“You’re pretty cool yourself,” I tell him.
He nods to the field. “I’m going to be out there one day.”
“I don’t doubt it. You’re a great player, Scott.”
“Will you come to my games, too?”
I can’t help the smile that overtakes my face. Scott, like his older brother, believes I’ll still be around ten years from now. He’s accepted me as family. And I love him like a brother. “You can bet on it.”
“What’d we miss?” I ask Lexi when I settle back into my seat.
“Nothing much. It’s still three to two. Caden didn’t let anything get by him.”
I look up at the scoreboard. “I love close games,” I tell them. “I mean, what’s the fun if every game is a blowout?”
“You like living on the edge, huh?” Shane asks.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I just think if things come easily to you, they aren’t worth having. It’s the hard wins that are most important. Those build character.”
The players all leave the field for the seventh-inning stretch. The JumboTron starts zooming in on people which means they are supposed to kiss. The crowd cheers as couples happily oblige.
Then the screen goes blank and people boo and hiss at the malfunction. I take the opportunity to check my phone for messages.
Suddenly, Lexi grabs my arm. I look at her face to see her wide eyes. I follow her gaze back to the screen and see myself up on it. Picture after picture of Caden and me flash up on the screen. Good pictures—like the ones taken for interviews. Candid pictures—like the ones from tabloid magazines when we were caught kissing in public.
I’m confused. Why are pictures of us on the JumboTron? “What’s going on?” I ask no one.
Lexi tightens her grip on me and squeals. “Oh my God, Murphy. Do you think my brother is going to propose?”
My heart pounds almost painfully in my chest when her words sink in. I look down to the dugout, but don’t see any trace of Caden. I look over at the nearest tunnel, expecting him to appear. I look at the field wall a few rows in front of us and think maybe he’ll pop out from behind it. But none of those things happen.
Then I hear collective gasps of shock from the crowd.
I look back up at the massive screen and see what appears to be a pornographic movie playing. My jaw drops. What on Earth?
Everyone in the stadium is watching. It’s like the train wreck you can’t peel your eyes away from. Parents are covering the eyes of their children. Women start screaming in horror. But most people can’t tear their eyes away. Including me.
Lexi cries, “Oh, my God, Murphy!”
And all at once, my perfect world collapses. My happy life crumbles. Because I realize that forty thousand people are looking at me. It’s me up on that screen having sex. It’s me straddling a man, riding him like he’s a wild horse. It’s my breasts bouncing around as my face contorts in pleasure. It’s me having sex with my bastard of an ex who obviously taped me without my consent.
Hot tears stream down my face as the video finally gets cut off and the JumboTron displays a message of technical difficulty. The stadium is in an uproar as everyone is trying to deal with what they just saw. Lexi and Shane are looking at me in disbelief. Shane uncovers Scott’s eyes and bile rises in my throat when I wonder if Caden’s thirteen-year-old brother just witnessed the most horrific moment of my life.
I look down at the dugout to see Caden running out of it. He looks up at me and we stare at each other helplessly. So many things bleed from his eyes. Empathy. Horror. Sorrow.
My stomach churns and I know I’m about to lose my lunch. I turn and plow through the crowd, running to the nearest bathroom and barely making it before I wretch into the toilet of the first stall.
Lexi runs in after me. She holds back my hair. There’s some commotion behind us and I hear Caden’s voice asking women to give us some privacy. I stand up and go to the sink, splashing water on my face.
“Lexi, can you make sure nobody comes in?” he asks.
“I’m on it,” she says, rounding the corner to guard the entrance.
Caden runs his hand over my back trying to comfort me in a moment when I can’t be comforted. I don’t even want him to look at me. What must he be thinking? Why is he even in here?
“Caden, the game.” I finally lock eyes with him in the mirror.
“Fuck the game, Murphy.”
I shake my head as more tears roll down my cheek. “I didn’t know he taped us. I swear I didn’t,” I tell him, hoping he will believe me. “I would never do that, Caden. You must know that. I could never …”
Then something occurs to me and I feel sick again. I turn around and look directly at him. “A few weeks ago, you asked me to do it.” I cover the sob begging to break free. “You joked about making a sex tape. Why did you ask me that, Caden?”
I take a step away from him, already fearing his answer. His hands run through his hair and he glances up at the ceiling before looking back at me. When he does, guilt is written all over his face. “I thought he was lying about having the video, Murph. He did that thing where he chews on his cheek. You said yourself that’s his tell. He tried to blackmail me. Asked me for a lot of money. I thought he was lying like all the other times. I’m so sorry, Murphy. I’m so sorry.”
I back up and lean against the sink. “Tony contacted you? You knew about the tape. And you didn’t tell me?”
He scrubs a hand across his jaw. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to worry. You have enough to worry about with your job and me being gone half the time. If you thought there was a tape out there, you’d have freaked. And I knew you wouldn’t let me pay him off. But I would have, Murphy. I swear if he’d shown me the tape I would have paid him. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But he didn’t show me anything. And he bit his damn cheek.”
He takes some steps towards me to close the gap, but I move away, disgusted. “You didn’t want to worry me?” I yell at him. “It’s my life, Caden. What right do you have to make decisions for me?”
