She’d stepped smack into the middle of Crazy Town, and ironically, that finally steadied her. She remembered her first meeting with Heath, when Coop had tossed her contract at him and Heath had negotiated more money. For her. These two didn’t have a normal agent-client relationship, and they wanted to suck her into their nutso world. Fine. Fight crazy with crazy. This was something she could handle. “A counteroffer? How about this? If he gets out of my life, I promise to send him all my Bears T-shirts.”

“I can guarantee he won’t accept a few T-shirts in lieu of life in a luxury condo. Surely you can do better.”

All she wanted was for the misery to stop, and that wouldn’t happen until Coop left her alone. She glared at the Python. “If he gets out of my life, I’ll personally fix him up with Deidre Joss.”

“You’re still not taking this seriously.”

She was taking it more seriously than he imagined. Why was Coop putting her through this? She should have talked to him yesterday. She should have stood in the cold and let him say what he had to say without uttering a word in return. But she’d been too big a coward. She still was. “I’ll do one free month of IT work for the club. But I’ll only work with Tony, and only if Coop forgets I exist.”

“Three free months.”

“Two months.”

“Reasonable.” He pulled out his phone. “Let me check with him.”

“You do that,” she said.

He headed outside into the parking lot. Through the window, she saw him talking on his cell. She watched him pace between her car and his SUV. Finally, he pocketed his phone and came back inside. “No dice. He wants a face-to-face meeting.”

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t. “No.”

“I thought you wanted to get rid of him?”

“More than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

“Then offer him something he can’t resist. Other than yourself.”

She exploded out of her chair. “When did I get to be so fricking irresistible? Will you tell me that?”

“I’m not the person to answer. Not that I don’t find you charming.”

She bared her teeth. “I don’t want to talk to him!”

“I understand. But this is a negotiation.”

It was madness was what it was. “Two free months of IT, and I’ll do his employee background checks for a year. One full year!”

“Now you’re talking.” He slithered out into the parking lot again. She sank behind her desk. They’d made a pact to torture her.

On the other side of the window, Heath was talking. He braced a hand on his hip, pushing back the front edge of his sports coat. Talked some more. Finally, he came back inside.

“He turned you down.”