The House of Wolves (House of Wolves #1)(11)

“I don’t need to.”

“You’re really going to walk away.”

“Kind of my thing. I’m going to call a press conference tomorrow.” I shrugged. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I already have the only team I need.”

We walked out together. He signed a couple of napkins for the guys at the bar. By the time he got into the back seat of his car, he was already talking on his phone, most likely setting up a date or confirming one.

By the time I got back to Bayview, the television trucks were gone.

But someone was waiting for me on my front steps.





Twelve



I’D THOUGHT ABOUT ISSUING a statement about my plans but decided that would look as if I were hiding. So I told the public relations people that we’d hold the press conference on the field. Nobody could say Joe Wolf’s daughter was hiding if she was standing there at the fifty yard line.

The Tribune had published a longer news story in this morning’s print edition, the paper I still had delivered to my house, today headlined:





QUEEN PASSES ON BEING KING





The byline on the story amending the one published on the website about my having been given control of the Wolves was Seth Dowd’s. It even included what I’d said to Ted moments before he got into his car about how I already had my team. My ex-husband, bless his heart, wasn’t calling one of his girlfriends. He was calling Seth Dowd. Probably a practical matter for Ted. Maybe he thought that if I couldn’t help him hold on to his job, the media could.

Dad always said that if you were born round, you didn’t die square.

My three brothers sat behind me. Mike Sawchuck and the Wolves’ coach, Rich Kopka, were in the row of chairs behind them. A sizable number of reporters vied for position in front of the podium set up on the Wolves’ logo at midfield, a platform for the TV cameras behind them.

Not exactly like addressing my poli-sci class.

When it was time for Danny to introduce me, he leaned down as he passed me and said, “This is for the best.”

“Trust me. I know that now.”

Danny kept his remarks short, thanking everybody for coming on short notice, saying that because there had been so much speculation over the past twenty-four hours about the family and the team and our father’s will, we’d decided this was the best way to speak directly to what he called “Wolves Nation.”

A country, I thought, constantly at war.

Then he introduced me.

I was wearing my favorite Michael Kors dress—pricey for a teacher’s salary, but not for a Wolf—and heels just high enough to make me look taller than my older brother.

I opened by saying, “You all may have read about me. I’m the She Wolf.” I shrugged. “In this family, we’ll do anything to boost circulation.”

Some laughter rippled through the crowd.

I turned around and said, “Thanks for that, Jack.”

Got another polite laugh, just not from Jack Wolf. At some point the two of us were going to have a long talk about the paper. But not today. Today was about football. Joe Wolf used to say it wasn’t just Sundays and Mondays—every day was a football day.

“I’ll try to keep my remarks brief.”

From behind me Danny Wolf said, “That will be a first.”

He got a laugh, too, the people in front of us clearly not aware that Danny was generally as funny as back spasms.

“My family, as you can probably tell, has always been a tough room.”

Then I told them I was briefly going to act like the teacher that I was, proceeding to explain what had happened yesterday, the difference between the shares in the Wolves my brothers and I had all inherited, and the voting shares that came with being chairman, the majority of which now belonged to me.

“The aforementioned She Wolf,” I said, turning and staring at Jack Wolf again.

He shifted slightly in his chair, looking as happy to be here as he used to be in church.

“Anyway, Danny’s right: there has been much speculation in the media about what the family is going to do. I’m sure you all read Seth Dowd’s very fine exclusive this morning in the Wolf family newspaper.”

I took a deep breath and let it out, then smiled at him and the rest of the audience stretched out in front of me.

“But to bring back an oldie but goodie, it turns out that story is fake news.”

I had everybody’s full attention now.

“Because as of today, I am taking over full control of both the Wolves and the Tribune.”

There were already questions being shouted. Just for my own amusement, I took one, from Seth Dowd.

“You can’t possibly be serious about actually doing this,” he said.

“So serious. So doing it.”

Danny Wolf was closest to me behind the podium.

“I will bury you,” he hissed.

“You’re repeating yourself. That’s what you told me when you came to my house last night.”

“You lied,” he said.

“And you never learn.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Threatening to beat me up didn’t work when we were kids. And it sure as shit doesn’t work now.”

I could still hear questions being shouted at me as I disappeared into the runway.