Fastball (24 page)

Stunned, her mind raced through a dozen
possible scenarios, all of them bad. There was no way she could
face Jake right now, not before she had a chance to pull herself
together and come up with a plan. And trying to talk some sense
into him in the heat of the moment would very likely be a disaster.
No, she had to get away before either Jake or Robbie discovered
her.

Maddie backed away as quietly as she could
and headed out to the parking lot. Jumping in her car, she took
deep breaths to try to stop the tremors ripping through her limbs,
but with little success. With shaking hands, she gripped the
steering wheel hard then gunned the car out of the lot and onto the
street, heading straight for home.

Maddie’s nerves were still shot by the time
she got home, but her mind had started to clear. She knew she had
to confront Jake as soon as she saw him, even though the very idea
made her sick to her stomach. But this mess was just too big to be
ignored, even for a few hours. Betting on baseball was the game’s
greatest sin, even bigger than steroid use. The fact that Robbie
Benton had jeopardized and probably destroyed his career as a
player was bad enough. That Jake—the most straight-up guy in the
game—obviously intended to cover up Robbie’s transgression, risking
his own career, made her head spin. It seemed so out-of-character
for him that she couldn’t help wondering if she really knew Jake
Miller after all.

Ordinarily, she’d be waiting for his arrival
wearing only a sexy nightgown, or one of his tee shirts with
nothing else on underneath but a pair of silky panties. Not
tonight. She quickly pulled off her work clothes and reached into
her closet to rummage for a pair of sweat pants and one of her
stretchy yoga tops. Jake would be arriving soon, so she pulled them
on as fast as she could and hurried into the kitchen.

God, she needed a drink. She grabbed a bottle
of white wine from the refrigerator and wasted no time in yanking
the cork and filling a glass. She spilled a little as her hand
trembled—not in fear of the coming confrontation, but from fear of
what this looming disaster could do to Jake.

And, by extension, to them as a couple.

All the personal and professional challenges
that remained between them suddenly took on mammoth, almost
insurmountable proportions. If Jake didn’t back down from this
idiocy, Maddie didn’t know what she would do. As she paced from one
end of her kitchen to the other like a caged bear, she tried to
convince herself that she’d misunderstood the conversation between
the two men, replaying the snippets of argument she’d overheard.
But the more she went over it, the more convinced she was that the
situation truly was as bad as it appeared.

In ten minutes, she finished off her glass of
wine and was tempted to pour another. What the hell was keeping
Jake? The waiting was ratcheting up her anxiety to pulse-pounding
levels.

Maddie had just decided to pour a second
glass when a tap sounded on the door. Though she had given Jake a
key, he always knocked before he let himself in, a gesture that
normally pleased her. This time, though, she stalked into the hall
and faced the door. As he entered, he froze with his hand still on
the door knob, the warm smile on his handsome features evaporating
as he took in her aggressive stance.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Then his gaze flicked
over her body, taking in her workout attire, and a scowl gathered
on his brow. Obviously, she looked like she was ready to throw
something at him.

“We need to talk,” she replied in a
tightly-controlled voice.

“Sure, but how about a hug first?” He reached
out to pull her into an embrace, but she dodged him and headed into
the living room.

She plunked down into the easy chair, folding
her legs beneath her, and motioned for Jake to sit on the love seat
across from her. Yes, she was furious, but she felt sick, too.
Almost nauseous from anxiety. She knew this conversation was going
to be wrenching.

Jake sat warily on the edge of the love seat.
“Jesus, Maddie, what the hell’s going on? You’ve got me worried.”
He looked completely at sea, as of course he would, since he had no
idea she’d overheard the damning conversation with Robbie
Benton.

“If you give me a chance, I’ll tell you,” she
snapped.

He blinked, but then his mouth thinned into a
hard, angry line. Still, it was obvious Jake was keeping his anger
under control. “I’m listening,” he said.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm down.
This discussion was too important to screw up, and she had to keep
it together. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like
that.”

He gave a cautious nod but remained silent.
That was another thing about Jake—he was a fast learner.

