Deceit

By Gerald Collins

Simon Lester is a star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. He is six feet-four with an athletic build that women find attractive. He is happily married and always lustful of his wife. However, he must travel around the country with his teammates who have young attractive women seeking them.

Julie Lester is an executive with a business consulting firm in Chicago. She too travels on business, but is always dissatisfied with her own contribution to the family fortunes. She does not want to be kept “barefoot and pregnant.” It is her desire to build her own sense of worth by sometimes even competing with her famous husband as she makes her way up the corporate ladder. The challenges of maintaining their marriage and commitment to one another are pushed to the limit with the pressures of life facing them.

The heads of several major sport teams have quietly hired a group of investigators to rid sports of the cocaine sellers who attempt to gain ties to the large sums of money that sports personalities have access to. Most of these investigators are lawfully seeking to keep the drug sellers away from their athletes; however some of the investigators are not so patient. A few use unlawful means to stop the drug trafficking and have sometimes resorted to ruthless means.
One such ruthless act was the payment of Wesley Crump to kill Harrison Barnes. Mr. Barnes was a drug dealer who consistently sought sports personalities. Harrison Barnes had maintained a luxury apartment in the exclusive Trump Tower in Chicago. The apartment was kept in the name of his part-time girlfriend, Wendy Rodriguez. It was often used to entertain with exclusive parties where athletes were invited. Wendy actually lived in the apartment.
This tale of suspense becomes a web of danger and intrigue as a man from Los Angeles plots to bring pain to Simon Lester and ultimately to kill him to gain the affections of Wendy Rodriguez. Wesley Crump has already killed one man to eliminate his competition for Wendy Rodriguez.

Wendy Rodriguez really has no interest in Wesley Crump. There are remnants of a one night affair she had with him, but has had little contact with him since that affair. Wendy told him that she was not interested in him after she awakened from a brief nap after their sexual encounter. Yet Wesley continues to pursue her, in his mind.

Wendy Rodriguez wants to have Simon Lester in a way that could easily spell danger for a married man. She works for Breen Sports Network as a sports reporter. This job has often gotten her into the locker room to interview Simon Lester and other sports stars. She is six feet tall and often dresses to attract attention. Yet she wants Simon even though she knows that he is married. At times her pitch for Simon is fast and furious.

A Los Angeles detective is on the case to find the killer of Harrison Barnes. This detective has no clues that lead him to the killer of Harrison Barnes until he contacts Wendy Rodriguez. Harrison Barnes was also the nephew of the deputy mayor of Los Angeles. For this reason the mayor’s office keeps the fire to the police to solve this murder.

All of this occurs during the heat of a pennant drive by the Chicago White Sox. Any baseball fan would enjoy the way Simon has become a master of his craft. Chicago fans in particular will enjoy this historical fiction as their team moves in and out of first place during their stretch drive. They will also experience the fear that Wesley Crump provides as he seeks to bring pain to Simon Lester and therefore an entire city.

A tale of suspense, passion, and baseball, this is one you will enjoy. But, hold onto your seat. There is more here than lust and passion. Each baseball team is a multi-billion dollar enterprise and they seek to protect their investments in their athletes. Harrison Barnes was a drug dealer, but justice can be served coldly. And here’s the pitch!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Collins
• Release date: Aug 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370057740

Gerald Collins

BioGerald Collins has been a licensed Religious Science Practitioner at the Agape International Center in Los Angeles, California, since 1997. As his minister and class facilitator, Michael Bernard Beckwith, the founder and spiritual director of Agape, taught Gerald spiritual principles. Mr. Collins has spent over 15 years teaching these universal spiritual principles to children and has been an assistant teacher in Agape’s University of Transformational Studies and Leadership.Prior to that, since 1976, Gerald has been a professional teacher and financial manager as a Certified Public Accountant with a Masters’ degree in finance. Mr. Collins has written for a children’s magazine and has been a contributor to Inner Visions, an Agape monthly publication since 1997.Gerald has been a facilitator of A Course in Miracles and has facilitated several spiritual growth workshops. He is an avid reader who has dedicated himself to studying the lives of mystics in the world’s wisdom traditions, a practice which has greatly impacted his own spiritual life. Each of the six books he has written foster life enhancement ideas. All of his books, additional writings as well as blogs can be found on his website which is geraldcollins.com.

Book preview

Deceit A Heated Romance Story of Deception

Deceit

A Heated Romance Story of Deception Amid Elegant Lifestyles

Written by Gerald Collins

Other books by Gerald E. Collins

The Only Life Worth Living

Healing the Sense of Separation

Restoring Wholeness

A Book of Spiritual Practices

God’s Holy Spirit

The Seamless Space of Heaven

The Final Frontier

Love’s Magic

A series of Short Stories about Mystics and their Relationships with God

Passion, Power, and Peace

A Magical Love Story of Passion and Conquests

Raise Beautiful Children!

A Spiritual Parenting guide to bringing forth the incredible

Chapter One

Yeah, yeah, it was a good win for us. I believe we can win this division even though it may seem difficult from where we are

Can we quote you on that, Simon? Wendy Rodriguez from Breen Sports Network broke the chuckles with her direct question.