“It’s not like that. I thought he was lying, Murph.”
“But he wasn’t, Caden. He wasn’t lying. And now I’ve been humiliated. How can I ever show my face again? Your dad saw it. Your thirteen-year-old brother saw it. Half of New York City saw me naked and having sex. And I’m sure it’s all over the internet by now as well. This can never be undone, Caden. How could you do this to me?”
“Babe, I didn’t do anything. Tony did. I was trying to protect you.”
“By taking away my choices?”
“That wasn’t my intention,” he says, reaching for me.
He tries to hold my hand, but I pull away. “Don’t touch me!”
“Murphy, I will fix this. I swear.”
Tears pool in his eyes. But I can’t think about him now … him and his lies. All I can think about is getting away. Leaving this place. Escaping this nightmare.
“This is one thing your money can’t fix.” I start walking out of the bathroom, but he grabs my arm. I rip it out of his grip. “I said don’t touch me, Caden, and I meant it.”
He holds up his hands in surrender, the pain on his face almost mirroring the pain in my heart. Almost.
I walk around the corner to see a large crowd gathering outside the bathroom, and Lexi, Shane, and some men in security shirts are keeping everyone at a distance. Cameras come out and flash and film as I come into view.
I pull Lexi aside. “If you care anything about me, please do not let Caden follow me. I need some space, Lexi. Please. I beg you.”
She nods. “Okay.”
I ask one of the security guards to escort me out of the park as Caden calls out behind me. I turn briefly to see Lexi holding him back. She says something to him and he stops fighting her. He looks at me as I walk away. He looks broken. He might even look as broken as I feel.
Another security guard runs up alongside us. I recognize him from before. He’s the one who gets to peel screaming girls off p
layers outside the clubhouse after games. “I’m Drew,” he says. “Caden wanted me to make sure you were okay, Miss Cavenaugh.”
“Thanks, Drew. But I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay after that.”
“I’m sorry,” he says. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
We reach the front of the stadium and the guards stand with me while I hail a cab. I pull my phone out of my pocket. The phone that is already blowing up with calls and texts. I hand it to Drew. “There is one thing you can do for me. You can return his phone to him.”
He takes it from me. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”
Then I take my hat off and look at the date inside. It’s from the first day we made love. I hand it to Drew as well. “You can give him his hat back, too.”
Drew eyes it curiously. “I’m sure he doesn’t need it. He has plenty.”
“I know he does. But I don’t want it anymore. Please return it to him.”
A cab pulls up and I slip inside. “Where to, Miss?”
I look up at the stadium, knowing it will be the last time I see it. “J.F.K,” I tell him. “I’m going home.”
Chapter Forty-seven
Caden
I don’t bother going back on the field or even into the dugout. No way could I play right now. And I realize this has never happened before. Never in my life have I been too distracted to play ball. Hell, I even played in a game the day my mother died back in college.
After I cuss out my locker and throw a few things around the clubhouse, I pocket my phone and go up to the communications booth, pushing past reporters to get through the door. “What the fuck happened?” I yell to the boisterous room.
All eyes turn to me. The owner of the team looks more than a little pissed off, but not at me. He wants answers same as I do. “We’re working with our technology team and the police to figure that out right now.”
I write down a name and Murphy’s old address and show it to one of the officers. “The guy’s name is Tony Fields. I don’t know his address, but that’s where he hangs out a lot. He’s my girlfriend’s ex and I can tell you with one-hundred-percent certainty she had no knowledge of that video. It was taken without her consent. He tried to blackmail me a few weeks ago, but I thought he was lying about the tape.” I pick out the police officer who looks like he might be in charge. “I want to press charges. As many of them as I can. That asshole is going down.”
The officer looks at me in sympathy. “I understand your frustration, Mr. Kessler. But there is an order to things that we must follow before any arrest can be made; if it even comes to that.”
“If?” I say incredulously. I look to see a ring on his finger. Then I read his nametag. “I’m not sure you do understand, Officer Carson. Because if what happened out there had happened to your wife, you know as well as I do you’d already have the guy in cuffs. And I’ll bet his face would be beaten to a bloody pulp, too. Am I wrong?”
The guy’s jaw twitches and I know every word I said is true.
“Still, Mr. Kessler, we have men working to find out how the stadium’s video feed was commandeered. And we’ll need to interview your girlfriend. If she was the woman in the video, she’ll be the one to press unlawful surveillance charges, not you. Even without her we should be able to pin him with a slew of charges, which may include extortion, computer trespass, unauthorized use of a computer, not to mention dissemination of lewd and lascivious material contributing to the delinquency of about five thousand minors. But that’s the prosecutor’s job, not mine. Best guess, if everything you told me is true, I’d say he will have one hell of a case against him and a nice stay in one of New York’s finest prisons.”
I see Drew slip in the door and nod his head to me—his sign that Murphy is okay and she got out of the park without incident.
I give Murphy’s information to Officer Carson and then I call her so I can give her a head’s up.
Drew eyes me in confusion. He pulls a phone out of his pocket, looking between me and it. He walks over to me with the ringing phone and shows it to me.
