Page 54 of Her Player

Only to figure out he didn’t have it.

Watching them scramble was the thrill of a lifetime. Watching Langley line up that fucking shot and put us a point ahead sent the crowd into a riled frenzy. People cheered so hard that I knew they’d lose their voices. We’d have a hoarse population come tomorrow morning.

I wanted to make their screaming worth it.

It wasn’t long before the Pirates turned it on us, though. Their rock-solid defense came careening at us, and I immediately backtracked toward Moose. Not that I didn’t think he could fend off their assault, but we never strung our goalie out like that.

We worked as a team.

No matter what the other team was doing.

“Get behind the goal!” Coach bellowed. “Behind it! Someone guard the back!”

I didn’t know why the fuck Coach wanted something like that, but I was on it. While our guys chased those fuckers around on the ice, I watched as that puck grew closer. With Langley on one side of Moose and Jett on the other, I took up space behind the goal.

And then I realized why Coach wanted me to do it.

These Detroit Pirates were big fucking dudes. All of them, easily as big as me. And the downside to that? Two of us couldn’t fit behind that goal. If one of them came tearing back here, they’d careen right into me.

Coach was laying traps for penalty box timeouts.

Goddamn it, that man was a genius.

But then I heard the slap of a stick against the puck. I watched as the puck left the ground, soaring higher than a puck needed to. I watched Jett’s face morph just as Langley dove in front of Moose. I watched Langley’s body crash to the ice, the ill-timed jump done out of desperation.

“Moose! Get down!” I bellowed when I realized the trajectory of the puck.

I should have known Moose wouldn’t have listened, however.

That puck soared right for the weak spot on his helmet. That damned rubber puck hit the metal wire rings that covered the eyes and nose of his helmet, jamming itself right in there. Right in front of his fucking eyes. The damned puck traveled so fast through the air that it bent the goddamn metal frame that protected his fucking face.

It knocked Moose clear off his feet as he slid just outside of the boundary of the goal.

The stadium fell silent. Officials skated over. Coach already threw flags on the play while the opposing team’s coach barked orders.

It was Jett’s voice that I heard first, however.

“You better run, you fuckin’ son of a bitch,” he growled as he ripped off his helmet and his gloves, “because I ain’t chirpin’ no more.”

Jett pushed off the ice, moving at a blinding speed, and before I could intercept him, he tackled that motherfucker to the ground. Langley was next, hopping up and racing toward the dog pile as two of those massive Pirates leapt onto Jett’s back. I raced to Moose and helped him up. Officials were already over there with him, checking his mask and wiggling the helmet off his head to make sure he was all right.

I didn’t even get pulled away from Moose before someone crashed into me, sending me flying to the ice.

“You don’t touch a fucking goalie!” Langley bellowed somewhere in the distance.

And then, the crowd chanted.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

I felt a glove slam against my helmet over and over again, and it wasn’t until someone ripped him off me that I was able to get up. It didn’t matter, though. It didn’t matter that it was one of the officials. It didn’t matter that whistles were already being flown. It didn’t matter that red cards were dropping to the ice like fucking confetti.

Moose was on his back behind the goal. Jett was pinned under two Pirates. Langley was getting his bell rung at center ice. And somewhere in the stands, Victoria Caldwell was watching the team she’d spent fourteen years building get jumped in front of a sold-out crowd.

Twenty-three other guys.

That’s what was on me. That’s what the C on my chest was for. Not the captaincy I’d earned and not the contract I was protecting and not even the goddamn ice my mother wasn’t watching from somewhere out in the world. Twenty-three other guys who’d bled with me on this ice and a woman in a VIP box who’d put her whole heart into making us into something worth watching.

I tossed my stick down and threw myself at the man that had the audacity to tackle me away from our goalie.