Page 114 of Bourbon Bliss
“I’ve been loyal to him. You have no idea what it’s like to work for a professional athlete.”
“I don’t suppose I do, yet I fail to see how that has any bearing on the current situation.”
She sat back and crossed her arms. “He’s going to drop you. Whatever points you think you’ll score here won’t matter. I’ve seen it plenty of times. You’re not special. Trust me.”
Andrea was trying to bait me, as she might any other woman. Ignite sparks of jealousy so I’d focus on defending myself and my relationship with George. For the first time in my life, I was grateful for whatever it was that made me June Tucker. June Bot indeed. Robots didn’t get jealous.
I wasn’t here to prove to her that George loved me. I was here to negotiate.
“We both know there are discrepancies on George’s tax returns, as well as in the amounts paid to the IRS,” I said. “It’s my understanding that you’re the one who has been responsible for George’s finances, including his taxes, for a number of years.”
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“Not yet.”
She licked her lips. “All I ever had to work with was the documentation GT provided me. If he underpaid, it’s because he was trying to hide things.”
“So you claim you acted in good faith.”
“Of course I did.”
Cassidy stood from the table behind us, dressed in her sheriff’s deputy uniform, and came over to lean her hip against the table. “June.”
“Deputy.”
Scarlett wandered over and leaned against the table next to us. She was dressed in street clothes, but had a lanyard around her neck with some sort of ID card, turned backwards so I couldn’t read it. She crossed her arms and leveled Andrea with a fiery stare.
“Ms. Wilson, are you familiar with an online forum calledJersey Chaser?” Cassidy asked.
Andrea paled. “What about it?”
“It’s interesting,” Cassidy said. “It’s a subscription service for women to share information and get tips on how to land a pro athlete.”
“So? There are lots of sites out there like that,” Andrea said.
“That’s probably true,” Cassidy said. “But this one is special. It has to be, in order to demand a monthly fee to gain access.”
“This site is run by someone with insider information,” I said. “Someone with access to players’ personal details. Who has a network of contacts—other assistants—who appear happy to share similar information with subscribers. For a fee, I’d assume.”
Andrea’s spine was stick straight, her jaw set in a hard line. “It’s just a way to connect with colleagues and other people in the industry. Most of us don’t work in an office environment where we see our counterparts on a regular basis. It’s like… a virtual water cooler.”
“A water cooler where you share player’s locations so groupies can find them?” I asked.
“It’s a private forum,” she said.
“Nothing on the internet is truly private,” I said. “For all your attention to detail, you couldn’t hide the fact that you own this website.”
“Like I said, it’s a place for people in the industry to connect,” she said.
“People in your industry sure have interesting topics to discuss,” Scarlett said. “One of your most upvoted posts was calledTen Surefire Ways to Fuck a Football Player.”
“The matchmaking section was particularly fascinating,” Cassidy said. “It looked a hell of a lot like a prostitution ring.”
“But even if it isn’t,” I said. “You’ve been using your position as George’s assistant to gain access to player schedules and travel plans. You know exactly where to direct women to find players, wherever they are. Clubs, parties, hotel rooms.”
Andrea huffed out a breath. “Look, I don’t make those guys hook up with these women. They’re looking for it. So okay, yes, I make a little side cash. I refuse to take responsibility for who players decide to bang when they’re on the road.”
“You give explicit, step-by-step instructions for how to extort the most money out of different players,” I said. “Including married men and men in relationships. You instruct these women on how to get past their defenses, how to convince them to have sex, and what to do afterward to make sure they receive high-caliber gifts. You even have an entire section on unplanned pregnancies.”
