Hotbox (27 page)

“Nice doing business with you,” I heard him say, and they drove away.

I went to get in my truck but my father’s voice stopped me.

“Tyler, I’m sorry.”

I froze with my hand on the door and took a deep breath
to keep myself calm
. I turned around and said, “Then prove it. Clean your life up
, or you’ll never see me again
.”

I climbed in and drove away.

Chapter Sixteen

I caught the
team
bus early
Friday
morning to head north. We would
be staying
two
night
s
, hopefully
to play in the
final
game on
Sunday
night. Jayden easily convinced Cali to come up with her for the weekend. I was glad that
she
could stick with
Cali
and Megan because I was really uneasy that Garrett Freeman would be
prowling
about. Jayden promised me she would stay with the girls and some of our other fans as much as she could.

I loved playing baseball, whether it was a regular game during the season, or just a fun pr
actice game with friends. But I’ll
admit that playing in a
big
stadium with so many people watching was an absolute rush. I loved the energy of it.
I was dreading the fact that baseball was reall
y going to be over after this. T
he
idea of working my way into a
professional
team
had been
occupying my mind more often
, but the sad truth was that it just wasn’t meant to be
.
My father’s world of crime would always be
at
my doorstep.

Coach Tucker had offered me the opportunity to play with a summer league team in Portland for eight weeks, and I was seriously considering it. I hadn’t talked to Jayden about it yet, but I knew she would support me one hundred percent. I guess I kind of felt like she was constantly supporting me in everything that I did, but I hardly did anything to show her how much I loved
her
. I knew she didn’t see it that way, but for a guy that had never had such devotion from anyone, I really felt that she spent wa
y too much time on
me.

Our first game
in the tournament
was a team we could easily beat, but we played our be
st like always
. We ended up beating them 5
-1, and after hitting a nearby sub shop,
we returned to the stadium to watch tw
o other teams play each other.
After
winning
our seven o’clock game
4
-2
,
we were sent to our rooms for the
night.
We won both Saturday games, but the
second one was pretty close. The
game carried for eleven innings
until Jack’s walk off
hit
won the game, 6-5.

Sunday
consisted of the c
hampionship game
that could advance us to
the next level, and we were all pretty anxious
.
The ballpark was packed that
night. Coach Tucker knew how excited we all were and he allowed us to hang out with parents and friends (
girlfriends
) for the day to keep our nerves occupied. But the only stipulation was that we had to stay in the stadium—and keep away from Garrett’s team. I knew tha
t Tucker had had a couple of conversations with the other team’s coaches about what had been going on lately, but he didn’t want to take any chances with anything happening between now and the game.

Jayden was with me at all times
and we divided our time among different people throughout the d
ay. At one point we were alone near the top of the
stadium
, ju
st talking about the different teams that were there
.

“So what do you think of all this?” she asked. “The big stadium and all the people. Can you see yourself doing this for good?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. It’s pretty exciting.”

“Have you been considering it, then? Tucker said he’s got some plans lined up for you if agree to it. He knows you’ll be pretty successful.”

I smiled. Tucker was now trying to convince my girlfriend?
I wondered if that meant he’d mentioned the summer league.

“I wouldn’t be able to see you everyday. I don’t think I could handle it.”

“Sure you could. An
d don’t use me as an excuse, Ty. I
f you want it, go for it. We’ll make it work, I promise.”

She
lifted her head off of my shoulder to face me better
, her eyes studying me inte
ntly. I was at that point again
where I didn’t know
what
to choose because I was unsure of how it would affect the rest of our lives. All I wanted was her, and for now that’s all I really cared about. I almost wished that she would t
ell me what she wanted me to do
and I would do it. It would be so much easier that way.

I told her all
of
that and she smiled.

“Easier for
you
. I’m in the same boat you are. I just want to make you happy. I want to be with you as much as I can. I want to marry you someday if you’ll let me.”

“Let you? Are you kidding me? I’ll marry you right now. Let’s go.” I
grabbed her arm
like we were going to make a break for it and she laughed.

“Let’s get you through your game first. Then…
” she smiled and kissed me
,
“…we can talk about the details later.”

I
returned the kiss
until a thought occurred to me. “Wait a minute. Did you just propose to me?”

She laughed and said, “No. You did the night you told me you ‘wanted it all
’ with me.
Wasn’t that what you meant? Don’t break my heart, Ty. I was pretty sure you were asking me to marry you
and have all your babies
.”

