Page 48 of Slap Shot
"Not bad for someone who's overpaid," Sven shot back, grinning.
Oliver pulled off his skates with shaking hands. Charlie appeared beside him, tail wagging cautiously.
"Feel better?" Kane asked, his face already swelling.
"Fuck yes," Oliver said. "Much better."
The salary leaks still hung over them, the media would keep attacking, and his relationship with Heather was destroyed. But for the first time all day, those problems seemed manageable.
Sometimes you didn't need therapy or conversation. Sometimes you just needed to bleed together.
The team was still breathing. Wounded, but alive.
OLIVER'S APARTMENTwas too quiet after the adrenaline rush of the scrimmage. The physical catharsis had cleared his head enough to realize what a complete asshole he'd been to Heather. The woman who'd risked her career to help him, who'd believed in him when the evidence pointed toward his guilt, who'd opened herself up to him in every possible way—and he'd lashed out at her like a cornered animal.
Charlie settled beside his desk as Oliver powered up his personal setup, the dog's brown eyes reflecting concern. Even his service animal knew he'd fucked up.
"Yeah, buddy," Oliver muttered, pulling up secure browsers and network analysis tools. "I know I screwed the pooch on this one."
While his programs ran background searches, Oliver's mind kept drifting to the look on Heather's face when he'd compared her to Kai. The hurt in her green eyes. She'd been trying to help, trying to find a strategic solution to their impossible situation, and he'd responded by attacking her judgment and personal history.
Flowers,he thought, watching code scroll across his screen.She'd probably think flowers were cliché, but maybe something unexpected. Not roses—too obvious. Something that showed he'd been paying attention.
His network scan pinged with results. Multiple intrusion points across the Chill's infrastructure, all bearing Kai's signature fingerprints. But there was something else, active countermeasures being deployed in real time. Heather was fighting back, building firewalls and deploying defensive protocols even as Kai hammered against their systems.
She was brilliant, adapting to Kai's attacks faster than most cybersecurity experts could even recognize them. But she was fighting defensively, trying to protect what they had instead of going on the offensive.
That's where Oliver could help.
He pulled up traffic analysis tools, mapping the data flows coming into and out of their network. Kai was routing his attacks through a complex web of proxy servers and compromised systems, but every connection had to originate somewhere physical. Every digital fingerprint led back to a real-world location.
Maybe dinner,Oliver thought as he cross-referenced IP addresses with municipal infrastructure databases.Somewhere special, not just Antonio's again. That place in Federal Hill she mentioned liking. What was it called?
His tracking algorithms began narrowing down possibilities. Kai was definitely operating from downtown, using the shared fiber infrastructure that connected multiple commercial buildings. The latency patterns suggested he was no more than twelve blocks from the waterfront, probably in one of the newer co-working spaces that offered anonymous access.
Oliver's secure messaging system chimed with an alert. Another attack wave incoming, this one targeting Coach Vicky's personal files. He watched Heather's countermeasures deploy, elegant defensive code that bought them precious seconds. But Kai was persistent, hammering against her firewalls with the single-minded determination of someone who'd had years to plan this revenge.
The signed Reed Larson jersey,Oliver realized with a grin. Heather had mentioned growing up watching Minnesota hockey, and Reed Larson was a legend—a tough defenseman who'd played over nine hundred NHL games, most of them with Detroit but he'd started his career at the University of Minnesota. She'd probably watched him play as a kid, maybe even dreamed of following in his footsteps before her knee injury ended those plans. He knew a guy who knew a guy who could probably get authentic memorabilia. The team sweater would be something personal, something that showed he'd been listening and that he cared about her.
Hell, he might even love her.
The thought stopped him dead in his tracks, and he almost missed the location tracking.
Three possible buildings in the downtown core, all with the right infrastructure configuration. The bank building had toomuch security. Kai would never risk it. The tech incubator had the wrong bandwidth allocation patterns. But the Meridian Building...
Oliver pulled up building schematics and network topology maps. Shared co-working space, anonymous daily access, exactly the kind of setup Kai would use for an operation like this. And the network fingerprint was unmistakable. Oliver recognized it because he and Kai had used that exact configuration for a federal contract three years ago.
His chest tightened as memories surfaced. Long nights in that same building, working side by side with someone he'd trusted completely. Planning operations, sharing techniques, building the partnership that had eventually led to Oliver's torture and trauma. Kai knew Oliver would recognize the signature. This was a deliberate message wrapped in a tactical choice.
Another alert chimed. Heather's defenses were holding, but barely. Kai was wearing her down through sheer persistence, forcing her to react instead of anticipate. Oliver could see the pattern. His former partner was setting up for a massive data extraction, probably targeting the team's complete personnel files this time.
She deserves better than flowers and dinner,Oliver thought, watching Heather's elegant code adapt to each new attack vector.She deserves an apology that actually means something. She deserves the truth about why I was so scared to trust her judgment.
The realization hit him harder than any check he'd taken during the scrimmage. Heather hadn't been asking him to destroy his career for the greater good. She'd been asking him to trust that the people who cared about him would still care about him after learning the truth. And instead of having thatconversation, instead of being vulnerable about his deepest fears, he'd attacked her for pushing him toward honesty.
Oliver's location analysis completed with a soft chime. The Meridian Building, suite 847, network access point matching Kai's exact traffic patterns. Ninety-seven percent probability that his former partner was operating from that location right now.
He stood up, grabbing his jacket and keys. Charlie immediately moved to follow, but Oliver knelt down and took the dog's head in his hands.
