Page 98 of The Price of Ice

"Is there someone with you there?" Mr Evans voice somehow penetrated into the haze of terror rising around him.

"I..." He glanced around his parents’ living room.Was his mum in the house?She normally let him know if she went out, but now he couldn’t remember.

“Okay,” the lawyer said slowly. “No need to speak. You said you are staying with your parents, correct?”

Kallen grunted his assent.

“Okay, then let me tell you about the time I saw you play the Crocodiles...”

Unbelievably, Evans had stayed in the line with him, retelling a game Kallen vaguely remembered. It’d been early in the season and he’d been excited to play at home, having his whole family in the stands cheering for him, knowing he’dmade itin the stadium he’d visited most often as a child.

He’d got a goal, which Evans was telling him about now.Beautiful, he called it. And it had been, beautiful and glorious and a rush he could still feel inside right then and there. His cheeks were wet, his throat tight.Fuck, he thought.Fuck McKinley and the White Cats and the whole Hockey Association with a burning rod.

It was just so bloody unfair, to lose it all like this. When he was right, even by their own fucked up rules, McKinley had done something illegal. And Kallen was as good as Evans was saying, he wasworthkeeping in the team. And instead, they’d just drop him or try to use him like a child-making machine. Like they could distil his talent into hopefully alpha children they could then use to keep it all going.

“Guin?”

He cleared his throat, cleaning his face with his free hand. “Yeah, I... I’m okay. Just... Pissed. But thank you. You did it.”

“It will take some more work, and we should talk about your options. But that can wait, you have had a shock. If you call in tomorrow, we’ll set up a meeting.”

He’d agreed, thanking the lawyer again, feeling wobbly and unreal as he hung up and looked around the familiar room.

Fuck, they could prove it. It’d happened and they’d have to believe him because they could prove it.

He’d laid down in the sofa afterwards, closing his eyes and listing every player in the Crocodiles and their number, then theHawks and he didn’t get far before his brain shut off. When his mother shook him awake, he was dry-mouthed and disoriented, and he allowed himself to be guided to the kitchen and fed.

“What happened?” she asked after a few minutes. Her own cup of tea was untouched.

“Lawyer called,” he told the tabletop. “He got footage—” He swallowed. “I didn’t... It wasn’t just the heats that were bad. Before I left—”

Her hand landing on his startled him into trying to pull back. She let go, eyes wide and full of pain. “Kallen...”

“Sorry.” He shook his head. “You know—”

“I read the police report.”

“What?”

She cut her eyes to the side. “I’m sorry, I know it wasn’t right. I should have asked you. But— I was worried. I had no right, but I did it so you don’t need to tell me.”

“Mum...” He didn’t know what more to say. He couldn’t quite remember what he’d written. Obviously he hadn’t been as crass in writing as he’d been verbally, but still, what had happenedwascrass, there had been no way around that.

He’d wanted to protect her from it. And she hadn’t wanted to be protected.

She met his eyes again. “You aremy child,” she explained, voice thin but fierce. “I was supposed to protect you.”

“I’m not a child anymore,” he pointed out.

“No,” she surprised him by agreeing. “But I’m still your mother. And I’m here for you, whatever you need.”

He sighed. Whatever he needed. If only he knew. “The lawyer wants to meet with me, to talk about what comes next.”

She didn’t speak.

“You could come with me? Just... be there. I mean, you obviously got it a lot sooner than I did, how— how fucked up it all is. The system.”

“I’ll come, but don’t blame yourself for not seeing it. If someone had offered me my dream I would have been pretty distracted too.”

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