Bluegrass Undercover (4 page)

Cade thought the steam coming from his ears was visible. He had never been met with such indifference before. Yes, it was hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch, but it was August in Kentucky and it’s always hot and humid. You just say, “Damn, it’s hot,” and move on. But his players were lagging. They weren’t even trying to run the drills at full speed. Shoot they weren’t even running them at half speed. Some of the freshmen were trying and Trey Everett was trying, but that was it.

“
Okay. Players with the last names E-H go with Coach Parks for drug testing. First strings get on the field. We’re going to try to run a play at full speed.” Cade blew his whistle and watched as the starters meandered onto the field.

Center Lee Faust snapped the ball to Austin Colby, the junior quarterback, who handed it off to Trey for a run. Trey blew through the defense and scored. Cade blew his whistle and tried to remember they were just kids.

“
Bonner, get over here!” He watched as Corey Bonner sauntered over with a bad attitude written all over his face. “What is the matter with you? This is a simple play and you blew it. You didn’t even try to tackle Everett.”

Cade watched as all two hundred and twenty-five pounds of Bonner went from cocky teenager to pissed-off teenager.

“
What do you know about it? You’ve never coached before. You can’t tell
me
what to do. I’m the only all-state player you got on this team, and I’ll do whatever the hell I feel like doing. Now step off.” Bonner turned to go back onto the field and Cade snapped.

“
Bonner, get your ass back here. You leave when I tell you to. Now, you will stand here, listen to me, fix your attitude or ride the bench all year.”

Cade knew when someone was itching for a fight. After four years in special ops you could tell the second someone decided to fight, and by the set of Bonner’s shoulders, he had decided in favor of it. Cade watched as Bonner spun around and shoved Cade with all his might. Bonner may outweigh him by fifty pounds, but Cade had stayed in special ops condition. He took the hit but didn’t budge.

“
See, if you hit lower like you were supposed to, you could have moved me.” Cade wasn’t given the chance to continue with his lecture. He saw Bonner’s hand close in a fist and stood still, waiting for the punch to come so he could deflect it.

“
What do you think you are doing?” Cade took his eyes off of Bonner as a red headed woman jumped in between them. Bonner didn’t react fast enough and let go with the punch intended for Cade. Cade lunged forward, but the woman had already handled it. She easily blocked the punch with her forearm and grabbed Bonner by the front of his football jersey.

“
You want to try that again, kid?” Annie asked him as she got up in his face.

Here Annie was just coming out to get a group of kids for their orientation and she walks in on a fight. Clearly this coach couldn’t take care of the matter, so it had been up to her. She looked into the boy’s eyes and wasn’t surprised to see them dilated and crazed. He was much taller than she was, so it was easy to look at his pulse in his carotid artery. It was pumping feverishly and slightly erratically. His face was beet red and his body clearly agitated. She had just found her first lead. This kid was definitely on S2. Bonner slapped her hands away and took a step back, staring down his coach.

“
Yo, this bitch just saved you. Next time you try to chew me out she won’t be around to save you.”

He turned and headed into the locker room, leaving the field momentarily stunned. Cade was a badass and everyone on the field knew that, except Bonner and this woman apparently. Cade couldn’t believe this curvy spitfire thought he couldn’t handle a teenager. She had put herself right in the middle of a highly volatile situation with someone two times her size.

“
The better question is what do you think you are doing? Do you know how idiotic it was to get in between us?” Cade’s hands went to his hips as he stared down into the dark green eyes of the woman in front of him.

“
Well, excuse me for saving you from an embarrassing ass beating from a teenager.” She mimicked his stance.

Who was this woman? Whoever she was, she was very amusing. Cade smiled as he rocked back on his heels. Confusion clouded those beautiful eyes, and that gave him a bit of pleasure he realized.

“
Do you really think he’d beat me up?” Cade asked as his smile grew.

“
Yes, “ she answered without hesitation.

Cade’s smile slipped and he felt his ego deflate under her withering stare. She should be an interrogator. He bet she could make any man feel so low that he’d say anything to get back into her good graces. She was beautiful, but in that unassuming way that just made her even more desirable. She was normal height, fit, but not like the actresses Hollywood pushed out. She was strong, curvy, and quite voluptuous. He never understood that old description, but now he did.

“
He’s a rabid dog. You better take care of him or he’ll take your whole team out.” Annie quickly lowered her eyes to check him out. He was tall, probably six one. Dark blonde hair slightly longer than a buzz cut. His hazel eyes conveyed that he was not just some dumb jock. And a body, well, he had a body that reminded her it had been almost two years since she had been… oh never mind. She raised her eyes in a span of a blink, but he had noticed. Most men were so caught up in her chest they never noticed when she was surveying the area or even them. But he did, and by the cocky smile on his face, she guessed he knew she liked what she saw. Just as fast as the smile came, it went.

“
I just drug tested him this morning, and after what I just saw, I’m pretty sure we both know how that test is going to come out.” Cade knew he was about to lose his star defensive player, but why? He had a spectacular season last year, and there was no way he was on drugs then. Why now?

“
Test the levels of magnesium. If it’s very high, then you know you are probably dealing with S2. It’s a new drug on the market for athletes. Have you heard of it?” Annie watched his eyes to see his reaction, but there was none but curiosity.

“
No, I haven’t. But, Keeneston isn’t really known to be on the cutting edge of anything, especially a new drug I haven’t heard of before. It’s most likely plain old steroids.”

