The Hardest Play
The Hardest PlayCopyright © 2020 A.S. Teague
The Hardest PlayCopyright © 2020 A.S. TeagueAll rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted without written permission from the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with others please purchase a copy for each person. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
The Hardest Play is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and occurrences are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, events, or locations is purely coincidental.
Cover designed by Simply Defined Art
Editing by Diamond in the Rough Editing
Proofreading by Author Services by Julie Deaton
Formatting by Serendipity Formats
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by A. S. Teague
Excerpt from When You Became Mine
Excerpt from The Bars Between Us
Prologue
“You think you’re ever going to be someone? Boy, you’re stupider than I thought you were.” His scowl was laced with contempt, and I fought the overwhelming urge to land my fist against his jaw. It wouldn’t have made a difference. He’d have just laughed and then returned the favor, tenfold.
“I won the game for us last night,” I argued.
His eyes narrowed. “Boy, you didn’t win shit. That quarterback of yours is who won that game. All you did was trip into the end zone.”
I’d done a hell of a lot more than just trip into the end zone, but he’d been so fuckin’ drunk by the end of the game he probably didn’t see the three tackles I broke to lead our team to victory. There was no use in mentioning it though. I could have brought home a goose that laid golden eggs and John Miller would have told me that unless the eggs were platinum, they were worthless.
I nodded and turned on my heel, ready to escape my father’s presence before I couldn’t bite my tongue anymore. That was my first mistake, thinking that I could walk away from him before he’d excused me.
A sharp whack to the back of the head stopped me in my tracks, his booming voice causing me to wince. “The fuck are you goin’? Did I fuckin’ tell you that you could leave?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and sucked in a deep breath before turning back toward where he stood. My eyes were still shut, which was my second mistake.
“You look at me when I’m talking to you!” he roared before his palm collided with my cheek.
I swallowed and then forced my eyes open, willing the tears that had sprung to them at the sting of his blow away. “Sorry, Pop,” I muttered, my voice not loud enough for him.
“Stop, Daddy!” Jamie shouted, coming down the hall, her blue eyes wide.
His face darkened into a shade of red that I recognized all too well as he rounded on my little sister. “What did you say, you little shit?”
Her lip quivered, but she straightened her shoulders and met his glare with one of her own. “I said stop! Leave Quinn alone already. Why you always gotta be so mean?”
It was a distant memory, but there was a time when I could remember our dad as more than just a raging alcoholic who took his anger at the world out on us. But for Jamie, she didn’t have those memories. She was only two years younger than me, but those two years were just enough to have changed the man who was supposed to love and care for us.
Dad took a step toward her, and my gaze dropped to his hands. They were balled into fists and the veins on his large forearms were beginning to bulge. “You little piece of shit,” he snarled. “You don’t tell me what to do in my own goddamn home!”
His arm reared back, destination Jamie’s face, but she just stood there defiantly, her steely blue gaze locked with his. She was tough, I’d give her that. But even with all the bravado she could muster, she still was no match for our steel-worker father.
And there wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting him touch her.
I grabbed his arm just as he began to swing. Mistake number three.
All the hatred and pure disgust he had for what had become of his life was unleashed on me, and even though I refused to stand there and take it, I still wound up getting the raw end of the deal.
But that was okay. I’d gladly take whatever shit he was dishing out if it meant that Jamie was spared from his wrath.
She stood there as we fought, screaming for us to stop, I’m sure with tears streaming down her face. But there was no stopping Pop once he got started.
“Earth to Quinn.” Shane’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Dude, what is wrong with you?”
I shook my head to clear it and looked around, forcing the memory away. I wasn’t in West Virginia anymore. And John Miller didn’t rule my life like he once had.
I forced a half-hearted smile to my face and murmured an apology.
“Whatever, man. Get out of your head for once and enjoy our last fucking night in Vegas!”
That was easy for Shane to say. He didn’t grow up the way I did. But I couldn’t blame the guy for getting the better hand in life, so I nodded. “You’re right.”
His face split into a wide grin and he clapped me hard on the back. “Hell yeah, man. That’s what I’m talking about.”
“What are you talking about?” his brother, Trav, asked. The two of them were less than a year apart in age and both big as mountains.
“Quinn here is finally going to have a little bit of fun,” Shane joked.
“’Bout damn time. We’ve been here almost a week, and I don’t think I’ve seen you crack a smile once.” Trav elbowed me in the ribs.
