by David Horne
A quick check of his phone told him he had ten minutes to double-check that he had everything he was going to need. He quickly walked through his apartment and checked the place out, making sure things were turned off and everything was secure. He didn’t have any pets and his cousin would come by every day to make sure everything was still fine and no one had broken in. It was the way that he had always done things. Just easier. Life without constraints. Not tied down. Completely free.
He thought about it as he ran his hand along the walls of his two-bedroom apartment. One of the rooms was set up as an office, a place for him to manage his affairs and run the algorithms that let him calculate other bets he made in Daily Fantasy Sports. Another way he made money when he felt he needed a small infusion of cash. Everything was turned off there.
Then he walked into the bedroom. A quiet vault. The bed was made. The drawers pushed in. It looked like a tomb from the outside. It gave him pause. It looked alone, stuck in the same old rut that it had always been in and alone for long periods while its person traveled for work. That person was him. It felt like he was always traveling, jet setting around the world for various tournaments.
Even when he was around, the big bed always felt empty and quiet, more like a tomb than a home. But it was his home. It was the only place he even had a chance of belonging. This was his place, his space, his little piece of the world. It belonged to him. It had to be his home. There was no other home out there for him.
If he kept telling himself that, maybe someday he would believe it. Maybe.
He shook his head. This was just a house, a place where he kept his stuff. He could easily live anywhere and it would feel just the same. He felt no emotional connection to these walls or this furniture. It was just that.
His phone buzzed. He had spent too long stuck in his thoughts. His ride had arrived and was waiting on him.
He cursed to himself and headed out of the apartment, stopping to lock his door on the way out. Then he pulled out his phone and messaged the driver saying that he was on the way down to the car that was supposed to take him to the airport. He usually tried to meet them down there, but he was running a bit late this time, stuck in the thoughts of the way that his life had turned out. It was true that it was not like he had imagined it when he was a younger man in college and studying statistics and mathematics, or when he was in the military, applying that knowledge to the strategies and weapons that they used.
The rideshare driver did wait for him.
Pete grumbled as he loaded up his suitcase and pulled himself into the car with his carry-on bag at his feet.
“How’s it going?” The driver was a friendly sort.
“Doing all right.” The least he could do was be polite, even if he weren’t feeling very polite. It wasn’t this guy’s fault. He deserved to be treated with respect.
“Good. Good.” The guy nodded.
All small talk fell to the side and they let the moment slide into easy quiet. Pete didn’t have much to say for a while and the driver didn’t say anything until they were getting close to the airport. “Vacation or work?”
“Work.”
“Damn, are you going to have a chance to do anything fun while you’re out of town?”
“Probably. I can usually squeeze in a bit of time for myself when I’m on trips like this.” Pete shrugged.
“Where are you headed to?”
“Vegas.”
The driver seemed to be getting excited. He must like hearing about the fun things that other people do. “Really? Do you do a lot of work in Vegas?”
“A surprising amount.” Pete nodded along.
The driver shook his head like he couldn’t quite believe it. “I’ve never been there.”
“It’s like no other place on earth.” Pete shrugged. It wasn’t a big deal to him, not anymore, but other people seemed to like hearing those words. It’s why he had learned to say them. Most people didn’t ask any more questions after he had said that.
“That’s got to be exciting.” The driver seemed to be living vicariously through Pete’s adventure.
“It used to be exciting.”
“What do you mean by that?” The driver didn’t turn to look at him as he spoke, keeping an eye on the road. This guy must have been doing this kind of work for a while, able to entertain passengers and drive safely at the same time.
“It gets pretty mundane after the first few times.” Pete smiled awkwardly. He was trying to be nice. “But I can usually find something to kill time when I’m not working.”
“What kind of work do you do?”
“Consulting.” It was an easy lie.
“For?”
“Security.” Pete shrugged again.
“Oh, working for a casino?”
“Yeah, I’ve worked in a few of them.” This man didn’t watch the poker tournaments on television. That was good. It let him slide under the radar. Pete kept nodding, maybe a second longer than what was normal for people when they weren’t lying.
He cursed himself. That was a terrible idea. He was giving himself away and that felt uncomfortable.
“Sounds like a fun line of work. What kind of requirements does a job like that need?”
“Usually some sort of appropriate college degree and a background in military or police.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Pete nodded. “I mean, sometimes they recruit reformed criminals, but that’s only if you were good at what you did.”
“Which one are you?”
“One of the boring ones.” Pete held the shrug a tick too long. He cursed himself once again.
The driver laughed. “That’s one way to put it.”
“It’s probably the only way to put it.”
“I don’t think it’s that boring.”
“That’s because you don’t do it.” Pete grumped a bit. This conversation was already getting annoying.
“Sorry that I bugged you about it.” The driver shrugged.
