Page 75 of Ice Devil

The woman responsible for some dark fantasies was giving me the evil eye.

I laughed and backed away. “She’s right, Walter Junior. You’re not worth it. I have much better things to do.” If there was one thing the dude hated, it was to be called by his given name.

His father’s name.

Walter made the mistake of grabbing my jersey, but before I could take a swing, she had him pinned to the plexiglass. Not by taking a swing or by threatening him with anything other than her index finger in his face, speaking to him softly, but I could tell he was paying very close attention to what she was saying.

I had to admit that I was enjoying the hell out of myself. The woman was formidable as hell.

When his face went white, I guessed she’d reached DEFCON level two. That was enough that after he tossed me a hate-filled look, he skated away like a good boy.

With a flip of her hair, she turned to face me, hands on her hips as before.

“What did you say to him?”

“Nothing that you need to hear,” she cooed.

“How is Ford?” I asked, searching the crowd for him.

“He’s fine. He’s just like you in that he was pitching a fit to get back on the ice. From what I heard, he’s in the locker room.”

While I breathed a sigh of relief, that didn’t mean the son of a bitch and his bullshit should go unpunished. However, the coach had been right. I had the feeling the player had been told to rile the Kendrick brothers. If we lost our cool and did something really stupid, the naysayers would come out of the woodwork.

When would the idiots learn that we could control ourselves?

Okay, most of the time.

I laughed, waved one last time to the crowd then stepped off the ice, immediately handed blade guards.

“Great job, man!” Assistant Coach Parker yelled.

I grinned while a couple of other guys patted me on the head.

“I have a surprise for you,” she said when the players began to file out toward the locker room.

“Oh, yeah? You’re moving to Portland?”

She rolled her eyes. “Hardly. What would you say about an interview with Sports Today?”

I knew of the program. There were athletes who’d give their right arms to sit down with the guys hosting the show.

“I’d ask why?”

“Well, apparently, you’re hot stuff. Now, I begged to differ but…”

She laughed, backing away when I reached for her. She even wagged the same finger at me.

“What?” I whined.

“You are merely someone I might be interviewing tonight on a little show called Sports Today.”

It took me a few seconds to realize what she’d just said. “Wait. You’re on the show?”

“I am. What do you think?”

“I think you need to follow me.”

“Oh, yeah? You’re all sweaty.” She tried to keep from laughing, even pressing her hand across her lips as fans crowded the corridor.