Chapter 21: The Captain's Patch

Nolan's POV

He came off the ice at a skate, fast, with his blades cutting the rubber mat.

I'd known he would. I had stepped back into the shadow of the tunnel to be there.

Behind him, the arena was still loud. I could hear the sound of it through the concrete.

It was not a cheer. It was twelve thousand people all talking.

Lars stopped a foot from my chest.

He was breathing hard.

Sweat stood on his forehead, and his face was a color I had never seen on him.

"You," he said.

"Captain."

"You gave her the page."

"I did."

He caught my coat in both fists and slammed me into the cinderblock wall.

The back of my head hit the wall. My knee screamed.

I didn't lift a hand.

"Eleven years," he said, an inch from my face. "I carried you."

"You'd have been nothing on a bench if I hadn't asked for you."

"You asked for me because I kept your secrets."

"I made you."

He shook me.

"Every wife who wore this ring comes back, Brumley. Give it a week. She'll be sitting in my kitchen."

"No."

"Give it a week."

"No," I said. "I watched her out there tonight. She isn't coming back to anything."

His face went ugly.

He drew back his fist.

"Captain."

The voice was flat and old, and it came from the dark behind him.

Lars's fist stopped in the air.

The owner stood at the mouth of the tunnel, with the team doctor and two security men at his back.

He was out of breath from the walk. He had a long silver pair of scissors in his hand.

They were mine. I knew them. They were the bandage scissors from the kit I had left on the bench.

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