The Cut Read Online Free PDF Page B

next door” required considerable effort. He and his family had lived here for almost five years, and they still didn’t know anyone. There were nearly a hundred homes in the development, but only four were visible from his current vantage point. One was owned by a guy who made his fortune on the Internet, although Reese didn’t know the details. He had a dozen cars, all vintage. He was also apparently divorced, dated often, and had two young daughters. Reese couldn’t tell the daughters from the girlfriends.
    He drained the remaining contents of a Gatorade bottle and tossed it aside. Then he jogged in place for a few moments. A breeze whirled up and cooled him off. His own home, about a hundred yards away, was of an imposing size and suitable for a young millionaire, but architecturally uninteresting. It was little more than an enormous cube with a few interchangeable frills, cut from the same template as other houses in the area. But it was still beautiful in its opulence, and it served the needs of his family. It had central air and heating, a swimming pool with a flagstone patio, and a fully automated lighting system. It screamed wealth, which suited him just fine. Nothing was too luxurious for his wife and kids.
    He checked his heart rate and blood pressure on the wrist monitor. Good enough—125 over 82. He got back in front of the trainer and made five more runs. When he stopped this time, it was to lean down and adjust the knee brace. He’d tried six different models before opting for the current one. It looked like a prop from Star Trek, but it seemed to be doing the job. It had a pivot-point design with an adjustable hinge. As he loosened the straps, he caught sight of the scars again. All the times he’d seen them, not to mention all the violence and brutality he’d seen in his years in the game, yet those deep lines still made him cringe. They would never disappear. And he knew what was behind them, what lay beneath that pliable husk of dark flesh. He’d done his homework on the injury and the surgery required to repair the damage. He knew exactly what was going on within this section of his body, and visualizing it sometimes made him feel light-headed.
    It happened two years ago, in the second-to-last game of the season. His Titans were playing at home against the team that replaced them in the Lone Star State, the Houston Texans. It was an important game for Tennessee, as they were in the thick of the wild card race. The Texans, conversely, were in their first year with a new head coach and only managed six wins. But five of those six had been the five they’d just played, so they were on a roll. Knowing the postseason was beyond reach, Houston’s coach wanted to see if they could at least go undefeated for the rest of the year. It would provide momentum into the following season, a sure sign they were getting better and had something to be proud of. It would also be a real feather in their cap to defeat a team that was, at least on paper, performing on a higher level. So, playoffs or not, Reese knew his opponents would be primed.
    The first two quarters went well enough, with Reese getting the ball six times for forty-six yards and one touchdown. Then came the third quarter. They were ahead by nineteen points, so they switched to a ground game to chew up the clock. He was given a lot of blocking assignments, trying to create outside lanes for halfback Gregory Cope and fullback Jared Lemmon.
    With three minutes to go before the fourth, quarterback Reggie Burton pitched out to Lemmon with Cope leading the way. Cope was a decent blocker for his size, but he couldn’t punch the required holes by himself. Reese’s job on this play was to soften up the line before Cope got there. He executed well, leveling Houston’s defensive end and then stepping in front of their outside linebacker.
    Reese wasn’t sure what happened next until he saw the film later on.