“Dude, yeah.” I took another drink and asked the first question. “You played on the baseball team for a little bit a couple of years ago, right? I thought I heard that.”
“I didn’t play, but I was on it for like a fucking second.” He made an annoyed face and glanced at his watch.
“What happened?”
“Is this the second question?”
Oh, he’s a smartass.“No, it’s a follow-up. Don’t be a dick.”
“I’m answering your questions, Maddow. Remember that.” Dillon narrowed his beady eyes and puffed out his chest.
Seeing as I’d faced players who wouldn’t hesitate to pitch a fastball at my body to send a message, this punk ass was the furthest thing from a threat. “I can get you and your boys off any list as fast as I can get you on them. Now explain what happened.”
“Fuck,” he whined and ran a hand over his face like I’d told him all the beer in the world was gone. “I got injured and was told not to report back. Didn’t want that life anyway with all the restraints.” He glanced at his friends and back to me with a light-red blush creeping up his neck. “Where is this coming from?”
“Did you get to meet the entire coaching staff?”
He rubbed his forehead and shook his head. “No. Just…a couple of them. I can’t remember their names.”
“If I showed you a picture of one, would you recognize him?”
“I don’t fucking know. Maybe? Why do you care?”
I didn’t respond. Instead, I opened my phone and pulled up a picture of Martin Rhett and showed him. “Him.”
“Yeah…I remember him. He was one of the guys who met me and my dad when I arrived to campus.” He looked at his watch and sighed. “Is that it? Can you get me on the list?”
“Sure.” I sent a quick text to the guys I knew at Gio’s and showed him. “You and your crew should be good.”
“Hell yeah!” He didn’t say anything else before returning to his group and the excitement of finding out information had me buzzing with a high I hadn’t experienced before. It wasn’t the same as hitting a walk-off to win a game. It was different. I needed to tell Amber.
Shit.
Amber. Her uncle.
I paid for the second beers and met Tanner outside the bar just as he got off the phone. “Hey man, I gotta head out. That cool?”
“No worries. I was about to say the same thing.”
Perfect.
I didn’t even think about texting Amber before knocking on the door in a frenzy of enthusiasm and dread.We have a second confirmed lead. Martin is posing as a coach.The cold air whipped around me and I hit the door harder. It was only nine so it wasn’t like I was too late or anything. It took another minute before the knob twisted and Amber opened the door with a surprised look on her face.
“Jeff. What the hell?”
“I gotta fill you in.”
She ushered me in but stopped me with a hand to my chest. She motioned to the living room with her chin and I followed her gaze. I counted at least six other people on their couches and I felt bad. “Five minutes. That’s it,” I whispered and she nodded. We didn’t have to go through the room with everyone to head upstairs and she didn’t say anything to the group.Is Brandon there?
Woah… Okay, errant thought.
I followed her up the stairs and tried not to stare at her tight black leggings and how they hugged her ass. She wore a large sweatshirt that hung off her bare shoulder and suddenly I wanted more than five minutes with her.
She ushered me into her room and closed her bedroom door, leaning against it with a wary expression. “What happened?”
I paced her room and focused on the information, not the tingle of desire coursing through my body at how good she smelled. “I talked to Dillon and he confirmed your uncle was one of thecoacheswho met him when he got to campus.”
Color left her face and she closed her eyes for a few seconds before meeting mine. There was a sadness to them, but it wasn’t as much as I thought there would be. “How did you get him to confess?”
