Page 91 of Kove and Xiah
“Hello…”
“Hey, Xiah, sorry to bother you but I wanted to run a few things by you to make sure you’re good with them.”
“Oh, okay.” I frowned.
“First let me say I’m glad all of this is working out for you. I personally understand your situation, well not the marriage, because fuck that shit.” I smiled at the rebellion in her voice. “But definitely being tied to a man who refuses to be what you need and refuses to let you go. It took me a long time to get my life back. I know how frustrating it can be to be to have a man holding you back and playing with your happiness. Fuck that shit too. But anyway, that’s not why I called.”
“Why did you call then?” I asked, trying to make sense of this. She was Kove’s agent, so she could have possibly been trying to make a connection with me or warning me to stay away from him.
“I’m sure Koa let you know that Jase was working on the situation with your ex. You’re officially divorced, but that doesn’tnecessarily mean he would have enough damn common sense to truly stay out of your life. I’m calling to say that deals have been signed to ensure he will.”
“Deals?”
My eyes lowered to where Kove’s were blazing on me, trying to figure out what was being discussed.
“Money makes things like this go away, so Jase had to throw money at this situation. Well nothismoney exactly, but he spoke to a friend who could assist. That damn man knows everybody and it seems that they all owe him a favor.” She sounded amused and annoyed at the same time.
“And that’s about me?” I asked, still not understanding where she was going with this,
“It’s about Yaakov. His image is the priority but it’s also about you because I pushed to make sure you came out okay. Please understand that if we wanted, the end result could have been to save face with our client’s career no matter what that looked like for you. You’re important to Yaakov, and like it or not, he was going to choose you. So we did what was necessary to make sure choosing you didn’t fuck up all the hard work I did.”
My brows pinched and I bit down on my lip because how was I supposed to feel about that? Regardless of my understanding of her role in his career, it felt invasive having someone pulling strings behind the scenes.
“I’m not sure if you’re aware of why your ex retired.”
“I wasn’t. It happened while we were separated and he never would have talked to me about his career.”
He lived lavishly. We shared a penthouse but that was where my luxury ended. Kaden’s money was his own. I held to the idea that I was an independent woman and could take care of myself but was well aware that he was just selfish and didn’t want me to have a good life on his dime. One of many red flags I ignored.
“The fuck she saying, Xi. Put that shit on speaker.” Kove reached for the phone and worked it from my hands.
“Why the fuck you talking about that pussy muthafucker, Sovoya?”
“Because she needed to know what Jase put into play.”
“Aight, I’m listening.”
“You don’t need to listen. This is about Xiah, not you.”
“If it’s about her, it’s about me. Say whatever the fuck you gotta say, man,” he muttered with irritation present in his tone.
“Like I was saying, Kaden had a forced retirement. The team suspected things and did random testing. They discovered the use of performance enhancement drugs so they agreed on a forced retirement. The reason he only had one point two million in his account was because he had to forfeit the remainder of his contract or the Badgers were going to go public about the drug use. They didn’t want scandal connected to their team and Kaden didn’t want that connected to his career. There were whispers about it. People still know but it’s not confirmed.”
“And what the fuck does this have to do with Xi?”
“Relax, lover boy. I’m getting to that part.” The look of annoyance etched on Kove’s face had me grinning. “Perry has been trying to secure an announcer job but the industry blackballed him. Like I said, people know but they’re not saying it out loud. He had a bad rep because the drugs tarnished his career. No one knows how long he was taking them so…”
“His accomplishments aren’t legit,” Kove said.
“Possibly. Part of the agreement for him to walk away from the situation with you assaulting him…”
“I didn’t assault him. I beat that nigga’s ass.”
“Yaakov…”
He smirked, unbothered.
“Beating his asscould have cost you an assault and battery charge and problems with your Royals contract. Jase handled it by securing Perry a job as a recruiter.”
