The League of Players

The League

Synopsis

            When awkward, wealthy computer genius Brian Warecki gets his heart broken by the woman he loves, he uses his unlimited resources and money to do what no one has ever done before. He creates the League of Players, recruiting the nation’s handsomest, most notorious heart-breakers to seduce her, then leave her used, in the hopes that she will return to him. His reward to the ultimate player is incredible, and so, the greatest game of hearts ever played begins. But not every outcome can be calculated, and this game has an ending none of them expect.

Prologue

            “Gentlemen,” he announced, “Welcome to the League of Players.”

            There was silence for a few moments before one tall, russet-haired guy cocked an eyebrow, lounging on the cream leather sofa, then rudely asked, “And what is that supposed to mean?”

            Warecki tried smiling thinly while gripping the edge of the podium until all his knuckles turned white. God, he hated this particular brand of male with a passion. But he needed them.

He needed what they could do with one look, glance, touch. Something that he – awkward, freckled, spaced-out computer nerd – could never do.

            They were here to seduce her.

            In answer to the strikingly attractive young man’s demand, Warecki leaned over and silently pressed the button on his streamlined, custom-designed laptop. He didn’t turn around; judging by the numerous gleams that had sparked in most of the players’ carelessly handsome faces, her picture was up there on the slideshow, smiling behind his back.

            And yet, Warecki found himself turning around anyway, his gaze helplessly drawn to the photo he’d taken of her when she had smiled at him, not knowing that he’d decided to test out his micro-camera that day – an invention he’d been working on. It seemed like an eternity ago.

            The same soft brown hair falling in waves, the large soft gray eyes, the soft pink lips. Everything had seemed so soft about her, so easy to get lost in, so easy to forget that he had never really outgrown the label of ‘nerd,’ even though his multi-billion dollar mansion on the coast of Malibu attested to the genius beneath the glasses and awkward exterior.

            Warecki suddenly realized that the pause was stretching on too long, and that the world’s largest and most unfortunate collection of good-looking assholes were beginning to mutter amongst each other.

            It had taken Warecki a long two months to put his plan into motion. The hacking into school feeds and private accounts had been utterly nothing; he could’ve done it in his sleep. It was hand-picking them that had taken so long. Once he’d determined, based on facebook friend numbers, various networks, and gossip, which males were the reigning school gods, he had sent each one a private inbox informing them of the time his private airline would pick them up at, and giving brief details of his offer. He’d told them just enough to capture their fleeting, shallow interests, and to ensure that they came.

He’d been careful not to sound like a complete psychopath, though; one false move and the FBI would probably be pretty damn interested in why Brian Warecki had assembled a group of twenty-something year-olds instructed to target his ex.

From where Warecki stood on the stage, he could see all of them, in various states of bored, lounging on the leather chairs he’d provided. He stared at them now. After two months of flipping through pages of profiles belonging to egotistical renowned heart-breakers, it became possible to notice a pattern. Brian had always been good at patterns.