Double Play (40 page)

“
Cat,
wait.”

“
Later. Let’s go.”

“
No,
Cat.” He slowly opened the door and James and Kiki sauntered out
on
to the
dock.

“
Thank
you, Spencer.” James quickly made his way across the dock to block
her exit to the parking lot.

Cat glared at her
former friend. “You bastard, you set me up. Again!”

He broke her eye
contact. “Calm down and just listen to what James has to
say.”

“
I
don’t want to hear anything from either of you.” The wind picked up
and she
rubbed her
arms
frantically
. Strands
from the platinum wig whipped around her shoulders.

“
Then
you can listen to me.” Kiki put her hands on her hips. “You were
spying on us and I don’t like that.”

James put his
hand on Kiki’s arm. “It’s okay, hon. We’re all friends here. I’m
sure Cat doesn’t want to see George get hurt anymore than we
do.”

Cat
’s
grunt of disgust
was swallowed by a gust of
wind.

Kiki took a step
closer. “I know it looks bad, falling in love with your husband’s
brother
,
but George was
a terrible spouse. I wasn’t his wife, I was his possession and not
even his favorite one at that. He liked that stupid baseball team
more than me.”

“
You
know he kept her on an allowance?”

“
A
paltry one at that.” Kiki pursed her collagen-injected lips into a
puffy pout.

“
And
probably gambled the rest away.”

Cat raised her
hand in the air to motion for them to stop. “You don’t have to
justify your affair to me
.
I don’t care what you two are doing or how long
you’ve been doing it.” She
jerked her head
in Spencer’s direction. “The only
thing that matters to me is what affects the Soldiers.”

Spencer stepped
forward with a sly smile, his
brown
eyes
glittering
in the starlight. “You know, don’t you?”
He smirked at James. “I told you she’d figure it out.”

“
You
were supposed to keep that from happening.”

“
And
you were supposed to pay me yesterday, but I’m still
waiting.”

“
You’ll get your money when the job’s completely
done.”

“
That
wasn’t the deal.”

Cat’s eyes darted
back and forth until the men stopped bickering and looked at
her.

Cat
turned to Kiki. “So it’s true?
You and James placed that bet so you could get control of his team,
his biggest asset?”

“
His
team?” James stepped forward. “Our dad—
our
dad—bought this team. I’m entitled to
it
every bit as much as George but who does he give
it to? The firstborn screw
-
up.”

“
So
you set up your own brother?”

“
He
set himself up with his gambling addiction. The league should’ve
never approved him to be an owner anyway
.
T
hey wouldn’t have if our dad hadn’t covered it up
for him. I just brought to light what was already true.”

“
George was clean. I spoke with his gambling
counselor
;
he’s
abstained
for the last
s
ix
years.”

“
Bullshit! He met Kiki here, gambling at the casino two years
ago. She told me so herself.”

Kiki averted her
eyes, but not before Cat caught it. “Did she now?”
Cat’s
smile
was triumphant
. “I’d be careful
,
James
.
What
goes around come
s
around.”

His eyes flashed
and he charged toward her, backing her up to the rail. A
smug smile
stretched
over his lips and he
loomed
over her
. “Calm down. I’m not going to throw you overboard
or anything. That water’s gotta be fifty degrees. You’d freeze to
death in an hour
;
that
is, if you didn’t get swept away
by
the current.”

He looked at Kiki
and mockingly rubbed his chin.

“
Although that
would
tie up
some loose ends. And once the police figure
out your brother was involved,
implicating
you won’t be much of a
stretch.”

“
Hey,
hey. Wait a minute, what are you doing?” Spencer took a step toward
her. “Back off or
—
”

He was cut off by
the growing roar of an engine, so deafening she knew it was closer
than the parking lot. Their heads shot up just in time to see a
motorcycle speeding up the dock ramp and heading straight for the
ship. Cat squinted into the single headlight, but couldn’t make out
anything beyond its mounting glow. Spencer grabbed her arm and
yanked her to the other side as it charged onto the dock. James
made a futile attempt to get out of the way, but the extended front
tire struck him and he flipped over the railing, falling into the
dark water below.

“
James!” Kiki screamed, but did not budge from her corner of
the dock.

The motorcycle
took a sharp turn to keep from careening into the casino boat and
came to a halting stop. That’s when Cat recognized the Fatbob
Harley and its driver’s skull-painted helmet.

“
Quinn?
!
”

He took
off
his
helmet
,
shook out his
hair
, and
extended the
helmet to Cat. “Need a lift?”

She grabbed it
out of his hands and hopped on the back of the large motorcycle,
throwing the helmet on her head just before he took off. As he sped
down the wooden walkway and buzzed his way through the parking lot,
the cold night became arctic. She tried to shield her face behind
Quinn’s broad shoulders but there was nothing to protect her bare
legs in the frigid air. He came to a stop under the freeway bridge
and shut off the bike.

She hopped off
the back of the bike and gave her numb legs a quick stretch. The
two-minute
ride
was long
enough for her. She preferred her cycles to be ten-speed and on a
nature trail.

“
We
should be good here.”

Quinn took a look
at her outfit and frowned. “Jesus, Cat. What are you wearing?” He
slipped out of his leather jacket and handed it to her. “Put this
on.”

She
slipped
it
on
. “Thanks.”

