“Yeah,” he says, “we will.”
“And don’t underestimate Frankie and what she’s trying to do here.”
“Don’t worry,” he says, his mouth lifting into a superior smirk. “I won’t.”
And as he turns to go, stadium employees dodging around him as he doesn’t break his confident stride, I try to ignore the fact that it sounds an awful lot like a threat.
Chapter 17
FRANCESCA
These kids are ready for the big leagues, that much is clear, and if the stats didn’t already show it, the way they play when we’re there to watch is just another sign.
The Desert Dogs are up seven nothing by the bottom of the third, making the game second fiddle to what’s going on in the stands and that’s Kai sitting between Charlie and Javy as they go pitch by pitch, talking through the game, his interpreter long forgotten and sitting on the end of the row, while Dan Wilson sits beside me mostly scrolling through his phone looking more than a little annoyed to be in the sweltering Arizona heat instead of in an air-conditioned hotel suite in Los Angeles.
At least it’s a dry heat, I think, as I flick my hair over my shoulder and grin out at the field. Cole Davis is up to bat again and the first pitch he sees is launched more than four hundred feet to dead center field over the fence for a home run. His second of the game. He’s incredible and he’s ours.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but I stand by what I told Charlie. This out-of-the-box bullshit isn’t going to play once hard and fast numbers make Kai see the light,” Dan says, as the fans around us cheer while Cole rounds the bases. Kai joins in with a massive grin on his face when Xander scores ahead of Cole and then points to him in the crowd.
“I don’t know, seems like it’s working pretty well to me.”
“Sounds like code for your offer won’t be the highest or you won’t be willing to come up over the highest?”
“It’s not code for anything other than I’m doing what I can to convince your client that money’s great, but the best experience he’ll have in the major leagues involves those three kids out there and the two guys up here.”
“And you,” he adds, with a knowing look.
I snort. He doesn’t know shit. Guys like Dan Wilson can’t imagine someonenotbeing a raging ego maniac. It’s what makes them so easy to read.
“I’ll be sending over our next offer when you’re both safely back on the plane toLAand we’ll see where things shake out.”
“We will. I’m done. I’m going to find some air conditioning. Notify me when this stunt is over.”
“Our plane will be on the tarmac waiting for you.”
And with that he slides from his seat, his custom-tailored Italian suit clearly sticking to him as he disappears up the stairs and out of sight.
Kai’s phone buzzes in his hand and he glances down at it, his expression unchanging before he flips it face down on his thigh and refocuses on what Javy is saying to him about – if his hand shape is anything to go by – a grip for a knuckle changeup.
As subtly as I can, while I’m sure Kai is focused on Javy, I lean toward Charlie in the seat beside me, nearly resting my chin on his shoulder as I murmur, “How do you think we’re doing?”
“Having second thoughts?” he whispers back.
“Wilson’s not on board.”
“We knew he wouldn’t be.”
“True,” I agree, but I can hear the doubt in my own voice. He must hear it too.
“Hey,” he says, his hand finding my hands, clenched tightly in my lap over my crossed legs. He loosens their grip easily enough and then squeezes one warmly. “We got this.”
I squeeze back. “Yeah, we do.”
“What do you think, Charlie?” Javy says, from around Nakamura, and draws him back into their conversation, his hand sliding from mine quickly, but not fast enough for Javy not to see. I try to avoid his wide eyes, but it’s too late and he shoots me a wink before refocusing.
Damn it, he caught me.
I turn my attention to the game and do my best to stay focused there for the remainder of it while keeping one ear on the conversation beside me. Nakamura is a baseball junkie, that much is clear, as obsessive and exacting as Charlie and, as every innings passes, they get deeper into the weeds about the development of higher spin rates to make sure the pitches he throws move as much as possible before they get to the batter and in-game biometrics analysis that can tell a manager when a pitcher is fatiguing before it becomes apparent through a bad result on the field.