“I’ve smiled, you asshole.”
“Lay off him,” Griff piped up, and I shot him an appreciative glance.
Trav and Shane were my boys, but sometimes they didn’t know when to stop beating a dead horse.
Shane held his hands up in mock surrender. “Alright. Let’s have a little bit of fun.”
“Did someone say fun?” Aiden threw his long arm around my shoulder. “I’m always down to have a little fun.”
I shrugged out of his grip. “All you do is have fun.”
He lifted a shoulder nonchalantly. “When you’re a fuckin’ football god like me, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Aiden handed me the dice that were in his hand and through the smoke-filled room of the casino commanded, “Win some fuckin’ money so we can stay another week.”
I shook my head, a small smile on my face.
We’d just been drafted to play football in the NFL, our agents negotiating some pretty impressive contracts for each of us. We could afford to stay in Vegas for another month if we wanted. All of us except Trav, that is. He hadn’t been picked up by a te
am but had plans to go work out with several when we got back, and none of us doubted for a second that a team would sign him.
But I’d grown up with nothing and blowing my money in Vegas was something I wasn’t really interested in doing. I would have bailed out on this trip, except Griff had all but begged me, saying that he needed my level head with him if he was going to survive a week with Aiden, Shane, and Trav. I hadn’t disagreed with him and had begrudgingly agreed to come.
Turns out, I’d had more fun losing money and playing tourist than I’d expected to. I was almost sad that we were headed back to the real world tomorrow.
I blew on the dice for good luck and then tossed them to the end of the table. The numbers I was hoping for came up and the guys around me cheered, clapping me on the back.
“Hell yeah, dude! That’s how you do it,” Shane barked.
“Aiden, your turn,” I said as I turned to where he was standing beside me. But he was no longer looking at the craps table we’d been stationed at. I followed his gaze to see a pair of women at the poker table across the room.
They were both stunning, the one with the wild hair matching Aiden’s intense stare with a smirk gracing her face. She was definitely his type, although Aiden was a ladies’ man and women in general were his type.
Her friend beside her was equally as gorgeous, but unlike her companion, she was shyly watching Griff as he laughed at something that Trav had said.
“Hey, uh, Griff…you’ve got an audience,” I murmured.
Griff’s attention tore away from our buddy. “Yeah, man. I saw her earlier. Fuck, but she’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
I looked back to where the two women had been, but their seats were empty. “Heads up. They are headed this way.”
“’Bout damn time,” Aiden mumbled, taking a large swallow of his whiskey. I had no idea where he’d acquired a taste for that shit, but he was always carrying around a tumbler with the amber liquid in it.
Together, the three of us watched as they made their way over to our group, and when the shorter one stumbled into Griff, I took a step back and gave them some space.
Turning from the group of guys, I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked it again, quickly doing the math in my head to figure out what time it was back home.
I should have heard from Jamie by now. As a matter of fact, I should have heard from her hours ago. I pulled up our text thread and typed out a quick message.
Me: You haven’t checked in today.
I stared at the phone for a few seconds, waiting for a response, but when none came, I sighed and turned the screen off.
I hadn’t wanted to leave her at home for this trip, but she’d needed to finish up her semester. Not to mention, at only twenty, it would have been a waste of her time. She would have spent the entire week trying to sneak into the casinos, and God knew I didn’t need to worry about that.
But our deal was that if she was going to stay at school, she had to check in with me twice a day. She’d grumbled about it but in the end had held up her end of the bargain. At least until today. It had been almost twelve hours since I’d heard from her, and I was starting to worry.
Shane clapped me on the shoulder. “In your head again, Miller.”
I shook his hand off and waved my phone in his direction. “Haven’t heard from Jamie.”
“You gotta give that girl a break, man. You ride her harder than a fuckin’ cowboy rides his horse. She’s fine. Probably at a party, having a good time. Something you should try sometime.”
I jerked my chin. “Grow up with John Miller and then tell me you wouldn’t stay on your little sister’s ass to turn out better than him.”
Shane’s face softened a fraction and he nodded. “You’re right. Sorry. Want me to try to call her? Maybe she’s avoiding you on purpose.”
Just as I began to agree, my phone buzzed in my hand, Jamie’s bright smile filling the screen. I shook my head and then put the phone to my ear. “You better have a good excuse made up,” I growled in greeting.
“Quinn?” A panicked voice that was not my sister’s came across the line.
“Yeah. Who’s this?”
