Off the Field: Bad Boy Sports Romance (11 page)

I disconnected the call, fairly certain he didn’t know where Cory lived.

“I need to show you something,” I said, looking up at my stepbrother.

“I’ve already seen a lot today.”

“Very funny. I’m being serious. It’s in my suitcase.”

He followed me to the living room where I’d left it. After I hauled it up and onto the couch, I opened it up and brushed my panties aside so he could see the money. When I looked back at him, his eyes were open wide in surprise. Panic then spread across his face.

“What the fuck is that?” he asked, pointing.

“It’s a long story. I found it about a week ago in my closet stuffed in the corner under a bunch of other shit. I’m pretty sure it’s Mack’s money from selling drugs.”

“And you took it?” He asked with an accusatory tone.

“I panicked when I left today. He was about to hit me.”

He sighed. I reached out and put my hand on his arm.

“Look, it’s not your problem, okay? I’ll take care of it. I can afford a hotel, I guess.”

“Fuck that,” he muttered. “I love you, and it is my problem now. He’s probably going to be checking all the motels looking for you. Does he know where I live?”

“I don’t think so. I’m sorry, Cory.”

“It’s fine. You’re not to blame.” He looked at the money. “Well, not completely. I’m going out for a bit. I want you to lock the door and not go anywhere. Understand?”

“Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just promise me you won’t leave this house.”

“Okay.”

He left via the front door. A moment later, I heard his 1972 Mustang fire up. I wonder if he was a bottle of wine, I thought, trying to calm my nerves and not freak out.

Cory

The last thing I wanted was to be surprised by some thug showing up at my apartment on campus. Going to her place to confront him probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but I hoped to make him understand she was off limits even if she’d taken money from him. When she’d told me he almost hit her, the anger welled up in me.

I’d only been to her place once to drop off some money for her to borrow a couple months previously, but I remembered the address. The house she lived in with Mack was on one of the worse neighborhoods around. From what I’d heard about her ex-boyfriend, he was more talk than anything. If I explained to him that she was under my protection, he would likely back off.

After I parked on the street in front of her duplex, I flexed my fingers, making a fist. It had been years since I was in a fight, but growing up I’d protected Heidi’s honor more than once. I got out of the car and walked toward her door. Before I got there, I heard a gunshot ring out from inside the house. Another three shots soon followed. I hit the ground, looking around.

As I tried to figure out what the hell was going on, the door burst open and two men ran out at full speed. They looked at me as they passed, but they didn’t stop. Their hands were empty, which slightly relieved me. When no one else came out, I dialed 911 to call the police.

“This is 911, how can I help you?”

“Someone’s been shot. I came over to my stepsister’s apartment to talk to her boyfriend about something, and I heard shots.”

“Is someone hurt?”

“I don’t know. Two guys ran out really fast.”

“Okay. Stay there, sir. Police and paramedics are on their way.”

The operator took my name and some information. Just as I finished up giving it to her over the phone, three police cars pulled up, slamming on their brakes. I watched as just as many officers jumped out of the cars with their guns drawn. More specifically, they all pointed their handguns at me. Instantly, I raised my hands into the air.

“Hands up, don’t shoot,” I said.

“Get on the fucking ground!” one of the officers said. “I’m not telling you again, mother fucker. Get down!”

I got to my knees, my hands still over my head. They barked more instructions to me. Eventually, three descended on me, cuffing my hands behind my back.

“What the hell is going on here?” a man with a neatly trimmed ginger beard asked.

As he stared down at me on the ground, his partners entered the house. I could hear their shouts as they cleared it room by room.

“I called you guys,” I said. “I just arrived here. You can ask the neighbors.”

“You said you came over to talk to your stepsister’s ex-boyfriend?” I nodded. “And why is that?”

“It’s a long story.”

One of the other officers emerged from the house as the paramedics arrives on scene.

“We got a body,” he yelled.

The one who’d been conducting the interrogation glared down at me. “I suppose you don’t know anything about that, do you?”

“No!” I yelled. “Look, I don’t even have a gun. Don’t you have tests you can run or something?”

“Oh, we’re going to run some tests alright. You’re coming downtown to talk to us.”

As they led me to one of the police cars, a woman with her hair wrapped up in a red bandana walked over. She pointed at me and screamed, “That’s him! He shot him! He killed Mack!”

“Is that one of your witnesses?” the cop behind me asked.

“What? No. I don’t know her. I meant a neighbor probably saw.”

“I’m a neighbor and I saw what he did to Mack,” she yelled then began to cry.

They stuffed me in the back of one of the cars and took me downtown. My mind raced through my options, trying to figure out a strategy before they interviewed me. I had nothing to hide, but I still needed a lawyer. Fuck…I was just with her in the shower naked and now this? Incredulous!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

“Cory? Is that you?”

“Thanks for accepting the charges.”

“What the hell happened?”

“Don’t talk on the phone,” I said. “I’m okay. They’re going to get me a public defender, okay? Do you understand? We don’t have enough money to get me a lawyer.”

“But…”

“I said we do not have enough money to get me an attorney. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. I’m so sorry, Cory,” she sobbed into the phone.

“Don’t. Be strong. I’ll be okay. And you’re safe now.”

Shit. That probably isn’t a smart thing to say over a prison phone, I thought to myself.

“Hey, I have to go. Someone’s waiting to use the phone. Come and see me soon, okay? We’ll figure this out. I didn’t do anything to Mack. Someone else shot him.”

“I love you, Cory.”

