Hard Fall by Brenda Rothert

Chapter Fifteen

Wes

The end of the regular season was just a couple of weeks away as we hit the road at the end of March and the mood in the locker room was dismal. We were losing fifty percent of our games, both at home and away, and nothing anyone did seemed to work. I was trying my best but I was tired. I had to help out at home no matter how much I wanted and needed to rest, and though Tori was a big help, she was in school and couldn’t work as many hours as we wanted her to. The solution would be to go through an agency and find someone who could work a full-time schedule, but a college student was more along the lines of what we wanted, instead of someone who would come in with agency rules and regulations.

Benny was sleeping better, thank God, but still only about seven or eight hours at a stretch, which meant we were always up late and awake early. We tried to alternate nights so we each got a little sleep, but it didn’t always work because Annalise refused to sleep in her own bed, which was also cutting into our sex life. We’d only had sex a couple of times since that first night and now I was gone again.

We’d lost again tonight, so we were a somber group as we filed off the bus back at the hotel. Tonight had been Detroit, tomorrow was Chicago, and then we had a day off to fly to Minnesota. We’d play Minnesota, Winnipeg, and Calgary before heading home for our final games of the season. The season that had started out so strong and had crashed and burned with Ben’s death.

It pissed me off and broke my heart at the same time. We were a strong, solid team with tons of talent and the potential to go all the way but our hearts just weren’t in it. I could accomplish many things both on the ice and in the locker room, but speeding up the grieving process wasn’t one of them.

I was almost to the elevator when I heard raised voices behind me and I turned, frowning at Konstantin and one of the vets on the team, Keegan Miller. Keegan was a hothead who’d only been on the team a year, traded to us from Philly. He was kind of a dick, though he did his job on the ice, which was all I cared about. However, he’d just shoved Konstantin and though Konstantin wasn’t a fighter or a tough guy, he looked pissed.

“Yop tvayu mhat!” Konstantin yelled, shoving Keegan back. Fuck you.

Shit. I didn’t speak Russian but had been around enough players to know what that meant and I hurried in their direction just as Keegan caught Konstantin around the waist and slammed him against the wall.

“Hey!” I grabbed Keegan around the middle and Nash pulled Konstantin back.

“Fuck you, you fucking Commie!” Keegan was yelling, jerking out of my grasp. “You and your skanky whore should go back to Russia.”

This time it was Konstantin who lunged and Lars grabbed him just before his fist could connect with Keegan’s jaw.

“Watch your fucking mouth!” I snapped at Keegan. Then I turned to Konstantin. “Come on, man, this isn’t you.”

He pointed at Keegan and said something in Russian that none of us understood, his eyes burning into Keegan’s.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“None of your fucking business,” Keegan said, picking up his bag.

“You made it my business when you started something here in the public lobby of our hotel.” I had my hands on my hips.

“You know what?” Keegan gave me a disparaging look. “You’re not the boss. I know you think you can replace Ben, but you can’t. You don’t have his class or presence in the locker room. Ask around—you don’t have the respect and you’re definitely not getting it from me. So instead of trying to play captain, why don’t you focus on playing hockey and leave us the fuck alone the rest of the time?” He stalked off in the other direction.

“Keegan, what the fuck, man?” I called after him but he didn’t turn around.

I looked around at the group of guys that had gathered and narrowed my eyes. “That true? You guys want me out as captain? Because I didn’t ask for this.”

A few guys looked away and my heart sank.

“I think this is not best time to discuss this,” Lars said quietly, which surprised me since he rarely spoke up like that.

“You okay?” I looked to Konstantin but his face was red and he looked furious.

“This is not okay!” He pointed in the direction Keegan had gone. Then he went off in Russian again.

I waited for him to finish before saying, “I need you to tell me what happened.”

“He and Svetlana…” His voice trailed off. “I cannot stay here. I must go.” The elevator doors opened and he got inside, putting up a hand to stop one of the other guys from joining him. Then the doors closed and everyone looked at each other uncomfortably.

What the fuck had just happened?

I got up to the room and threw my bag down before ripping off my suit and stomping into the bathroom. I was equal parts furious and embarrassed, my heart thudding painfully against my chest. Did the guys resent me? Was it somehow my fault that we couldn’t win to save our lives lately?

The letter Ben had left me addressed the important things, but it hadn’t even touched upon hockey because that wasn’t an area of my life where I struggled. He’d had advice about the kids, life, even Hadley, but nowhere did he have any words of wisdom about how to replicate his presence with the Mavericks.

With no answers readily available, I stretched out on the bed and dug my phone out of my pants pocket. I longed to hear Hadley’s voice, to talk about the kids or her new baby food recipe, or anything but hockey. Because hockey sucked right now.

“Hey.” She answered on the first ring.

“Hey.” I sighed. “Kids asleep?”

“Yes. And, Annalise is in her own bed.”

“Really?”

“I’m bribing her with a trip to the Disney store, but she needs to start transitioning back to her own room and I need a little privacy.”

“Oh, really?” My voice got deep. “Why do you need privacy?”

“Don’t tell anyone, but there’s this really hot hockey player who sneaks into my room at night. I keep having to turn him away because of Annalise. But now, I might let him stay.”

“Wow. Lucky guy.”

We chuckled.

“So, another rough night,” she said after a moment.

“Yeah. Even worse than you know.”

“What do you mean?”

I told her what had happened in the lobby and she listened quietly.

“Do you think they resent me?” I asked when I was done.

