Fastball (28 page)

On that thought, anger punched through her
thin façade of control and she jabbed her finger at his chest.
“Listen, Benton, there’s no way I’m going to stand by and let that
happen. Not only shouldn’t you be putting Jake in this position,
you’ve got to come clean for your own sake. Who the hell knows how
Nazarian will react if you let this spin any more out of
control.”

Robbie snickered, almost like he was starting
to enjoy himself. “You ought to be thinking real hard about that
yourself, Maddie. Nazarian isn’t a guy who likes to be crossed—not
by anybody, and that includes a little bitch like you.” He fixed
her with a stare so full of malice she involuntarily took a step
back. “You’ve said your bit. We’re done here.”

He started to walk away.

Maddie’s fury spiked again. “Don’t you dare
turn your back on me, you miserable son of a bitch!” She strode
after him, trying to catch up.

He whipped around, snarling and looking ready
to deck her. Maddie clenched her fists at her sides, ready to
defend herself if necessary. Her heart raced so fast she felt
breathless, but she refused to be intimidated, especially by
someone who could hurt Jake.

“Look, here’s the deal, Benton. You’re going
to stop gambling. You’re going to confess your addiction to team
management and you’re going to get yourself into rehab. Because
it’s either that, or I take this story to my editor first thing
tomorrow. And if you make me go public with this, I’ll nail your
ass to the wall, I promise you that. You’re going down, and I sure
as hell am not going to let you bring Jake down with you!”

Robbie’s gaze turned murderous. His eyes
filled with rage and his features were distorted and ugly in the
harsh glare of the parking lot floodlights. Maddie’s breath caught
in her throat. For the first time, she began to think he might
actually attack her.

“Don’t try to threaten me, you bitch!” he
snarled. “You’re the one who should be worried, not me, and you’ll
back the fuck off if you know what’s good for you.” With that
parting shot, he strode away, jumped into his Lexus and squealed
out of the parking lot.

Maddie stood nailed to the asphalt as she
watched him tear away. His last words echoed in her head. She’d
never been one to scare easily, and she’d never thought she’d be
afraid of a runt like Robbie Benton, but there was no mistaking the
deadly menace in his voice.

Suddenly, she needed to hear Jake’s voice.
She dashed to her car, fishing her remote out of her bag as she
ran. With shaking fingers, she opened her door and practically
leapt inside, throwing her bag onto the passenger seat. After
locking the doors, she drew in a deep, shaky breath, resting her
head against the steering wheel. She had to calm down before she
called Jake. The last thing she wanted to hear were more
recriminations from him that she had stepped into something she
couldn’t handle. Or, even worse, have him fly off at Robbie because
the asshole had threatened her.

She softly banged her head against the wheel.
Yep, she’d totally screwed up, just as Jake had feared. What a
mess.

After several minutes of deep breathing, she
extracted her cellphone from her bag. There were a few missed calls
and two messages, but she was too unnerved to check them. She
dialed Jake’s cell phone, only to get his voice mail. Swallowing
her dismay, she tried again. Same thing. She’d told him she was
coming over right after seeing Robbie. Had he gone out? Was he
avoiding her?

She checked her messages. One was from her
editor, with a question about her column, and the second was from
Jake. Her heart thudded as she accessed it, but it was simply a
brief message delivered in a terse voice, saying he was on his way
to her apartment and that he’d meet her there.

Her heart sank. It sounded like he didn’t
want her coming to his condo, which didn’t bode well. Maybe he
planned to break up with her and wanted to be able to make a quick
exit. After how she’d fucked things up tonight, she couldn’t
entirely blame him.

Even as tears threatened, she gave herself a
mental slap. There was no use speculating, and she wasn’t giving
Jake up without a fight. That was for damn sure, so she’d better
get her ass in gear and get home.

As she peeled out of the parking lot, she
kept telling herself she could fix it—all of it. And if she said it
long enough, she might even start to believe it.

