Sudden Death Read Online Free

five-four. She broke Carmen’s serve.
    Miguel put a cigarette in his mouth but didn’t light it. Jane and Ricky held their breath up in the press booth. Too much chat during a tie breaker didn’t go down with a tv audience. Harriet calmly stared straight ahead.
    Carmen, champion that she was, got tougher as the situation worsened. She focused all her energy on one single task and tore through the next three points before Beanie or the crowd knew what hit them. She nailed down the match.
    Back in the locker room, icing her knee after interviews and a massage, she said to Harriet, “No way was I going to three sets with Beanie.”
    Lavinia breezed by the locker room door on her way to the hospitality bar. “Good work, Carmen.” Lavinia Sibley Archer could gulp a lake of vodka and remain coherent. Her Wimbledon victory diminished next to this display of bodily power, especially at her age. Harriet said there was nothing to it. Lavinia was already pickled.

    Hurtling down the corridors, Harriet and Miguel almost collided with Susan Reilly as they all turned a corner at top speed. Susan carried her equipment bag over her shoulder. Harriet looked at Susan, Susan looked at Harriet. Each moved out of the other’s way.
    “Buenas noches, Susan.” Miguel had known her for years.
    After Billie Jean King and the original crew of professionals founded the circuit along with Lavinia, Susan came along to reap the benefits. She was six feet tall which gave her incredible reach at the net, and surprisingly, she was fast for a tall woman. Her court presence was electrifying. She possessed the charisma of leadership and discipline, but had no organizational skills. Luckily for her, there were plenty of people around to pick up the pieces. Susan at thirty remained a formidable foe.
    Trailing behind Susan was Happy Straker, her current doubles partner and past bed partner. Happy flashed a smile at Miguel. “Haven’t seen you since Wimbledon. You look great.”
    Lisa, Susan’s seven-year-old daughter, caught up with her mother as did Craig Reilly, Susan’s husband. Craig was a doctor and rarely joined his wife on the road. That was just as well.
    “Still great,” Miguel said as Susan’s entourage moved down the hallway. Susan was one of the greatest. She was also one of the greatest liars, but why spoil the illusion? Harriet once described her as exhaustingly dishonest, which covered it.
    “Why don’t you two play doubles anymore?” Miguel asked.
    Carmen shrugged her shoulders. “Susan likes to change partners. Keeps her fresh.”
    Miguel eyed his sister. Carmen and Susan had won every doubles championship there was to win. Changing for the sake of change sounded odd.
    Carmen returned his gaze. “That’s the way she is. Fickle.”
    “Doubles partnerships may be like marriage, but you don’t need the pope to break up.” Miguel touched a nerve without realizing it.
    What he didn’t know was that Susan Reilly was the first woman to sleep with his sister. Carmen was sixteen and highly impressionable. At twenty-four, she was still plentyimpressionable, but at sixteen she was so emotional as to be helpless. Susan bedded down what was then an ambitious Argentine kid on her way up, if she could ever control her temper. Susan told Carmen that she loved Craig but they had an understanding. He went his way and she went hers. She neglected to tell Carmen that she also serviced an expensive, beautiful matron high on Nob Hill. Whatever else she said, it was enough to convince a kid in the throes of first love, not to mention first lesbian affair, that she had to live with Susan. Indeed, Carmen felt she couldn’t live without Susan. So Carmen packed her bags and left for the U.S.
    Carmen didn’t discuss this with Susan. She assumed Mrs. Reilly would be thrilled to see her and live with her. She’d have to make periodic visits to Argentina to keep her citizenship intact and to satisfy U.S. bureaucratic standards, notoriously hard on