Goalie Interference (NHL Scorpions) (12 page)

Zoe doubled over, laughing. “You have got to be kidding me. I am not sitting next to you two.” She wouldn’t be caught dead in something like what they were wearing. Halloween was a time to break free. It was a day to wear something that you couldn’t get away with on a normal day. She had tried to talk Lacey into going as a scantily dressed trailer park girl, complete with a fake cigarette hanging out of her mouth, but she seemed to have lost some of her influence on Lacey since she had married Jody. Too bad.

Zoe’s costume, on the other hand, was an eye catching number. No cute Snoopy for her.

“Jody—put your tongue back in your mouth please.” Lacey gently put her hand to Jody’s chin and shut his mouth for him.

Zoe smiled and spun around. She was dressed as Daisy Duke from
The Dukes of Hazzard
. Her barely there Daisy Duke short shorts were matched with a red button down shirt that she’d tied in a knot to rest under her breasts. The first four buttons were undone, and her red fuck-me-heels were the perfect accessory to make the outfit really stand out. “You like?”

Jody looked at Lacey, alarm clearly showing on his face. “I have no way of answering that question without condemning myself.” He kissed Lacey and walked out of the room shaking his head. “Vlad is not going to like you wearing that, Zoe!”

“Don’t you think Vlad will like it? I mean, I look hot, right? I don’t think he’ll mind. He never minded before when I smutted it up for Halloween.” Zoe hadn’t even given that a thought. Not that it would matter. She’d wear what she wanted to wear.

“Yeah, but you weren’t his before. Well, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?” Who knew how Vlad would react. He wasn’t exactly himself as of late.

Vlad saw Zoe in the stands during warm ups and immediately felt his groin tighten as he took in her costume—what little there was of it. When he lifted his mask and nodded his head in approval, she gave him a sexy smile he knew was all for him. He tugged on his jersey and swiveled his hips trying to rearrange himself before putting his helmet back on to skate back over to his goal.

“Looks like he approves.” Zoe would have worn it either way, but it was a bonus that he didn’t freak out like Jody would have if Lacey wore something like that.

“Approves? Yeah. I think you’ll be getting a lot of use out of that outfit.” Lacey hooked her arm through Zoe’s. “Come on. Let’s go up to the box. Jody’s getting nachos. He said he’ll meet us in there.”

Zoe blew Vlad a kiss and pretended to drop something so that she could bend over for him. She saw him laughing as she threw him one last look over her shoulder.
Good luck
, she mouthed to him.

Detroit usually came out like gangbusters, but you never knew how a team would play from one game to the next. This game started out slowly, which was good for Vlad. It gave him a little extra time to stretch out and determine how his hip was going to affect his play, if it even would.

With a little over six minutes left in the first period, the score was still zero to zero. One of Detroit’s instigators decided to try and shake things up by getting Marcoux to drop his gloves. Brandon was not a fighter. He was a twenty-two year old winger who weighed about one hundred and seventy pounds soaking wet. It was a joke.

When Marcoux refused to drop his gloves, Cooke shoved his stick up hard into his face, cutting his lip open. That definitely took things to the next level, but certainly not in the way Cooke had wanted. He went to the sin bin to serve a four-minute major penalty, which allowed the Scorpions to score on an extended power play. A couple of minutes later, the period was over and the Scorpions would go into the second, up a goal.

In the locker room during intermission, Coach DeLeon pulled Vlad aside and asked him how he was feeling.

“I’m doing okay, Coach. I’m still good to start the second period. The pain is only about a three. You okay with that?” His pain was probably closer to a five, but he wanted to finish his last game, and the pain wasn’t affecting his play yet.

The coach looked at him for a second, eyebrows raised, before responding. “A three, huh? So what, that’s really about a five? You look good. I can live with that.” He clapped him on the back. “I trust you, Vlad. I know you’ll pull yourself out before you would hurt the team. Have a good second period.” He walked into the center of the room to give the team a pep talk, and off they went to start the second.

