Hang Em' Up: A Bad Boy Sports Pregnancy Romance

by Ashley Stewart

  Confident though I was, it was all too soon before Jack had the island in sight. I felt the plane drop in altitude. He took the plane in, skimming its floaters across the waves. I heard and felt the bottom of the floaters scratch against the sand as we came ashore on a small beach. As I got out of the plane, I saw a winding set of stairs that hadn’t been visible from above.

  Victor was walking down them with Danisha behind him, and just like that, all my doubts about her and I washed away. She looked magnificent. The island sun had given her dark skin a natural glow. I could stare at her forever, but eventually I turned to look at Victor. I dropped my hand to my bag’s side pocket, felt my handgun, and smiled.

  Chapter Three

  I had been checking out my new office when I heard the high-pitched whine of an engine. Looking out the window, I saw a small airplane against the setting sun.

  Adrian.

  I hurried to my room and changed into a yellow sundress. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about my ‘arrangement,’ but when I looked good, I felt good, and damn, did I look good.

  My confidence was back, so I joined Victor in the living room and we walked down the back staircase to greet Adrian on the beach. I couldn’t see who was flying the plane, but I guessed it was Jackson. I waved as he took off in the plane and thought he might have waved back.

  I looked back at Adrian and I was almost knocked off of my feet by the intensity of his stare.

  “Danisha…” he said. He reached out and clasped my hand. “It is good to see you. You look…well.”

  I took my hand back. I still wasn’t sure what to believe. Adrian seemed relieved to see me, but if he had been so worried, why did he wait two weeks before showing up if he knew where I was?

  “Thank you, Adrian. Victor has been a very accommodating host.”

  Adrian shot daggers at Victor, but Victor merely smiled.

  “Speaking of hosting, please come inside and make yourself at home. Dinner will be ready shortly,” Victor said.

  I led the three of us back up the staircase to the house where Victor poured a glass of wine for each of us. I gratefully accepted it, hoping to steady my nerves. Adrian ignored his.

  “Victor, if it’s alright with you, I would like to speak with Danisha privately. We have a lot to catch up on.”

  “Of course,” Victor said.

  “We can speak in my office,” I told Adrian.

  Adrian followed me into the room, and I shut the door behind him.

  “You have an office here?” He asked incredulously.

  “Victor has been very nice to me.”

  “You can’t trust him, Danisha. It’s just an act.”

  “Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around these days, it seems,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

  “What do you mean? Danisha, Victor told me something… Did he offer you the chance to leave?”

  I began to pace; I was starting to get flustered. Soon I would start crying, and I hated to cry.

  “Yes, okay? Yes!”

  “Why? Why would you stay with the man who abducted you?” Adrian demanded.

  “It’s not like you would have noticed! You just let me leave; you didn’t even try and come after me! You don’t care. Even when you knew Victor took me, you still didn’t come!” I shouted.

  “Victor is a liar, Danisha. Of course I care! Why would you say that?” he asked.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about how you used to work with Victor? Why didn’t you tell me you used to be married? How can I trust you when I don’t know anything about you? Maybe you’re the one putting on an act.”

  “You’re right,” he said quietly.

  I stopped pacing.

  “I should have told you about those things. I could try and tell you all of the terrible things Victor has done, and he could do the same about me. The only way you’ll know is to see for yourself. It is my fault that you are not capable of taking my word about him.” Adrian slowly moved to hug me. His warm chest felt solid against my cheek.

  Suddenly, Victor knocked on the door. I pulled away from Adrian to answer it.

  “Dinner is ready,” he said. His smile seemed tight as Adrian and I followed him into the dining room.

  Victor pulled a chair out for me. As I sat, Victor leaned in to kiss my cheek. I instinctively pulled away from him, quickly glancing at Adrian. He smiled briefly before busying himself with setting his napkin in his lap. I looked back at Victor, who appeared to be struggling with himself. Eventually he sat as well. I let out a sigh of relief.

