“Right.” The doctor nodded, once, scrunching his black turtleneck. “Cash only, then.” The exam room door swung shut behind the old white guy with the weird accent.

The ballplayer could only hope a newspaper didn’t find out he’d been to the clinic. What if they offered the doc more money for details? The man was as smarmy as they came.

Duke took a deep breath, hopped off the table, and gingerly put his wrapped right foot on the ground. His green eyes narrowed to slits. While it was not unbearable, there was pain. And where there was pain, there was a problem.

When is this going to be done?

It wasn’t just the ache. The unhealed ankle was a constant reminder of the worst night of Duke’s life. In his dreams, he saw his friend Mark, the Bronx Bolt catcher, take a bullet in the chest, dying painfully fifty feet from him. Another stray bullet took Duke in the ankle but had seemed like nothing in comparison, until the wound put his career in jeopardy. Without baseball, he was nobody. Just another Bronx dude on the street, good for nothing but throwing a ball.

Caleb “the Duke” Lewis would be stripped of his status if he couldn’t stand steady on the mound by the time he reported to spring training next week. The Bronx Bolts would replace him with the young buck they had waiting in the wings. Which was why he, the Bronx Bolts’ star pitcher, was at a crappy clinic in the middle of the Bronx instead of at the Bronx Bolts’ medical facility. He had to trust the skeezy Dr. Collins to keep his mouth shut.

In the waiting room, he found Aaron Miller, his agent and childhood friend, ranting into a cell phone, oblivious to the annoyed scowls from the people around him. Catching Duke’s eye, Aaron clicked off and loped over.

“Man, you look fine. You’re not even limping. You okay?”

“Yes.” No.

“Good! Anyone recognize you?”

Duke tugged the brim of his baseball cap lower and shook his head. There was the mother in the waiting room earlier, but she hadn’t taken any pictures. Maybe the sexy nurse—the uptight one who’d taken the asthmatic kid away … But he didn’t think so.

There was something about that feisty young nurse. When their eyes had met, he’d felt a weird jolt, and now he couldn’t stop thinking about her. The gold flecks in her brown eyes were mesmerizing, her skin was golden and smooth, her thick dark hair had gold highlights. She was naturally beautiful. God musta sprinkled gold dust over that luscious woman.

He turned to scan the room but then abruptly swung back around. What am I thinking? I have got to get my shit together. No time to chase skirt around.

“Yo, Earth to Duke. Let’s get you outta here.”