Pucks were flying up and down the ice so fast in the second period that, at times, the spectators were struggling to keep up with the action. Both teams had upped their intensity and physical play. Bodies were bouncing off the boards, and pucks were flying toward both nets. Vlad was getting a hell of a workout and was feeling the effects.

“A little help here would be great guys! Can I get some fucking defense?” Vlad just needed thirty seconds of rest. Christ, if he could just get thirty seconds where he could stand still.
Goddammit! I’m gonna have to pull myself out of this game if they can’t keep the fucking puck away for a minute
. His hip was so sore and weak; he knew it was just a matter of time before he went down.

Zoe wasn’t enjoying the game at all. Knowing what she did about Vlad’s hip condition, it was painful to watch him constantly going down into the butterfly and then snapping right back up to protect the high spots. He had to be in agony.

Two minutes away from the end of the second period, it happened. Garvey, one of Detroit’s bigger centers, had the puck and was bearing down hard on Vlad. The Scorpions were in the middle of a sloppy line change that left only one defenseman in between Garvey and Vlad.

Vlad was ready for him. In his peripheral vision, he saw Keith racing down the ice to help defend the goal. They were almost upon him. There were four of Detroit’s players and only two Scorpions, plus Vlad. He didn’t like those odds, but he was ready.

Just as Vlad decided that Garvey was going to shoot high, he decided to go for the money shot. Right through the five hole. Vlad quickly slapped his pads together, going down to cover the space. He thought it was over, but Garvey’s skate went out from under him, and he slammed into Vlad, landing on his leg, bending it back at an awful angle.

“Get the fuck off me! Goddammit!” He threw his glove and blocker off and pushed frantically at Garvey. Keith lifted him off and pushed him away.

“Shit! You okay, man? You want me to call the trainer?” Vlad didn’t look like he was getting up anytime soon. He was now on his hands and knees, moving his legs back and forth in the grips of pain like he’d never felt. It almost looked like he was crawling.

“Fuck. Yeah, I’m done.” Never in his life had he felt like that. Not when he broke his nose, not when he burnt three layers of skin off his leg on a muffler as a kid, never. He lost his battle with the pain and flopped onto his back, trying not to pass out.

After a minute or two, Keith and Matt helped him up. He gingerly lifted his right leg up to take the pressure off his hip. The other Scorpions pulled Vlad off the ice on one skate. The crowd cheered out of respect for him, which was nice, but that was not how he wanted his last game to end. He didn’t know if he wanted to break something or cry.

Zoe couldn’t stand to watch Vlad withering in pain on the ice. She didn’t know what to do. All she wanted was to be with him, but she knew she wouldn’t be allowed back in the training room.

“Oh my God, Lacey. How did you stand this when Jody got hurt?” Jody had left to see if he could get any answers about Vlad’s condition. “Text Jody and see if he knows anything yet.” She knew she was being ridiculous; he had just walked out the door.

“Zoe, you know …”

Zoe put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. “I know, Lace. He probably isn’t even down there yet. Fuck. I hate this!”

“Hey. Come on, Zoe. He’ll be okay. I mean yes, it looked very painful, but he’ll be okay. He didn’t get cut or hit in the head.” Lacey squeezed her neck. “He’ll be okay.”

Zoe took a deep breath and stood up. “Okay. You’re right. He’ll be fine.” She stood up suddenly. “But I have to go down there. I have to wait for him or anyone, down there, okay? I just need to be there.”

“Sure. I’ll go with you.”

The security guard wouldn’t let them into the locker room. Not even Lacey, but he told them he’d go get Jody for them. He turned to do just that, and Jody walked out.

“I only saw him for a second before the trainer threw me out. They’re putting him in the whirlpool for a bit, but he’ll be okay. Well, as okay as he can be with that hip of his. He asked me to take you home, Zoe.”