Chapter 21: Center Ice

Rhys's POV

I heard it on the truck radio, in the south lot, with the engine off and my suit jacket on.

"My husband, Rhys Callaghan, is not here tonight."

She said it kindly.

She had always said things kindly.

Hallie had texted me her section at noon, with the words "Come if you want to," and nothing else.

I sat for the length of the next three sentences, and then I opened the door.

The usher at the south entrance was the same one who had walked Hallie out on a bad night.

She looked at my face, and at the building behind her, and she turned her back and studied a poster for a long time.

"I'm not seeing anyone," she said.

I went in.

The general manager was waiting at the mouth of the tunnel with his arms folded and two security guards behind him.

"Rhys. Don't."

"I told you I'd hand you the C."

"Then hand it over and go home."

"It's stitched on a jersey in my locker."

"Then go get it."

"I'm not going to," I said. "Take it if you want it. I'm going to walk past you."

He opened his mouth.

A monitor hung on the wall behind him, showing the feed from the arena.

On it, in a white coat, Delaney stood on a carpet at center ice, with her smile coming apart.

Her voice came out of the speaker above us, tinny and clear.

"Colby's turning into a problem. He was shaking tonight."

The general manager turned his head.

I watched his face change, slowly, as another man's voice laughed on the screen and said, "Then handle it."

"What is this?" he said.

"That's the other thing I've been trying to tell you."

I walked past him.

Neither guard moved.

The tunnel was a hundred and twenty feet long, and I had walked it a thousand times with the C on my chest and nothing to say.

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