reluctantly having feelings for me, and now enjoying watching me squirm again. Although it was a lot to grapple with, his mind was of a single track in the moment. He quickly read the papers expecting to find information on how I had found him, but he quickly came to realize it wasn’t that at all.
It was a song I wrote.
My heart dropped a million flights of stairs. He paused and stared at the pages, taken aback. Of any possibility that could have ran through his mind on what he would read on those tossed papers, a song written by me was one that would have never been on the list. He looked over scrawled handwriting again and read the lines more carefully.
Just like that, his anger flushed out of his face—he loved the song. Momentarily speechless, it was all he could do to look down into my eyes and try to convey the emotions coursing through his body. But that was impossible. I was too panicked to notice, even if everything was obvious from the look in his eyes.
“Ali,” he finally whispered. My gaze softened immediately upon hearing the tone of his voice. “This song is great. I never knew…” He trailed off and looked back at the pages in his hand before meeting my eyes again. He knew I wanted them back. He knew that, if I’d had my way, he would have never laid eyes on the song. However, that didn’t stop him from clutching the papers tightly and walking right out of my hotel room.
“Hey!” My strangled yell came from inside the room when he was already a few paces down the hallway. “Get back here!” My voice was getting closer and the fall of my quick steps echoed. I reached out and grabbed at his arm. I fought him to get the papers back, but he was too fast and held them up too high. I stopped at the exit of the stairwell. As much as I wanted to snatch the papers away from him and never look at his face again, I couldn’t bring myself to cause a scene in the hotel lobby.
Noticing I had stopped following, Hayden halted and turned slowly to look at me. There was a brief moment of intense silence. I had no clue what was going to happen next.
“I’ll be leaving one of my bodyguards with you to make sure you’re safe,” he said before pushing the door of the stairwell open and walking out. I rushed to hold it open, but didn’t cross the threshold. Instead, I watched helplessly as he walked straight out of the building, still clutching my song in his hands.
I fumed. I didn’t care that he complimented what I had wrote. He crossed a line and considering he was guilty of that in my life already, I was in disbelief. First he took my career and changed my life for the worse. Now he even had the nerve to take my music and tell me it was great, even though it was pretty crappy.
I threw myself onto the bed and shut my eyes. I drew in deep breaths and hoped I could calm down.
Chapter 14-Boiling Point
Hayden got back to his hotel to find Gina waiting in front of his door, arms crossed and foot tapping on the carpet. He eyed her wearily, but didn’t ask any questions. He knew once they were inside he’d be expected to answer a barrage of them. He moved past her and slid his key card in the reader, pushing the door open and holding it enough for her to enter.
“So you went to look for her again,” Gina said, obviously annoyed. Hayden knew she was jealous. He knew she was upset about me taking even more of his time and attention on this trip; time that she had hoped would be just for the two of them. Maybe she had wanted to pull him out of the city and away from me with the faint hope that something would happen between them, but she had been sorely mistaken if that was the case.
Hayden had never been attracted to her and the more she wanted him, the less he cared for her. At first, she had been a very valuable member of his team. Over time, what had started off as flattery had quickly progressed into something annoying. She even treaded the line of being unprofessional at times and that was what really bothered him. He was no fool—he knew she would keep pushing if she thought she had a tiny chance at something more between them.
He knew it was time to admit the truth. He gulped and looked her dead in the eye, “Yes, I went to look for Ali again. Why is that such a problem?”
Gina stared at him, rays of anger pulsing from her eyes into his. She drew in a
rattling breath, rolled her eyes, and started to pace back and forth in front of him. She was putting him on edge and he didn’t appreciate it, especially not when he’d already had a hell of a morning. He turned to look out the window, eyes fixated on the sky. He had to think of the truth and speak honestly to her, but in order to do that he first had to come to terms with it.
As much pain and suffering as I had caused him in the past and as much as I could sometimes be a nuisance to him, he couldn’t deny what he truly felt for me. I drew him in like no other woman he had ever known. I was full of surprises and I made him want to be surprised even more. I wasn’t afraid to go after what I wanted, take matters into my own hands, and even had an edge to show if pushed hard enough.
“Gina,” Hayden finally said. She turned to look at him. “I have feelings for Ali.” At first he was hesitant to even say it, but as soon as he spoke the words came out as confident as ever. He wasn’t only admitting it to Gina—he was admitting it to himself.
Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Page 23