Page 1 of Knot Dead Yet

CHAPTER ONE - Tiergan

Dark roads were suddenly bright as we entered the city. Driving into Winnipeg, it felt desolate, like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but as we headed downtown, it sparkled with life. Excitement leapt out of exhaustion, and I grinned to myself, happy to be home.

Not to just be home, but home with a semi-final victory.

To top it off, I had a shutout the last game. The Rockford Warriors didn’t get a single shot past me. This past season had been the most spectacular one of my life, and with my team beside me, I didn’t doubt we could take it all the way to win the Calder Cup.

Kane nudged me from the seat beside mine. “What are you smiling about?”

He asked that and he was grinning himself. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe still feeling the high of how we fucking blew Rockford out of the arena!” I laughed as we whooped and fist-bumped, and the rest of the team on the bus answered back with their own hollers. Settling back into my seat, I eyed the domed roof of the Bell Arena through the buildings in the distance. “I need at least one more shutout. We have to take Chicago down in the first games.”

“We’ll whip those fuckers’ asses.” Kane bobbed his head and clenched his jaw, the lights from downtown catching on his white blond hair and making it gold. The Chicago Flurry was our team’s rival, and usually they dominated our division. This year we had a phenomenal team and only had five losses all season. A lot of that was thanks to my best friend and team captain who sat beside me.

I fist-bumped him again, but I didn’t say anything. One of our team’s goalies was out with a broken wrist, so it was me andthe newbie. Clint was good, but wouldn’t be able to stand against Chicago’s aggressive offense. That meant everything was riding on me.

“You’ve got this.” This was why Kane was not only our team captain, but our pack’s leader. He knew each of us, and he never failed to build us up. The teams I’d been on in the past, I’d always been the lone wolf goalie. Yet with these guys, I had a pack. I wasn’t alone. No matter how much my instinct was to take everything on to my shoulders.

When we pulled up to the arena, our coach was fast off the bus and inside. Usually we’d just get dropped off by the bus and go home after an away game, but tonight we had to meet the Manitoba Rampage’s new owner. It was unusual for a team to trade hands in the middle of a season, but the previous owner had recently passed on. He’d been a good guy, but he’d been just the financial support. This new owner supposedly had been in the American Hockey League himself years ago, but since I didn’t recognize his name—Dirk or Kirk or something—he hadn’t made it big.

Kane slipped out before me, and a couple of the guys followed him, chatting about hitting a bar tonight. It wasn’t really my thing, even though I’d go just to bond with the pack. I waited until half the guys had gotten off before I grabbed my backpack and exited down the stairs.

Though it was late April, the night still had a chill. Yet I could smell a hint of green in the air. I was the only one on the team actually from Winnipeg, and I knew the city’s moods like my own.

Ewan Cyr leapt off the stairs behind me and onto my back. I braced myself, easily carrying his lighter weight. “Yeah, Hall! Best goalie ever!”

I grinned, too much on a high to care he was shouting in my ear. “That mean you’re buying my drinks tonight?”

“Maybe.” Ewan laughed and gave me a light shove as he let me go. “Only if you’re drinking a small one.”

“I’m buying the first round.” Alderic Fournier—our team’s left wing to Ewan’s right—hopped down the last stair and fist-bumped us all. “Except for you, cousin. You always pick the most expensive shit to rot your gut.”

Ewan lifted his chin and smirked. “Whatever. I just have a cultured palette.”

“No one would ever call you cultured, Cyr.” Maddox Moreau snorted as he thumped down the stairs. Easily the biggest guy on the team, he towered over us all.

The only other player close to his size silently exited the bus behind him and shouldered past Ewan without saying a word to any of us as he marched into the arena. Casimir Velky might have been a fantastic defenseman, but he was an asshole. Our first line made up our pack minus Casimir. He and Maddox were great in their positions, but not only did Casimir rub me the wrong way, he butted heads with Kane about most everything.

Ewan flipped him off behind his back.

“Inside, everyone!” Kane yelled, leading the way into the building. “Time to meet the new boss man.”

Alderic hefted his pack and walked beside me. “I heard this new guy played when he was young. Maybe he’ll be much more hands on than Mr. Thomson.”

“Maybe.” I didn’t know how I felt about that. Our coach, Kevin McCarthy, was top-notch, and helped get us this far this season. I didn’t want some self important investor thinking he knew hockey better than any of us coming in and screwing that up. We all needed to be focused on the game to beat Chicago.

“Hopefully he can at least convince the city to put more money into the arena. The changing rooms haven’t been redone since the nineteen-eighties. I swear I can hear the ghosts ofThe Tragically Hip playing in there sometimes,” Alderic huffed. Always with the music references.

“The Hip are still alive, you know.” I shot him a sideways look.

He laughed. “You know what I mean. The place needs it.”

Sad as it was, I did. The Bell Arena hadn’t been updated in decades, and it showed more and more each year. I grew up coming to see games here, and it looked the same twenty years ago when I was three as it did now. If we had an arena like Chicago….

The fucking Flurry.

A modern arena wasn’t going to help them win the playoffs. This wasouryear.

We dropped our stuff off in the locker room, and Ewan laid an arm across my shoulder and Alderic’s. “The Barstool tonight, boys. That’s where we’re headed. Alderic said he’s buying the first round and Moreau is buying the next.”

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