Curveball (34 page)

She breathed in a silent gasp, covering her mouth with her closed fingers.

Junior followed her eyes to the clear bricks of white powder.

“Is that ...” Her whisper was so hushed she wasn’t sure if he’d heard.

He had. “Cocaine.”

“Maybe it’s powdered sugar.”

He answered her with a frown. “It’s cocaine.”

“Are you sure? Lick it.”

“You lick it.”

“No way, that could kill me.”

His eyes bulged out of his head. “But it’s okay for me to do it?”

“They do it on the movies.”

Their hissing exchange was cut off as the hallway conversation unraveled into a full-fledged
argument.

“Look princess, this would be a lot easier if you could get me more guys; I can’t
keep justifying this much equipment for one player at a time.”

“Hey! I’m pulling double duty here. I got you all the names I could.”

“Oh, not all. I’m beginning to think I brought the wrong girl into this operation.
Your roommate approached me with a name just last night and today, we already had
a shipment.”

“Wait. Cat?”

Cat stiffened upon hearing her name until she realized she was the new topic. She
held her finger up to her mouth to hush anything Junior might have to say.

“How retarded are you?”

Cat and Junior exchanged a worried glance.

Paige continued, her voice rising with each syllable. “Tell me you didn’t bring her
into this. She’s a reporter.”

“She doesn’t want to be, which is why she approached me.”

“No, she’s like freaking Woodward—or Bernstein, whoever the smarter one was. She’s
been onto you from the beginning, which is why she approached you. She’s playing you
and she’s going to destroy you.”

He snorted. “I think I can handle your nanny.”

“Oh really? The Las Vegas Chips demise? That was her.”

“What do you mean? That shit with König drugging the players and getting nabbed? She
brought down the whole team!”

Paige shook her head and buried it in her hands. “We are so beyond screwed. When my
dad finds out about this—what are you looking at?”

Cat widened her eyes at Junior and peered through the cracked doors, fearing Chance
had spotted them. Instead, his gaze was focused down the hallway.

“Fuck!”

He took off in a sprint and pushed the outer door open, spreading light into the hallway
and spilling into their room.

“Oh no.”

“What?” Paige took a step forward but she was still visible through the door’s crack.
She put her hands on her hips. “What did you do now?”

“Where’d she go?”

“Wh- you brought her? Here? Why?”

“I didn’t know ... she came with me and the kid she wrangled.”

Paige threw her hands in the air. “Well you’re screwed and I’m out of here.”

“I have to get rid of her.”

“Good luck. You’re on your own.” Paige turned, heading back toward the gym. She didn’t
make it to the corner before Chance grabbed her arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She whipped around. “I’m not doing ten years for violating a trade embargo. I’m taking
the first plane back to Santo Domingo and if anyone asks, I’ve never heard of you
or your stupid cigars.”

Before she could take another step, he grabbed her and shoved her up against the wall,
where her head slammed with a resounding smack.

Junior lunged forward but Cat stopped him. She silenced him with her finger and shook
her head.

“You dumb twat! This isn’t about cigars. It’s never been about cigars.” He laughed,
holding her up against the wall with one muscled arm. “You really think I’d go through
all of this just to smuggle cigars?”

Tears began to roll down Paige’s face. “Wh- what—”

“Coke, baby. You’re a drug trafficker. And you’re going to be using daddy’s money
to buy cigarettes and soap on the rope for the next forty years in a federal prison
if you don’t help me find that nosy bitch.”

He lessened his grip on her and she slid down the wall, shaking her head. “I can’t
... what are you going to do to her?”

“Shut her up before she goes to the cops.”

Paige sniffled. “How can I get in trouble for this? I didn’t even know—”

“Just shut up and let me think for a second.”

“I just thought it was cigars. They can’t hold that against me, can they? Chance?”

“Shut up!”

“But I—”

He slapped her across the face and she cried out, “You’re no good to me anyway. I
don’t have time for your bullshit.”

Junior lunged again, and this time Cat couldn’t hold him back. He slipped through
her desperate grasp, bounded through the doors and sprinted toward Paige in the hallway.

