“Do you think you’ll be ready for the game?” the sportscaster asked.
“I’ll have to see how my knee feels,” Night Train replied.
“Do you want to play?”
“Of course I want to play. But I’m not going to play injured. That will only hurt my team’s chances, and I’m not going to do that.”
“That sounds like a no.”
Night Train shook his head, as if to say, It’s out of my hands.
“The game won’t be the same without you,” the sportscaster said.
“I have to do what’s best for my team,” Night Train said.
The interview ended. He killed the picture and leaned back in his chair. Without Night Train in the game, the Rebels’ defense would likely sputter and give up a lot of points, and they’d probably lose. Worse, there would be no one making sure that the defense fixed the prop plays. All his hard work had gone up in flames, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
He sent a text to Cory, Morris, and Gabe, and shared the bad news.
The room’s minibar had vodka and Bloody Mary mix, and he fixed himself a drink. He normally didn’t drink this early but needed to kill the pain of losing such a huge score. It would be a long time before a scam like this came along again.
He drank the beer while staring at the blank TV. Night Train’s decision not to play didn’t make sense. Even if his knee was hurting, he could still start the game and set up the fixed plays before hobbling off the field. Night Train was a hustler, and hustlers didn’t walk away from scores that put money in their pockets.
So why was Night Train taking a powder this time? There had to be a real good reason, and he found himself thinking back to his conversation with a coked-up Choo-Choo in the john at the MGM Grand. Choo-Choo had said that the NFL had stuck a knife in their backs, and when Billy hadn’t understood, Choo-Choo had told Billy to forget the conversation had ever happened.
Stuck a knife in their backs how? This was Night Train’s and his teammates’ last game in the pros, and they were prepared to knock an injured Neil Godfrey out of the game and all but ensure a Rebels win. It was a storybook ending to five storied careers, so how could the NFL possibly screw them?
He spent a while thinking about it. The Bloody Mary was feeling like a bad idea, and he made himself a cup of coffee with the Keurig machine and let the caffeine do its thing. As the last drop touched his lips, the answer became as apparent as the nose on his face. Night Train and his pals had been breaking the rules for years, and the NFL had been letting them get away with it. Now the NFL was calling in their chits, and had told Night Train and his teammates that it was time to let the new kid on the block have the glory, and to go soft on Godfrey. To make this easier to digest, the NFL commissioner had flown to Vegas and offered Night Train and his pals lucrative jobs as sportscasters. When they’d balked, the NFL had turned ugly and blackmailed them.
That was the reason behind Night Train’s knee injury. Night Train didn’t want to end his career by besmirching himself, so he’d decided to sit on the bench and not participate.
It didn’t need to end like this. Night Train needed to be shown there was another way out, and Billy was willing to be the one to do it. But before he flew back to Vegas, there was the matter of the hired Chinese assassin looking to take him out. He called Grimes and left a message on the special agent’s voice mail. An hour later, Grimes rang him back.
“Your ears must be burning. We got him.”
“The Chinese assassin hired to kill me?”
“Yes, sir. Eight o’clock this morning. He was stopped at a traffic light at the corner of Sahara and the Strip. He tried to pull a piece and the police shot the bastard dead. You should have seen the arsenal stowed in the trunk. Two assault rifles, two handguns, and a sniper rifle. You wouldn’t have stood a chance if he’d found you.”
“You sure it was the right guy?”
“He had your photograph in his wallet. And a scorpion tattoo beneath his shirt collar. That’s his society’s secret symbol. We got the whole thing on cruiser cam. I’ll text it to you.”
“Is it safe for me to come back?”
“It’s safe. Remember, you’ve got to keep your nose clean.”
“You got it.”
Grimes sent him a text with an embedded video of the shootout. Billy watched as two Metro LVPD cops approached a car parked at the intersection with the Chinese assassin at the wheel. Like a scene out of the Wild West, everyone drew their guns, and the assassin lost.
He normally didn’t get his jollies watching people get shot to death, but the Chinese assassin had been gunning for him, so he watched it again. It was safe for him to go out in public, and he picked up the house phone and called guest services.
“How may I help you, Mr. Cunningham?” a cheery receptionist answered.
“I need a cab to the airport,” he said.
Fifty-Nine
He took a puddle jumper to Vegas and grabbed a cab to Caesars. The Rebels’ practices ended by midafternoon, and he was hoping that Night Train was back at his villa. Billy called his cell phone and got patched into voice mail.
“This is Billy. You and I need to talk. Call me.”
The minutes slipped by without a call back. The times he and Night Train had been together, the famous football player’s cell phone was always within arm’s reach. Night Train had gotten his message but was avoiding him. Billy called him again.
“There’s nothing wrong with your fucking knee. If you don’t call me, I’m going to call the sportswriter on the local paper and tell him I saw you doing cartwheels. Call me.”
Night Train called him back in a panic. “You in jail?”
“Hell no. I beat that rap,” he said. “What’s this crap on the news about you not playing in the Super Bowl?”
“My knee’s acting up. It’s an old injury.”
“What about our deal? I’ve got a lot riding on this.”
“I’m sorry, man, but I can’t risk my health. You know how it is.”
“No, I don’t. I want to talk to you face-to-face. We had a deal.”
“Sorry, man, but our deal’s off,” Night Train said.
“I don’t think so.”
“You can’t make me do something I don’t want to do.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Choo-Choo told me the NFL was screwing you guys. It took me a while to figure out what he meant. This is your last game. How could the NFL possibly screw you at this point in your careers? But then it hit me what they wanted. I know what it is, and if you don’t meet with me, I’ll tell my friends at the gaming board what’s going on.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Try me.”
“I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend. I brought you two deals worth millions of dollars. You and your teammates blew the first deal, and now you’re going to sit out the game and blow the second deal. You’re the one who’s not being a friend.”
“You don’t understand the situation.”
“On the contrary, I understand everything, which is why we need to talk. This is about your legacy, man. You can’t take a dive for these fuckers.”
The line went quiet. He had Night Train dead to rights, and they both knew it.
“Give me an hour. I just got back from practice, and I need to take a shower,” Night Train said. “There’s a cigar bar in Caesars called the Montecristo. I’ll meet you there.”
“One hour it is.”
Caesars was jumping. The entrance resembled a parking lot, and he watched the cab’s meter run while waiting to be dropped off. Soon he was in the main lobby. While guests waited on line to register, there was a bust going down, courtesy of the gaming board. The busted cheat wore silver bracelets and stared dejectedly at the floor. The gaming agents were so focused on their suspect that they didn’t see Billy come in.