Chapter Nineteen #3
Jax barked a laugh when Phil finished. “Mazel tov. I guess now we know why you were so confused in December, huh?”
“Yup.”
Tom stood up from the bed and came over to the table. Phil also stood up, not sure if he should be ready to be kicked out of the room or punched in the face.
Instead, Tom hugged him tight.
“Congratulations,” he said. “I’m glad you’re happy, and I’m glad you’re my friend.”
Phil relaxed into the hug, squeezing Tom around the middle. “Thank you.”
Tom pulled away. He didn’t meet Phil’s eye, but he did say, “You think maybe we can be friends who talk about more than hockey now?”
Phil nodded. He couldn’t say it out loud, not yet, but he’d always worried somewhere in the back of his mind that as soon as he stopped playing hockey, he would lose Tom as a friend.
Maybe, if this year hadn’t happened, he would have.
Now, he knew he never would. “But I’m taking you fishing this summer whether you want to or not. ”
Tom sighed dramatically, but he was smiling with his whole face.
“You know what we should do when we’re home again?” Jax asked.
“Hm?”
“Double date.”
Phil laughed. “What do you say, Ben? Ready for more hockey players in your life?”
“As long as there is one non-hockey-related topic of conversation, I’m in,” Ben said, perhaps a tad long-sufferingly.
They left shortly after. Jax and Tom needed their pregame naps, and Ben needed to avoid talking to other humans for a half hour, at least. His face was drawn tight, worry lines etched into his forehead.
“That went about as well as it could have,” Phil said.
“Mm. If the police actually do something,” Ben said. “Which is a big if. And you’re only safe so long as no one else on the team finds out we’re married. Which they will if you keep looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know— You have this expression.”
“We call it ‘liking someone’ where I come from.”
Ben poked him in the side, and Phil retaliated. They were still exchanging jabs when they got to the door of Ben’s hotel room and found Trout waiting for them.
“Morris,” he said urgently. “We need to talk.”
“Anything you have to say, Phil can hear.” Ben unlocked the door to the hotel room as calmly as if nothing was wrong. Phil had no idea how he did it. He’d been a nervous wreck all day, but now he seemed suddenly sanguine.
Trout elbowed his way in ahead of Phil. “You told Easton? Did you tell the police as well?”
“Yup,” Ben said.
Phil tensed up, ready for Trout to flip out and get violent. He seemed the type.
Instead, he sagged, collapsing in on himself. “How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“Van Giesing’s gone. Left the country. He said if I was smart, I’d do the same. He must have been getting ready to drop the whole thing for months now. There’s a buyer lined up for the team and everything.”
The corners of Ben’s mouth turned down. “I imagine he had a plan to that effect in place from the moment you started this scheme.”
Trout’s natural expression of grouchiness evened out into shock.
“Did you never question why you were the one placing bets?” Ben asked him. “Or check whether the money was traceable to him?”
“He always gave it to me in cash,” Trout admitted.
“He’s a billionaire. Of course he was never going to take responsibility. You’re the fall guy.”
Trout went white. “I’ll take you down with me,” he threatened. “Tell them all about your gambling debts.”
“Go ahead,” Ben said. “I’d suggest getting a lawyer first though.”
Trout had no comeback ready.
“How did the police even let you get on a flight to Minnesota?” Ben asked.
Trout said nothing.
“You thought he’d cover for you,” Phil realized. “They hauled you in for questioning, and you let Van Giesing know as soon as they let you go. He told you to follow Ben, didn’t he? When he couldn’t get ahold of him?”
Trout nodded, shamefaced.
Phil had a vague knowledge of police proceedings based largely on reruns of Law and Order he’d watched in hotel rooms across the country.
He was pretty sure suspects were supposed to stay in the state.
If Trout had been told to and hadn’t, he’d gotten himself into deeper shit than he was already in.
“What do I do now?” Trout asked.
Phil looked to Ben.
Ben shrugged. “Honestly, Lewis, that’s between you and the law.” He opened the door to his hotel room and gestured for Trout to leave.
Once the door clicked shut behind him, Ben collapsed onto the bed with a groan.
“You played it so cool,” Phil said. Ben had been so calm in the face of Trout’s desperation and had given nothing away himself, not even that he’d never had any gambling debts to begin with. It was a far cry from the man Phil knew him to be at home.
“I have no idea if I made the right play,” Ben admitted. “Who knows what kind of contacts Van Giesing has? If Trout tells him I sold them out, he could hire an assassin or something.”
Phil snorted. “I doubt he would. If you mysteriously vanish now, it’ll make the both of them look doubly guilty. Van Giesing’s better off if he disappears and Trout takes the fall. I’m sure he’s living it up on some island in the Caribbean right about now.”
“I guess murdering me over insider trading would be overkill.” Ben pulled the pillow over his face and groaned into it. “Okay,” he said. “I’m going to call Charlie one more time to make sure he’s okay, and then I will stop obsessing.”
Phil would believe that when he saw it.
No harm in sweetening the pot though. By the time Ben hung up, Phil had stripped down to his boxers and splayed across the bed on his side, propped up on one elbow.
“So,” he said, “your whole secret agent thing you pulled with Trout there? Kinda hot.”
“Oh, yeah?” Ben’s eyebrows pumped up. “What are you gonna do about it?”
Phil reached up to drag him in by his tie. “I think I’m gonna get you out of that suit is what.”
Not thinking about Trout, Van Giesing, or the police for a very pleasant half hour was almost as good as finally getting to kiss every part of Ben’s chest and belly.