Backstage: Street Chronicles (11 page)

“It’s dark in here. You do know it’s the middle of the day? You need to let some light in here,” Susan said as she went over to the blinds to open them. Trey ignored her and went over to the couch to lie down. The TV was on and set to ESPN. Trey, of course, was the topic of conversation. Sportscasters talked about how Trey folded under pressure and wasn’t able to get his team over the hump.

“Why are you in here watching this? Trey, you can’t do this to yourself. You have had a great year, regardless. You can’t let this get you down. It was only one game,” Susan pleaded.

Trey smirked. “I wish it was that easy, Susan. I swear I do.”

“You can’t beat yourself up about one game. You are entitled to a bad game just like anyone else, aren’t you? Don’t pay any attention to the critics. This isn’t like you. Usually, you let it motivate you for the next game.”

“Not this time! This time is different. I don’t even feel like playing. I feel like a disgrace and I let my teammates down. Shit, I let the city down.”

“Trey, we wouldn’t even be in this position if it wasn’t for you.”

Trey cut her off. “Exactly! We would have won the championship
if it wasn’t for me. I should have just not played! I don’t know why I even went through with it. What was I thinking?”

Susan was puzzled. “Hold on, what are you talking about? Is something else going on that I don’t know about?”

Trey got up from the couch and went into the kitchen. He started to pour himself another drink when Susan stopped him.

“Susan, I’m not in the fucking mood. Honestly, I just want to be left the fuck alone!”

“What has happened to you? I’m starting to not even know who you are anymore. You need to cut this shit out and you need to do it now! It’s not like the series is over. You still have a game on Tuesday night. You are still up three games to two.”

“It’s not about that,” Trey replied.

“Then what is going on? I can’t help if you don’t let me in. What is going on?”

Trey knew he needed to talk to someone about what happened. If he didn’t, it would continue to eat him up. Susan was one of the few he could trust with anything. He knew whatever they talked about would stay between the two of them, but he also knew it would come at a price. How could he tell her everything?

Trey had been trying to reconcile with her for over a year now and rekindle their past relationship. Each time, Susan would turn a blind cheek to his attempt. When she caught him cheating on her, that tore her apart. She’d let him into a place within her heart that she’d never let any man in before, and for him to turn around and hurt her so much, she could never forget that. Forgiving him was the easy part, it was the forgetting that was holding them back. Trey knew the minute he told Susan everything, his chances of getting back with her would become slim to none.

“Okay, if I tell you, you have to promise one, not to get mad and two, not to hold it against me.”

“Then I’ll pass. I don’t want to know.”

“Huh?”

“Trey, if you want to tell me, cool, I’m here and ready to listen.
But I’m not going to sit here and make you a promise that I might not be able to keep. I don’t know how I’m going to react to what you tell me. So if you don’t want to tell me, fine.”

“Why do you have to make things so difficult? Shit, why can’t you just agree and let it be!”

Susan walked out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Trey asked.

“If you aren’t telling me, then there is no need for me to be here. Again, I don’t know nor like this person you are right now. This isn’t the man I know so I’d rather leave than be around you.”

“Wow!” Trey said, speechless.

As Susan turned to head toward the door, Trey grabbed her arm to stop her.

“What, Trey?” Susan asked.

“I threw the game. We didn’t lose, I threw the game. I made sure we lost.”

Now Susan was speechless. She was at a loss for words. All she could do was stand there and stare back at him.

Trey continued. “You were right about Slim. My knee started to bother me again and the team doctor started talking about I might have to get it scoped. I didn’t want that, we’re in the middle of a championship run. That was all I needed was to find out that I might have torn something and I’m out for the play-offs. So I got scared and called Slim. That is why he was at the game.”

Susan’s facial expression clearly explained how she felt about the situation.

“And let me guess, Trey, Slim gave you something to take away the pain?”

“What other choice did I have? He only gave me enough for the play-offs, nothing serious. I didn’t want to tell you and you get upset. I didn’t know what to do, this was the only way.”

“Fine, what does this have to do with you throwing the game?”

