Page 33 of Wild Card

I suddenly didn’t want to be in the same room as Elias, especially not with the way Mallory kept glancing between where he was standing and where we were sitting. Did she think he was attractive? Most chicks did, but for some reason the idea ofherthinking that way about him soured my stomach.

“We’re just getting started…I…” She began to argue with her hands out and eyes wild, but I cut her off.

“We’ll get together again soon. In the meantime, text me anything you think of for your article.” I grabbed her pen from her hand and jotted down my number in her notebook, unsure why my stomach knotted at the idea of her having it…or if she’d use it.

Shit, this wasn’t a good idea. If I knew what was good for me, I’d ditch this deal, come clean, and cut ties. But even as I walked away, there was a part of me that wanted to turn around and see if she was still there. A part of me wondered if she’d use the number I’d given her, and the other part wanted to ghost her. I didn’t deserve someone like her. She seemed like someone good and full of dreams, someone happy and still untainted by life. Sometimes I wished I wasn’t a devil, because she was the kind of girl who deserved someone who’d never put her through hell. With me it was practically a guarantee.

* * *

“How isyour devious plan coming along?” my kid brother asked from his spot behind the lawnmower. I was impressed that he’d actually taken the initiative to cut the grass. Usually, he waited for me to come on the weekends to do it.

“Uh…I think there’s some hope for it.” I smiled, thinking of my meeting with Mallory. I refused to acknowledge that I was smiling because of her. It was merely her cooperation with my ridiculous plan that had me grinning like an idiot.

“Sweet. You know, we could totally nail him for some of the endorsement shit he’s been accepting since he hasn’t graduated yet.” My brother wiped his face with the shirt he’d taken off an hour earlier and tucked it into his back pocket.

“Nah…not worth it. I don’t want him to think we’re onto him.” Scotty had shared a piece of information with both of us regarding Elias and I was currently in the process of exploiting it, but if he looked in my direction at all, it would all be fucked.

Kyle sidled up to me, abandoning the yard. “I saw Elias driving out of the physical therapy office the other day.”

I stopped with my hand on the engine, watching my brother, silently encouraging him to continue even if what he’d seen didn’t exactly confirm anything.

“He’s supposedly only seeing one here in Pinehurst…that way no one at RFU knows,” Kyle continued, his hands tapping out a rhythm on the frame of the car. My little brother worried me just a little bit. He’d grieved our father’s passing, but instead of leaning into the things he knew would make Dad proud, Kyle decided to dig into our Uncle Scotty’s business dealings. I didn’t have the time to go to school full time, work, attend shit for the team, and keep an eye on my little brother.

I shook my head back and forth. “Don’t say anything—don’t spread any rumors. It could be something completely unrelated.”

“I wonder how his father feels about it.” Kyle laughed, wiping his forehead with the grease rag I had used for the dipstick. I cringed, grabbing for it.

“Can you at least try to be aware of what you’re doing and what’s around you?”

His eyes danced with amusement. “I can’t promise that, big bro.”

I stuck my head under the hood, ignoring the tiny prick of pain in my chest. I knew he was running deals with Scotty. It would have been one thing if Scotty was some idiot, low-level runner, but he wasn’t. Scotty worked for some big-shot boss out of New York and was in charge of lower-level deals down the east coast, but my little brother didn’t need to be anywhere near that shit.

“So there’s another rumor…and it kind of connects to your devious plan.” Kyle leaned on his elbows while watching me work. The sun was high, forcing a sweltering kind of heat to swallow us up. I just wanted to be done and head back to school, but I’d promised Kyle I’d hang with him and my mom I’d fix her car for her.

“What’s this one about?” I humored my baby brother.

“Elias Matthews is broke. His family is banking on him going big to get them out of some big financial trouble.”

I looked up, trying to understand what my brother was putting together. “That’s a problem.”

“Indeed. I think we finally figured out why he made that deal…” Kyle gave me a knowing look before returning to his lawnmower. It left me considering a few different options. If money was the driving factor, it would make him more desperate.

Which would make it all the more imperative that I start dating Taylor Beck.

Chapter Thirteen

The sun kept peekingthrough the trees as I walked with Juan and Hillary through campus. We were laughing about something Hillary had said—as per usual because she had no filter—so I didn’t even realize we’d ventured toward the massive baseball field on the opposite side of the school. We never came this way, and since I had no classes until later that afternoon, I wasn’t paying attention to where we wandered.

“Why are we here?” I felt like everyone on the team knew what I had done, especially seeing that little group meeting I witnessed at the bar and knowing it was Elias who’d been leading it. I was finally able to connect a few dots after my little café date with Decker. Not a date—it wasn’t a date. I had to keep those thoughts categorized correctly, or else I’d get confused by his easy smiles and flirty behavior.

“Figured Hil and I could scope out this man who had his tongue down your throat the other night.” Juan smiled brightly, his dark shades covering those whiskey eyes. I wanted to punch him, but I was also curious about the players on the team. It was about time I checked out their roster, see who played what…even though I had no idea what ‘what’ was.

I watched as a few players tossed the white ball from glove to glove. “So turns out Elias wasn’t who he said he was…that was just the name he gave me.” We walked closer to the fence, still keeping close to the tree line so we had some coverage.

“Shit…then who was the one in the room with you?” Hillary asked, sipping her iced coffee. Her face pressed against the metal fence while we watched the players run and slide impressively fast to get to their next base.

“Decker James.” I searched the names on the back of the jerseys within my scope of vision to see if I could find him. I should have known by how quiet my two best friends were that something was wrong. Sure enough, as I pulled away from the fence and took in their concerned faces, I saw they were looking at each other with reserved expressions.

---