Chance had already turned the corner when Junior made it into the hallway. A second
later the gym door banged.

Junior knelt down beside a sobbing Paige.

“Junior? What are you doing here?”

Cat joined them and gently cradled Paige’s chin. She frowned at the red mark marring
her soft cheek.

“Oh.
You’re
the player. I get it.” Paige looked at her with streaming eyes. “Cat, I didn’t know,
I swear.”

Cat shook her head, still whispering. “What did you get into, Paige?”

“I just gave him a few names of guys we didn’t need. Guys that Joe said he didn’t
want.”

Junior sighed. “Why? You knew he was using them, Paige.”

Paige began sobbing again. “I don’t know. He made me feel important. And smart. It
was like for once I got something on my own.” She wiped her nose. “Wh- what are we
going to do? We have to get out of here.”

Cat looked around to make sure they were still alone. “Come on, it’s not safe out
here. He’s gonna come back the second he realizes we’re not out front.” She nodded
toward the storage room. “I’ve got an idea. Help Paige up.”

Paige stumbled to her feet. She wiped her nose and looked at Cat. “Is that my dress?”

Cat rolled her eyes and held the door open as Junior helped Paige into the storage
room.

She closed the door behind them. “We’ll wait for him to run back by and when he goes
out to the field, we’ll get the hell out of here.”

Junior kicked a bag of cocaine. “What about
this
? The second we leave, he’s gonna move it.”

Cat looked around, noticing her hands were empty. “My cell phone, where’d it go?”
She paused. “I left it on the bench outside.”

Junior blanked. “Mine’s still in my bag outside.”

Cat turned to Paige. “Do you ... do I even have to ask?”

Paige gave her a lopsided smile, wincing momentarily and bringing her hand up to her
cheek. “Never.” She reached for the back pocket of her designer jeans and unbuttoned
the flap, pulling her smartphone out of the embroidered horseshoe. “What do you need?”

“I know it’s dark in here, but can you get pics of this?”

“Psh. Dark schmark.” She pet the top of the phone. “This baby has a built-in flash.”

Cat smiled at Junior.

Paige continued the photo shoot, maneuvering around the equipment bag while holding
her rib. She showed the screen to Cat. “Clear, huh?”

Cat nodded, excited.

“I could be team photographer with this phone.”

Cat placed a hand on her shoulder. “Okay great. But we’re not looking to submit these
to Nat Geo. We need to get out of here, call the police and show them.”

Junior shook his head. “No, no, just call the police right now.”

“I know from that cheesy accent you put on that you’ve seen
Scarface
. Do you really want to be caught in a recap of the last five minutes? We want to
be out of shooting range before the police come.”

“What if he comes in here before going back out to the field?”

Cat didn’t say anything for a second and then nodded. “You’re right. Call nine-one-one,
Paige.”

Paige finished her close-ups. “I’ll send them these. In a text. It’ll have our location
and everything.”

“You can do that?”

“I’m sorry, did you want a tin can and some string?”

“Let’s just call and give them the pics when—”

“It’s sent.”

“Call anyway.”

“You’re seriously like a hundred years old. Now I see why you went for the sedan.”

“Call.”

Junior sighed. “Paige, just call.”

“Paige, hand me the phone.” The new voice meant their three-way conversation just
became a four-way.

The three of them turned to the doorway. Chance held an empty hand out for the cell
phone. His other held a silver handgun.

Cat held her breath.

Paige did the opposite, screaming when she saw the gun. “Chance, no!”

“Nice and slow.”

Paige looked to Cat and nodded with more tears in her eyes. “Do what he says.”

As Paige held out the cell phone, a Louisville Slugger slammed down on Chance’s hand.
The gun fell to the floor.

Both girls screamed.

Junior took another swing with the bat, this time smacking Chance across the back.
Shouting out in pain, the dirty agent fell to his knees.

Junior no longer put on his accent with Chance. “Too bad we never got to the cages.
I was really looking forward to showing you my swing. This one’s my home run drive.”

He brought the bat back but Chance charged him before he got it off his shoulder.
The men fell to the floor, rolling, until Chance gained advantage on top. He ripped
the bat out of Junior’s hand and held it to his throat.