Whoever it was on the other end of the line didn’t answer my question; instead, her shrill response made my blood run cold. “Something’s wrong with Jamie!”
All around me, the casino was filled with shouts of excitement, slot machines pinging and flashing, and just moments earlier, I’d loved the controlled chaos. But now, with panic coursing through my veins, the smoke and sounds and lights were threatening to overwhelm me. I glanced back at where Shane was talking to Trav and didn’t waste another minute before practically sprinting through the machines and tables, the phone clutched tightly in my hand still at my ear.
When I burst through the doors into the dry heat of the desert, I sucked in a breath and said, “What do you mean?”
A sob came across the line and the female voice that I didn’t recognize began rambling, one word melting into the other until I couldn’t understand any of it.
“Slow down. I don’t know what you’re saying,” I growled, fear turning to frustration.
She sucked in a breath. “We were at a party. I was talking to this guy. She was having a drink. And then she was gone.”
My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat harder than the last. “What do you mean, gone?”
Again, a sob came across the line followed by unintelligible rambling.
“Get it together and tell me what the hell is going on!” I shouted into the phone. The tourists that were filing around me all craned their necks, their eyes wide, but I didn’t have time to worry about what they thought of me. “Where is my sister?”
“On the way to the hospital. I found her in a bedroom upstairs, and she wouldn’t wake up. I didn’t know what to do, so I called an ambulance.”
Relief warred with overwhelming fear. I grabbed a handful of my hair and sucked in a breath of air that refused to reach my burning lungs. My eyes darted around as I tried to figure out what the fuck to do.
A cab slowed down in front of me, and without another thought I raised my hand. The driver hadn’t even come to a complete stop before I wrenched the door open and threw myself inside. “Airport,” I managed to rasp before turning my attention back to Jamie’s mystery friend on the other end of the line.
“I’m on my way.”
She squeaked out an acknowledgement, and then I disconnected the call and sat back against the seat, squeezing my eyes shut.
I should never have agreed to come on this trip and leave Jamie behind. Our lives were fragile at best, and we were forced to live walking a precariously thin line that we often couldn’t get a grasp on.
It seemed like every damn time we were up, something happened to bring us both crashing back down. There’d always been the chance that one of us would follow in our parents’ footsteps.
I just never imagined that it would be both of us.
1
Quinn
Eight Years Later
“How’d your first day go?”
I groaned and pushed a hand through my wet hair as I dropped my duffle at the door and closed it behind me. “Don’t ask.”
Jamie frowned as she began to chew on her thumb nail. “That good, huh?”
I looked to where she was perched in the oversized chair that she practically lived in. She was dressed in sweatpants and a tank top, her light brown hair piled into a messy bun on the top of her head.
My little sister was stunning. Or she had been. These days, she was a tired and thinner version of her former self. The dark circles that seemed to take up residence under her eyes were a perfect reflection of how I felt most of the time.
I crossed the space of the small living room and dropped a kiss on her forehead before shuffling to the kitchen. I pulled the fridge door open as I said, “Worse. The guys on the team made it clear they weren’t happy I was there.”
She wrapped her arms around her knees and d
rew them close to her chest. Sadness dimmed the brightness of her blue eyes. “I’m sorry.”
I uncapped the water bottle that I’d pulled out and took a long swallow before shaking my head. “Nah, it’s okay.”
“It’s not, Quinn. It’s not okay.”
She stuck her opposite thumbnail in her mouth and began chewing it as she watched me carefully. Once I’d finished off the bottle of water, I tossed it in the recycle bin and then made my way back over to where she was. Throwing myself on the sectional that was too big for the tiny apartment it was currently residing in, I nodded. “I promise it’s going to be fine. I didn’t come to Atlanta to make friends. I came to play ball. My teammates will warm up eventually. And if they don’t, fuck ‘em.”
She twisted in the chair to face me, her face lined with guilt. “You don’t always have to be positive, you know.”
I smirked. “Of course, I do. I’m your big brother.”
“You don’t have to take on the world for me. I’m a big girl.”
I arched a brow and pressed my lips together.
“Fine, maybe I’m not. But still, you don’t have to keep fighting my battles.”
I’d been fighting Jamie Miller’s battles her entire life. She wasn’t equipped to handle the real world, never had been. But I’d fight her battles, take the rap for her, and everything in between because that was my job.
I pushed up on an elbow. “I’m fuckin’ starved. Let’s get out of this shithole and go get something to eat.”
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