“Anyway, I thought I’d surprise you by
meeting you in the parking lot after the game, and taking you to
Antonini’s,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest in a
classic defensive posture.

“Great. So, why didn’t you?”

“I thought maybe we could have something like
a real date,” she blurted out. “Instead of what we’ve been doing
every night, which is basically hiding out here.”

Oh, crap.
Just what she didn’t need.
All her stupid insecurities complicating an already messy
situation. Jake looked confused as hell, too. He opened his mouth
to say something, but she plowed ahead, ignoring what she’d
inadvertently revealed.

“I was waiting for you in my car, but it was
getting late and nobody was around, so I thought I’d go back into
the stadium and meet you there. And, frankly, I was starting to
worry a bit. I could tell during the game that something was
bothering you, and I wondered if you were so late because of
that.”

The
oh, shit
look on his face,
followed by a flare of anger in his eyes, brought her stumbling to
a halt. Clearly, Jake knew what was coming.

“Go on,” he said.

She sucked in a determined breath. “When I
was at the end of the corridor, I heard voices arguing and I
decided to go back to the parking lot because I didn’t want to walk
into the middle of a scene. But then I could tell it was you and
Robbie Benton. So, I decided to wait.”

“You mean you decided to eavesdrop,” he said
in a voice hard enough to make her flinch.

Yep, there was no doubt he was well and truly
pissed off. He’d barely moved a muscle, but it was like a cold,
implacable force had settled between them. And Maddie did feel kind
of guilty for eavesdropping, which only got her back up even more.
Why the hell should
she
feel defensive, when he was the one
who was screwing up? “I was nervous for you. Robbie sounded really
angry—”

“Oh, right,” he interjected. “You didn’t
think I could handle Robbie Benton?” He shoved a frustrated hand
through his hair. “Christ, Maddie, why the hell couldn’t you mind
your own damn business?”

The impact of his words, what it said about
their relationship, slammed into her chest. It almost felt hard to
breathe. “What was I supposed to do, just swan into the middle of a
shouting match between two guys talking about the worst thing any
ballplayer can do?” she forced out.

Jake sucked in a long, heavy breath and
remained silent for a good fifteen seconds. They were about the
longest fifteen seconds of Maddie’s life.

“Well, I guess you heard everything then,
didn’t you?” he finally said. “Again, not that it was any of your
business.”

Now anger started to override the hurt she
felt at his abruptly dismissive manner. She glared at him, but it
didn’t put him off one bit.

“I can understand you’d be pissed at Robbie,”
he said, making it sound like a grudging admission. “And, yes, what
he did was incredibly stupid and pretty much unforgivable. But why
are you so bent out of shape at me? I barely had one foot in the
door before you let loose with your guns.”

His aggrieved look conveyed that she was
somehow at fault. Maddie stared at him, dumbfounded. “Really, Jake?
You really don’t get how bad this is? You said you were going to
help him cover it up. Make sure it gets swept under the rug so no
one ever finds out.”

He grimaced. “That’s not exactly what—”

“It sure sounded like it to me,” she flared.
“You’re going to pay off the stupid bastard’s debts and then pray
he won’t turn around and get himself in the same mess all over
again? Well, it’s wrong, Jake. You know it, too, just like you know
it’ll totally blow up in your face.”

He leaned forward in his chair, the level of
his frustration and anger evident in his rigid posture. “Look, I
can’t let this situation get out of hand. You know what it could
mean to the whole team, not just Robbie. It could ruin the entire
year for us, and Robbie could even end up in jail.”

“Which is why you need to let the
professionals handle this,” she said, forcing the words past the
tightness in her throat. She didn’t know whether she wanted to
shake him or burst into tears. Probably both. “This isn’t some
little screw-up you can just paper over. This is big, Jake. And if
you
do
try to cover it up, that makes you almost as guilty
as Robbie. Do you have any idea what this could do to your career?
To us? Are you really willing to throw that all away over something
you know is wrong?”

