Page 65 of Slap Shot

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Vicky studied him for a long moment. "We all have pasts, Oliver. What matters is what we do with our present."

"Even if that past involves mistakes that could destroy the team's reputation?"

"Did you sell out your teammates? Did you try to destroy my career because you couldn't handle a woman in authority?"

"No."

"Then your past is your business." She gathered the printed messages, stacking them with deliberate precision. "What matters is that when this team needed protecting, you stepped up. That's the Oliver Chenofski I know. That's the player I want on my team."

The relief that flooded through him was overwhelming. Oliver had to look away, focusing on Charlie's golden fur while he got his emotions under control.

"Thank you," he managed.

"Don't thank me yet. The media's going to be all over this once it breaks. They'll want to know how we caught Travis, who was involved, every detail of the investigation." Vicky's smile was sharp. "I'm going to tell them it was a team effort. That when someone attacked one of us, we all stepped up. Let them make what they want of that."

BY LATE AFTERNOON,the entire building knew about Travis. Oliver walked into the locker room to find his teammates clustered in small groups, voices low and angry. The betrayal hit different when it came from someone they'd seen every day, someone they'd trusted with scheduling and logistics and the thousand small details that made their professional lives function.

"Fucking Travis," Mateo was saying. "Guy helped plan our charity events. Sat in on team meetings. Had access to everything."

"And the whole time he was selling us out," Jax added, his voice carrying the kind of controlled fury that preceded fights. "Because he didn't like Coach having tits."

"Is more than that," Dmitri said from his stall. "Is about fear. Weak men always fear strong women."

Kane noticed Oliver first. "Chenny. You hear about this shit?"

"Yeah." Oliver moved to his stall, aware that every eye in the room was tracking him. "Jack called a meeting earlier."

"Must have been some meeting." Kane's tone was carefully neutral, but Oliver heard the question underneath. "Heard you and Heather were there when they confronted Travis."

The locker room went quiet. Oliver could lie, could deflect, could maintain the careful distance he'd cultivated for years. But these men had stood by their coach when the entire media triedto tear her down. They'd refused to let salary leaks divide them. They'd earned more trust than he'd been giving them.

"We were," he said simply. "Heather and I caught him."

"Knew it," Ethan burst out. "I told you guys Chenny was involved. The way he and Heather have been sneaking around."

"We weren't sneaking," Oliver interrupted. "We were investigating. Someone was destroying this team from the inside, and we couldn't do it officially without tipping them off."

"So you did it unofficially," Marcus said, understanding dawning on his face. "That's why you've been so distracted. You weren't just hooking up with the hot computer lady."

"Her name is Heather," Oliver said sharply.

"You were playing detective with Heather," Marcus corrected himself. "While pretending everything was normal."

"Someone had to." Oliver met each of his teammates' eyes in turn. "Travis was using his position to feed information to someone who wanted to destroy Coach Vicky, create chaos in this room, turn us against each other. We couldn't let that happen."

"Damn right," Kane said. "Anyone else tries to hurt this team, they go through all of us."

The murmur of agreement that ran through the room was fierce and unanimous.

"Is like Russian novel," Dmitri announced, breaking the tension. "Betrayal, romance, computer crime. But with less vodka and more hockey."

"Your analogies still suck," Liam called out.

"Your glove hand sucks," Dmitri shot back.

"Both of you suck," Mateo added. "But at least you're our kind of suck."

The familiar chirping was like coming home.