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“I make you good.”
My eyebrows went up, and Max immediately pointed a gloved finger at me. “Do not.”
Baelor snorted behind me.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were going to.”
“That’s unfair. You can’t penalize me for crimes I haven’t committed.”
Dante leaned around Max. “He’s been doing that to me all season.”
“Because you commit so many actual crimes, Russo, I have learned to anticipate.”
Dante looked personally wounded. “See? Hostile work environment.”
Before I could answer, the lights dropped and the arena erupted so violently that the noise seemed to push straight through the tunnel. The opening notes of our entrance music thundered through the building, the doors ahead of us opened, and Max went first, carrying himself with the same unshakable certainty he always wore when he led us onto the ice.
I followed him out.
For the first time in eight years, there was nothing waiting behind me that I needed to fear, so I fixed my eyes on the rink ahead and let the noise swallow everything else.
“Good evening from Denver, where I’m fairly certain the roof has already moved approximately three inches.”
Dave’s voice came through the television monitors around the arena and, presumably, into several million homes across the country.
Jack laughed. “Three? Conservative estimate.”
“We’re less than two minutes from puck drop in Game Seven between Colorado and Vegas, and I don’t think we need to oversell this one. The winner advances to the Conference Final.”
“And the loser gets tee times.”
“Do hockey players actually play golf?”
There was a pause before Jack answered. “Dave, have we worked together this long?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Then why do you continue asking questions you know the answer to?”
I was circling through our end when my face suddenly appeared on the Jumbotron.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
Taz looked up from his crease. “You’re pretty.”
“Shut up.”
“Good cheekbones.”
“Rees.”
The picture switched to Max, earning an immediate scream from the crowd, but apparently whoever was controlling the cameras had decided subtlety was for cowards because the screen split a moment later.
Max on one side.
Me on the other.