“Before I asked Slim for the valium he asked me to throw the game. He said we were favored to win since it was a home game. He
could place a bet on the game and if Dallas won by five or more, he’d get a big payday. I was so pissed when he asked me. I couldn’t believe it. Then I find out about my knee and I had no choice.”

“No, you had a choice, but the one that you should have chosen you didn’t. You chose the easy way out. Do you remember what those pain pills did to you? Because I damn sure do and do you remember how you almost lost your career over trying to get off them? What if management finds out you are back on them again? Have you thought of that? And you wonder why I get on you about him. He is the reason you almost lost your career and look, it’s happening all over again. That man is no friend of yours but no, you keep wanting to associate with him.”

“Susan, it is only for one, maybe two games, but now I don’t want to even play. I can’t even look at myself in the mirror after last night. You know, in the beginning, I wasn’t even trying to lose the game. I really was off and having a bad game. I mean, I thought it was a sign from Christ. The day I’m asked to miss and not perform I actually couldn’t hit a shot. But go figure, the night I’m off, the team is on fire. Irony is so funny.”

Trey paused as his emotions started to get the best of him. “Then in the fourth I could see if I didn’t do something either Slim wouldn’t cover the spread or we’d actually win and that’s when I did a couple things here and there to make sure we’d lose.”

The light went on in Susan’s head. “The foul with a minute left.”

“Yeah, that and a few others. I played off Wilson when he hit the three and I made sure I didn’t get the inbounds pass when we were down three.”

“Do you know if you get caught, you’ll be banned from the league? There goes your career and any front office or coaching position. Basketball is over!”

“I don’t even care about all that, Susan. I mean I do but that’s not what’s bothering me. What bothers me the most is something I’ve worked my entire career for was finally right there within my grasp. I mean, after we lost in the finals last year, I was determined
to never experience that feeling again. To be so close, and not win, it almost devastated me. And here I’m afforded another opportunity to seize the moment and I throw it.”

Tears started to well up in Trey’s eyes. Even though Susan was extremely disappointed in him, she knew what he needed most from her was her support. She could see the pain this was causing him. He needed to know someone was on his side and everything was going to be all right. She went over and hugged him.

“Look, everything is going to be okay. I know you can play better than you did last night and so do you. You had an off night, threw the game, and yet y’all still almost pulled it out and got the victory. I’m not worried and you shouldn’t be, either. You’ve learned your lesson from this. So Tuesday night, Dallas just needs to be prepared to find a good vacation spot for the summer because you are going to play your ass off and bring that trophy back to D.C. where it belongs. They won’t even know what hit them.”

Trey couldn’t help but smile. Susan was right. He needed to put that game behind him and take all his frustrations out on Dallas Tuesday night.

“You are right! You are absolutely right.”

“I know I am,” Susan replied.

Trey kissed her on her cheek and then her lips. Susan missed the softness of his lips. She started to kiss him back and they were soon locked in to their passion.

“No! Stop! Stop! We can’t do this,” Susan said, stopping herself from going too far.

“Susan, please! I miss you so much,” Trey pleaded.

“No, I can’t. I’ll always be your friend, but I can’t and won’t put myself back into a position to allow myself to get hurt. I can’t and I won’t.”

“Susan, please just trust me. Trust the fact that I’ll never hurt you again. I promise. I just need you in my life.”

“I’ll always be your friend and a part of your life, but I can’t do it, Trey. I’m sorry. I just can’t!”

“You know faith and trust go a long way. I can’t change the past and I wouldn’t want to except to remove the hurt that I caused you, but the past made me a better man. And for that, I’m so grateful. I just want you to allow me to show you the man I’ve become, so you can forget the man I was. I’m not even asking you to commit to me right now, just give me the opportunity to show you. I just want you to look and watch my actions. Allow them to show you what I’m about and how serious I am.”

“I don’t know, Trey,” Susan replied.

“Please, just give me that. Just give me that little bit of hope and I know Christ will do the rest.”

“You sure sound awfully confident.”