“You’re not bugging me.” Pete was letting his emotions slip too much. He didn’t like showing this kind of weakness that often.
Luckily the man he was riding with didn’t seem to notice either of his slip-ups and within a few more minutes he was climbing out of the car in front of the airport.
Pete left a good tip with the app on his phone and then walked inside the airport to check his bag and then get through security. He was supposed to meet his traveling companion at the gate.
He sighed as he saw the line through the TSA checkpoint. This was going to take a while.
He checked the watch on his wrist and let out an exasperated sigh.
Someone behind him laughed. “I feel you. I don’t think this is ever going to get anywhere.”
“Oh, it’ll get me there on time, but that’s only because I thought far enough ahead to start early.”
“I did too. My flight isn’t for another hour and a half. Plenty of time.” The man sounded jovial and happy to be there. Pete wished he could get excited over these trips, but that just didn’t happen for him anymore. They had become routine and ordinary, something that was perfectly normal and day to day. Maybe that was part of his problem, the reason why he found everything so boring. The extraordinary had become perfectly ordinary, something that was simply to be expected.
“That’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, that’s what all the travel guides that I found on the internet say.” This guy didn’t travel much. It was almost painfully obvious by the fact that he sounded so nervous and seemed to be referencing online lists as travel guides. That probably explained the nervous excitement in his voice and the slight twitchiness he carried with him.
Even when he wasn’t at the poker table, Pete couldn’t help but read the people around him. Most of them were open books and this guy was no different than most.
He felt the guy was looking at him as if he were waiting for Pete to answer.
Pete didn’t answer the man, though. He realized
something else about what he had just been saying. His flight was going to be at the same time. He wanted to get out of this conversation before he ended up having to entertain this guy for however long it took them to get to the gate.
Instead of speaking, he turned his head to carefully regard the man who was behind him in line. The man had dirty blond hair and was reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. The man was cute. He had to give this strange guy in the line for security at the airport credit. A cute guy that in another life would have attracted Pete’s attention.
Finally. He was free of being bothered by this guy. But he knew that he was going to be bothered by someone else very soon. A writer who he had foolishly agreed to take along on this trip with him as long as the writer paid his own way. He didn’t want to pay for the man who interloped on his perfectly planned and crafted lifestyle. That sounded like an even worse proposition than the one that he had let himself get talked into by a cousin who had always been there for him.
He had been told that this writer was a good person and someone who Mercer trusted with his life, but he couldn’t quite believe it. Maybe it was because Pete didn’t trust anyone with any of his secrets.
He glanced back to the man who had spoken before. This all to happy guy had just finished tapping out a message.
Pete felt his chest tighten in a slight panic as he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. It couldn’t be. This couldn’t be the guy. There was just no way. The odds were so against that happening that it just couldn’t be happening. He did the quick math in his head. No, there was no way that was probable. It would be a hell of a coincidence if it were.
Slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
Chapter Three
Toby was surprised when he sent off the message and saw the man in front of him in line pull his phone out and turn around to look at him.
The intense stare of this dark-haired man seemed to set everyone around on edge. Toby was feeling it, partially because the man had leveled that stare right at him.
A shiver ran down his spine. He couldn’t have said why he felt a sudden rush of heat. It was either excitement or fear. The fact that it was so hard to tell the difference at that moment made all the difference.
This man looked down at his phone and then back up at Toby. There was something about his eyes that spoke more than words ever could.
Toby gulped, trying to play it cool, but his hands were starting to shake.
Finally, this man spoke. His voice was deep and smooth with just the slightest bit of edge behind it. If Toby were to give it a flavor it would be salted caramel. “I take it you’re the writer?”
Toby nodded. This man made him nervous. “Y-yeah, I guess so. You’re Mercer’s cousin?”
“Yeah.” The man nodded. “That would be me.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Toby Kent.”
“Pete Billiard.”
“Is that your real name?” Toby had been dying to ask that question. The name just felt perfect.
“Yeah.” Pete shrugged.
“Cool. That’s cool.” Toby didn’t know what else to say so he just awkwardly shifted his weight from leg to leg.
Then this professional poker player fell silent, letting the world go back to where it had once been long before.
Toby didn’t say anything either. He suddenly felt unwelcome in the line. He considered just leaving, letting this guy get on with his life, but he knew that he was on a mission. He needed to have new experiences so that he could have new ideas and new books that would sell to his audience. He had to do this. He had to make himself do this.
He talked himself up for a long moment before he could find the words to say. And once he said the words he had found, it came out sounding entirely unimpressive. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Guess so.” The man shrugged. His name was Pete. That was what Mercer had said.
Toby had done some research on this guy on the internet. He was known as a bad guy, pretty unfriendly, but more in a wrestling villain way, not like he was someone who would hurt you.
