The One Night Stand Read online

  Copyright

  This ebook is licensed to you for your personal enjoyment only.

  This ebook may not be sold, shared, or given away.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The One Night Stand

  Copyright © 2017 by Elizabeth Hayley

  Eboook ISBN: 9781943772964

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  No part of this work may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  NYLA Publishing

  350 7th Avenue, Suite 2003, NY 10001, New York.

  http://www.nyliterary.com

  Dedication

  To Jack and Rose, for teaching us how a one night stand shouldn’t end. #neverletgo

  P.S. We would’ve made room for you on that door, Jack.

  Chapter One

  Rachel hustled through the newsroom, her brown hair bouncing against her shoulders as her mind whirled with all of the different things her boss, Rick Hartnett, may want to talk to her about. None of them were good.

  She’d been a reporter with All Access Sports Magazine practically since she’d graduated college, but as she let her eyes roam around the room, she noticed the thrill wasn’t as strong as it used to be. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her job or had much of a desire to move on to a different publication. Rather, it was that she felt stagnant. Every day there was a reminder that she hadn’t reached the kind of success she’d hoped she would have after nearly a decade in the industry.

  Reaching the door of Rick’s office, she gave it a few raps. “You wanted to see me?” she asked after he looked up from his computer.

  “Yeah,” he replied, gesturing to the chair on the other side of his desk. Though All Access Sports was on the twenty-second floor of a building that was less than twenty years old, their space was anything but sleek. Stacks of old newspapers and magazines littered Rick’s floor, and Rachel had to step around them to make it to the chair.

  Rachel took a seat without closing the door, since Rick always preferred it stay open. She and Rick engaged in some sort of odd staring contest before he finally picked up the next edition of their print magazine and dropped it on the desk in front of her.

  “You want to tell me why you don’t have an article in there?”

  No, actually she didn’t want to tell him. “I didn’t have anything solid to contribute.”

  Rick steepled his hands and let his chin rest atop them. “Hmm. That’s interesting. Because when I looked into our budget analytics for last month, I see that you flew across the goddamn country to chase a story. But,” Rick slapped a finger onto the magazine, “I don’t see a story.”

  “The lead didn’t pan out.”

  “I didn’t even approve that trip. How’d you get the go ahead?”

  Rachel shrugged in an overly casual way that was an attempt to pretend she wasn’t about to get reamed out by her boss. And what was worse, she deserved it. “You weren’t here when the story came up, so I asked Cal.”

  “You asked Cal, a junior editor with no actual authority, to make this decision?”

  “Accounting thinks he has authority.” It was not the brightest thing Rachel could have said in that moment, but it was at the very least true.

  “But you know he doesn’t. What was the story anyway? At our last pitch meeting, you said you were going to do a piece on the inflation of prices at ballparks. Pretty sure you didn’t need to go to California for that.”

  Rachel looked down and studied her nails. She really needed to get a manicure. Her nail beds looked disastrous. “I heard some grumblings about the club, so I thought I’d check it out.”

  “Jesus Christ. Not this again.”

  Rachel let her hands drop into her lap. “Yes, this again. You know this is an ongoing investigation for me. If I can figure out the truth behind the rumors, it would make my whole career.”

  Sighing, Rick crossed his arms on his desk. “How long have you been looking into this club?”

  “I’m not exactly sure,” she hedged.

  “Too long is the answer. You gotta drop this thing, Rach. If there was any truth to it, you’d have found out by now.”

  “Not necessarily. It’s extremely exclusive. Only the best of the best get asked to join, so obviously they’re going to be tight-lipped about it. I just have to find the right angle.”

  “Rachel.”

  “And I’ve found enough details to support its existence. I just don’t have anything solid enough to base a story on.”

  “Rachel.”

  “But it’s only a matter of time. The source in San Diego didn’t pan out, but something else will. I just need to keep my ear to the ground.”

  “Rachel!” Rick yelled.

  Taking a deep breath, she focused on him, even though she knew she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  “It’s time to give it up. You’re out there chasing a unicorn when there are more pressing things we need you to cover.”

  “It’s not a unicorn. It’s a Triple Crown winner.”

  “A hypothetical Triple Crown winner. That’s not good enough to waste resources.”

  “I’ve spent years on this story. I can’t—”

  “You’ve spent years on it and have absolutely nothing to show for it. I’m sorry, but you need to drop it. We can’t allocate any more resources toward it.”

  “I’ll work it on my own time.”

  “We consider your time our resource. We pay you for it. We need your head to be in the game.”

  “You can’t forbid me from working on something when I have nothing else going on.”

  “No. But I can fire you if you don’t start providing usable material on a regular basis.”

  Rachel’s eyes shot to his, hers widening in surprise. He’d never threatened to fire her before. Nothing even close.

  Under her scrutiny, Rick’s face softened. “Look, I’m not trying to scare you, but I do have to be honest. I can’t have a reporter going rogue whenever she feels like it. We’re a team here, and you used to be one of our most integral players. But it’s like you’ve put yourself on the disabled list and refuse to do any more than take a few practice swings.”

