Page 58 of Power Play Rivals
I slap the laptop screen down, not wanting to read another sentence of that filth, and start pacing the office floor instead.
“Do we tell him?” Toby asks, shifting in his seat anxiously.
“Best we don’t. Nathan has enough on his plate as it is. If we tell him that the person who caught him on video that night at the bar not only uploaded it to every social platform there is but also built a website determined to ruin his career, well… let’s just say it might be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“At least he didn’t get suspended or fired. That means Wilder is safe. Or at least that there is still hope for him, right?” Toby asks with the innocent optimism of a child watching Bambi for the first time—it’s all colorful rainbows and cartoon flowers until Bambi’s mom gets two in the head.
“Wake up, Toby.” I clap my hands in front of his face to snap him back into reality. “We are going to need a lot more than hope on our side if these types of websites start popping up like mushrooms. The only thing going for us right now is that people’s memories are fickle. Most of them have the attention span of a goldfish. But if the first thing people find when Googling Nathan is blog posts like the one I just read, then his fuck up might as well be the scarlet letter that he ends up wearing for the rest of his life. He’ll never live it down, which spells all sorts of trouble our way.”
“So what do we do? We can’t just ignore it, can we?” Toby asks, opening his laptop again just to have one more peek at the sordid website.
“No, we can’t ignore it. But we can’t be seen legitimizing it either.” I chew on my bottom lip, trying to think of a way to clean this up without making Nathan aware of it. “No. We keep this to ourselves and monitor it closely. Let the expert girls and boys from IT track down the IP address and find whoever is behind the website. Maybe if we have an address, we can pay them a visit and talk some sense into them.”
“That actually might work,” Toby interjects, sounding pleased with the idea. “Maybe if we explain to them that these online tangents have real-life repercussions, they’ll stop. We just have to explain that Nathan is not just a hockey figure. He’s a man too. A man with real feelings and human emotions. Maybe if we play to their human nature, they’ll take the website down.”
I stare at my young assistant and blink twice to ensure I hear him correctly. But when Toby keeps that doofus expression on his face—like he just solved global warming or something—it’s too much for me to take.
“Bambi,” I say.
“Huh?” Toby questions in confusion.
“That’s what I’ll start calling you if you don’t stop being so goddamn naïve.” I let out an exaggerated exhale. “No, Toby. This isn’t some kindergarten roughhousing. We’re not Nathan’s parents, and these aren’t fucking children with keyboard bravado we’re dealing with. We’re not going over to their house to ask them to stop picking on Nathan because bullying is wrong. We’re fucking sports agents, and whoever is behind this website is a fucking adult. So we do the adult thing. We buy them off. Throw enough cash in their face so they won’t even think of writing a Yelp review again, much less a scathing blog post.”
“And if they refuse?” Toby pouts.
“Then, Bambi, we seek legal action and get the assholes on defamation.” I smile menacingly.
“So far, nothing this person has written looks false to me,” Toby quips, searching the website for a lie. “Maybe a little overdramatized, but nothing we can say is an outright lie.”
“Are you going to insist on only giving me problems today?” I grumble, throwing my arms in the air. “What I need are solutions. Problems I already have.”
“Sorry, Boss,” he laments, holding his head down.
I let out a frustrated breath because Toby continues to look like a wounded puppy dog, and I need him to be a fucking vicious Rottweiler.
“What about the girl? The one Nathan says he rescued at the bar? Any new developments there?” I ask, needing to concentrate on something other than that damned website.
Toby shakes his head.
“She paid in cash, and the video only caught a glimpse of her back rushing out of the bar. There’s no way we’ll ever find her. Unless she comes forward, I’m not sure we have a shot of knowing who she is.”
My shoulders tense up because that’s what I was afraid of.
That video has gone viral now.
If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t want to be involved in it either.
People not knowing who she is will ensure she stays anonymous for the time being. Once she comes forth and lets the world know what truly happened that night, her life will change drastically. She will be forever linked to the night Nathan saved her from being assaulted and will forever be depicted as the victim.
No one deserves to live life like that.
“No matter. Forget about the girl. Let’s concentrate on what we can do. That’s better time spent anyway,” I say after picking up my jacket. “I have an important lunch that I’m already late for. If you need me, just call.”
“Will do, boss.”
I walk out of ESA headquarters and grab a taxi to take me over to Étoile d’Or, where I’m sure Lottie has been waiting for me for the past ten minutes. Usually, I would be over the moon to spend some quality time with my best friend, but unfortunately, I booked this lunch with an ulterior motive.
If I were a good person, I would feel bad about what I’m about to do, but that’s just not me.