He walked to the door before he could say anything else. His phone buzzed, it was a text from Jayson,We need to talk.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Los Angeles to Atherton
Piper was standing in the kitchen when the call came through. Protein shake in one hand, phone face-up on the counter. It was Jayson and he answered on the third ring.
“Be at the airport at four. I need you to fly to Atherton.”
“I have practice.”
“That’s been handled. I have some people I would like you to meet.”
Piper set the shake down.
“I’m starting a game on Sunday.”
“Yes. That has also been handled.”
Jayson paused. “The car will be at your house at two-thirty.” He hung up without saying goodbye.
Piper opened his text thread with his head coach. The most recent message was from the coach, sent ten minutes prior.Take Monday. See you Wednesday. Travel safe.
Piper headed upstairs and packed. He knew the league did whatever Jayson told them. He was an investor and it was all about making the shareholders happy.
The car was a black Suburban with tinted windows; he didn’t recognize the driver. Piper climbed into the back and the car was already moving before his seatbelt clicked and he watched the valley slide past in the kind of gold afternoon light that looked expensive even when it wasn’t. He looked past his phone. He knew what he would find there: nothing, because nobody who needed to find him in the next six hours was going to, and anyone who might have tried had already been told, except Noah who had already flown back to Seattle.
***
The jet was bigger than the usual one Jayson would put Piper on. Two flight attendants in identical gray, indicated the stairs without speaking, and Piper climbed them slowly to avoid any unneeded pain from his sore ribs. When he got to the door, he saw Jayson sitting in the first row waiting for his arrival.
He had a glass of scotch in front of him and nothing else. Just Jayson, waiting.
“Sit,” he said.
Piper sat as one of the attendants closed the cabin door. Piper felt the pressure change in his ears.
“Your phone.”
Piper reached into his pocket.
“No,” Jayson said. “Give it to the flight attendant.”
The attendant was already standing beside him with a silver Christofle tray. Piper placed the phone on it, and she walked to the attendant station and placed it in a drawer that she locked. Piper knew there was an issue when his phone privileges were taken away.
He watched Jayson, who was watching him.
Jayson slid a folder across the table.
“Read it.”
“What is it?”
“Read it. You have been avoiding it for weeks.”
Piper opened the folder.
The document was similar to the contract he’d signed every year, but now with amended pages.
He read the new clause. Then he read it again.