  “That was… a really involved metaphor.”

  Rick rolled his eyes, but some of the good-natured vibes they normally had between them returned, which encouraged Rachel to be completely honest.

  “This story is going to be epic, Rick. And it may not happen this month, or this year, but it’s going to happen. And I’ll be damned if it happens for someone else after I’ve spent so many years on it. I refuse to lose out because I was forced to give up.”

  “Listen. If something comes over the wire that even so much as hints at the club, you’ll be the first one to know. But as far as using All Access time and resources to investigate it… those days are over. When you’re here, you’re to work the assignments we give you. And for Christ’s sake, next time you use company money to travel somewhere, you’d better go through the proper channels. I don’t give a shit if you’re riding a subway to Brooklyn. You clear it with me first.”

  Figuring this was the closest to a compromise as she was going to get, Rachel nodded. “Got it.”

  “Good. Now get out of here and pack.”

  Rachel startled. “Pack? I thought you’d just finished grounding me for the foreseeable future.”

/>   “Stop being a smartass, or I won’t send you anywhere.”

  Rachel stood and smoothed out her black slacks. “Where am I going?”

  Rick reached across his desk to retrieve the magazine. “The Super Bowl.”

  Chapter Two

  “Hey, Jace. If I kill someone, you’d come visit me in prison, wouldn’t you?” Gabe sat back in his black leather chair and closed his eyes, squeezing the bridge of his nose. He felt a tension headache coming on, which would be a reprieve from the full-skull headaches he’d had almost daily since taking over the Players’ Club.

  Jace popped his head toward the office at the rear of the club. “That depends.”

  Gabe let his hand drop and sat up. “On what?”

  “On if it was someone I liked or not.”

  “Oh, okay. We’re all good then. Because there’s no way you’d like this fucker.”

  “Which fucker are we talking about?”

  Gabe took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That asshole Cole Barnes. The guy who wants back in the club and isn’t afraid to make threats to make it happen.” When Mike Tarino—the club’s founder and original owner—died suddenly, Gabe felt like he’d be able to find a positive in the tragedy. He’d been thinking of retiring from baseball for some time, so when the opportunity to take over the club arose, he’d jumped on it. Losing Mike had hit Gabe harder than it had hit his best friends Jace and Ben, but he’d been determined to make Mike proud by running the club with the same love and dedication Mike had.

  As it turns out, that was easier said than done. After Gabe had expressed an interest in the club to one of the managers, he’d been put in contact with a lawyer and gotten the ball rolling. A few other players had expressed the same interest, but as it turns out, Mike had left explicit instructions for the future of the club. And that had included a list of people Mike would have wanted to take over the place if anything happened to him.

  Gabe had been floored to find out his name was at the top of the list. Though, in reality, he shouldn’t have been too surprised. Mike and Gabe had talked at length about what Gabe wanted from his life after baseball: something that he could pour himself into, just like he’d done with baseball for most of his life. A new passion he could latch onto. Something that would revive the rut he felt he’d been in leading up to retirement.

  But Gabe had been running the club for three months now, and he felt like he was drowning under the stress of the job. A fact Jace must have picked up on, since he’d sent Gabe a text an hour ago saying he was in the parking lot of the Players’ Club and to let him the hell in. Jace had a couple of hours until he needed to be at his team’s facility to run through some tape, and said he was all Gabe’s until then. Gabe would’ve kissed him if he hadn’t thought Jace would punch him. Hard.

  But now he looked like he wanted to punch Cole Barnes, which Gabe would ordinarily be down for, except Jace was a week away from playing in the Super Bowl, and Gabe didn’t want the quarterback to fuck up his hand. “What threats? You didn’t tell me he was making threats.”

  “Yes, I did,” Gabe replied.

  “No. You didn’t.”

  “Oh.” Gabe shrugged. “Well, I told someone. Maybe Ben.” Jace glared at him, making Gabe laugh. He really couldn’t ask for better friends. “He’s not threatening to come after me with a baseball bat or anything. Just that if I don’t reinstate him, he’ll start talking about the club to whatever media outlet will listen.”

  “That’ll make him real popular.”

  “He doesn’t seem to care. Everyone hates him anyway. He’s a prick.” Gabe shuffled some papers around on his desk and tried to think of how best to deal with Cole. When Gabe had taken over, the manager of the club had shared Mike’s ban list with Gabe. There were only seven names on it—people Mike had to kick out of the club for a variety of infractions. Cole had been a notorious drug user at the end of his football career, and he’d brought that shit into the club and tried spreading it around. Since he was protecting not only the privacy of the professional athletes, who were members of the exclusive club that catered to the best in their respective leagues, but also their overall safety and well-being, Mike had a strict no drug policy. Cole had been shown the door immediately.