  There was already so much tension between the two of them. I didn’t want to be the spark that blew the keg, but I was pissed about Victor’s audacity to kiss me in front of Adrian. I had kissed him earlier, but that didn’t give him the right to try and what—lay some kind of claim on me? I was starting to feel like a pawn, and I did not like it at all.

  The three of us managed to keep polite, impersonal dinner conversation going for almost an hour. I dared to think that the negotiations might just be possible after all.

  “I’m excited to see this side of the business world. I just invent the product; I don’t actually sell it. I can’t wait to see such skilled men duke it out,” I said, once dinner was over.

  “You are in for a treat, my dear.” Adrian said.

  “Perhaps after watching you two negotiate, I will hire one of you to handle the EyeRead when it’s finished.” I joked.

  Victor poured the last drops of wine into his glass and drank it all in one swallow. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  “Unfortunately, my dear, due to strict confidentiality agreements, we cannot allow you to sit in on our negotiations. I wish it weren’t so; you understand,” he said.

  “Uh, no, I guess I don’t understand. If anything, I thought a witness would help solidify a business deal like this.” What the hell? Why didn’t Victor want me to watch?

  “You had better explain it to me as well, Victor. Don’t you trust Danisha to keep the important details to herself? She’s a highly intelligent woman, if you didn’t already know.”

  I blushed at Adrian’s compliment.

  “Of course I know that!” Victor snapped.

  Woah.

  Victor’s face was red. He took a deep breath to steady himself. I guessed he was really stressed out, but still.

  “I was simply trying to respect the clients’ privacy, something you don’t seem to mind tossing aside without a second thought, Adrian.”

  Victor had a point. In business, confidentiality and trust was essential. If I thought that the people who handled my personal information discussed it in front of random people, I would be mad.

  “Of course I trust Danisha. She is more than welcome to join us. Now, if you will excuse me, tomorrow is a busy day, so it is time I go to bed.” He stood up abruptly from the table and went to his room, leaving Adrian and me alone.

  “I better get to bed as well,” I said when Adrian opened his mouth, cutting him off. Whatever he was going to tell me, I couldn’t trust it right now, so there was no point in hearing it.

  Besides, I had heard enough from the both of them. Tomorrow I would know for sure whether I would stay on the island with Victor to focus on my work, or if I would leave with Adrian to be with him.

  Chapter Four

  The next morning, after a brief and mostly silent breakfast, the three of us went into Victor’s office. It was located in the center of the house, with a huge skylight that lit up the room. On a glass coffee table were neat stacks of documents that I guessed were the client files.

  Victor and Adrian sat in two gray armchairs on either side of a corner of the table. I chose a small sofa across from them, poured myself a glass of water and watched carefully as they began to go over the documents.

  “I am willing to offer ten percent of my client base whose combined projected income growth is one and a half-billion dollars over the next three years,” Adrian started.

  “Ten percent?” Victor hissed. “I
t’s insulting enough that I’m even considering less than one hundred percent. If you’re not going to offer something substantial, why bother coming?”

  His unprofessional demeanor shocked me. It was common practice to lowball in the beginning of the negotiations, even I knew that. Why was he taking it so personally?

  “You know well enough that I would never consent to giving away even half of my business, Victor. If you’re going to talk about realistic offers, you should try making one yourself,” Adrian said drily.

  “Fine,” Victor said. “I want forty-five percent of your client base with at least five billion in projected growth.”

  “I am willing to discuss one of those terms or the other, but not both,” Adrian responded.

  They went back and forth for hours as I listened intently. I wanted to ask so many questions, but I didn’t want to distract them, so I waited until it was time for a lunch break. I peppered Adrian and Victor with questions about how to predict growth, what the risk-versus-reward was for certain companies and how to manage said risk over shrimp scampi. I wanted to learn everything I could for the day my own business launched.