Maddie slowed down to take the turn into her
building’s underground garage. She pressed the remote that was
clipped to her visor, and waited impatiently for the big metal door
to retract. With any luck, Jake would already be up in her
apartment, letting himself in with the key she’d given him just a
few days ago. She hoped like hell the evening didn’t end with him
shoving it back at her.

Once the door lifted high enough for her car
to pass through, she gunned it down the ramp into the garage,
barely remembering to stop and—following the building’s security
rules—wait the ten seconds it took until the door closed behind
her. When she glanced back in her rearview mirror at the door, she
was surprised to see a black sedan right on her tail, its front
bumper almost touching the rear of her car. Where the hell had that
idiot come from?

In a second, a shadow materialized beside her
door—a shadow with a gun, and that gun was pointing through her
open window and right at her head.

“Get out right now or I’ll blow your head
off.”

Maddie felt the blood drain from her face.
She jerked her head around to face the menacing shadow, which
turned out to be a hulking guy who looked like he’d have no trouble
carrying out his threat. Swallowing the bile that rose in her
throat, she unlatched her seatbelt and clambered out of the car.
Her assailant stepped to the side, holding the ugly black gun to
her head.

Oh, God, why hadn’t she been watching her
rear when she pulled into the garage? “What do you want?” she
managed in a quavering voice. “My wallet’s in my bag in the front
seat. Just take it and go.”

“Shut up,” he said in an icy voice. He
reached in through her open window and snatched the remote off her
visor. “Get in my car,” he ordered.

She peered at him, barely able to stand on
her trembling legs. Was he going to take her somewhere and rape and
kill her? She quickly glanced around the garage, looking for help,
or an escape. When she saw Jake’s Tahoe in the place he usually
left it, she choked up. He was already upstairs in her apartment.
Only a few floors away, but he might as well be on the moon for all
the good it did her.

The thug gestured impatiently with his gun.
“Get in the car, and I’m not saying it again.”

Despair threatened to sink her, but she
couldn’t give up. “Front seat or back?” she asked as she edged her
way as slowly as she dared toward his car.

His gaze darted left and right, obviously
worried that someone might see them. “Front, and get your ass
moving before I hurt you.” The chilling tone of his voice made her
want to throw up. Whoever he was, she didn’t think he’d have any
qualms following through on his threat.

The man followed her to the passenger side of
his car. Once she crawled in, he strode around to his side, keeping
the gun pointed at her through the windshield. She could try to
bolt, but she knew he’d shoot her before she even managed to get
out.

He slid in behind the wheel, pressing the
button on her garage remote. When the door rumbled up, he backed
out fast.

“Just keep quiet and stay still, Maddie,” he
said, his gaze fixed on the rear view mirror. “I don’t want to hurt
you, and I mean that. But if you try to do something stupid, I
will. You understand?”

The sound of her name jolted her. Maddie
forced her brain to stop running around in circles and start
thinking. “You work for Nazarian,” she blurted out.

Her captor didn’t answer as he screeched the
car to a halt after a barely-controlled spin into the middle of the
street. When he slammed it into gear and took off, the force of the
sudden acceleration hurled her forward, whacking her head first
into the dashboard.

“Shit!” Maddie cried out, grabbing for the
seat belt as the car turned and rocketed forward. “Was that really
necessary?”

“I’m just doing a job.” He pulled a
handkerchief out of his pocket and tossed it in her lap. “You’ll
probably want to stick that on your forehead.”

Still dazed, Maddie reached up to touch her
face above her right eyebrow. Her fingers came away smeared with
blood, so she snatched up the handkerchief and pressed it hard
against the wound. She hissed with pain as her head started to
clear and the full burn of the wound came on.

It didn’t help that the sedan was barreling
down the street, almost sideswiping parked cars, and every bump it
hit sent a bolt of pain through her head. The car stank of cigar
smoke and sweat and other smells Maddie associated with locker
rooms and bars. The rank odors combined with her fear and pain
until she was pretty sure she
would
throw up if she didn’t
get some fresh air, and soon.

