Free Pitbull: He plays hard on the field...He plays harder off it. by Sam Silvetti Page A

we sound like a bunch of cartoon characters or something."
    "Sit down, Ja—"
    "No," he said, raising his voice. "I'm serious. Fuck you. I don't need this sort of voodoo shit, getting inside my fucking head like you think you're clever. I'm done with you and I'm done with bending over backwards for my club."
    He walked to the door in a few long strides.
    "If you go now, Jack," I warned, "I won't see you again."
    "Goodbye, Emily. It was nice knowing you."
    With a slam of the door and heavy footsteps on the stairs, he was gone.
    After I'd listened to his car leaving in a squeal of tyres and a roar of the engine, I sat at my desk and picked up the paperweight.
    I'd obviously scratched the surface and found something below, something Jack didn't want to talk about. I put the glass ball down and slammed my notebook shut.
    Jack Bailey was an enigma, but I didn't think I had the energy to solve him.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Fourteen
    Jack
     
    "So let me get this straight in my head," said Andy, "you fucked a random girl in London, and it turns out that she's one of the people that Harry made an appointment with for you?"
    "Yup," I said, dodging a log in the path.
    Andy put on a spurt of speed and arrived at my side, his breathing becoming heavier the faster we ran.
    "And when you got to her office she was being attacked by a patient?"
    "Yup."
    "And you're telling me you love her? This woman that you slept with once, saved from a lunatic, and who you've only seen a handful of times? That's what you're telling me?"
    "I didn't say love," I panted, "I said, I can't get her out of my head."
    "Same difference," said Andy, leaping over a puddle and sliding in mud as he landed. He regained his balance and slowed his pace. "It sounds like a fucking film," he said, "sleeping with a woman who turns out to be your psychologist. You couldn't make it up."
    "Yeah, well, it's over now. We argued, I won't be seeing her again."
    Andy ducked under a low hanging branch. "The story of your life. When will you find someone you can settle down with, Jack?"
    "You can't talk," I said, "it's not like you've settled down with the woman of your dreams either."
    Andy sped past me and I increased my speed. "I'm younger than you," he said, his breath leaving his mouth in coils of condensation. "That means I don't need to find a woman yet, and it means I can beat you to the car park."
    I opened my stride and sucked air deep into my lungs. "Tenner says you can't" I said, gaining on him.
    Andy's wide shoulders rolled as he pumped his arms, muddy water splashing behind him and up his calves with each step he made on the forest track.
    The sound of birdsong got louder — almost as if they were cheering us on as I levelled with my teammate and went ahead by a couple of strides.
    "You might be younger," I said, listening to the heavy thud of his footsteps getting quieter as I opened up my lead. "But I can run rings around you."
    As Andy's footsteps dropped further behind me, I moved my thoughts to Emily. She'd made me mad when she'd questioned me about my anger issues, and the irony wasn't lost on me. I had every right to be mad though, I'd failed the most important woman in my life, my mother, and the day she'd died I'd changed irrevocably. I'd changed from the boy who'd found happiness in almost everything, to the man who found the world a place full of disappointments.
    I put dark thoughts out of my mind. I was going to the dog sanctuary later that morning, and I didn't want to take bad vibes to the animals who had already seen enough crap in their lives.
    I reached the car park a full twenty seconds before Andy, and slapped him on the back as he bent over, gulping in air, his body shaking. "Like I said, mate, I can run rings around you."
    Andy spat long strings of saliva at his feet. "You'll slow down soon enough," he gasped, "you're getting old."
    "I'll never be too old to beat you," I said, opening the car boot and grabbing the bag that contained