  Victor seemed reluctant to answer my questions, responding with one-word answers, so Adrian did most of the talking. As I listened to him, I thought back to how much smoother Adrian seemed than Victor during the negotiations. Maybe it was because Adrian was more experienced. It showed in his quiet, assured demeanor when speaking.

  Victor, on the other hand, had been arrogant and condescending the entire time. He kept having moments where I thought he was going to snap and start yelling at Adrian. At these times, he would look over to see me watching and then calm himself. Did he find me calming, or was he putting on a show for me like Adrian said?

  Lunch was over, so we returned to Victor’s office. The sun was directly overhead the skylight now, so the room was very warm. Three hours later, the men had rolled up their sleeves and I changed into a pair of high-waist shorts and a tank top. We were nearing the final stages of the agreement.

  “Victor, I don’t know what else you want from me,” Adrian said, exasperated. “You say you’re unhappy with the terms, yet you refuse everything I offer.”

  Victor sat on the edge of the armchair, tapping his fingers against his knee in a speedy rhythm. I could tell he was about to drop whatever he’d been holding back this whole time.

  “I want the X3000 solar panels. Ozolinsh. I want him.”

  I knew that was a huge deal. Adrian had given me some of the details when I briefly lived with him. There was no way Adrian wanted to give it up, but he’d just spent over seven hours negotiating. He could smell the close and he wanted it to be over, which was exactly why Victor waited so long to make this move.

  “Ozolinsh is worth four billion on his own. That’s a big client on top of everything else I’ve given you,” Adrian said calmly.

  “I can handle it! You owe me, Adrian. I didn’t deserve to be fired all those years ago!”

  “You’re right, and I’m sorry, but that doesn’t negate all the choices you’ve made since then. You earn clients like Andris Ozolinsh.”

  “Do you think I care about that, Adrian?” Victor was almost shouting. “Give me Ozolinsh, or the deal is off.”

  I couldn’t believe how Victor was acting. Did I really think he was a good guy? Not anymore, that was for damn sure.

  “I won’t give you forty percent worth over a billion dollars and Ozolinsh, Victor,” Adrian said firmly.

  “Thirty-five percent, then.”

  “Victor, don’t you recall the chat we had about realistic offers?”

  “Twenty-five percent, and I won’t go any lower,” Victor said, nearly growling.

  “You’ll go as low as twenty percent because that’s all I’m giving you,” Adrian countered coolly.

  Victor glared at Adrian before signing the agreement, nearly stabbing the paper with the pen in his frustration. The deal had clearly not gone as well as Victor wanted. Watching the negotiations, I was surprised Adrian had given up his biggest client so easily, and that Victor allowed Adrian to knock down the number of clients so easily since it was clear he wanted to win badly. Whatever ‘winning’ meant to him. He must have another trick up his sleeve.

  Adrian signed as well, and that was that.

  The deal was done.

  Chapter Five

  I signed my name in hopes that it marked the end of my relationship with Victor. I was willing to sacrifice a few clients if it meant I never had to see him again. Thankfully, Victor was always a sloppy researcher.

  “Shall we shake on it, Victor?” I found the thought of touching him more than distasteful, but it was common courtesy to shake on a deal.

  Thankfully, Victor snubbed my handshake and saved me the displeasure. I saw Danisha watching and I arched an eyebrow at her as if to say, “See? I tried.”

  “Will you allow me to use your radio so that I can call my pilot to come pick us up?” I asked Victor.

  “You’re not staying for dinner?” Victor sneered as he gestured to the radio sitting on a table next to a bookcase.

  “Thank you for the offer, but Danisha and I must be going.”

  I was determined to be polite. This was the moment Victor would be the most unpredictable. I didn’t want to set him off. Putting on my jacket, I felt for the flare gun. I gathered the documents and went to my room to collect the few things I brought. I took the handgun out of my bag and tucked it in the back of my pants for reassurance.

  I returned to the office to make the radio call and saw Victor sitting with an unusual smile on his face.

