Page 110 of Broken Promises

“No one has taken more shots on him than I have.”

“That’s really helped you,” Coach says from behind me.

I sigh and chew on my mouth guard. “I’ve also scored on him the most.”

“You have about thirty seconds before you’re back out there, so make your point,” Coach says.

“I’m going to fall back to defense. Martinez will take the puck. Finn won’t have watched your plays because you almost never shoot on the net. Finn is as good as he is because he studies and then studies some more. You’re a wild card. That’s what we need.” I look over at Martinez after I explain. His brows are furrowed, but he nods.

“Do it,” Coach says. “Gideon, win that face-off, get the puck to Monroe. You know what to do from there.”

“Yes, Coach,” we all say before we’re throwing ourselves over the boards and back onto the ice.

FIFTY-ONE

willa

WILLA

“What the hell is he doing?”I ask, more to myself than anyone else around me.

“I think he’s being a back guy instead of a front guy,” Maverick says. He clearly still hasn’t bothered to learn anything about hockey.

I watch as Dec skates backwards, and Martinez takes his place. Dec had passed the puck behind him to Martinez the moment it hit his stick. It’s not an unusual play for them, but usually the puck is either passed back to Dec or to another forward. This time, Martinez takes off like a rocket, heading toward San Diego’s blue line and knocking their team over as he goes. I’m shocked to see how fast he can skate. The man is large, built more like a wall than a man. It’s part of what makes him a good defenseman.

This type of play isn’t uncommon in the NHL, but Boston doesn’t do much of it. They don’t need to. Their offense has been the best in the league this season. I can’t tell if the choice to give the opportunity to score to Martinez was out of desperation or something else.

The play feels like it’s in slow motion. My eyes are glued to the screen of the jumbotron. I can’t see the puck well from the box, so I have to rely on the cameraman to keep up. Thankfully, he’s been doing a great job the whole game so far.

Martinez barely makes it over the blue line before he shoots. The smack of his stick against the puck is so loud I can hear it from all the up in the box. The camera can barely keep up as the puck flies. I take my eyes away from the screen and watch the ice as Finn dives for it.

And misses.

The puck sails over the top of his catcher. I’m jumping and screaming, throwing myself in Maggie’s arms as she joins me in celebrating. I look up at the screen just in time to watch the replay. The change in Finn’s face is obvious. He’s been stone-faced and serious the entire game, not a single change in his expression. Then the moment he realizes Martinez is skating for him, his eyes go wide.

This is why they did that. Because Finn didn’t know how to stop him. Declan talks about how Finn spends all his time studying his opponents and zero time having a personal life. He must not have thought about studying Martinez.

The anger on Finn’s face directed at Declan says he knows who found the weakness. The latter shrugs and then looks right at me, tipping his head and tapping over his heart. The camera is still on Finn, so I see the way his brows furrow, like he’s trying to work out a riddle with only a third of the information.

“There’s still a lot of time left,” Kai says with his signature slight upturn of his lips. Like it would be a crime to smile in public and let people know he’s actually a nice guy. He’s not wrong though. Eight minutes is a lot of time. Either team could score more than once in that time. Considering how tight it’s been so far, that seems unlikely.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I look around, confused. Everyone that would text me is either in this room or down on the ice. I pull it out and see it’s Ben.

Ben

Hi Willa. It’s Ben. I need your help. It’s about Declan.

My eyes go wide and fly down to the ice. Declan is currently on the bench and seems fine.

Sorry. This isn’t an emergency.

I got him a meeting with Sinclair after the game. Win or lose. I want to help. I’m going to go with him because I wasn’t sure you would be able to get there in time with how security is going to be.

Feel free to take my place if you’re able to get through. That man scares me.

I snort.

They’re letting me out onto the ice if they win. They let all the WAGs know as we arrived. So I guess if they lose, and I have to go through the usual security, you’ll have to go with him.

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