While it wasn’t the type of situation I wanted to hear those words from her, they sounded magical to me. Has she always felt this way?

“I love you, too. We’ll talk more soon.”

I hung up the phone, knowing she would never say goodbye.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Two days later, I was in the county jail cafeteria when some guy walked up to me and demanded my fruit cup. I sighed. If I didn’t stand up for myself, the rest of the prisoners would be all over me. Because I wasn’t sure how long I would be incarcerated, I dropped my tray to the floor and punched the guy in the face. The quick jab hit him in the jaw, taking him down immediately.

As I turned around slowly, waiting for anyone else to come up, the other inmates yelled and got to their feet. The guards jumped into action quick, taking me down roughly. After they had my hands cuffed, they pulled me to my feet and got me out of the cafeteria. They took me to the guard in charge of the cell block I was in. I sat down in a chair in front of his desk.

“You’re new, aren’t you?” he asked, his hands folded on the table in front of him.

“Yeah. I’m not supposed to be here.”

“I know, I know. No one is supposed to be in here.” He sighed and shook his head from side to side. “Let me guess, you’ve watched one too many movies or television shows that say you have to be a bad ass when you go to jail or you’re going to get ass raped. Am I right?”

I shook my head side to side slowly.

“Look, I get it, okay. I’m still going to have to punish you because you punched first according to the guards. Take some time and think about how you're going to act while you’re here.”

The guards led me away to a solitary cell. When the slammed the door shut and locked it, the walls seemed to get a little closer. After two days in lock-up, I still hadn’t talked to an attorney. Heidi was aware I was in jail, but I didn’t want to use Mack’s money to get me a lawyer because doing so would make me look guiltier. As it stood, no one knew Heidi had the ten grand.

Waiting on a public defender probably wasn’t the wisest decision, but I didn’t have many cards to play. I sat down on the cot in the cell and took a deep breath. All I could think about was Heidi and how close we’d come to consummating our love for each other. Even though she was in my apartment which was just a few miles away, in my world that was an insurmountable distance.

Heidi

Jail scared the hell out of me, but I had to go see Cory. He’d done so much for me. I didn’t understand why he’d gone to see Mack. If he hadn’t gone, he wouldn’t be in jail. I believed he had nothing to do with what happened, but the female witness claimed she saw the shooting and that he’d pulled the trigger and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

Her entire story was bogus. No one would listen to reason. While I’d never met her before, I was positive she was one of the women Mack had been fucking around with before I decided to leave him. As I waited in line to check-in at the entrance to the visitor’s area of the jail, I thought about my ex-boyfriend. Part of me was glad he was dead.

Once I got through the line of people waiting to visit their loved ones, I waited in a room with a glass wall and booths separating it. I sat down at the very end, close to tears. The whole situation was my fault. If I hadn’t gone to Cory for help, he’d still be in college instead of jail. Guilt caused a knot in my stomach. When he entered the room, it got worse.

I picked up the black phone and waited for him to do the same. We each stared at each other through the glass. . His face looked haggard, as if he hadn’t been sleeping. Is he mad at me? Does he hate me? Our shower together was a distant memory as I tried my hardest not to cry or show any emotions.

“I’m so sorry, Cory…”

“Stop saying that,” he interrupted. “It’s not your fault. You did the right thing coming to me. I don’t know why that lady is lying about me, but I think my public defender is going to be able to get me off.”

“That’s not what he told me.”

He frowned. “The important thing is that you’re going to be okay. You can take care of things while I get out of here. They can’t keep an innocent man imprisoned.”

I reached out my hand and placed it against the glass, knowing it was cliché.

“I love you, Heidi. Don’t ever forget.”

Cory turned to the guard, who motioned for him to come. He hung up the phone and got up. I watched as he walked away. Emotions overwhelmed me. With a zombie shuffle, I left the jail and got back to my car, hating myself every step of the way. Why did this happen? It is my fault. I don’t care what he says, I fucked up. Guilt poured over me like thick gravy as I drove to his apartment.

When I arrived, I went inside and poured myself a glass of wine to settle my nerves. Each drink made me feel worse as I tried to imagine what he was going through in jail. He was strong, but he wasn’t the type of person who did well when locked up. Like me, he just wanted to be free. As I stood in the kitchen leaning against the counter and drinking, I saw a pad of paper on the table.

I walked over and sat down. The notebook was one of his for school. I set my glass of wine down on the table and picked up a pen. A moment later, words filled the page as my feelings burst out of me. When I finished, I scrawled, “Break Free Dearest Stepbrother,” at the very top in all capital letters and underlined it twice. As I read what I’d written, I realized it was like a poem.

After ripping that sheet out of the notebook, I rewrote my feelings as verse. Each line was terser, making the point more powerful. By the time I’d finished half the bottle of red wine, I’d made quite a few changes. I started again on a fresh piece of paper. When I finished writing and read the words, an idea flashed in my mind.

One of the scams Mack had talked about pulling involved using a website called FundrStartr. Anyone could pitch an idea to the world. If people liked the idea, they could donate money or services to bring the idea to fruition for the person who originally posted it. I didn’t want to pull a scam, but I wondered if people would be interested in helping me record a song to raise money to free my stepbrother.

At best, the idea was ludicrous. More likely, I was just drunk and grasping for straws. I got up, grabbed the last version of what had become a song, and headed to his laptop in the living room. Once online, I pulled up the FundrStartr website. A few clicks and a little typing later, I had a page setup to find someone to record my song or help pay for an attorney for him.