Double Play (5 page)

Quinn smirked.
“That won’t be a problem. I rode here with Benji, is he joking with
that toy car?”

She narrowed her
eyes. “Benji is very eco-conscious. His car happens to be
electric.”

“
So’s
a Tesla Roadster.”

“
Well,
going zero to sixty in three-point-seven is just a skosh out of the
price range of his teaching salary.”

“
That’s my point. Maybe you should do what the Plastic Princess
did. There’s a lot of change in this room.” He peeked into the pool
room. “Mohawk in there seemed to take to you.”

“
Adam
Alvarez? He didn’t even know who I was and he thought I was older
than you.”

Not to mention
that he had the gap-toothed overbite of a
Simpsons’ character. When it came to looks versus personality, Adam
had neither. Fortunately for him, he made up for both on the
pitching mound.

Quinn grinned.
“That’s just because I look so young.”

“
Anyway,
I thought
you liked Benji.”

“
I do.
I just want to make sure you’re taken care of.”

“
No,
you just want to make sure
you’re
taken care of, which
brings me to my original point: I’m not going to help you cheat my
players.”

“
What
do you care?” Quinn stood up straight. “That jerk in there makes
millions of dollars a year. I think he can afford to lose a couple
thousand to me in a game of pool.”

Cat’s eyes
bulged. “A couple thou— Quinn, you’re killing me.”

“
I’m
killing
you
? I rode in here on my last tank of gas. The
sooner I can make a little change, the sooner I can get out of your
hair. That is, unless you have money to loan me?”

Cat squeezed her
eyes shut but couldn’t block out his smarmy smile. “It’s not a loan
if you don’t pay it back.”

“
Then
let me earn it.” He pointed toward the pool table.

Cat sighed. She’d
lost this argument before it had even started. “Fine. You’re an
adult, they’re adults. Please make this the last game
though.”

He reached out to
ruffle her hair but she ducked out of the way before he could mess
up her curls.

“
This
is great. I never could’ve got him to go double or nothing if you
hadn’t came in and pressed. You still make a great little sidekick,
just like the old days.”

He managed to
pinch her cheek before she swatted his hand away.

“
Cat?
Everything okay?” Spencer stepped into the room and sized up Quinn.
It was an empty threat. Quinn had nearly a foot on the pint-sized
reporter and could easily hang him from the coat rack if he so
desired.

“
It’s
fine, Spencer.”

The menacing
glower on Quinn’s face melted into amusement. “This is Spencer,
huh?”

“
This
is my half-brother, Quinn.”

“
Brother?” Spencer’s face lit up as he thrust out his fist for
a bump. “Nice to meet you.”

Quinn eyed the
waiting fist with a raised eyebrow and finally relented by bumping
it with his own. “Believe me, the pleasure is all mine.”

He turned on his
heel and strolled back into the game room, immediately placing a
wad of money on the pool table. Cat wondered if their yearbook
pictures were still up at the Joliet Pool Hall. The sandbagging
siblings had used their skills to pay for matinees and Sno Cones
all summer long, until the owner decided their game was hurting his
bar tabs and issued a photographic warning to all their drunken
pigeons, blackballing them
from
any further schemes
.

“
I
didn’t know you had a brother—uh,
half-
brother.”

She smiled at his
self-correction. “Half-brother, full bother. He’s swindling
Soldiers as we speak. I’d go in there but I’m afraid that would
just make it worse. He promised it’d only be one game.”

“
You
want me to keep an eye on him? I can text you when the game’s
over.”

“
You’d
do that?”

Spencer smiled
proudly. “Hey, you got me in here. I figure I owe you one,
right?”

“
Consider us even.”

She followed him
out the door but stopped when a rack of coats on the other side of
the room fell to the floor. She peeked back into the makeshift coat
room and saw Kiki slammed against the opposite door, moaning with
pleasure, her long, bare leg wrapped around a man’s
waist.

Guess they
made up
.

With another
grunt, the twosome switched places and Kiki slid to her knees. As
the man’s head fell back, his eyes met hers. Cat’s hand flew to her
lips to cover the gasp
that
escaped
.

That isn’t
George Hudson
.

She stumbled
backwards, fleeing the doorway before either of them had a chance
to say anything to her.

As she hurried
across the barroom floor, the diamond on her ring finger caught her
eye. She was shocked by Kiki’s philandering, of course, but it made
sense, statistically at least. Her job centered on statistics. How
many home runs a guy hits, how many strikes a pitcher throws, how
many errors a fielder commits—she was constantly consulting these
numbers to form her opinions. How could she not do the same with
marriage statistics? The chance of divorce for the newly married
like Kiki and soon-to-be married—herself—ranged from forty to fifty
percent. Heck, a hitter was considered a sure threat if his batting
average was around thirty percent. With those odds, neither she nor
the naughty Mrs. Hudson stood a chance at the plate.

She shuddered at
lumping herself in with the gold-digging silicone
queen, but her nagging conscience reminded her that she and Kiki
weren’t as different as she’d like to think. During the last
offseason Cat herself had been tempted by Junior DeLeon. The beefy
pitching coach had tested every ounce of her willpower; she’d
barely been able to resist his charms. Hunky dreamboats like Junior
DeLeon were rife in this industry, along with late nights at the
office and long trips across the country.

Once she and Benji married,
c
ould she count on her
willpower to go the distance?

“
One
hundred bucks into four thousand dollars.” Benji’s wide blue eyes
met Quinn’s cynical green ones in his rearview mirror. “Can you
believe that?” he said to Cat in the passenger seat.

