by Lexi Lewis
He’d come with him to his parents’ house, helping him plan for his return and his physical therapy after he was healed.
Paul had been one of his closest friends, and Reese didn’t think he was going to be able to wrap his mind around the fact that apparently he’d been betraying him all along.
“Why?” was the first thing that came out of his mouth once Paul had confirmed his involvement. “Why would you do that? I thought…”
It occurred to him that he should be afraid right then. It seemed like they were the only two in the house, and Reese had no idea where his parents were. If Paul wanted to finish the job he’d started, there was only so much Reese could do to stop him since he had a massive cast on his leg and couldn’t exactly run. But there was a numbness that seemed to be winning out over the fear, and he couldn’t stop staring, willing himself to wake up.
“Where are my parents?” he asked before Paul could answer the first question. The note that had been delivered to the house (or in this case put there by Paul) had pretty heavily implied that if Reese didn’t back down and quit extreme sports, someone he cared about would get hurt.
“Relax,” Paul said, and his face was a mask of calm. Reese often saw him wear that look when he was dealing with people who annoyed him and he wanted to remain professional. He didn’t know what it meant that Paul was wearing it now. “Your mom came home all in a rage because of the interview, and I told her I was working on talking to you. Your dad tried to calm her down, and I sent them out for a nice dinner. Told them they’d been spending too much time worrying about you and that you needed a rest and they needed a break.”
“And then what, you cut the brake lines in their car or something?” Reese snapped.
“No. I didn’t. I’m not going to hurt them.”
Something like relief filtered through some of the numbness, and it seemed to be letting some of the other feelings in as well, but Reese tried to push them back. At least his parents were safe. If he could believe anything Paul was saying, that was.
“I didn’t write that note, you know. The one that threatened that someone else would get hurt. That was my…associate. I only delivered it because it was convenient. He’s the one who’s trigger happy, not me.”
“Oh, well, that makes it all better then, doesn’t it?” Reese spat. But in a way, it did. At least Paul wasn’t the one who was trying to hurt him or the people he cared about. He was still a lying, betraying bastard, but he wasn’t likely to try and hurt him, Reese thought. “Answer the first question. Why would you do this? Why would you be a part of this? Does this guy have something on you? Is it for the money? Because I don’t understand what would make you suddenly decide that I don’t mean anything to you.”
“Who said you don’t mean anything to me?” Paul asked, frowning.
“Don’t even try that! You can’t do this kinda thing to someone who means something to you, so I wanna know why, Paul.”
Paul sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Money has something to do with it, yeah. You think it’s because I don’t care about you, but it’s not. The fact is I care about myself more. Do you know how this job works, Reese? One wrong move on your part, and I’m out of a job. I’ve seen it happen to plenty of agents before. Their clients get hurt or put out of the games for whatever reason, and they’re left trying to shake off the stigma of being with that person. And the thing is, you’re not bad to work for, but I’ve had better options.”
Reese was speechless for a moment.
It was all business to Paul? None of the times they’d spent together, the friendship they’d forged, none of that meant anything to him?
He couldn’t understand it. He was someone who did the things he loved for the sheer joy and thrill they gave him. Even if it didn’t make him any money, he would have still done it. And now Paul was telling him that it had been about money all along.
“Options good enough that you’d hurt me to be able to take them?” he asked softly.
Paul nodded. “Yeah. Options that good.”
“Then why didn’t you just say something? Why didn’t you just quit?”
“You weren’t supposed to find out I was involved!” Paul said. “You were supposed to take the threat in that note and quit on your own. Then I would tell you that I supported your decision and accept another offer. It was never about hurting you for me. It was about getting you to quit. And it would have worked out fine if you weren’t so stubborn.”
Reese remembered how passionately Paul had argued for him stepping down and announcing it at the interview. He’d been surprised that Paul would even suggest something like that, knowing Reese as he did, but it all made sense now. Everything was starting to click into place. The way Paul had insisted that Reese let him handle finding out who was behind the sabotage and yet had never been able to find any real information. The way he’d “accidentally” let it slip to Reese’s parents that his accident hadn’t really been one. He’d been trying to build up pressure. To make Reese quit so he wouldn’t have to get hurt more. Only Reese had been too determined to let it end like that.
“What happens now?” Reese wanted to know. “Now that you’ve failed in your little mission to get me out of the way.”
“Now he takes over. And you’re going to wish that you’d listened to me and let me do this my way.”
“You know, for someone who claims he doesn’t want to hurt me, you’re throwing out a lot of threats.”
Paul sighed and shook his head, looking Reese right in the eyes. “That’s not my threat. It’s a warning. The guy I’m working with has much bigger reasons to want you out of the games. And he’s more desperate than I am. I’d convinced him to let me handle it, but he saw the interview today, and he’s not happy.”