Junior began gasping for air.

“Chance! Get off of him.” Paige charged the two and rammed the pointy toe of her calf
boots right in Chance’s ear.

“Bitch!” Chance yelped and pulled his hand off the choking bat, cradling his ear.

Junior took the moment to push him off and stumble to his feet.

“Come on.” Cat pulled his arm and pushed Paige in front as the three hurried out the
door into the dark hallway.

“Which way, which way?”

Cat pointed to the exit door. “Turn right, the door’s that way.”

Junior hobbled along behind them, still gasping to catch his breath.

Cat hit the door first. Her heart dropped when it didn’t move. “It’s locked!” She
flipped open the white box and stared at the glowing keypad. “Paige, do you know the
code?”

Paige shook her head.

Junior jiggled the handle. “We gotta get out of here now.”

She frowned. “Junior, do you—”

The hallway lights flipped on above them, robbing them of the dark camouflage.

Paige gasped and Cat clamped her hand over her mouth. “Shh!”

All three heads looked around. Chance wasn’t in sight but jogging footsteps echoed
down the hallway.

Cat pointed to the interior door behind Paige. “There.”

They hurried into a tiny mop closet. There was barely enough room for the mop bucket
and they were smashed together in a panting huddle. Cat closed the door behind them,
holding onto the door handle with a tight grip.

“I was able to send the text to 911 before Chance stopped us. We can just wait here
until the cops—”

Paige stopped as steps approached. Metal clanged as the exit opened and sunlight flooded
beneath the closet door. The light began to fade and the door slammed shut.

The three took a collective sigh of relief until a shrill beep sounded from Paige’s
pants.

She bit her lip as both Cat and Junior glared at her.

“My phone.”

The door re-opened just as the phone beeped again.

The footsteps began to approach, stopping right outside the door.

“Paige, shut the damn thing off,” Cat whispered.

She pounded the buttons. “I can’t. It’s part of my emergency app. It beeps so that
when help arrives they can find you.”

Cat clamped her hand over the doorknob, but it began to rotate in her tight grip.
She wrapped her other hand around it and squeezed but the metal turned in her palm
anyway. The door swung open.

Chance held the gun in his hand once more. “Out.”

Cat looked at Junior. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling.

Cat slunk out of the closet first, her hands in the air. She refused to make eye contact
with Chance and took a wide step to the other end of the hallway.

Paige stepped out next, shaking her head as she walked past Chance. “Chance, please.
Just let us go and we won’t say anything—”

He smacked her so hard across the face with the back of his hand that she slammed
into the cinderblock wall.

“My God woman, don’t you ever shut up?” He took a step forward toward her.

Cat’s hands flew up to her mouth, covering her fearful gape. Out of the corner of
her eye, she saw Junior staring at her. He nodded his head behind her. Cat turned
around and saw what Junior meant.

She took another look at Paige, who was slumped against the wall. Chance was edging
toward her.

“I thought you could make my job a little easier but no. All you’ve done is bitch
and whine.”

Cat reared her arm up and braced herself. This was going to hurt.

Taunting Paige, Chance said, “I want this. I want that. My daddy doesn’t love me.”

Cat jammed her elbow into the fire alarm’s tempered safety glass. It broke into small,
crumbled chunks. Before the pain could surge through her body, she grabbed the white
tee and pulled the alarm down.

“Well, do you blame—”

A piercing siren echoed and the sprinklers blasted the hallway.

Chance stopped his derision and looked up at the ceiling. “What the—”

He brought his wet head down just in time to meet Junior’s fist. It hit him square
across the jaw. He stumbled back and slipped on the wet linoleum, hitting the ground
head first.

Cat grabbed Paige by her shaking hand. Junior rushed behind the girls, pushing forward
on both of their backs with an open hand.

“Run!”

The three sprinted round the corner, slipping on the wet surface but maintaining their
balance. They hit the gym door and just like the exit, it didn’t budge.

Cat saw the white box on the side of the door. Her stomach dropped. “This one’s locked
too.”