Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 36

The Badge and the Bat

The Badge and the Bat

Elijah’s POV

The air inside The Dugout Diner was thick with the smell of fried grease, spilled beer, and the loud, overlapping chatter of the post–game crowd.

It was our usual spot after a home win, a dim dive bar where the wood on the tables was sticky from decades of college athletes celebrating their victories.

Around our circular booth, the guys were already three pitchers of beer deep, the mood elevated by the massive win.

“Watch and learn, boys,” Nate grinned, leaning his broad shoulders back against the leather booth.

He raised his glass toward a booth across the room, locking eyes with a pretty blonde who had been glancing over her shoulder for the past twenty minutes.

Nate flashed his most charming, dimpled smile and threw her a smooth wink.

The girl immediately turned a bright shade of crimson, giggling as her friends pushed her shoulder and squealed in encouragement.

A scoff escaped my lips as I shook my head, rolling my eyes at the display. It was entirely pathetic how little it took to rile these girls up.

The easy, cheap validation they were all desperate for only grated on my nerves, making the loud chatter in the diner feel ten times more irritating.

“Oh, come on. Did you have to wink? She’s probably planning your wedding in her head right now,” Leo laughed, slamming his palm against the table to hype Nate up.

“Go over there before she passes out from the excitement.”

“Give him a second, he’s building the anticipation,” Miles snickered, pouring himself another glass of draft beer.

Leo nudged the Jace who was sitting directly across from him.

“Hey, Jace. Look at the brunette next to her. She’s been staring at you for twenty minutes. Go give her a crumb of attention.”

Jace didn’t even blink. He kept his eyes locked on his plate, methodically cutting his steak without a single drop of interest in the girls across the room.

“I’m eating, Leo.”

“Man, you two are absolute bummers tonight,” Leo groaned, gesturing between Jace and me.

“We just secured a major victory, there are a dozen gorgeous girls practically begging for us to look their way, and you two look like you’re attending a funeral. Usually, a

15

The Ladue and the Sat

game–winning home run means you’re buying the first round and hitting on anything that moves. What is wrong with you?”

“Leave me out of it, Leo,” I muttered, taking a long swallow from my bottle of beer

My mind was completely checked out of the conversation. I had too much shit on my plate.

Finals were only a few weeks away, and the pressure from the scouts was ramping up with every single game.

Everyone on campus just assumed I’d jump straight into the MLB draft after graduation–it was the obvious, multi–million–dollar path for a shortstop with my stats. But the deeper I got into my criminology major, the less certain I felt about the easy path.

I loved baseball, but lately the FBI academy had been sitting in the back of my mind more than I wanted to admit.

I hadn’t even told the guys yet. I had no clue how to chase a future in federal law enforcement without walking away from a shot at pro baseball, and the whole thing was starting to eat at me.

Then there was my mom.

I’d called home yesterday, and my dad had given me his usual rehearsed, stoic routine.

‘She’s doing alright, son. Just resting.’

But I could hear the exhaustion in his voice, the subtle crack in his tone that told me everything he was trying to hide. She wasn’t okay.

The urge to drop my bags, skip the next stretch of games, and drive across state lines just to see her kept pulling at me no matter how hard I tried to focus on anything else. And finally… Victoria.

Just thinking her name made my jaw tighten. I was completely unmoored by the feelings she was stirring up in me.

The anger that had flared in my chest when I found out about her little rendezvous with Caleb hadn’t subsided.

It didn’t matter that they were lifelong best friends, or that Caleb was the guy she actually wanted.

This entire arrangement was supposed to be a game to get that idiot’s attention, and even though Victoria was getting the exact reaction she’d planned for, I hated it.

I couldn’t understand why it pissed me off so badly, but seeing Caleb anywhere near her made my blood boil.

225

I

A girl from the social circle who had been desperately trying to get into my bed for months had sent me anonymous photos of them, practically begging me to see how Victoria had “betrayed” me so she could slide into her place.

I had blocked the number instantly, but I couldn’t block out the images that had burned straight into my skull.

“You’re actually dating Victoria Rhodes?”

Jace’s voice broke through the noise of the diner, cutting through the banter.

The table went completely silent. Miles froze with his glass halfway to his mouth, his gray eyes darting between Jace and me.

Jace was looking at me, his dark eyes narrowed in a calculating stare.

He wasn’t the type to care about campus gossip, which made his sudden interest in my arrangement feel incredibly pointed, almost weird.

“Yeah,” I said quietly, holding his stare. “I am.”

Jace stayed quiet for a moment, his face giving nothing away as he looked at me.

The silence between us stretched, tense and uncomfortable, like there was something he wanted to ask but chose not to.

Finally, he gave a slow, single nod, looking back down at his food.

“Interesting.”

“Alright, let’s get the check,” Miles intervened quickly, sensing the heavy shift in the atmosphere.

“Coach wants us on the field early tomorrow anyway.”

The tension dissolved back into the general noise of the bar as we paid the bill and filed out into the cool night air.

The gravel parking lot was dimly lit, the shadows of the surrounding trees stretching across the pavement.

We were halfway to my Escalade when a group of guys came walking out of the neighboring sports lounge.

My boots stopped against the gravel.

It was Caleb and his inner circle. They were surrounded by a few girls from the Greek system, everyone laughing and talking loudly.

My eyes scanned their group, and I noticed something immediately.

Lexi wasn’t with him.

A loud alarm went off in my brain. Lexi was practically glued to Caleb’s side every single weekend, especially after a game.

The Barge and the Hat

Her sudden absence, paired with the fact that Caleb had spent the last forty–eight

hours trying to crawl back into Victoria’s good graces, made a wave of pure disgust roll through my stomach.

Something was incredibly fishy.

Caleb’s eyes landed on me, his entire posture turning rigid.

He stepped away from his friends, his chest puffing out as he marched straight toward me, stopping just a few feet away.

“Carter,” he spat, his green eyes flashing with an intense, competitive hatred. “Just the guy I wanted to see.”

“Walk away, Caleb,” I said, my voice deadpan, not even bothering to take my hands out of my pockets. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit tonight.”

“You need to stay the hell away from Victoria,” Caleb hissed, stepping closer until we were practically chest–to–chest.

“Look, I know you hate my guts, Elijah. But leave her out of whatever twisted vendetta you have against me. She’s too good for the messy, arrogant games you play with women. She isn’t just some trophy for you to use and break, and I’m not going to let you destroy her.”

A dark, dangerous heat flared up my neck. I stepped forward, my height completely eclipsing him as I leaned down into his face.

“You don’t know a single damn thing about what Victoria needs, Caleb. You spent semesters treating her like she was invisible, completely blind to her presence while you chased a spotlight. You don’t get to play the protective hero now just because you realized you’re irrelevant to her.”

“She’s my best friend!” Caleb hissed, his fists clenching at his sides. “I’ve known her my entire life. I know she’s miserable with you. This fake, arrogant persona you’re forcing her into isn’t her.”

“Then maybe you should have taken better care of her when you had the chance,” I growled, my face inches from his. “She belongs on my arm now. If you have a problem with that, we can settle it right here.”

“Hey, hold on. Break it up,” Noah Stones, Caleb’s closest buddy, stepped in, putting a hand on Caleb’s shoulder and pulling him back a step.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify