Covering Kendall(68)

She called Rod’s phone for the third time in fifteen minutes, and miracle of miracles, he picked up. She hit the speaker function as he spoke and put her finger up to her lips so Rod wouldn’t know there were others listening to their phone call.

“Sydney, I don’t have time for this right now—”

“That’s nice, because this is Kendall. Where are you?” She could hear him gulp at the other end of the phone.

“I just paid the bail and Mr. Hill will be on his way back to San Francisco as soon as I can get him there. This is just a misunderstanding.”

Misunderstanding, my ass. She wasn’t harboring that guy for one more minute than it took to get rid of him. Either one of them, actually.

“Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want you bailing him out of jail in the first place, Rod? Why did you think you could defy me?”

“He’s an All-Pro. We can’t get through the season without him. We’re having enough trouble on the offensive line already—”

“How much more trouble are we going to be in when the security camera recording of the incident is made public? The witnesses are already talking to the media as well. No.” She could hear a male voice in the background.

“Hey, Rod, great to see you. Sorry about all the excitement.”

“Don’t worry, Rock. We’ll be on our way in a few minutes. Why don’t you have a seat?”

“NO,” Kendall said. “Put him on the phone right now.”

“Maybe you should cool off for a while before you talk with him,” Rod said.

Kendall saw red. Enough was enough, and she’d had enough.

“Let me make it easy for you, Rod. You either put him on the phone right now, or I’ll fire you. How’s that?”

“You can’t fire me—”

“Yes, I can, and I will unless Rocky’s on the line in five seconds,” she said.

Rod’s voice was nervous. “Hey, Rock, the boss lady would like to chat with you for a minute. C’mon over here, will ya?”

“I don’t have to talk to that bitch. Tell her to talk to my agent.”

“No can do, buddy. She insists.”

A few seconds later, she heard Rocky Hill’s “What the fuck do you want?”

For the first time since she’d walked in the building that morning, she smiled.

“Hi Rocky, it’s Kendall Tracy. I’d love to do this in person, but it can’t wait. You’re cut from the team. We’ve disabled your playbook tablet already, so there’s no need to return it. We’ll pack up and mail the items in your locker to the address on file. Sorry it didn’t work out.”

She heard a few seconds of silence, and then the man who (allegedly) beat up his one-third-his-size girlfriend in the lobby of one of the most famous hotels in the world recovered his voice.

“I’ll make you pay for this, bitch.” He took a noisy breath. “You’d better watch your back, because I’ll be there when you least expect it, and I’ll make sure that pretty face isn’t quite so pretty anymore. You dig?” His voice was low, chilling, and furious. Kendall heard the other Miners employees in the office gasp.

“Yes, Rocky, I dig. Thanks for the warning.” She didn’t bother waiting for him to speak. She hung up, glanced around, and said, “Did you all hear that?”

The five PR department employees and Sydney all nodded.

“Great. I hope you’ll back me up.” She picked up Sydney’s phone again, dialed 911, and asked to speak to the Las Vegas Police Department.



AN HOUR LATER, Rocky Hill was in custody again for threatening Kendall. Rod was on his way back to San Francisco. He’d be fired as soon as he returned to the office and Kendall could get the company property in his possession back. Kendall walked into a crowded conference room and stood behind the chair at the head of the table.

“I’d like to thank Sydney and the PR group for their assistance with what’s going to happen this afternoon and tomorrow morning.” She glanced around at the thirty people. “I have scheduled a press conference for later today. We’d like to get out in front of the information as much as we can, and I’d like as many of you as possible to be on hand for this.” She saw nods from most of the employees. The front office guys looked on stonily. She knew all hell would break loose when she fired Rod, but it was unavoidable.

She pulled in a long breath. “Rocky Hill allegedly assaulted his girlfriend in the lobby of a hotel in Las Vegas a few hours ago. She is in the hospital. He was arrested. I have cut Rocky Hill from the team.” She waited for the gasps (and some applause) to die down. “Due to his threats against my safety, he is back in jail. He is not allowed in the building under any circumstances. The San Francisco Police Department will be coordinating security here and at the stadium until further notice. There will be more information as it is available.”