“That is because I am. It helps when you know the outcome.”

“Is that right? Well at least you are starting to sound like the Trey I know. I’ll tell you what, you promise me you’ll go out there and win the championship on Tuesday, and stop taking those pain meds, and I’ll think about it. I’m not promising we’ll get back together, but I’ll at least think about it. But if you hurt me or lie to me …”

Trey put his finger over Susan’s mouth, hushing her.

“Say no more. Just leave it at that.”

“Okay, do we have a deal?” Susan asked.

Trey grabbed Susan and pulled her in close. He just wanted to hold her.

“You damn right we do.”

Slim hadn’t heard anything from Candi. She should have been back by now. It was now Monday. Slim had been past her house twice on Sunday and twice early that day. There was no sign of her. Every time he called her cellphone it would go straight to voice mail. That surely wasn’t helping the situation. At first, Slim
thought something happened to her. Maybe they were robbed. Even with that, someone would have been picking up that phone to let him know something. His thoughts then shifted to possibly being double-crossed. He didn’t want to believe it, though, so he made every excuse imaginable to kill that notion. Maybe they decided to spend an extra day in Vegas and they were on the plane heading back now. Maybe she didn’t have her charger and since they stayed the extra day she didn’t have a way to call him. He thought of any and every possible thing, but he couldn’t shake the idea that it was likely she was in the wind with his money.

Slim trusted Candi, but even still, in the back of his mind, he left room for the possibility that she would double-cross him. In his line of business, you couldn’t trust anyone and the ones you did, only to a certain extent. Everyone was capable of anything when their backs were against the wall. Slim knew Candi could find seventeen million ways to change the script of their plan and just walk away with all the money. Especially if she actually counted the money to find out that Slim had lied to her about how much they really won.

Sitting around waiting to hear from Candi was driving Slim crazy, so he headed to the club. She’d know to come there once she got into town and he was just going to have to trust that. At least at the club there was always something to do and something to keep him occupied. Usually, talking to Trey would help calm things. Trey was always the other point of view Slim needed to balance himself out. He was the point of reason. But they hadn’t spoken since Trey agreed to throw the game. Slim wanted to call him but his pride wouldn’t let him. He finally decided to swallow it.

As Slim picked up the phone to dial Trey’s number, Ricky and Larry rushed into his office.

“Slim, we’ve got a fucking problem,” Ricky said.

“What’s up?” Slim asked.

“I don’t know how but somehow the entire shipment is in the fucking storage room.”

“What do you mean the shipment is in the storage room? Why would it even be in the club?”

“Slim, how the hell would I know? I just found out my damn self.”

“Okay, okay, we need to think this shit out. Who found it?”

“Larry did.”

“Yeah, I went back there to get shit ready for tonight and I saw the duffel bags. I’m thinking what the fuck? It can’t be. I must be lunchin, so I check and all the powder was in there. I’m talking every fucking key right there in the bags,” Larry said.

“Okay, where is the shit now?”

“It’s still in the storage room,” Larry said.

“Why the fuck is it still in there? We are running a fucking legit business. I’m trying to leave that street shit alone. All I need is my cut of it, that’s it. I’ve hooked y’all up with the connect and y’all were suppose to go from there. Why the fuck is that shit in my fucking club?” Slim asked as he pushed all the stuff on his desk to the floor.

“Slim, you know we would never disrespect you like that. I’m telling you, I don’t know what the fuck is going on. The last shipment we got was on Thursday, you can ask Candi.”

“Why would I ask her? What does she have to do with anything?”

“Candi went with us. She can vouch. I’m telling you I don’t know how the shit got here but please believe when I find out, I’m going to handle it. That you don’t have to worry about.”

“Fuck all that right now, we need to get that shit out of here,” Slim demanded.

“EVERYBODY GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! DON’T NO ONE MOVE!” someone yelled outside the door.

“Shit, this isn’t happening. Shit!” Slim yelled.

As he was trying to go out the back door of his office, the police walked in with guns blazing.

“Don’t fucking move!” one of the officers yelled.