  “Is Danisha getting her things?” I asked Victor delicately.

  “Danisha won’t be going with you,” Victor said, still smiling that terrible smile.

  “Victor…you can’t hold her here against her will. I made sure to put that in our contract; you agreed!”

  “Oh, I agreed alright, but you’re assuming it’s against her will. I think Danisha actually quite likes it here.”

  “Um, actually…”

  Victor and I both turned to see Danisha standing in the doorway, luggage in hand.

  ***

  Victor and Adrian looked equally shocked, but I couldn’t stay here. Victor had shown himself to be a complete asshole during this situation. It was clear he was trying to manipulate me into staying as some sort of extra “screw you” to Adrian.

  If Victor had been the one lying this whole time, did that mean I could then trust Adrian? Hadn’t he just given up his biggest client for me? I needed to see my relationship with Adrian through until I had a better understanding of what was going on.

  “I think I’d like to go home now,” I said.

  Victor looked completely flabbergasted. Adrian looked relieved.

  “Thank you for your hospitality, Victor, but I need to go back to school and the real world. This was wonderful, though.”

  “You ungrateful bitch!” Victor shouted. “I treated you like a queen and this is how you repay me? I should have locked you in the basement!”

  “You’re not really selling yourself well here, pal,” I said.

  Adrian quickly crossed the room and stood protectively next to me. Victor’s face was becoming purple. He seemed to be having a complete meltdown.

  “Control yourself, Victor,” Adrian warned, putting an arm in front of me. He stepped back an inch and spoke out of the corner of his mouth.

  “We need to get outside,” he whispered.

  “Why?”

  “I have a flare gun in my pocket to signal for help.”

  Victor was screaming obscenities at me; he was practically frothing at the mouth. Suddenly he lunged, striking Adrian in the face.

  I pulled the flare gun out of Adrian’s pocket and Victor flinched violently at the sight of it, probably thinking it was a real gun.

  “Down!” I yelled. I pulled Adrian to the ground with me, covering our heads as I shot through the skylight above. The glass shattered, but we wer
e mostly unharmed.

  “Brilliant!” Adrian said, kissing me roughly.

  I looked over to see Victor quickly recovering from the shock.

  “Time to go,” Adrian said. He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me up. We made our way out the door, stumbling out the back patio onto the winding stairs. It was pitch black. Adrian pushed us into an obscure spot halfway down the staircase just off of the path. He looked at me and held a finger to his lips as he reached behind his back and pulled a gun—a real gun this time--out of his waistband and held it in one hand.

  Adrian pointed a finger at himself, then at the staircase. He would watch for Victor. Next, he pointed at the ocean and me. I would watch for help. I nodded.

  Barely a minute passed before Adrian grabbed my arm to signal that he saw Victor coming down the path. Adrian raised his gun and waited.

  Victor walked past us. He had retrieved his own gun before coming to look for us. I was terrified. I had never seen a gun before and now it seemed likely that one would shoot me before the night was over.

  Adrian silently stepped out from our hiding place behind Victor and pointed the gun at him.

  “I thought I told you to control yourself, Victor,” he growled.

  “You’re the one with the gun to my head,” Victor replied.

  “You attacked us!” Adrian said. “Drop your gun.”

  Victor did as he was told and I picked it up. It was much heavier than the flare gun.

  “Flare guns, hand guns…I should have frisked you when you came to the island, Adrian. I’ll have to install metal detectors,” Victor said.

  “Always making jokes, Victor. Go on, walk,” Adrian gestured for Victor to continue down the stairs to the beach.

  Two minutes later, while Adrian had his gun trained on Victor, I heard the familiar whine of an airplane engine. Jackson turned the floodlights on, illuminating the beach as he killed the engine and coasted to shore.

  “Danisha, get in the plane,” Adrian said, his gun still trained squarely on Victor.

  I didn’t argue. Jackson hopped out to help me up into the plane.