He could see why Pete was regarded that way. The man had the most intimidating stare that he had ever seen on a man. Those dark eyes held a barely contained storm behind them, a fury hidden right behind the calm exterior. It was like the eye of a hurricane, beautiful, calm and deadly all at the same time.
He gulped again. His breath felt like it was starting to struggle to escape his lungs because, on top of all of that, he hadn’t realized just how amazingly hot this guy was.
Toby started to fidget. He couldn’t help it. It was something he did that he hated doing, a nervous twitch that he couldn’t stop.
“What is it?” Pete grunted at him, turning slightly away.
“I just wasn’t expecting to end up texting you when I was standing right behind you, that’s all.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting you to text me when you were standing right behind me either.” Pete shrugged.
Toby suddenly felt incredibly stupid. His self-consciousness made a blush rise on his cheeks. He started to fidget some more.
Pete gave a heavy sigh. “Stop acting like you’re caught in the headlights of an oncoming train, will you?”
“Yeah, sorry. I guess I don’t travel much.”
“Why not?”
“Because most of my work is kind of done at home.” The writer shrugged. “I don’t have much reason to travel and don’t do it for fun.” Toby didn’t know why he was sharing so much information about himself. He was just kind of rambling. “Not that I’m a hermit or anything, but when you start on a project, it’s kind of hard to just start doing something else, I guess.”
“Right, yeah. Makes sense.” Pete seemed like he wasn’t much in the way of a conversationalist. That was going to make this trip even more awkward.
Toby tried to have hope that it just took Pete some time to warm up to new people in his life. That had to be it. Why else would this guy agree to something like this if it wasn’t because he secretly liked people? That had to be the reason. Or at least Toby was going to keep telling himself that because it was more comforting than other reasons this grump of a man might have allowed him to tag along.
Toby wasn’t a good judge of people, but he did understand a lot about the motivations of people. They didn’t just agree to something to intimidate someone into running away. Well, at least most people didn’t do stuff like that. Most people were generally good, despite the image they put off to the world. Toby just had to hope that this guy was good too.
The line was moving along as they shared the awkward moments between them. Toby didn’t know what to say and it certainly seemed like Pete didn’t have anything to say to him in return. So, the silence reigned. And there wasn’t much that Toby knew to do about it.
More fidgeting happened on Toby’s end as they moved faster toward the gate between the open public areas and the more secure terminals. He wondered how bad an idea this was going to end up being.
Pete looked him up and down. Toby couldn’t help but feel like he was being examined, studied, and checked out so the man could judge him to the extent of his ability. Being read like a book was highly uncomfortable. There was so much that needed doing. So many things that Toby could have said. So many things that might have saved him some face. He could have said anything to make the moment less awkward and weird.
But Toby said none of those things. He didn’t make it better. He didn’t make it more comfortable. He couldn’t make himself say anything. The words just caught in his throat.
“Cat’s got your tongue?” Pete frowned. The man disapproved of Toby’s awkward demeanor.
“Uh, not really.” Toby shrugged. He tried to play it cool, but he knew that didn’t work. There was no way that it worked.
“I wasn’t what you were expecting, was I?”
“I don’t know what I was expecting if I’m honest.” Toby’s mouth was dry. There was something about this guy. Even when he was be
ing friendly, he was intimidating. It was funny how some people could pull off the civil but cold attitude so well. And Pete seemed to be one of those guys.
“I could say the same.”
The conversation was stopped as they reached the front of the line and were ushered into separate lines to go through security. Toby had to be talked through the process because he had never done anything like this before. This would be his first time on an airplane and if he were honest, he would have preferred to drive to Las Vegas. He loved to drive, it was so freeing and easy to get started and moving on the process.
But that wasn’t an option and he was already there.
The TSA agent was rather rude, and Toby got picked for the extra screening. That meant he was going to be patted down.
That was even more awkward and Toby found himself fidgeting when he caught back up with Pete at the terminal where they would get on the plane.
“Took you long enough.” Pete harrumphed at Toby.
“Yeah, they wanted to pat me down.” Toby tried to play it cool. “Random screening.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Pete shrugged.
“At least I made it on time.” Toby let out a nervous chuckle, trying hard not to fidget more around this man with a solid steel glare.
“You did.” Pete didn’t look as happy about Toby having made it on time.
“Yeah, so, do you mind if I ask you some questions before we head out?”
“I guess that’s what you’re here for.” Pete nodded again, looking bored with this entire situation. The professional gambler checked his nails, not glancing over at the man who was going to be joining him on this trip.
Toby nodded, feeling awkward as he fished out the notebook that he carried with him. He could have recorded the conversations, but he wasn’t sure it would even be all right to ask. “Mind if I take some notes?”
“You’re not going to record it?”
That caught the writer off guard. “I didn’t want to interfere with your life or anything.” Toby sighed. “Just trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. I know I’m already putting you out enough.”