“So what?” Reese replied. “I hope he’s not happy. I hope he shows his face, so I can tell him what I think about him and you and this stupid little plan of yours. Who is it, anyway?”
“I can’t tell you that. If he finds out I’ve told you this much I’ll be in as much danger as you are.”
“Can’t have that, can we? I can’t believe you would do this, Paul. I just…” Reese didn’t know what to do with the way he was feeling. The tirade of emotions was doing a pretty good job of breaking through the careful wall he had tried to construct around them, and anger, irritation, and an overwhelming sense of loss were threatening to drown him.
But he willed himself to ignore them for the moment, focusing on the matter at hand. He needed to get enough information so he could do something. Waiting around for whoever Paul was working with to show his face and try to hurt someone wasn’t going to help, and he needed answers.
“I want you out of here,” he said. “You’re not going to stay here, soaking up my parents’ hospitality while you lie to their faces. And needless to say, you’re fired. I’d say we had a good run, but I don’t know how long you’ve been lying to me. I don’t know what’s real and what’s crap, and honestly I don’t even care at this point. What I do care about is finding out what’s going to happen. If you’ve ever given half a crap about me, then you’ll give me something to go on.”
He waited, watching Paul process that and think it over. “All I’m gonna say is that you need to watch your back. I’ve gotta watch mine now, thanks to that stunt you pulled today, because I told him I’d handled it. He’s looking to get back into the games, and he wanted to use your downfall as his platform. But you’ve gone and messed that up for him, so he’s not too happy about it.”
Reese snorted. “Forgive me if I don’t care.” Someone who was trying to get back into the games…
That didn’t narrow it down a lot. There were plenty of people who had fallen out of the competitions for one reason or another. None of them had been directly Reese’s fault that he could remember, but sponsors tended to drop people when they were consistently getting beat.
It was better than nothing, though, and Reese would take it.
“Fine,” he said.
“Now get out.”
“I’ll just get my stuff.”
Reese considered telling him to leave the stuff, just so he’d have something to break, but he just stood there and watched Paul walk to the guest room, heart clenching. There was a part of him that wanted to cry about this.
Paul had been like his best friend. He’d understood how Reese felt about things and had stood beside him through pretty much all the crap he’d gone through since starting in the games. He’d been there to help him get to the top, and to find out that he’d only fallen because of Paul’s involvement was just…
Reese had never taken being stabbed in the back well, and this was no exception.
When Paul came back through, carrying a bag of his things, they didn’t make eye contact. “Do the smart thing, Reese,” he said, heading for the door. “I’d hate to see something happen to you or someone else because you’re too stubborn to back down.”
“I don’t make deals with liars,” Reese snapped. “Get out.”
Paul sighed, but he left, closing the door behind him and leaving the house feeling oddly still. It was so quiet, and Reese felt like he could hear his heart pounding in his head. His breathing was ragged, and he walked over to the couch and collapsed onto it, dropping his head into his hands.
This was definitely not the way he had envisioned the day going when he’d gotten up that morning, and already, waking up at Eve’s place and going to do the interview seemed like they had happened days ago instead of just that morning.
God, he needed to call Eve.
He wanted to hear her voice, but he also needed to warn her. Paul knew where she lived and what she meant to him, and while he was hoping that there was still enough decency in the man that he wouldn’t tip off whoever he was working with, Reese wasn’t about to take that chance.
No one was going to get hurt because he’d been stupid and too trusting.
He’d have to tell his parents, too, and he could only imagine what their reaction would be. They’d known Paul for a while, though this was the first time they’d ever really been around him for so much time. He could already imagine how pissed off his mom was going to be. Now that Paul was gone, Reese couldn’t bring himself to feel anything but sad.
It really sucked to know that most of the friendship and trust had only gone one way between the two of them and that more money was apparently enough to make someone he’d thought cared about him, completely abandon him and screw him over.
Oh, nope. There was the anger, simmering under the surface.
He had to pull himself together. This was not the time to go to pieces. Not when there was clearly someone after him and there were people he needed to warn.
Reese pushed up from the couch and went to lock the front door, not willing to take any chances. He went to get his phone and dialed Eve’s number, something twisting in his gut when she didn’t pick up. It was late enough that she should have been home from work already, and he supposed she could have been in the shower and away from her phone, but the fact that he was worried and couldn’t talk to her didn’t make anything better.
But he didn’t have time to dwell on it.
He called his parents next, knowing his mother wouldn’t be far from her cell phone. It rang twice and then she was answering it.
“Mom, before you say anything, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What is it? Because there are so many things I want to say to you, Reese.”