“
But see, the high levels of magnesium, which is used for the prevention of muscle cramping, is a sign it’s not plain steroids. If it shows up high, you’ll need to send it out for a chromatography/mass spectrometry reading. It’s the only way to test for S2. It will come up looking like steroids, but is masked by heavy doses of probenecid, which prevents excretion of the steroid into the urine.”

“
I have two questions.” Cade watched her become slightly hesitant before she nodded her head for him to continue. “First, who are you? Second, how do you know this?”

“
Oh, sorry! I’m Annie Hill, the new guidance counselor. I just came out here to gather some of the freshmen for their orientation.”

“
Nice to meet you, Ms. Hill. I’m Cade Davies, head coach and also the biology teacher.” Cade stuck out his hand and she shook it. “Now, how did you know all of this?”

“
I saw it at my old school. One of our kids died from a heart attack after using it. He was sixteen. The school had run a regular urine test and didn’t detect it. If they had run the chromatography/mass spectrometry, they would have. It’s an expensive test, but if you have a hunch that a player may be taking it, it’s the only way to prove it.”

“
I’ll order it for the whole team then.” Cade ran his hand through is hair in frustration. These were good boys. What were they doing hooked on drugs? He then turned his attention to her.

“
Thanks, but I need to get back to practice. Hurry up with the orientation. We’re behind schedule.” Cade turned back to the field to see his receiver miss another catch.

“
Hey, Coach.” Cade turned back to Annie when he heard her call out to him. “Tell your QB he’s focusing on his target receiver too soon.”

Damn if she wasn’t right. But she turned around on her heel, and he watched what could only be described as her mesmerizing backside as she walked away from him. Who was this woman?

* * *

Cade tossed a bottle of beer to his older brother Marshall and took a seat on the new couch in his living room. Actually, most everything in the house was new. He had been living with Marshall while his house was being renovated and updated. His brother lived two pastures over, about a mile or so to the south. His parents were another mile to the southwest, and his oldest brother Miles lived about two miles to the west.

His family was very large, six children, and very tight knit. He, Marshall and Miles had gone off after 9/11 and joined the Army Rangers. Two years later they signed up for a classified elite Delta Force. All three of them had made it in after a rigorous test and training period. He had helped in rescue missions of dignitaries that no one had ever known about, or would ever know about. He had rescued, killed, and garnered intelligence for his country for four years before coming home, completing his education and becoming a teacher.

His other brothers were surprised when he chose to teach instead of going into business with one of them. While they were overseas in the Army, Miles had started buying up small tracts of property surrounding his parents’ farm. He and Marshall liked the idea, and so they too started buying small tracts whenever they came up for sale. As a result, the Davies family now had a huge spread in Keeneston, where his parents raised vegetables and he and his brothers had a cattle ranch. But, like his brothers, it was just a hobby. Miles was a corporate tycoon who helped small family farmers fight against the big corporations, and Marshall owned his own security firm in Lexington. His younger brother Cy was the black sheep. No one knew what he did, and Cy hadn’t felt like telling them yet. He technically had cattle on the farm but was hardly ever around to take care of them. As a result, he shared the profits with his brothers who took care of them for him. His youngest brother Pierce was a graduate student in agriculture at the University of Kentucky. He liked to plant things and watch them grow. Finally, there was his sister Paige who was going to be the first one of the Davies’ kids to get married. Her fiancé Cole Parker was a good guy – FBI, but more importantly cared for and loved his sister.

Now Cade’s mother had gotten it in her head that all her kids should marry and settle down. She’d even made a wager with the Rose sisters at the Blossom Café about when Paige and Cole would have a baby. Every Sunday night the whole family gathered for dinner, and her mother always had a new “friend” she wanted one of the boys to meet.

“
Mom said she has a new friend she wants me to meet,” Marshall complained. Marshall slumped on the couch and sighed. He was an inch taller than Cade, and instead of having his dark blonde color, he had the same brown that ran in the family. All the brothers looked similar, the differences being their facial features. They all had hazel eyes, but Cade had sharp angles to his face, giving him an old-fashioned, aristocratic look compared to Marshall’s more square face complete with a sharp nose that was slightly crooked.

“
Where did this friend come from?”

“
A dental hygienist from when she got her teeth cleaned yesterday. Apparently she has a sister…” Cade groaned, so that was why his mother had called him earlier today.

“
I think I already got a call about that. Speaking of women, I met the most confusing, frustrating, sexy woman today.” Cade took a drink from his beer and slouched back on the couch with his brother.

“
Really? Don’t tell Mom or she’ll reserve the church. So, who is she?” If Cade didn’t know his brother so well, he would think by his posture he didn’t care, but his eyes were the giveaway. Marshall was dying to know.

“
Annie Hill, the new guidance counselor.”

“
What did she do?

“
She walked right into the middle of a Corey Bonner steroid-induced meltdown. Sent him packing when he threw a punch and then, well, then she told me she was protecting me!”

Marshall choked on his beer, “She said she was protecting you? From a kid?”

“
Yup, she said she didn’t think I was able to protect myself. I couldn’t believe it.” Cade shot him a glare as he started laughing. “Stop laughing, Marsh. It, um, gets worse.” Cade ran a hand over his face, embarrassed to tell him the rest.

“
How could it get worse?” Marshall said between chuckles.

“
She identified the problem with my quarterback on the pass plays in under a minute.” Cade hung his head as Marshall’s chuckles turned into laughter.

Cade took another drink of beer, but he had a feeling that it did not matter how much he drank, Annie Hill had taken up permanent residence in his mind.

Annie tossed her car keys onto the small, worn kitchen table and carried the bag of frozen dinners to the freezer. She needed to hurry and check in with her boss. She should have done it yesterday, but she kept putting it off.