AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Like all the other calls that have come through since I didn’t join my team on the bus yesterday, I ignore it.
I slide the phone over to see which asshole is calling me now to check where I am. This time it’s Coach Donovan, a boss-level asshole I know not to fuck with.
“Who’s calling now?” Hunter gives me a crooked smile.
He’s my cousin, a few months older than me, but just as villainous. He’s also the guy you can count on to keep you sane. That’s why I dragged him along for my little trip.
“It’s Coach Donovan.” I smirk.
“Aww, man.” Hunter makes a show of placing a hand to his heart to feign injury. The gesture looks as wrong on him as it would on me.
We’re both built like tanks, with the muscle and height we’ve inherited from the long line of pedigree Le Blanche men. Men who have either conquered the world as businessmen in our family company, Le Blanche Global, or as athletes on the ice.
That is exactly Hunter and me.
Hunter is a hedge fund analyst at the company and I’m a pro ice hockey player. The differences between us are evident in Hunter’s conservative look meshed against my uncontrollable curls.
“You’re seriously going to do your coach dirty like that?” His surprised expression reminds me of the time I confessed to setting Aunt Tilly’s car on fire.
“Yes.” I sound as sure as a Wall Street banker trying to impress an investor. “The coach suffers, too. Even though I respect him and think he’s the best I’ve ever had in the NHL, he needs a wake-up call just like the rest of them.” The last people who called were the team managers and assistant coaches.
“I don’t fucking care if coach calls me a hundred times. I’m staying in Vegas. And he can’t change my mind.”
The buzzing stops.
Good. Message received.
Hunter takes a swig of his beer. “You’re playing a real hard-ass game,cousin.”
“I know.” I give him an I-don’t-give-a-fuck look. “That’s what coach gets for benching me.”
Benched.
That word doesn’t even sound right in my head. And definitely not in relation to me. At thirty-one years old, and with my track record, it’s humiliating.
Four days ago I was benched after I got into a serious fight with the new guy—Evan Kowalski. I also threatened to kill him, but that was because he threatened to kill me first. The fucked-up problem is that no one heard him. But everyone heard me.
I should be playing the game of my life in Vancouver now. Instead, I’m here.
When you get benched, it’s standard procedure to join the team for all their matches as planned. You just don’t play. If I agreed with my sentence I would have done that, but since I don’t, I couldn’t do it.
“You do realize that onlyyoucould get away with this type of shit, right?”
I laugh now because he’s right. “That’s the beauty of it.”
Hunter sets his beer back down on the table and levels me a hard stare. “No one would expect mutiny from the great Luc Le Blanche, star defenseman for the New York Hawks, aka The Dragon.” He uses his best ESPN sportscaster voice.
“No, they most definitely didn’t see that coming.” The plan I’ve concocted also extends to skipping out on the matches against Montreal and Toronto.
This is the kind of stunt that could have gotten me fired in my rookie years, or if I were any old hockey player.
Still… even I know I’m playing a dangerous game and treading on the thinnest of ice that could crack at any given moment.
“Management tried to make an example out of me, but I’m giving them a reminder of who they’re dealing with.” I push my wide shoulders back and rest my hands on the table. “Everyone knows the Hawks stand a better chance of getting through to the playoffs—and winning the Cup—if they have me. Since I’ve been playing for them we’ve won the Cup series for the last three years in a row.”
“Yes, the numbers speak for themselves.”
I’m a team player but I know my worth. The Hawks are one of the finest in the NHL, but things were touch and go until I came along. The last time they had that kind of winning streak yearafter year was nearly twenty years ago when my father played for them. That says a lot.
