Read Online By Any Other Name by J. M. Darhower - Free Book Online

music video girls. If they looked like they'd been spread out on top of a Thunderbird to a White Snake song, Enzo was hooked.
    "Matty!" he said, holding his fist out for him to bump it. "This is—"
    "They have to go," Matty said, motioning toward the girls. He didn't much care to hear their names. There was only one girl on his mind tonight, and if AquaNet and Crayola lingered, he had a sneaking suspicion it would ruin his high. "We have some business to take care of."
    Enzo sighed before waving his hand, dismissing the girls with the promise of reconnecting later. Once they were gone, Matty slid into the booth and pulled the Blackberry from his pocket, setting it down on the table in front of him.
    "So what corner did you pick them up from?" he asked nonchalantly.
    "I resent that, bro."
    Looking over at him, Matty cocked an eyebrow.
    "I found them walking down 10th Avenue," Enzo replied, grinning when Matty rolled his eyes. "What? Not good looking enough for you?"
    "She looked like she got gangbanged by crayons, En."
    Laughing, Enzo snatched a piece of ice from his glass and hurled it at him. Matty ducked in just enough time that it flew over his shoulder, skidding across the table behind him. "Just thought my brother might want a little pussy to loosen him up."
    "I'm doing fine on my own," Matty said, turning on the Blackberry as he pulled out a small notebook, flipping it open to the last marked page. He could hardly read his own jumbled scribble. "I don't need you to hire hookers."
    Enzo laughed loudly, but his amusement tapered off as he sat up straight, staring across the table with wide eyes. Reaching over, he snatched ahold of Matty's shirt collar, yanking it aside. "Holy shit, you're not joking!"
    Matty grimaced, knowing exactly what his brother saw. The back of his neck stung, the burning sensation running down his spine from where Genna had brutally dug her fingernails into his flesh. He smacked his brother's arm, pulling away as he tried to focus on the work.
    "Don't hold out on me," Enzo said. "I want details."
    "I'm not talking to you about my sex life."
    "Come on," he pressed. "At least tell me who it was."
    "It's no one you know. I just met her."
    "You just met her, and she's already putting out like that ?" Enzo laughed, shoving him. "You sure she's not a hooker, too?"
    Matty cut his eyes at his brother, the look on his face silencing Enzo before he could even say, "Shut the fuck up."
    Enzo held his hands up defensively. "You must really like her."
    "More than I like you. In fact, right now, I'm really starting to not like you."
    His laughter resurfaced. "You love me, bro."
    "Doesn't mean I have to like you."
    Rolling his eyes, Enzo swallowed down the rest of his drink before motioning toward the notebook. "So, how are the Yankees looking this week?"
    Matty started plugging numbers into the calculator on the Blackberry, trying to make sense of the week's calculations. He was entrusted with the job of keeping up with the betting games, to note the odds coming out of Vegas and coordinate with the rest of the local bookies, but he also directly ran the books at The Place.
    Being a bookie was far from glamorous, and certainly not what he had in mind when he enrolled in Princeton all those years ago, but a job was a job. "They're favored to win every day."
    "Who are they playing?"
    "Home against the Indians at the start," he said, "then away against the Mariners by the weekend."
    "Put me down for a grand on Friday's game," Enzo said as he stood up.
    "It's a twenty cent line this week," Matty said, shrugging off his brother's offended look. It was usually only a dime. "Either pay up or put your money on the Mariners."
    "That's foul."
    "I didn't set it," Matty said. "Gavin did."
    For every dollar they wanted to bet, they had to fork over another twenty cents on top of it. For a thousand dollar bet, Enzo would have to shell out an extra two hundred. It had to be balanced out somehow so they weren't the ones losing