What is the charge for stealing a police horse? I google quickly.
A felony.
Christ, what the hell was he thinking?
I’m not one to believe that people shouldn’t be punished for their crimes; however, this offense specifically is on the lower end of the spectrum for criminal activity. Taylor comes into the room when I’m throwing the last of my belongings into the suitcase.
“Your brain is working a mile a minute. I can see it.”
“Do you think there’s a way to spin this?” I don’t stop to look at her, running to the bathroom to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind.
“I mean, it’s not good because of his reputation in the minors, but the offense is nonviolent and more funny than harmful.At least in my opinion,” she says, taking the words right out of my head.
“I didn’t even think about the prior news.” Inwardly I cringe. I had forgotten about The Chaser’s reputation before I met him. He wasn’t even The Chaser in my mind. There was a part of me that still thought of him as Matt, the man I met on vacation and spent one orgasmic blissful night with. The other part knew Chase as the flirtatious and cocky rookie making a splash in the big leagues with his talent and playing style. Neither of those matched with the man people described as a womanizer, chronic partier, and troublemaker.
“I just don’t get it. He’s been on his best behavior and a model athlete since he got to Nashville. What happened?” I voice my thoughts to my best friend.
“He’s young,” she shrugs like that’s answer enough. When I scowl at her, she continues, taking a seat on the edge of my bed. “Who knows, Gabby? He got called up in June, so that’s what, like a month ago? He doesn’t really have any friends here. It was off to the races to prove his worth to the team. Now that it’s All-Star Break and the responsibilities aren’t as high, he was probably just blowing off steam and things spiraled from there.”
“I hope you’re right.” Could this be my fault because I told him to forget the notion of us being together? Did I drive him to go out and then he got in trouble? No, he may be younger than me, but he’s a grown ass man. I’m not responsible for his poor decision making.
“I seriously doubt he went out last night and said to himself, ‘I’m going to steal a horse from the police and get arrested so the team can punish me.’”
“He better not be that stupid.” I groan. “Who steals a horse right from under the police?” I laugh.
“Right, ballsy. You have to have serious BDE for that. Tell me—” She bats her eyelashes, leaning into my personal space. “—does he have the big dick to back it up in his pants, counselor?”My face turns beet red at the reminder she knows we’ve slept together. I palm her face and push it away.
Grabbing my suitcase off the bed, I walk to the door, but turn at the last second and say, “Yes he does.” Does he ever. I don’t need the reminder of how big his dick is or how well he knows how to use it when I need to be focused on damage control and getting us out of this mess.
Taylor cackles behind me and follows me out into the main area of the suite.
“What’s so funny?” Miller questions.
“Nothing,” I say quickly. The last thing I need is him getting started.
“BDE,” Taylor says, clearly unconcerned with keeping this under wraps.
“BDE?” Preston asks.
“Big Dick Energy, babe,” Ivory pats his chest.
“Who’s big dick?” Preston and Miller ask in unison.
“No one’s!” I shout.
“I was just telling Gabby that the rookie must have some serious BDE to steal a horse downtown right in front of the police. Asked if she knew anything about that.”
Miller hides his laugh while Preston and Ivory look confused.
“Did you find a flight?” I ask Taylor, changing the subject in hopes to avoid an awkward explanation about how I could possibly know about Chase’s BDE.
“Grant is sending the team plane.” Grant Davenport is the principal owner of the Music City Troubadours and only moved to Nashville to take on a more active role in the organization last year. At Ivory and Preston’s wedding, Taylor did everything she could to avoid him and now, she’s texting him?
“What, are ya’ll friends now?”
“Something like that,” she deflects. “Plane should be there by the time we make it to the airstrip.” Having Grant and a plane on speed dial doesn’t add up, but we don’t have time to dive into what it means, so I let it drop for now.
“We should get going then. Sorry I’m going to miss your big game.” I wrap Miller in a hug. I was really looking forward to watching him catch in this All-Star Game.