My goddamn picture is displayed on the phone he’s holding. I’m calling that phone. Murphy’s phone.
“What the hell?” I ask Drew.
He hands me the phone. “She told me to give it to you. Said it was yours.” He pulls a hat out of his back pocket. “And she wanted you to have this, too.”
My eyes close briefly before I look inside the hat to see which one it is. My fingers pinch the bridge of my nose as I absorb the gravity of the situation. She gave me back the phone I bought her. She doesn’t want the hat.
She doesn’t want me.
There is a little voice in the back of my head saying, ‘Three strikes – you’re out.’
“Where did she go?” I ask Drew.
“I put her in a cab by herself. I don’t know where it took her.” He shakes his head. “Sorry, Mr. Kessler.”
I get the attention of the owner. “Jason, I’d like to call a press conference.”
He nods. “I think that would be a good idea. I’ll do it with you. I’ll apologize to the fans for the video and tell them we’re doing everything we can to apprehend those responsible. Then I’ll give you the floor and you can do what you need to do. I’ll get the ball rolling and text you with the details. With the press already here, we should be able to set it up within the hour.”
“Thank you. I’ll go get a shower and see what I can find out before then.”
Drew walks with me back to the clubhouse, keeping eager reporters from getting too close. They are itching to scoop the story. But I’m hoping to keep the damage to a minimum with the press conference.
I pull out my phone to call Ethan, finally taking time to glance at the unread text messages on my screen. One of them catches my eye.
Unknown: Time’s up. Last chance. Before game time today.
Shit.
I never check my phone on game days once I put it in my locker. I can’t have the distraction. Between my pre-game workout and my music, he could have sent it hours before we took the field. I momentarily wonder how he got my private number. Then again, the guy just hacked into Hawks Stadium, so finding an unpublished number probably wasn’t that hard for him.
I place a call to Ethan and tell him to do everything he can to keep the video off the internet. I tell him I don’t care how much it costs, I want people on it around the clock until every last one is taken down.
Even though the video was only playing for a minute or two, I’m sure hundreds if not thousands of fans captured it with their phones. And Tony threatened to release it on the internet, so as far as I know, the entire video is already out there.
By the time I end the call, the game is over and my team trickles into the clubhouse. Most of them avoid me like the plague, not knowing what to say or how to say it. Some guys come over and give me a supportive pat on the back. Brady and Sawyer pull up chairs and sit down next to me.
“Where is she?” Sawyer asks.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” I say. I hold out her phone. “She left her phone. I can’t even call her.”
I explain to them how Tony came to me a few weeks ago and I discounted his threats.
“I would have done the same thing, Kess,” Brady says. “You did nothing wrong.”
I shake my head. “Oh, but I did. I fucked up. She thinks I lied to her and” —I scrub a hand across my jaw— “and I think she’s done with me.”
Our manager enters the clubhouse, slamming the door on his way in. He hands me a piece of paper that has a fine on it along with a seven-game suspension.
“Are you kidding me?” I yell after him as he walks away. “You’re suspending me?”
Rick turns around. “It’s the usual penalty for walking out of a game.”
“The usual penalty?” I ask, dumbfounded. “Rick, there was nothing usual about what happened. The girl in that video is my girlfriend. The fucking love of my life. She’s someone’s daughter for Christ sake. What
if that were your daughter up there?”
“My hands are tied, Caden.”
Brady stands up. “If Kessler is suspended, consider me suspended as well.”
Sawyer stands up too. “And me.”
One by one, all my teammates stand up and cross their arms, putting up a front of solidarity. These guys are not just my teammates, they are family.
Just then, Jason walks in and looks around at everyone standing up in the room that is so silent you could hear a pin drop. “What’s going on here?”
Brady takes the letter out of my hand and walks it over to the team owner.
Jason reads it and looks at Rick. “This is bullshit,” he says, tearing the paper in half. “There will be no such injunction imposed against him. Understood?”
Rick doesn’t look pleased to have been contradicted in front of the team, but he takes his lumps and leaves the room.
“Can you be ready in thirty minutes?” Jason asks. “The press is setting up now.”
“I’ll be there.”
After my shower, I call everyone I know, including Murphy’s mother, to see if I can find her. But no one has seen or heard from her.
No one.
~ ~ ~
Reporters are going wild with questions. They’ve been asked to back off more than once after Jason explained that someone hacked into the system but that we have no other information.
“Who was the man in the video?” a reporter asks.
I look over at Officer Carson and then our PR rep. Both told me that while I could ultimately be liable for what I say, there is hardly any question as to who is behind this.
“The man’s name is Tony Fields,” I say. “He is Murphy’s ex-boyfriend. For six months, he’s been trying to extort money from me in one way or another. When he came to me a few weeks ago, trying to blackmail me with a supposed sex tape, I thought he was lying. He had lied before and I had no reason to believe such a tape existed.”
“Mr. Kessler, if you had known the tape was real, would you have paid Mr. Fields off?” a reporter asks.
The Perfect Game: A Complete Sports Romance Series (3-Book Box Set) Page 24
