Page 89 of The Publicity Stunt

"To?"

"Pretending we're those college kids with a dream?"

As much as he wants to hate Rudy, the man he remembers as his friend seems to be the man showing up ever since the truth came out about Amanda. "Yes."

"Great!"

They head out, and they climb onto the ice for the face-off. He stares Brett down, ready to knock him out of his way, if needed, to get the puck into the Twisters' net. He may have lost one dream, but he knows it's worth fighting for this one.

The puck drops, and Rudy hits it to Kace. He shoves his shoulder into Brett and speeds past him down to the net. Two other players team up on him, and he passes it back to Rudy.

Rudy knocks the puck between his defender's legs, and Kace breaks away from the defense. Now open, Rudy passes him the puck, and he swings, hitting the puck as hard as he can. It misses the net by just a sliver and bounces off the pole.

Brandon picks it up before anyone can get it, and he scores between the goalie's legs. The train horn blares, and everyone rushes to the rookie, lifting him off the ground in celebration.

The score is now three to four, and Kace feels a little better with almost a full period still on the clock. There's still a chance.

The Bootleggers can't quite get past the Twisters after the last goal, and Kace gets frustrated. The defense has kicked up two notches while the Bootleggers' defense seems to have completely given up. Kace gives it everything he can, along with the rest of his line.

The clock shows two minutes left, and they're still down by one. The rest of the period has passed without another score, and they need to win this game to advance. Kace feels his nerves kick up as he waits for his turn back on the ice.

The line finally changes, and he hops out there. Brett's team trips Rudy, knocking him flat on the ice, but the refs don't call a penalty. Rudy picks himself up and holds his arms out, trying to figure out how they failed to make the call.

"You're just going to ignore the basic rules of the game?" Rudy shouts. "That was a damn trip!"

"Calm down," Kace says and pulls him away. Rudy's the calm one out of the two, and he's letting the pressure get the better of him. "The last thing you want is a trip to the penalty box this close to the end of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct."

Shrugging his shoulders, he nods. "You're right. We can do this. At least tie it to bring us into overtime. Then we'll wipe the floor with them."

"That's the spirit!" Kace shouts and hits his helmet.

They have ninety seconds to score, and Rudy has possession of the puck. He races down to the other side, and the same player as before rams him into the boards, knocking his helmet to the ice.

Kace looks at the refs, but they call it clean. Rudy shouts at the guy who tosses his gloves. "Don't do it, Rudy!" Kace shouts.

Instead of listening, Rudy shakes his hands down, throwing off his gloves as well. The game stops as the two exchange blows before the opponent falls to the ice, and they both are sent to the penalty box. Rudy just lost playing the last sixty seconds of the game, and unless someone can score, the last game of their season.

Kace stares at the ice, waiting for the puck to drop, and he passes the puck to Brandon before racing towards the net. Brandon passes it back to Kace, but Brett intercepts it. Brandon reaches for the puck, and his stick trips Brett on accident. The ref calls the penalty, and he's in the box next to Rudy.

"Oh, you call it when the other team gets tripped on accident but not when they trip us on purpose," Kace says and looks around. "Thanks so much."

They're down by one player, and he looks over to Coach, who nods to Bruno. Bruno skates off the ice from the net, and Philip, a player from the minor leagues recently brought up, hops onto the ice. It makes Kace nervous to have the net open, but at least they're evenly matched now. Kind of.

The other team gets the drop, and Kace races to get it back into their possession. He refuses to let Brett and his team get a breakaway to an empty net.

It takes some work, but he finally gets the puck back in his possession. Racing towards the net, the clock shows three seconds left. Swinging, he shoots the puck at the goalie with all his strength.

The goalie falls into the splits and catches the puck in his right hand, blocking the final goal to bring them to a tie. The period ends, and the Bootleggers lose the semi-finals to the Twisters.

Brett and his team jump onto the ice, cheering in celebration for making it to the finals. Brett gets to play for the Cup. Kace skates back to the bench, and Coach slaps his back.

"You did everything you could, Lyons."

He just nods and takes off some of his equipment before getting in line to shake hands with the winners of the semi-finals. All he wants is to get this over with, go to the locker room to shower and change, and get out of here. Without the game to think about, he's left with only Bri, and he doesn't know what to think or feel about the situation.

"Good game, man," Brett says when they reach each other.

"Congrats."

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