The light from
the freeway bridge spilled over, and she did a double-take at his
darkened locks. “What happened to your hair?”

He bent down to
look at
himself
in the
motorcycle’s side mirror. “I had to stay on the down low
,
too. It’s called Midnight
Express. You like?”

“
Not
really.”

He flipped her
blonde wig. “Well, same to you.”

Across the
parking lot, they still had a view of the casino boat and she
pointed at the crowd of people collecting on the deck
,
attempting to fish James out of
the water with an extended lifeguard hook.

Quinn squinted
toward the ship. “Damn, looks like he’s still moving.”

She scanned each
face. “I don’t see Spencer. He must’ve snuck away when we fled. I
can’t believe he’s been lying to me
all this time
.”

“
Yeah,
well
….
”

She put her hands
on her hips. “He lied about everything. He was in James and Kiki’s
little scheme just as much as you were.”

“
Not
at first
. All he was
supposed to
do was
try
to steer you and media toward George’s gambling
and
eventually break the story of his
playoff bets to the world.” Quinn
shook his head
. “But you ended up doing it before he
could and screwed everything up. I can’t believe he showed up to
collect his money.”

“
I
can’t believe you came back. The cops are gonna be looking for you,
you know?”

“
James
still owed me.”

“
You
made over
four hundred thousand
dollars
on the game.”

“
Yeah
,
well, James
made
a lot
more than
that
and
got a team out of the deal. He was supposed to pay
all of us our final cut yesterday,
but told me
to meet
him
at the club today instead. I was on my way there
when Webbs stopped me. You ran right past us.”

“
That
was you?” She remembered stopping at Webbs’ table on her way out of
the club, but
had been too
frantic to register the identity of
her dark-headed friend.
“I guess I didn’t recognize you with your Just for Men
makeover.”

“
You
didn’t recognize me? You were halfway across the casino when Webbs
told me the slutty blonde sailor was my little sister.” He
gave an exaggerated
shudder.

“
Fair
enough.” She slipped off the wig and pulled at the wig cap until
her own
wavy red
hair
came tumbling down to her shoulders.

“
Much
better.”

“
Quinn
…” She took a deep breath. “Joel Faulk told me that you threw Ryan
off the balcony. Please tell me you didn’t.”

He met her eyes
with slight hesitation. “
I was
supposed to. But then Spencer …. I hesitated, but Spencer got
impatient shoved me at Ryan. Same result.
Besides, if it
hadn’t been
me, James
would’ve just found someone else to do his dirty work.”

“
Breaking people’s arms is not a living.”

“
Yeah, I know that. Which
is why in the end I couldn’t go through with it. I guess Spencer is
more cold-blooded than I gave him credit for. I don’t think he’d
admit—even to himself—that he had a hand in it. But t
hat
little dick
Ryan had it coming.
He
threatened to rat us all out. He’s lucky all he got was
the balcony.”

Her face paled.
“Oh God, Damien Staats, you didn’t
—
”

“
Whoa,
whoa, whoa.” Quinn shook his head vehemently. “I didn’t have
anything to do with that. I’ll rough a guy up or knock him into
fifty degree water but
,
”
he held a finger up, “I’m no killer. Besides, the cops ruled his
death an accident.”

“
Still. You forced Adam Alvarez to throw games
—
”

“
Forced
?” Quinn laughed. “Adam was in this more than
anybody.”

“
Why?
He doesn’t need money.”

“
He
wants to be on a big market team, but he’s under the Soldiers’
control for the next three years. James told him that he’d get
Roger to make a trade happen. Everybody got something out of this,
Cat. James got the team, Spencer got
 ….
well, was
supposed to
get the scoop
of a lifetime, Adam got out, Joel got a payoff, Ryan got a contract
extension, and the
late
lamented
Damien got Kiki.”

“
What?”

“
Kiki.
She and the first baseman were, you know, shagging flies behind the
boss man’s back
.
”

“
Kiki
and Damien?”

“
He
was in love with her; he was going to leave his wife for her once
she divorced George.”

“
No,
you’re mixed up.” She shook her head. “Kiki and
James
are
shagging flies behind the boss man’s back. I saw it with my own two
eyes in the Champagne Room and even before that in the coat closet
of Aiken’s Steak
’
n
Taters.”

“
Huh.”
Quinn jutted out his bottom lip thoughtfully. “I’ll be
damned
.
T
hey played him.” He tossed a look
over to the casino. “Convenient for Kiki and James that Damien took
himself out of that love triangle then.”

“
Really
convenient. Maybe it wasn’t an accident after
all.”

“
Hey,
don’t look at me. I just wanted to make some easy money, but Swim
Jim over there’s the one
who
had an agenda.”

Cat shushed him,
cocking her head to
make
out
the faint police sirens in the distance.
“Cops.”

The whispers
turned into wails and Quinn instinctively jerked his head toward
the sound. “Fuck.”

“
Quinn, Detective Kahn knows a lot and Joel is going to start
blabbing his lips to save his own butt. I won’t be able to keep
your name out of it
and
when he does, they’re gonna come at you and James hard.” Cat held
out his helmet. “Your
four
hundred thousand dollars
won’t even cover James’ defense
attorney’s retainer. You need to leave town now.”

“
But
you
—
”