Page 50 of Slap Shot
"Since the day I got out. Did you really think I'd forgotten about my old partner?" Kai gestured to his monitors. "I know everything, Oliver. Your coach's contract disputes with management. Your girlfriend's employment history. Even your medication dosage and therapy sessions."
"Leave them out of this."
Kai laughed, and the sound carried a manic edge that definitely hadn't been there during their partnership. "They ARE this. Your new life, your clean slate, your chance at redemption is all built on lies. And lies have a way of surfacing."
"You got your revenge. The salary leaks, the attacks on Vicky's reputation, you've hurt people who never did anything to you."
"Hurt them?" Kai's voice carried mock offense. "I'm educating them. About false hope, about trusting systems that don't work, about believing in people who'll abandon you the moment things get complicated."
"People like me."
"People exactly like you." Kai's expression hardened. "You left me to rot, Oliver. Took immunity for yourself and let me face federal charges alone."
"You sold me out first—"
"I made a practical decision when we were compromised. You made it personal when you testified against me." Kai stood, moving around the desk with predatory grace. "Butthat's okay. Prison taught me valuable lessons. About loyalty. About consequences. About making sure people remember their mistakes."
Adrenaline flooded his system, the familiar combination of fear and focus he remembered from their most dangerous jobs. But something was different this time. He wasn't the naive kid who'd trusted his partner blindly. He'd survived worse than Kai could dish out.
"So what's the endgame? You destroy the team, ruin Vicky's career, expose my past, then what?"
"Then you come back where you belong. With me. As partners." Kai's smile was sharp, hungry. "Because once all this comes out, once everyone knows what you really are, I'll be the only person left who understands you."
The delusion was breathtaking. Oliver saw it clearly now, the same twisted logic that had driven Kai's worst impulses during their partnership. The belief that he could force loyalty through destruction, create connection through shared isolation.
"That's never going to happen."
"No?" Kai pulled up a document on his screen. "This is Coach Victoria Kovalchuk's email to Jack Westlake from last Tuesday. Quote: 'If ownership thinks they can undermine my authority by second-guessing every personnel decision, they're welcome to find a new coach. I won't be anyone's token female.' Unquote."
Oliver's stomach dropped. Taken out of context, stripped of the sexist board behavior that had prompted it, that email would end Vicky's career.
"She was defending herself against discrimination—"
"She was threatening to quit unless she got her way. At least, that's how it'll read when it hits social media tomorrow morning." Kai's fingers hovered over his keyboard. "Along with your employment records, your girlfriend's background checkand problems with her ex-husband, and a very detailed analysis of how the Chill hired a known cybercriminal to play left wing."
"You son of a bitch."
"Name-calling won't help your friends. But cooperation might." Kai's voice dropped to something almost intimate. "I have a proposition. A partnership opportunity that could benefit everyone."
"What kind of partnership?"
"The kind we were meant for. High-stakes work, serious money, clients who appreciate our particular skill set." Kai pulled up another screen showing financial records. "I've got contracts lined up, corporate espionage, political opposition research, the kind of jobs that pay seven figures and don't ask questions about methods."
Oliver sneered. "Illegal work."
"Profitable work. Work that uses our talents properly instead of wasting them on corporate security consulting." Kai's eyes glittered with the same enthusiasm Oliver remembered from their early days. "We were good together. The best team in the business. We could be again."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then tomorrow morning, every major sports outlet gets a very detailed expose about the Charm City Chill's cybersecurity failures. Your coach's inflammatory emails, your girlfriend's questionable past, and your own criminal background." Kai's smile turned predatory. "I wonder how long it'll take for federal prosecutors to decide your immunity agreement was violated?"
The threat was comprehensive, devastating. Oliver could see exactly how it would play out—media firestorm, federal investigation, everyone he cared about destroyed by association with his past.
But something had changed in him during the past few months. Heather's trust, the team's acceptance, Charlie's steadypresence, they'd shown him he was more than his worst mistakes. He wasn't the scared kid who'd let Kai manipulate him anymore.
"I need time to think about it."
"Of course you do. Twenty-four hours, Oliver. That's how long your friends have left." Kai settled back into his chair, already turning toward his computers. "Don't disappoint me again."
