Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Claimed by the Rival Hockey God novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Tunnel
The Harbormen power play died on its second pass in the first period, exactly as I had drawn it.
Dario cut to the back post, and nobody was there to find him.
He stood with his stick up and his mouth open, looking for a pass that wasn't coming.
I sat on the visiting bench in an Ironclads jacket with my tablet on my knee, and I did not smile.
Beside me, Cillian watched the ice and said very quietly, "Again."
"They'll try it twice more."
"Then we'll take it twice more."
They tried it twice more, and the Ironclads took it both times.
At the first intermission we led two to nothing.
I carried my tablet down the long concrete tunnel toward the visitors' room, and the echo of a crowd I used to love came through the walls.
"Nettie."
I stopped.
Dario stood at the mouth of the tunnel with a camera crew behind him.
A broadcast reporter held a microphone just out of the frame, and a red light glowed on the lens.
He had the grin on, the one he used for sponsors.
"I've been calling you for three days," he said.
"I know. I blocked you."
He laughed and glanced over his shoulder at the camera.
"She's upset," he told it. "She's been with me ten years. We're like family. It was a toast, Nettie, it was a joke, everybody at my table was laughing."
"I wasn't."
"Come home. Ma made lasagna. Brielle's cool with it. Everybody's cool with it."
He stepped closer.
"Come on. You can't work for them, they'll just use you."
Keep reading free with an account. Start Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Claimed by the Rival Hockey God from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend