Forced Out

EDITORIAL REVIEW:

THREE MEN, THREE SECRETS, ONE CHANCE AT REDEMPTION. Sarasota, Florida: Jack Barrett is down on his luck. Forced to retire from his job as a scout for the New York Yankees under a cloud of scandal, he's just barely getting by in a small Florida town when his daughter drags him to watch the local team play a home game. And that's when everything changes. On the field he spots a remarkable player, Mikey Clemant, a kid whose amazing natural skill on the field is counter-balanced by a terrible attitude and inconsistent play. In Clemant, Jack thinks he might have found his ticket back to the big time. But Clemant has no interest in Jack's big plan -- he insists he just wants to live out his days playing Single A ball, living the life of a loner on a team that's going nowhere. Jack won't be so easily deterred. Queens, New York: Johnny Bondano is the premier hitman for the Luchessi crime family. Ruthless but with a strict moral code, he is given instructions to find and kill the man who allegedly was behind the wheel during a hit-and-run accident that took the life of the grandson of a family underboss.He suspects the family isn't telling him everything that happened the night the little boy was killed, but to question his orders is tantamount to suicide. As Jack, Mikey, and Johnny's destinies converge, loyalties will be tested and dreams will collide, with violent and unpredictable results. And on the green field of a small town baseball diamond, one man will have a last chance to find redemption.

Forced Out

Book Jacket

Rating:

Tags:
Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Suspense, Thrillers, Suspense fiction, Fiction - Espionage, Thriller, Espionage, Crime & Thriller, American Mystery & Suspense Fiction, Modern fiction, Adventure, Sports, Sports & Recreation, Baseball, Murder for hire

EDITORIAL REVIEW:

THREE MEN, THREE SECRETS, ONE CHANCE AT REDEMPTION. Sarasota, Florida: Jack Barrett is down on his luck. Forced to retire from his job as a scout for the New York Yankees under a cloud of scandal, he's just barely getting by in a small Florida town when his daughter drags him to watch the local team play a home game. And that's when everything changes. On the field he spots a remarkable player, Mikey Clemant, a kid whose amazing natural skill on the field is counter-balanced by a terrible attitude and inconsistent play. In Clemant, Jack thinks he might have found his ticket back to the big time. But Clemant has no interest in Jack's big plan -- he insists he just wants to live out his days playing Single A ball, living the life of a loner on a team that's going nowhere. Jack won't be so easily deterred. Queens, New York: Johnny Bondano is the premier hitman for the Luchessi crime family. Ruthless but with a strict moral code, he is given instructions to find and kill the man who allegedly was behind the wheel during a hit-and-run accident that took the life of the grandson of a family underboss.He suspects the family isn't telling him everything that happened the night the little boy was killed, but to question his orders is tantamount to suicide. As Jack, Mikey, and Johnny's destinies converge, loyalties will be tested and dreams will collide, with violent and unpredictable results. And on the green field of a small town baseball diamond, one man will have a last chance to find redemption.

Forced Out

A Novel

Stephen Frey

ATRIA
BOOKS

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ALSO BY STEPHEN FREY

The Fourth Order

The Successor

The Power Broker

The Protege

The Chairman

Shadow Account

Silent Partner

The Day Trader

Trust Fund

The Insider

The Legacy

The Inner Sanctum

The Vulture Fund

The Takeover

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright (c) 2008 by Stephen Frey

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ATRIA
BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frey, Stephen W.

Forced out : a novel / Stephen Frey.--1st Atria Books hardcover ed. p. cm.

1. Murder for hire--Fiction. I. Title.

PS3556.R4477F67 2008

813'.54--dc22

2008015386

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-7972-4

ISBN-10: 1-4165-7972-9

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For my Diana. I love you, darling. If you'd never convinced me to go to that game,
this book would still be just an idea.

Part 1

1

F
OUR YEARS. FOUR
damn
years since he'd been to a baseball game, watched one on TV, even snuck a sidelong glance at the standings in a summer sports section. But it seemed more like a lifetime.

Jack Barrett turned off the stadium's main concourse just past a tempting hot dog stand and limped up the narrow tunnel toward Section 121 on his gimpy knees, muttering to himself about this being a bad idea. His daughter and her boyfriend had finally convinced him to come with them tonight after badgering him about it all spring. But now that he was here, he wished he'd kept that blood oath with himself and stayed away forever. Nothing good could come of this.

As he emerged from the tunnel into the half-light of the Florida evening and that familiar panorama rose up before him for the first time in so long, Jack stopped to take it in. Felt that same intense anticipation and excitement building in the center of his chest, like he always had. He'd been to thousands of games over the years in ballparks ten times the size of this one, but this single moment always had the same profound effect on him. Always made him realize that his darkest problems weren't as bad as they seemed. Even now.