“No. I don’t know them the way you do, of course, but we spend time with a lot of them and I don’t sense that at all. They all admire you and look up to you. Maybe there’s one or two who don’t, but that’s to be expected, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Keegan at any of the events we’ve been to with the team.”

“He’s definitely a loner and I don’t know what’s going on with Svetlana.”

“Oh.” Hadley coughed. “I, uh, might be able to help with that. I’m not supposed to say anything because it’s just gossip, but rumor has it that Svetlana is cheating on Konstantin with Keegan. Apparently, Keegan played in the KHL for a season after knee surgery and he and Svetlana were a thing. They broke up when he came back to the U.S. and she started dating Konstantin. Now something is happening.”

“How do you know this?” I demanded.

“WAGs gossip mill.”

The wives and girlfriends gossip mill was notorious for knowing everything, but this was bad. This was the last fucking thing we needed.

“In the future, telling me stuff like this could help me,” I said quietly. “If I’d known, I might have been able to prevent tonight’s altercation.”

“Nina said gossip that isn’t corroborated, especially when it’s personal stuff, shouldn’t be shared with you guys because distractions aren’t good for the game. Especially with the season you’re having.”

“That might be true for other guys, but right now I’m the captain, and as captain, I need to know that kind of thing.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. You’ve only been in this world a few months. It’s hard to navigate all the different channels of information.”

“I’ll be more aware and definitely won’t keep any big secrets like that from you again.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m sorry this happened. I wish there was something I could do.”

“Last time you asked what you could do, I wound up going down on you on the counter.”

She chuckled. “Sadly, that’s not an option tonight.”

“No, but phone sex is.”

“Is it?”

“Uh-huh. Take your clothes off, babe.”

The next morningat breakfast I sat with Nash, Lars, and Drew. Keegan was with a couple of guys at another table and Konstantin hadn’t yet come down, which worried me. Breakfast wasn’t optional. We did meals as a team on the road, especially breakfast and dinner, and not showing up usually earned you some laps at the next practice.

“I knocked on his door before I came down,” Drew said, “but he didn’t answer.”

“Listen, I heard some gossip,” I said, repeating what Hadley had told me, though I didn’t say it came from her.

“Christ.” Nash shook his head. “That’s not cool at all. You think it’s true?”

“It would make sense.” I looked at them. “Listen, I need to get a feel for what’s going on. Do you guys agree that I’m not the right guy to be captain?”

Drew shook his head. “Fuck that. He was talking out his ass.”

“No one contradicted him,” I pointed out. “I mean, I’m not talking about you guys, but Ayres and Sully wouldn’t even look me in the eye.”

“Ayres is in the middle of a messy-as-fuck divorce,” Nash said. “He hates everyone right now. Sully’s a rookie and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he has a crush on Keegan. He follows him around like a lost puppy. You can’t look at them.”

“But they’re exactly who I have to look at,” I said. “They’re the ones I have to reach. If I can’t, then I don’t deserve to wear the C.”

“Not everyone can be reached,” Lars said, speaking for the first time. “Sometimes, they must find their own way. This is not your job.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at him. “By the way, I understand you’re taking my goddaughter out on a date.”

Lars’s ears turned red but he smiled. “Yes. We are going for the ice cream and…” He made a face. “Building of Bears?”

There was a moment of confusion and then Drew burst out laughing. “She’s got you taking her to the Build-A-Bear store? Oh, man, you have a few credit cards, right?”

Lars looked completely blank. “Credit cards? Yes. I have many. Why?”

We cracked up as Drew tried to explain what kind of store it was and the mood lightened up considerably. I still felt like shit but at least there was a core group of guys who had my back. And not just mine, but Hadley’s and the kids’ too.

Konstantin wandered into the dining room about ten minutes before we were supposed to leave, grabbing a cup of coffee and a bagel off the buffet, but sitting by himself in the corner of the room. Keegan shot a few looks in his direction but seemed content to stay on his side of the restaurant.

This was my chance to talk with Konstantin. I didn’t know what was going on and if the rumors about Svetlana were true, but I needed to try.

“Hey, man.” I sank into the seat across from him.

He looked up, his face devoid of any emotion. “Good morning.”

“Listen, I’m sorry about last night. It was hard to help with you talking in Russian…” I let my voice trail off, hoping he’d say something.

He nodded but was quiet for a bit. “Is okay. I was angry.”

“If you need to talk, if something’s going on, you can come to me.”

“I ask for trade,” he said abruptly. “I cannot stay.”

“So it’s true.” I cleared my throat and met his gaze directly. “About Keegan and Svetlana?”

His mouth tightened with irritation as he nodded. “Yes. She say she cannot choose. She love both us.”

I grimaced. “I’m sorry, man.”

He mumbled in Russian under his breath.

“Have you talked to Coach about this?”

He shook his head. “Later. For now, I must control temper. Stay cool.”

“I’ll do my best to keep the two of you apart.”

“I am sorry for being difficult. What he says about you, this is not true. You have much respect. Only Keegan does not.”

“I appreciate you saying that. And hold off before you talk to any other teams, okay? I’d rather we traded him, instead of you.”

“Nothing will happen until summer, but my agent knows I wish to leave.”

“Fuck, man, give me a little time to sort things out, okay? Like you said, nothing can happen until the season’s over anyway.”

He hesitated but then nodded. “My agent will look, but I will not sign anything until we talk.”

Sonofabitch. That was the last thing I wanted. I had to talk to Coach sooner rather than later. Losing Konstantin would be devastating to the team. We needed his goaltending talent and his laid-back attitude in the locker room. I had to do something before things went from bad to worse.