Trying to distract herself, she peered over
at her kidnapper. The view wasn’t reassuring. He looked about
fifty, and his face told her he’d probably been in too many scraps
to count. The nose had probably been broken multiple times, and
there were enough lumps and knobs on both his face and his shiny
bald head to testify to a hard life. Possibly in the ring, or maybe
on the street. Maybe both.

She was in
so
much trouble.

The man was obviously a hired goon, so she
would have to completely readjust her thinking about Joey Nazarian.
Everything she’d ever heard about Nazarian indicated that he was
the usual scumbag bookie, not a mobster. But this snatch and grab
had been frighteningly efficient. What the
hell
was going
on?

Desperate for information, she decided to
push him a bit. “How did you get to me so fast? I only finished
talking to Robbie a little while ago.”

He cut her a quick, assessing glance and then
shrugged his shoulders. “Benton called Joey before the game tonight
and gave him a heads up. The boss didn’t think the little runt had
the stones to get you under control, so he had me standing by. As
usual, Joey was right.”

A flare of anger nudged aside her fear.
Robbie had set the ball rolling on this even before she’d had a
chance to talk to him. “Do you mean to tell me that Robbie knows
about this? That little shit!”

Mr. Goon barked out a laugh. “Yeah, he’s
that, all right. Why the boss puts up with him is a complete
fucking mystery to me.”

Maddie rubbed her aching head, fighting
against despair. How could she have so thoroughly underestimated
Robbie’s reaction to her threats? He was a stupid jerk, but she
could hardly believe he was a party to something like this.

“What’s going to happen to me?” she asked,
even though she dreaded the answer.

“Save your questions for the boss. Now it’s
time to shut the hell up.”

Right.
She was fairly and squarely
screwed. All she could do now was pray that Jake would get
suspicious when she didn’t show up. He surely would, she thought,
and he’d start looking for her. How he would find her was another
question, one that didn’t bear a close examination.

The ride turned out to be a short one. The
man turned hard off Christian onto Ninth Street, then pulled down a
side street and into an alley behind a block of stores in the
Italian Market. Once they were parked, he leaned over, getting
right up into her face. His breath smelled like beer and onions,
and her stomach churned.

“We’re going inside now, so be smart,” he
growled. “Don’t get any ideas about screaming, because I’d rather
not have to really hurt you. You’ll feel the gun in your back, and
you’d better take it seriously.”

Maddie nodded. She knew he wasn’t kidding.
Anyway, a scream or two at this hour of the night in South Philly
wouldn’t exactly bring anyone running to her rescue. That would be
little better than background noise in this neighborhood.

Mr. Goon hauled himself out of the car and
glanced up and down the alley before opening her door and pulling
her out with a surprising lack of roughness. He
was
a pro,
which meant he wouldn’t hurt her unless he had to, as he’d said.
That thought pulled her panic down a notch. Not much, but every
little bit helped.

With a hand on her shoulder and the gun at
the base of her spine, he steered her to the back door of what
apparently was one of the local meat markets.

“Pull that door open and go inside,” her
captor ordered.

She yanked on the metal door, which turned
out to be a lot heavier than she’d thought and her hand slipped off
the handle. When she felt the gun prod her back, she grabbed the
handle again and pulled with all her might. Holding the door open,
she slowly stepped into a pitch dark room. A second later, she
heard the guy’s hand scrape against the wall as he flipped a light
switch. Maddie winced, her eyes watering from the sudden bright
light and her throbbing head. A few seconds later, her pupils
managed to adjust enough for her to take in a fairly big room
filled with several desks, a couple of tables, and multiple
computers and TV sets. Cork boards covered the walls, with slips of
paper pinned here and there on them. Obviously, the meat market
fronted Nazarian’s bookmaking operation.

On the heels of that realization followed the
gut-clenching thought that the bookie was allowing her to see his
operation because she was never going to leave this room alive. But
then again, if he wanted her dead, why hadn’t he just ordered his
thug to cap her right in the parking garage, making it look like a
robbery? Her fear ticked up again as she desperately tried to make
sense of the situation. Would she even live through the night?