I laughed, but I did agree with her.

We
lost that night, 3-2, and didn’t advance to the next round
.
My college baseball career was officially over.
Our school had been ranked pretty low in the previous years until Tucker took over three seasons ago. I was sad it was my last year playing for him, bu
t I had confidence that he w
ould continue putting together winning teams.

Despite our loss, H
oward threw a big party for us at
Time Out
on
Tuesday
night.
The entire place was filled with our
team and our friends and families
. Even Jayden’s fath
er came, but he left around nine
.

The party was still raging at
eleven
whe
n I left with
Jayden.
We spent some t
ime down at the river before I took her home.
With baseball over, I now knew I had only one thing to focus on, and my relationship with
my girlfriend
was getting
to be
more serious than
I ever thought possible
.

I was in the shop on Friday when Lou yelled, “Ty, telephone!”

“Just a minute!” I hollered back. I slid out from under the ’69 Mustang GT and wiped my hands off.

Grabbing the phone from Lou I said, “Yeah, this is Ty.”

“Tyler… It’s been a while. How have you been?”

A sick feeling washed throu
gh my body. Lou left
the office
and was talking to Marcus
out in the garage
, so I sat down on a stool.

“I’ve been busy,” I replied.

“Yeah, I heard about your team and all. Congrats.
Or not? Yeah, whatever…
I’m just passing the information along that the boss is back
in town.
Business is at its finest.
”

“
It doesn’t concern me.
I’m gonna be out of here in
a couple of weeks
. I won’t be
living
here any longer
, and I won’t be around to clean up anyone’s mess
es
, either
.”
             
There was silence on the oth
er end. In a contemptuous voice he finally said, “That’s disappointing, Ty. Does Olevsky know? You’ve got some
balls
if you think you’re gonna b
low him off. And
where’d your daddy disappear to? I have a favor to ask him.”
             
“My father is on his own from now on. I don’t want
to hear about his dealings with you anymore. If there’s a problem, he’s going to have to take care of it himself.”

Lou came into the office just as I hung up.

Remember when I said great things
can
happen
,
but they’re always balanced out with something bad? This was the other end of it
. Jayden and I were planning to get
married. Neither of us knew when, but we decided to
take time sorting our options
.
I was naïve to think my time away from
Olevsky
’s organization could be permanent
, and now Dean was calling me again.
My worst fears were going to come true. I just knew it. Something really bad was going to happen, or Jayden was going to find out
who I was associated
with…

My blood turned cold.
Be honest with each other
…
Trust each other
… Jayden’s words were echoing in my head. But this was something I
couldn’t
talk to her about.
This all happened
before
Jayden.
Did that count? Couldn’t I keep this one thing from her?

It wasn’t even a matter of her knowing what
I’d
been involved with
; it was a matter of her not being allowed to know anything
period
.
It was a matter of life and death, even. These peopl
e remained unknown for a reason.
Those that tried to fight back or made an accidental “slip” were no longer around.
I was dragged into
it
because of my father. He got mixed up
with the wrong people years ago
and, some ten years later, I was still paying for his mistakes.
I was stupid
to
thi
nk
it was just one small favor to keep my dad from getting his hands busted up. He couldn’t work if he couldn’t use his hands, and working on cars was the only thing that kept my dad afloat. He hadn’t done anything for me in my life
, but I didn’t have that “eye for an eye” mentality. I guess I felt like I would be punished somehow if I
didn’t at least try to help him
out.

Now, after the past four years o
f him not doing a single thing to change his
life, I was almost sorry that I’d
even tried. All I had
done was prolonged his downfall
and
tempted
my own
fate
instead. I didn’t know what I could do to even change things anymore. All I knew was
that
this world I had dipped my toe in was about to completely immerse me if I didn’t get out.
My father didn’t deserve anything
more
from me. Did he?

Maybe it
really
was time to let him deal with things on his own. I had a girl I wanted to marry and I didn’t want anything to interfere with that.

I finished up my work by five-thirty and headed for home. I didn’t plan on working any more late nights.

“It smells really
good in here,” I said when I stepped through the door
.

Jayden was in
my
kitchen cooking, but just the sight of her took my breath away. It was one of those odd moments, where you’re doing something and you’re there, but it
doesn’t
seem real. You don’t feel like you’re in your own body, only watching from the outside.