Center to Lucas. Lucas buries it. The arena loses its mind completely. I breathe. I skate away from the pile, and the guys give me room. Seems they always do when I need it. I’m sucking air. Blood in my mouth from where my lip split, iron-warm. The noise is enormous and I’m looking at the tunnel. By the time I’m sitting in the locker room, my phone is blowing up. My sister, Piper, whose texts I read because she will actually come to the arena and find me if I don’t.
Piper: You’re everywhere. Put your phone away and don’t say anything to anyone.
Piper: I mean it, Max. Not a word.
Piper: The clip has 2M views. It’s been 11 minutes.
I put my phone face down on the bench.
Worth it. Except I sense what the next forty-eight hours will look like now. The league call. Sully from PR arriving with that disgusted expression he gets. Coach saying I told you without saying it. And her. Toni, with her clipboard and her file on me and the look she had this morning in the weight room when I told her I’d been watching, which she almost let herself react to before she pulled it back behind glass. That look is going to be different now.
My phone goes again. Unknown (872): This is Damian Price, NHL Player Conduct. We need to discuss tonight’s incident. Monday, 9 am.
That's the one.
Placing the phone down, I catch sight of someone at the tunnel entrance. I get a glimpse of her. She’s there.
When did she come down from the stands? She’s in the tunnel mouth, NHL badge, iPad under her arm, not writing.Just observing. The glass between us doesn’t do much. I can see her face clearly enough.
She saw the fight. She watched me come back out. She witnessed the goal.
I look at her.
She doesn’t leave.
Chapter Six
Toni Amato
Later, when I return to the ice arena for the game, the third period begins tied. Fatigue opens mistakes. Philly crashes the crease. Their defenseman clips Knox high after the whistle. Chaos detonates. Gloves drop. Bodies pile. Crowd screaming. I search instantly for Max. He’s already there. Of course, he is. He drags one man off Knox, shoves another away, takes a punch, and answers with two. Linesmen swarm. Penalty arms rise across the ice.
Piper groans. “Oh boy.”
My insides churn as they escort Max toward the tunnel. His jaw is hard, and his lip is split. As he passes, his gaze finds mine. That changes everything.
Guardians kill the penalties. Final minute. Tie game, and the coach sends Max out. Bold. Hemoves differently on the ice than he does anywhere else. Bigger. Every hit with a purpose he doesn't show anywhere else. He wins the board battle cleanly, chips the puck low, absorbs a hit, stays upright, centers to Lucas, who gets the goal. Game winner.
The arena loses its mind. Teammates mob Lucas. Max skates away from the celebration first, sucking air, blood in his mouth, eyes already on the tunnel. I should leave.
Instead, I remain where I am. He spots me. Even across the glass and noise, he finds me. Something in his expression shifts. “You stayed,” he says.
His lip is split properly now. There’s a cut on his chin I didn’t see from the stands. Up close, he resembles exactly what he is: a man who just fought and won a hockey game and is still running hot from both.
I open my tablet. Pull up the clip of the fight. Turn it toward him. “Calloway ran Knox after the whistle,” I say. “You reacted in under two seconds.”
He watches the clip. Says nothing.
“The league is going to call it an instigator penalty.” I keep my voice level. “Price from Player Conduct is going to want a meeting. Monday.”
“I heard.” He peers up from the screen. “You got the call already?”
“I got the call while you were in the tunnel.” He reads my face. Looking for a lecture, I think. The clipboard version of me. He’s waiting for her. “You won the board battle in the sixty-third minute on a two-and-one with a split lip,” I say instead. “Exactly the way we reviewed it.”
Silence.
The tunnel is nearly empty. Equipment staff at the far end. The sound of the locker room celebration leaking under the door. “Are you telling me it was worth it?” he asks. Solemn. Genuinely asking.
“I’m telling you both things are true.” I lower the clip. “Calloway had it coming. And it’s going to cost you. Those can both be true at the same time.”
