Page 157 of Home Game

“Nope. Mica. Not tonight.”

“You see me asking you?”

“If I go out, I’m just going to drink myself into oblivion.”

“That is the plan.”

The next morning’sskate was painful. Every bone in my skull pulsed in pain. Nine shots of Beluga Noble Russian vodka would do that to a person.

After practice, I puked before and after I showered. I needed to get home and get to bed.

“Parker?” One of the assistant coaches yelled.

“What?”

“GM wants to see you.”

Mica and I exchanged looks. Jensen grinned. “Wonder what he wants.”

Mica snapped at Jensen. “If you don’t learn to keep your mouth shut, I will shut it for you.”

Jensen rolled his eyes, but he didn’t say another word. Mica had that effect on people.

The meeting wasa déjà vu of my first meeting with the GM.

Gordon and Mark Ashford exchanged secret looks while giving me the stink eye.

“Heard you instigated a fight in the locker room.”

“I didn’t instigate it, I finished it.”

I looked up as Rory Ashford slipped into the room. She didn’teven sit down. She scrolled through her phone while she leaned against the wall.

Ashford crossed his arms. “You’ve made good progress with gelling with most of the team.”

All of them, except Jensen and his loyalists.

“Thanks.”

“But it’s not good enough. If you want to stay on this team, I need more.”

“This street is two-sided,” I countered. “I can’t gel with guys that don’t want to gel.”

“Figure it out.”

We all sat there in silence for a while.

“You’re dismissed.”

It took all my control to temper my emotions, leaving that meeting. I walked down the hall when someone called my name.

Rory.

I kept on walking.

I pushed through the doors of the executive office and started down the Concord.

I heard her heels click after me.

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