Page 72 of Dangerous Play

I nodded and cracked my knuckles, and taking one last deep breath, I stood at the sidelines. I could turn around take a look at my parents, Ivy, my friends, but I wanted to be in the zone.

My team surrounded me and Maddox patted my shoulder.

“Ready to win this?”

I had my whole team counting on me.

“Listen up, guys,” I started, my voice a bit rusty. “We need to regroup and win this thing for Dex. We need to show the Lions no matter what we do, we can’t be broken. No matter how dirty they fight, we will always come out on top. Sebastian, it’s your chance to step up, big shoes to fill, but you’ve trained with us so you can do it. We are going to wipe the floor with them and send them packing. No one disrespects us like that in our home and walks away.” The guys cheered. “But we are going to do it fair and square. We are the Titans and we always come out on top.”

“Titans on three,” Liam shouted, and we placed our hands on top of each other’s, the bodies of my teammates surrounding me and our hearts all beat to the one determined rhythm.

“One.”

“Two.”

“TITANS!”

This was our home, and they didn’t get to walk away in one piece after what they did.

I felt Coach McCarthy step up next to me and patted my shoulder. “You’ve got this, son.”

“You never told me what happened with you and your biological father.”

“I’ll tell you when you get your team into the finals.”

“No pressure.” I chuckled, shaking out my heavy limbs.

“All the pressure is on you, Max. But you can handle it.”

Man, I was fucking wrong.

During this game, I relied more on swearing than on my stamina. There were only twenty minutes left of the last half but we were giving it our blood, sweat and tears. It was clear that our moral was down and everyone was slightly concerned about their own well-being.

Ander’s shit talking didn’t really help in the back. I tried to cut him out but every single time he said Ivy’s name, I had to swallow my urge to react. I bet he said her name more times during this game than during their relationship and that was a lot to assume. Obviously, he only cared because she chose me.

While I was lost in thoughts, the ball passed in front of my nose and the Lions made their way toward our goalpost. Lunging after their midfielder who was positioning to make the pass to Ander, I quickly intercepted him, and with my old foot magic trick, I got the ball away from him before he could blink.

I signaled to my team and we made our way back to the opponent’s part of the field. Their goalkeeper jogged back, assessing the situation and moving best to block any potential shot. The field in front of me lay empty, everyone was behind metrying to catch up and the Lions were quickly shifting from their comfortable attacking position back to defending. It took them several minutes, which gave me all the advantage I needed.

I waited for their defender closest to me to catch up as I held on to my sprint.

As soon as their defender approached my line of vision, I looked at the goal ahead of me. We just passed the half line and approached the third. The crowd’s anticipation told me everyone else was catching up and soon enough I would be surrounded by all the Lions.

I saw Maddox to the side, shaking off his own defender while Oliver was nowhere to be seen. There was no sight of Sebastian or any of our frontline.

There was only me and the goalie and the incredible distance between us.

Fuck it, I had to take the chance. It was now or never.

I kicked the ball, allowing me distance to position myself for the long kick. It was going to be the longest goal kick I had to do with the wind howling and the distance between me and the goal. I had to be precise as one small mistake could make the ball fly in a completely different direction.

My breathing slowed as I took a calming breath, picking a spot where I wanted the ball to land, and with my next exhale, I kicked it with everything inside me.

I stopped dead, watching the ball fly in a beautiful curve over the field, descending around the goal line, and with an impressive downward arc, it landed in the far-right corner of the goal. The goalie stood there, not knowing what happened as the ball bounced and entangled itself in the net.

I did it.

“There’s no way,” someone muttered behind me, but the whistle of the referee told otherwise.

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