“I know, okay? I know you’re mad. But there’s something happening here that’s gonna make you madder, so you may as well just get it all out at once, right?”
“What do you mean?”
Reese could hear his father murmuring something in the background, and he closed his eyes and let out a breath. He almost didn’t want to tell her how far this had spiraled out of his control, but he knew that she needed to know what was going on.
“It was Paul. He’s one of the people behind the sabotage and the threat. He just admitted it to me a little bit ago.”
Silence.
“Mom? Did you hear what I said?”
“I heard you,” she said faintly. “Are you sure?”
“Well, I can only go on what he said, but he admitted to being the one who left the note in the mailbox, even if he didn’t write it, but still.”
“But why would he do that? I thought the two of you were friends.”
“Apparently it’s a money thing, I dunno.” Reese recounted most of the conversation for his mother, aware that his voice was dull and flat as he talked. She listened for the most part, occasionally interjecting an outraged sound, and Reese tried to brace himself for her snapping and telling him this was all his fault and he should have just listened to her and whatever else she was going to say.
He was still bracing himself a second later when she sighed.
“I’m so sorry, Reese.”
Well.
That was definitely not what he had been expecting.
“What?”
“I’m sorry. I know you cared about him and you thought he cared about you. This… We’re going to be home soon, alright? We’re calling for the check right now.”
“O…kay?” Reese said, confused. What was happening with the world today? Paul had turned out to be a backstabbing liar, and his mother actually sounded…concerned about him in a motherly way versus the condescending way she was usually concerned. “Be careful, alright? I don’t know how far this other guy is willing to go or what Paul’s told him.”
“We will. We’ll be there soon.”
Reese hung up and dropped back onto the couch. He’d been starving before all of this, but now he didn’t even want to think about food.
He was going to have to find a new agent. It was just one more thing that he’d have to deal with before he could get back into the games. Paul had handled everything on the business side of this so that Reese could concentrate on staying in shape and training, and Reese didn’t even know how to start untangling everything that needed to be done.
The fact was that Paul still had enough control over what happened with sponsors and money to ruin him if he wanted to, and it was clear that if that’s what it took, Paul would do it.
God, he was probably going to have to get a lawyer for this. Or at least consult with one. He was pretty sure all this stuff was illegal or at least it should have been, and it was giving him a headache.
Reese tried calling Eve again, but got her voicemail just the same as last time. This time he left a message.
“Hey, Eve, it’s me. Uh…something pretty big has come up, and I really need to talk to you about it. And I mean big. Like. Really big, okay? So please call me back when you get this. I don’t care what time it is. Just…please. And be careful. If you see Paul somewhere, don’t talk to him. I know none of this makes sense right now, but I promise I’ll explain. Okay. Bye.”
It wasn’t his most coherent voicemail ever, but it would have to do for now. Hopefully it would put her on her guard until he could talk to her and tell her what was going on.
She had enough to deal with already, though, and Reese hated himself a little for getting her dragged into this mess, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
Nothing he could really do about any of this but wait and be watchful.
CHAPTER 2: FAMILY
By the end of her shift, Eve wanted nothing more than to relax. The morning had started off well enough; she’d managed to catch most of Reese’s interview on the television, and she was practically bursting with pride that he hadn’t given in and announced that he was leaving. She was a firm believer in following your dreams, and she knew how much his sports meant to him.
Ever since she’d met Reese, weeks ago when he’d been a patient at the hospital she worked at, he’d interested her.
He was witty and talented, and he cared about her more than she had ever expected him to. They hadn’t been officially dating for all that long, and with all the things that were
going on in both of their lives, they’d barely had time to do much of anything together, but all the same, she liked spending time with him when she could.
With all the stuff going on with him and whoever was trying to ruin his career, Eve wanted to be there for him more than ever. But she had her own worries to deal with: namely the fact that she was raising her ten year old brother on her own on a very limited budget, which meant he didn’t have the nice things that other kids had. He’d been getting bullied lately as a result, and it kept Eve up at night sometimes with thoughts of what she could do to try and make things better.
In addition to that, there was the fact that her father was back and trying to make amends and get back into the family or whatever.
Eve couldn’t say that her life had ever been easy, but this was definitely a lot to be thrown at her at one time, and she was already over it.
She let herself into the building she lived in and made her way up the two flights of stairs to her floor, bypassing her own apartment to get to the one next door. Devin stayed with the neighbors while she worked since they had two sons who went to Devin’s school, and she was ready to pick him up, find something for dinner, and then collapse.
Of course, she should have known that it would be easier said than done to get any relaxation considering how the week was already going.
Carla opened the door and gave her an odd look. “You have a guest.”