Cat cast a look
of disdain at Quinn, stretched across the backseat and leaning
against the door of Benji’s Focus, counting his money with a
pleased smirk.

“
It’s
great. I’ll probably never get another quote from Adam Alvarez, but
at least you made a quick buck.”

Quinn stopped
counting and gave her a hard, flat scowl. “Sis, get over it. He
made nine million this year and is due ten million next year. Quit
acting like I stole his grocery money and his kids are going to
starve.”

“
How
do you know he makes nine million a year?”

He wagged his
cellphone at her. “Mobile ESPN lists player salaries. Always know
your mark, first rule of hustling.” He smacked the back of Benji’s
seat as the car slowed to a stop for a traffic light. “She used to
know these things, Teach.”

“
She
did?” Benji tossed a curious gaze her way before the light turned
green. “How about that? Yesterday I find out you have a brother.
Today I learn you’re a con artist. Can’t wait to see what’s in
store for tomorrow.”

Cat cringed.
She’d chosen to hold back certain unsavory pieces of her life—her
con-man father, her wastrel half-brother, some of the details of
her own hard-scrabble childhood—from Benji but now the jigsaw was
nearly complete.

“
Quinn
worked a couple of summers flipping burgers at a pool hall and
Grams didn’t want me staying home alone so I had to go in with him.
If business was slow, we’d play a couple games, sometimes for
money.”

“
You
hustled pool?”

Quinn sat up
between their seats. “She was the best. You wouldn’t believe how
many belligerent drunks would try to take this skinny little girl’s
allowance.”

A smile crept
across her face, despite her reluctance to take this drive down
memory lane. Quinn caught it and pointed at her.

“
See?
You loved it. Just say the word and we can do it again. Might be a
good way to make some extra cash for your wedding.”

“
Oh I
don’t—we aren’t ….” Cat struggled and finally just shook her head
from side to side.

Benji pulled into
the apartment parking lot. “We’re not sure there’s going to be a
wedding yet.”

“
Oh,
Catty. Don’t tell me courthouse vows? That would kill
Grams.”

Cat stomped her
foot on the floorboard. “Drop it.”

“
Is
this because Dad can’t give you away? Because I’ll walk you down
the aisle if you want, or maybe he’d qualify for a temporary
release.”

Cat was tapping
her foot against the floor of the car with so much force she
thought it might burst through, but she remained silent.

“
Better yet, you could get married in the prison chapel. Your
colors could be orange and black so that his jumpsuit would fit
right in.”

Finally, Benji
turned into their parking stall. Cat shot out, slamming the Focus’s
door behind her.

The tears came
quickly, and she wiped away black streaks of dissolving mascara
with the back of her hand. She quickened her pace, zipping up her
jacket to keep out the chilly October air.

Another car door
slammed and she recognized the hurried footsteps as belonging to
Benji. As he sidled up to her, she sniffed and hoped she had
managed to wipe away the evidence. “I’m fine, really. I momentarily
forgot that Quinn’s just a jerk. Still.”

“
He’s
a brother. If sitcoms have taught me anything, that’s pretty, uh …
par for the course.” He gave her a playful nudge. “Sports metaphor
….”

She smiled and
sniffed again. “Correctly used and everything.”

“
Don’t
give him another thought. You’ve got the playoffs coming up and the
last thing you need to worry about is our houseguest.”

“
Don’t
call him that. Houseguest makes it sound like he’s a welcome
addition to our home.” She sighed and looked back to make sure
Quinn was out of earshot. He was leaning against Benji’s car,
smoking a cigarette and tilting his head back to exhale the long
puffs of smoke.

“
We’ve
got to get rid of him.”

“
What
do you want to do with him? He needs a place to stay.”

She smiled wryly.
“There’s a motel down by the docks that has reasonable hourly
rates. I wonder what they’d charge to keep him for the next couple
weeks?”

“
Actually, I was thinking more like why don’t you and I do
that?” Upon seeing the horror on her face, he laughed. “Not the
no-tell motel! I mean we should get away for a night. There’s a
place that does weddings up by the Falls. I thought we could check
it out tomorrow night.”

“
Oh.
Uh … okay, I guess.”

“
Don’t
sound so excited.”

“
No,
I’m excited. Niagara Falls. It sounds nice.” She leaned over and
put her head on his shoulder as they approached the stairway.
“Especially the part about getting away from Quinn for a
night.”

“
Bam,
sucka!”

“
Oh!”

“
Sorry, bitch. Give this hand a hand
and
all your money
while you’re at it.”

“
I
knew I should’ve folded.”

Cat finally
opened her eyes at the sound of the voices blaring from the other
side of the bedroom door. She sighed as the confusion cleared in
her groggy mind.

Quinn.

“
You
awake?” Benji turned and wrapped an arm over her
stomach.

She groaned and
snuggled into him. “Unfortunately.”

“
This
has been going on for the last hour but it started getting rowdy
about ten minutes ago.”

“
He’s
been here less than twenty-four hours. How has he already made
poker buddies?”

“
Who
wants another beer?”
a male
voice said.

“
I
gotta hit the can
," replied
another.

The phone rang
before she could come up with any theories. Benji reached over to
his nightstand and hooked his hand under the receiver, pulling it
over to his pillow.

“
Hello? Yeah. Yeah. I know, Mr. Finley, I’m very
sorry.”

Cat sighed and
threw the covers off. She knew this was the only warning they’d
get. Every tenant in the building had an Old Man Finley story. The
apartment
next to his
belonged to a single mom who told Cat that the grouch had actually
complained last Christmas morning that her two boys were being too
noisy while unwrapping presents.