Page 14 of The Catcher

Even though every mile I went took me farther and farther away from Tanner, I felt more nervous, not better.

It wasn’t over.

6

After an uneventful flight, I was at my favorite hometown bar with my friends later that night when I realized I had forgotten to turn OFF my phone’s push notifications for major league news.

Tanner Courtenay’s offensive woes continue, but his defense is stronger than ever

I jammed my phone on silent and shoved it in my back pocket.

This was my weekend to forget about Tanner and relax without having to worry about him. I had already blocked his number and I wasn’t going to think about him until Monday.

But I was only one mojito into my dinner out when I got a call from Lou.

“You gotta get back here, Emrys!”

“Why? What’s happened?” I cried.

“It’s Tanner,” he said unnecessarily. “He’s been arrested.”

After spending all night in airports and taking red-eye flights, I spent Saturday morning doing interviews until my head was aching from the phone pressed against my ear, and I was exhausted.

The bar was not pressing charges. The other gentlemen involved in the alleged incidentl were not pressing charges. Mr. Courtenay just wanted to put the whole thing behind him and focus on baseball.

But all the time my eyes were burning, aching with tiredness from my overnight flight and lack of sleep.

He did this on purpose.

He did it just to fuck with me, just because he had told me not to go home and I did anyway. Just because it would be more work for me. Because he wanted to control me. Because. . .I didn’t want to think about any other reason why.

I rested my head on the side of my cubicle. I had come directly from the airport to work, and I was still in my clothes from yesterday. I could hear Tanner as I walked down the hallway to one of the clubhouse rooms. He was leaning back in his chair, balancing on one leg, the whole set of his body cocky. From my angle, I could see the whole length of his body, the endlessly long legs, casually propped up on the table, the broad width of his shoulders. I knew his face would have that shit-eating grin.

Suddenly, I was filled with a cold rage. Iknewhe had done this on purpose, just to ruin my weekend, to ensure that I came back.

I walked up behind him. He was such a cocky motherfucker that he never bothered to listen for anyone coming. I saw a few of the other players’ heads start to pop up and look cautiously at me, but I ignored them.

I wanted to grab his dark hair, gouge those cold gray eyes out, but before I could get up the courage to do anything,Tanner snapped his head around, and I saw that malicious smile cross his face. He jumped up, putting an elbow on my arm and steering me out the door into the hallway to the stadium.

“Damn you,” I said, forcing my voice not to tremble. “I had to be on a plane all night.”

“Itoldyou not to go, Em,” he said, his voice silky with malice. “I told you very distinctly and you disobeyed me. And this is what happens when you disobey me.”

He grabbed my hair and shoved, driving my head directly into the big bucket of ice water the team kept in the hallway.

I cried out, my breath burbling in the frigid water, and felt the suffocating terror of my head being held forcefully under the water.

I struggled, trying to push up with my hands, but he was too strong for me, his grip like iron. He drew me out, my face throbbing with the sharp pin-pricks of cold.

“You ok, baby doll?” he asked, that malicious quirk to his mouth. He stroked my head, in a terrifying parody of comfort.

I gasped for breath, taking great, shuddering gulps of air, and Tanner drove me down into the ice water again.

The water felt even colder this time, the waves slopping out of the bucket and all down the front of my dress. He didn’t let me up until my lungs were bursting.

“You could have fucking killed me!” I choked fearfully, wiping the water from my eyes. I could feel my teeth start to chatter.

Tanner was so close that I could see the jagged scars from sliding into home plate on his face, the muscles standing out across his broad chest in his loose raggedy sleeveless shirt.

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