“The police SUV’s mine. I’m a Cutthroat detective and I’ve worked with Huck on a case or two. My girl, Kit, asked me to come to even out the teams.”

Michael handed me a glove and pushed me toward left field. “Nice to meet you,” I called to Nix as he cut to first base.

Since there weren’t enough players to round out full teams, I stayed in close and was expected to be a mix of outfield, shortstop and third base.

Amy was up first, followed by four others. They made it as far as second base before they had three outs. Astrid, as catcher, easily caught a fly ball to finish off the top of the inning. Either they were all hungover from the party the night before or they just sucked.

Bunky joined me as I walked back to the dugout. “Surprised to see you here, Manning,” he said.

“Why, Bunky? After what Charles said, I thought you’d be at the casino today.”

He hated that nickname when he was in The Bend. I had to assume he went by Thomas here in Cutthroat.

“I figured you more for a guy looking for a hot piece of ass instead of a hot bank account,” he replied. “Maybe I was wrong about you.”

The only guy who could think of Astrid as a hot piece of ass was me. While Bunky’s words were meant to rile me, I only saw them as an attack on Astrid.

“Your nose is looking better. What did you tell Lynn happened last weekend?” I raised my hand and waved in his wife’s direction even though she wasn’t looking our way.

Sawyer had punched him in the nose when he’d learned Bunky was the ex who’d lied to Kelsey about being married, and about being in love with her.

His jaw clenched as if he could crack the back molars and his cheeks flushed. He grabbed a bat and stormed off, which was great because now he was out of my face.

Astrid came into the dugout and sat her borrowed glove on the bench then grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler. She eyed me but didn’t approach. She knew I had a beef with Bunky.

Michael bat first, got a double and kissed Amy who was playing second base.

Bunky was up next.

“You good?” I asked Astrid.

She gave me a quick smile, left the dugout with a bat and said over her shoulder. “Oh yeah. I got this.”

She was on deck and I missed Bunky strike out because of her swinging a bat for warmup. Her t-shirt went taut over her tits when she swung. I’d sucked on those luscious globes. Cupped them. Watched them sway as we fucked.

I had to look away because my shorts didn’t hide a hard on.