* * *

Jake figured he’d somehow entered the
Twilight Zone. From the moment he crossed the threshold into
Maddie’s apartment, he’d felt like he was dealing with a person he
didn’t recognize. Sure, Maddie could be tough when she had to be,
but she had the sweetest nature he’d ever encountered. For her to
adopt such a rigid and self-righteous attitude completely threw
him. She’d obviously thought it necessary to appoint herself judge
and jury—and maybe even executioner—before she even had all the
facts. Yes, what Robbie did was big-time wrong, but it wasn’t some
kind of capital crime. The guy had made a huge mistake, one that
could ruin his life if his friends didn’t lend him a helping
hand.

He stared into her tight face, tracking how
tensely she held her slender body. Scrunched up in her chair like
that, shoulders up around her ears and arms crossed over her chest,
she couldn’t help but send an unmistakable signal that she was
shutting him out. It hurt that she would do that before giving him
a chance to lay out his version of events, and it pissed him off
that she’d listened in on his conversation with Robbie. Nothing
gave her that right, not even the closeness between them.

But despite his justified anger, he felt a
whisper of apprehension, maybe even fear, drift through him. What
was happening here was bad, and he needed to ratchet down the heat
of this conversation before they both said things they’d regret for
a long time.

He blew out a breath, resting his forearms on
his thighs as he worked to relax his rigid muscles. “Look,
Maddie—honey—I understand what you must be feeling. You and I both
love the game so much that it feels like a betrayal when a player
does something this wrong. You know I’m totally with you on that.
And you know I’ve always supported the league in coming down hard
on the juicers and the drug users, right? I’m not some dickhead who
wants to let people corrupt the game.”

He deliberately paused, giving her the
opportunity to re-engage with him. She nodded slowly, still wary,
but looking like she might be ready to listen.

“Good,” he said. “That’s good. But you’ve
also got to realize I’ve never had to face anything like this
before. Robbie’s been a good friend for a dozen years. He’s been
there for me in some tough times, and I’ve always tried to be there
for him.”

“I get that,” she butted in impatiently, “I
totally get that you’re a good guy. But look where he’s ended up,
despite your help. Maybe if you or some of his other friends had
come down hard on him a long time ago he wouldn’t be in this mess
now. Robbie’s always been a screw-up, and everybody lets him get
away with it.” She held up a hand, anticipating his objection. “Of
course we know about the crap he pulls on management and the other
players. The media office may be able to minimize some of the
gossip, but reporters aren’t stupid, Jake.”

He shook his head, trying to control his
rising frustration at her hard-assed attitude. “Yes, I realize
you’re not stupid, but hindsight’s always twenty-twenty. What I
know for sure is that Robbie is a decent guy, even though he’s made
some big mistakes in the past. Now he’s made a monumental cock-up,
no question about that, and he’s got himself in some serious
trouble, possibly even risking his life. If somebody doesn’t help
him get out of it, he’ll be drummed right out of baseball. But
that’s nothing compared to what Nazarian will do to him. Christ,
Maddie, the guy could even end up at the bottom of the
Delaware.”

She actually rolled her eyes at him.
“Nazarian’s a low-life bookie, not a mobster. There are dozens more
just like him preying on idiots like Robbie all the time, which is
why Robbie needs help from professionals. Not a well-meaning friend
who’s likely to cause as much harm as good.”

“Oh, really?” he snapped, pushing himself to
his feet. “Do you think I’m that stupid?”

She sighed, extending a hand out to him. When
he stepped out of reach, her eyes betrayed how much the gesture
wounded her, and she quickly put her hand in her lap. “No Jake,”
she answered in a low voice. “Of course I don’t think you’re
stupid.”

“Then trust me to do the right thing.” He
raised his hands, palms up, asking for understanding. “I have to
help my friend, Maddie. Call it a cover-up if that makes you happy,
but I’d rather call it a rescue mission. It’s not going to do
anybody any good if Robbie gets kicked out of baseball. In fact, it
could do a whole lot of damage to people who don’t deserve it—like
all the other players on the team, and their families. And I’m not
going to have Robbie’s fate on my conscience, either, if Nazarian
decides to hurt him. Or worse.”