Simon nodded and turned up his lips. He tried hard not to notice Wendy’s legs poking out of the extremely micro mini she was wearing. You sure can, Miss Rodriguez. Do whatever you feel like to sell more papers, he added.

Wendy smiled and flashed him a toothy grin.

If only.

But no, Simon was a happily taken man and he wouldn’t leave Julie for anyone. Not even the female scribe who every man on this team wanted to bang, including the manager.

Anything else ladies and gentlemen?

As soon as the words left his mouth, Simon was barraged with more questions. To get back to his beautiful wife, he chose to accept only one more. Ted, I’m sorry, what?

Groans sounded from the small crowd when Simon asked a seasoned veteran beat writer to repeat his inquiry.

Thanks Simon. Do you feel you’re on your way to getting a Cy Young this year?

Simon shrugged, Maybe but, I’ll let you do all the thinking Ted. If I go on a losing streak and this team, doesn’t make the playoffs, then I probably won’t get the award but, I tell you one thing, I’ll give it my all each and every time. Thanks guys.

The minute he said that, Simon turned his back and all the reporters left him except for one.

Simon? Um, I’m sorry, Simon?

A calm, soothing voice interrupted him from swiping his roll on under his armpits. He sighed but didn’t turn around to face her. Yes, Miss Rodriguez?

Please, call me Wendy. I wanted to ask you about doing an exclusive before the team’s next road trip. You’ve been avoiding me for quite a long time on that.

Yeah, I know, Wendy but, don’t take it personal. I just don’t wanna take the focus away from the team.

You already have, silly.

Simon shivered when Wendy’s soft hands caressed his back. Uh, um, no I really haven’t, Wendy. Now if you’ll excuse me. Simon didn’t dare turn around. Especially not now. Not when his erection was poking from underneath his blue jeans.

"All right, I’ll leave you alone… for now. I’ll give you a call again later on after the Blue Jays game on Saturday."

Okay. Simon released a deep sigh when he heard the sound of her heels fading in the background. Jeezus. Does she ever quit?

Man, dude. What the hell’s wrong with you, Simon? That woman’s trying to get atcha and you ain’t giving her what she wants? Simon’s best friend and fellow pitcher, Tony’s voice came from out of nowhere.

Tony, I’m happily married, you know that.

Yeah, but…

I tell you, she has too many weapons for you to resist for too long

Simon spun his heel. No buts, Tony. She’s gorgeous and all, but I’m happy with the lady I’m with. When I said I do, it meant no playing around.

What are you talking about? Weapons?" Simon responded.

You have seen those legs. You have seen her is a dress that reveals her hourglass shape. You also see those headlights poking out from the front of her. She wears a low neckline every time she comes in here and those headlights have pointers."

Yeah yeah, yeah, but man. I’d have a hard time saying no to someone so damn gorgeous. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought you were gay.

Simon rolled his eyes at that comment. Even if I was, why would that be a problem? Dude, I swear, sometimes I’m embarrassed to call you a friend, you know? Keep your homophobic comments to yourself, right? I’m going home to my wife. Simon slammed the locker and grabbed his bag.

Ah hell, Simon, I was joking, all right? I know you’re all gay rights…

Whatever dude. Later.

Simon waved him off and kept walking, waving to other teammates as he left. He slung his bag over his shoulder and slipped his sunglasses on, making his way to the employee lot. His arm throbbed from throwing over one hundred and sixteen pitches, but he understood the sacrifice to put his team in the best position to win. As long as the Sox were in competition, Simon had no issue with how many pitches he threw. That’s why they paid him the big bucks anyway. Simon would never lose sight of the blessings bestowed upon him, leading to an opportunity for a long career in the major leagues.

Simon Lester is a gifted pitcher and athlete. He has a blazing 96 mph fast ball that is alive. Alive means that it is moving as it approaches the strike zone. It moves laterally as well as horizontally. Lester also has a curve, splitter, changeup, and a slider.

The natural movement of a curveball and most pitches from a right hander is that the pitch moves away from the right handed batter. This means that it curves laterally to the left. For a right handed pitcher which Simon is facing a right handed batter, the ball moves away from the batter. The objective is to get the batter to miss the ball or to hit it with the weaker part of the bat. The weaker part of the bat is the part closest to the batters hands or to hit the ball off the very end of the bat. Hitting the ball with the weaker part of the bat may result in the ball breaking the bat or the batter hitting a weak grounder of a weak fly out.

The strongest part of the bat is the area along the widest part of the bat near the end of the bat. This is the sweet spot where the batter may generate the greatest power for the home run. This is approximately a one-foot area near the end of the bat.

Lester occasionally throws a changeup which means that he slows down the pitch to about 87mph to confuse the batter. He has another changeup which is thrown at about 82mph.

To confuse the batter a pitcher can change the speed of the ball while seeming to throw it with the same motion. Doing this requires that the pitcher allow the ball to slide off his hand