Page 94 of Ruled Out

Zach taps the seat once with his fist. “Yeah, maybe, but all I’m saying is, something doesn’t feel right. He’s no longer the captain, and he doesn’t have the same expectation on his shoulders to set an example for the team. I should know—once an enforcer, always an enforcer.”

“I don’t like this,”Zach says from his bench as we make the final preparations to head out onto the ice. “Warm-up felt weird; the entire atmosphere is weird.”

“It’s just a big game getting in your head, Cap.” Jensen claps a hand on his shoulder as he strides out of the locker room.

Zach stops me with a hand on mine as I follow him. “Has Tate said anything to you?”

“In the warm-up?” I shake my head. “No.”

“Would he normally?” Zach asks, chewing on the side of his mouthguard.

Pulling on my helmet, I blow out a breath. “I’ll admit, it’s strange that he’s in first line tonight, but Coulson hasn’t said a word to me since the second I got traded. We didn’t exactly part on good terms.”

Zach’s brows knit together. “What do you mean?”

“Mia. He had a thing for Mia and his head firmly up Jenkins’s ass. But that was years ago, man.”

“Is there a chance he knows?”

I shake my head, remembering Mia’s confidence in Tara. If her dad knows, then there’s no way Mia wouldn’t, and we definitely wouldn’t have been having text sex an hour ago. “No chance.”

As I step into the rink, I raise my hand and acknowledge a crowd who, over time, has accepted me back onto their home ice. At first, my trade was controversial, and I lost a lot of fans, but as I skate past the boards, a bunch of Destroyers fans show their appreciation. There’s a small part of me that would like to see the end of my career back in this arena, but I know that would mean moving back to a city where my dad could get to me and those I love more easily.

When I skate past Zach to get into position for the puck drop, he tips his head at me, reminding me to keep my eyes up.

There’s no denying that there’s zero love lost between me and my former captain, but I’ve been on the ice with him plenty of times since I got traded to the Scorpions. Tate would need to look at me to take me out. And since the day I left the Destroyers, he’s barely acknowledged my existence. Sure, he’s an asshole, but he’s no Alex Schneider—the former New York Blades defenseman who nearly killed Zach a couple of seasons back with a dirty hit, all because of his former girlfriend.

It must be ten minutes into the first period when I pick the puck up from our center, the move eliminating two players, one of them Coulson.

With an inside-outside move similar to the one I pulled off against Colorado, I take out their final defenseman and slot the puck home with a snapshot that catches their goalie off guard. When I light the lamp, it takes my tally to thirty for the season so far, and as I pump my fist in the air, keeping it low-key since it’s my former team, I can’t deny I have one eye on Wayne Gretzky’s record for most goals in a single season.

“All right, that’s how we fucking do it!” Rob Jackson, our center, bangs his glove on top of my helmet. “Fucking goal machine, bro!”

I point back at center ice, my focus locked in and my head already running through the next play. “There’s another fiftyminutes of game time. We’re gonna need at least another four to seal the W.”

“Damn right we are.”

When Jackson skates out of my line of vision, I see Zach raise his glove at me, pointing to my left.

“What?” I shout, knowing full fucking well he won’t hear me over the noise.

“Finally got your shit together, Callaghan.” As Tate Coulson pulls up alongside me, he throws ice up, causing the Destroyers fans to bang on the glass behind us.

I don’t know if they’re anticipating a fight, but they should know I’m not one to get into it on the ice.

“Did you trade your voice for some class?” Coulson sneers as I ignore him and push off.

I know I shouldn’t, but my newfound game confidence gets the better of me, and I spin around at the final second. “Nah. Just found a captain I actually want to play for.”

He throws his head back and laughs before refocusing his attention on me.

I don’t like the look in his eyes as he slides up closer.

“Or is it more to do with the pussy you were inside last night? You’d think she’d have wised up the first time around.”

My heart hammers in my chest as I fight to keep my expression unreadable. “The fuck did you just say?”

Replacing his mouthguard on a smile, he skates forward and then stops right next to me. “Jenkins knows. But don’t worry; it can be our little secret for the next fifty minutes. Can’t promise it won’t hurt though.”

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