Page 21 of Road to Redemption

To settle this with their fists instead of their pucks.

From behind the glass, I could hear our captain yelling at the refs. We’d gotten a punishing penalty after one of our players got body checked.

“Fucking bullshit.” Kiera shook her head from beside me.

Raising an eyebrow, I nudged her. “Is that right, Princess?”

With a shrug, Kiera licked her lips. “They started it.”

“That’s goddamn right, baby.” Spencer wrapped her arm around our girl as play started back up.

I should’ve explained it to Kiera before we got in here, what about hockey puts me in the seat. But looking over at her, she seemed to understand it just fine.

Human nature demanded sacrifice and violence. This was as clean and polished as that chaos could get. The thrill of punishing a player threatening your territory, the need to defend what was yours with as much force as was necessary.

There were just enough pads and equipment to keep them from killing each other.

It wasn’t all that different from our pit fights, from what we did in the dark to those men who encroached a little more on Valemont every day.

But I could see the blood lust on Kiera’s face, the way she scooted forward on the edge of her seat as Wick and Hart cornered a Yeti in the corner after they charged our goalie. Wick gripped the jersey of the opposing player, getting in her face as she growled out.

A ref stuck themself between the pair but that didn’t break Wick’s eye contact.

“Keep your fucking skates off my goalie, motherfucker!” She yelled across the ice.

Kiera was standing up now, with the rest of the fans, trying to get a better view.

The crowd was booing the Reapers, annoyed that they came for vengeance.

As I got on my feet, I noticed a group of students in front of us. Scrolling on their phones, they placed bets in an app. I squinted to try and get a closer look. It was odds on the game. But not just who would win or lose.

No, these were odds on who would pick a fight at the tail end of the second period.

The kids switched over to another bet, this one taking odds on how long the fight would last.

Stunned, I turned to look back at Dom who was also reading the screen. We met each other’s gaze. Something’s not right here.

I’d seen the app before, some invention of a kid from around Valemont. But this, placing odds on a fight in a college hockey game… it was something else.

Before long, the refs broke up the fight on the ice. Wick wiped away a smear of blood from her lip, licking up the mess as she flicked her helmet back on.

The refs called a couple major penalties for the fight just as the game broke into the intermission.

Kiera used the break to let us teach her some of the rules. “Are fights allowed?”

“Nope.” Spencer laughed. “But it’s a part of hockey, even if they don’t technically allow it.”

“Why did 9 just stand there and let the other player hit them like that?”

Looking at her, I spotted a few drops of blood on the ice from just behind the glass. “Because now the Yeti player started it, even though Wick cornered her and kept her on the boards.”

Spencer popped some popcorn in her mouth. “Kind of Wick’s whole thing. Silent killer that one. I want to see what she could do without the rules.”

As the players returned to the ice, ready for the third period, I couldn’t stop my mind from picturing it. How easily could Wick and Hart take the whole team down? They clearly had the drive, the aggression to do it.

I’d bet the two of them and the goalie could handle the entire match themselves. Maybe it was the drive to bring home a championship, or maybe it was something else driving them like that.

But whatever it was, they were ready to fight against the dirty ref calls and the onslaught from the Seattle team. It seemed like even the antagonistic booing from the crowd was enough to spur the Reapers to another goal.