  And because, Gabe assumed, Mike had connections that ran deep around the sports world, Cole hadn’t fought to get back in. Until now. Gabe had no idea why being a member was so important to the guy, but it seemed to be Cole’s mission now. But he was still bad news. There was no way Gabe was going to let him back in. He just needed to think of a way to keep the guy quiet.

  If the media caught wind of the Players’ Club, its entire purpose would be dismantled. Mike had opened the club so pro athletes could have somewhere to go where the media would never look for them. A place they could unwind and be themselves. Gabe wasn’t going to fuck up the safe haven Mike had created. “I don’t know. I can’t think of any way to make him go away other than to have him whacked.”

  The corner of Jace’s lips quirked up. “Been watching Goodfellas again?”

  “Sopranos,” Gabe answered.

  “I can’t believe Mike didn’t leave any instructions on how to deal with these guys,” Jace said.

  “He probably assumed that anyone who took over the club would be able to handle it.”

  Jace’s voice was softer when he responded. “True.”

  Gabe scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m sure it’ll all blow over. I’m stressed about it now, but if this guy’s sat on info like this for this long, I don’t think he’ll actually do anything about it now. He’s probably just making empty threats to try to get back in the club.”

  “You never know what people are capable of,” Jace said, entering the office. “I wouldn’t assume this dude’ll just forget about it.”

  “So you think I should let him back in then?”

  “No, not if Mike specifically said not to. And not if he’s bad for the club.”

  Gabe thought for a moment, his options running through his mind like a movie reel. “Maybe I can make an example out of him and hang his severed arm in the hall like that one dude did to that other dude in that story we had to read in that freshman English class we had together.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Jace replied, “I should probably know what you’re talking about, but despite your detailed description, I have no idea.”

  “Shut up. Yes you do. It was that one with the monster.”

  “I got nothin,” Jace said.

  “The title had something to do with a wolf or something, I think. And the dude fights the monster and the monster’s mom.”

  Jace laughed. “Beowulf?”

  “Yes!” Gabe shouted, pointing at Jace with excitement. He never would’ve remembered the title on his own. “I’ll Beowulf the fucker. I’ll go after Cole Barnes and his mom. That’ll teach him to fuck with me.”

  “Sounds like a solid plan,” Jace said. “Taking out both of them will definitely make your life stress-free.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Gabe said with a smile that actually wasn’t forced. Even though he was concerned about Cole’s intentions, Gabe did think things would work out for the best. “Anyway, thanks for your help, but I’m pretty sure you have better places to be.”

  Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, Jace looked at the screen. “Nah. I got time.”

  “What are you even doing out there?” Gabe asked.

  “Organizing boxes and shit. Straightening up. Whatever looks like it needs doing.”

  Gabe was quiet a minute. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” And he did. Gabe knew the place was in fairly good condition. He made sure of it. Jace wasn’t there because Gabe was slacking, he was there because Gabe needed him to be. Needed another presence to keep him from losing his mind.

  “It’s no big deal. Aly has wedding magazines all over the fucking place. I needed to get out of there.”

  Gabe’s gaze jerked to Jace’s. “Why is she looking at wedding magazines?”
If this was Jace’s way of telling Gabe he was engaged to his doctor girlfriend, Gabe was going to kick his ass.

  Jace smirked. “Because subtlety isn’t one of her strengths.”

  Relaxing back into his chair, Gabe smiled. “Well, if you get any ideas, just remember that I look great in red.”

  “I’ll be sure to take your preferences into account when I plan my wedding,” Jace said dryly.

  “I appreciate it. I mean, ultimately I’ll look good in anything. Probably better than you. You should maybe reconsider making me your best man.” Gabe winked at Jace, doing what Gabe did best: using humor to mask the fact that he was phishing for information. Because if Jace was going to propose soon, Gabe wanted to know about it. And he also really did want to be the best man—he’d even share the honor with Ben. Gabe was magnanimous that way.

  “I wasn’t aware I’d named a best man, but thanks for letting me know.”

  Gabe scowled at his friend, who only laughed at him. “You’re not going to be one of those losers who makes his brothers his best men out of some weird sense of family loyalty, are you? Because that seems really unfair.”

  Jace’s brow furrowed. “Unfair to who?”

  “Me,” Gabe yelled, causing Jace to laugh again.

  “Oh God forbid, I wouldn’t want to be unfair to you.”

  “Good. I’m glad we got that settled.”

  Taking a couple paces toward Gabe, Jace plopped down into the chair on the other side of the desk. He rested his forearms on his knees, his hands clasped together, his face suddenly serious.

  Gabe widened his eyes comically. “Holy shit! You’re not proposing to me, are you? Because I gotta tell ya, even though I’m flattered, I can’t do that to Aly.”

  “Shut up, smartass,” Jace scolded, though the twitch of his lips belied his amusement. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that, if I do propose to Aly—”

  “When. Don’t give me that ‘if’ shit. We both know it’s a ‘when.’”