Page 72 of Skins Game

“Not necessarily.” Kingston frowned at his coffee. “I need to see all of your prototypes and the designs. Basically, I need your computer.”

Panic grabbed her throat, and her ribs and stomach caved in, whooshing all the air out of her lungs. “But they’re not ready yet.”

“I need your plans, Nicole.”

The command in his voice was unmistakable.

“But they’re notready.There are mistakes that I haven’t figured out yet. The steel might not be the right composition. They might shatter into shrapnel the first time you hit a ball with them. The ball might just flop off the tee and go nowhere.They aren’t ready.”

“I need a mirror of your hard drive on the company’s servers in an hour.”

The soap bubble had well and truly popped, and Nicole had to fight to preserve Sidewinder Golf. “I can’t do that, Kingston. As far as I can see on the company org chart—and I looked—you’re the new sales guy, not my boss. I’m not turning over my designs and prototypes.”

26

Airless

KINGSTON MOORE

When Nicole Lamb walked out of Kingston’s suite at the Four Seasons, she took the air with her.

Her backpack with everything stuffed inside after her shower was lying on the chair again, and she snatched it by the top handle as she walked by.

Her slip-on trainers were sitting by the door, and a wiggle of her ankles sucked them onto her feet.

The door slammed after she was gone.

She hadn’t looked back. Kingston knew because he watched her all the way out the door.

And then he was standing alone in an overpriced hotel villa that he’d rented for the rest of the weekend, his plane reservation not until the following evening.

What was he supposed to have done, allowed Sidewinder Golf and Last Chance to go down in flames bynotdemanding that she give him the designs?

He should’ve just taken them. Her computer with the specs and prototypes had been sitting right there in that damn chair.

They were, by all legal accounts,his.

Throwing the ceramic cup against the wall and splattering coffee over the plaster would not change anything, no matter what violent instincts rose in him. He longed for Neanderthal days when a burst of violence would solve the problem of the tribe being hungry or the cave being invaded by man or beast.

Instead, he sipped his coffee and concentrated on the breath filling his lungs and leaving him. Filling his lungs and leaving him.

Just like Nicole.

Just like everyone in his life.

27

Ryde and Otto

NICOLE LAMB

She’d been so stupid.

Ever since she had met Kingston Moore, he’d been wheedling for the designs for the next set of clubs and prototypes.

In retrospect, his ploy should have been obvious.

First, he’d tried to trick her into telling him about the prototypes and future clubs she had designed, even buying the free pizza for the lab.