Page 1 of Taking The Shot

1

BOUCHER

“Dooooooude… are you serious?”

Keith looked up grimly at his teammates' concerned faces – and sighed heavily. Coeur was standing there, eyes huge in his face and his mouth hanging open as he said openly what everyone was thinking. This wasn’t the first time it had happened either. Every time someone dug into his past, Keith was trampled through the mud without a chance to defend himself. It had happened three times already and this was the longest time he’d been assigned to a hockey team.

“It was supposed to be expunged,” Keith whispered shamefully, not bothering to look up again as they stood around where he sat on a bench in the locker room. “My attorney at the time swore it would be expunged, and nothing happened, but then he got disbarred for misconduct, it hit the papers… and it was downhill from there.”

“Can you sue him?” Lafreniére asked bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest in consternation as he frowned. “I mean, this isn’t funny, and with the rumor circulating again, you remember how badly it went five years ago, right?”

“That’s the reason we all cleaned up our acts,” Giroux sighed heavily. “That was one of the worst weekends in my life – I nearly died… and you wished you had.”

“Nahhh,” Keith muttered, chucking softly. “I wish things had been a lot different. I wished I had been smarter. I wished my attorney wasn’t a scum-bucket liar who took my money and a one-way ‘dope-nose-slide’ to El Salvador… but dead? Never. I’ve got too much to live for, and if I have to start over again somewhere – I will.”

“It won’t be that bad,” Gerry Thierry said simply. “We’ve changed our reputation over the years. We just need to figure out how to fix this.”

“I don’t think you can.”

“Sure we can – we’re a team and can do anything.”

“I got called into the coach’s office this morning,” Keith said quietly and looked at each of their faces. “And I have a meeting with the coach, a lawyer, and the owner of the Coyotes next Friday.”

“The owner?”

“Yup.”

All five men circled around him and cussed under their breaths – all saying the same word – and if it hadn’t been such a sad sign of how badly things were, Keith might have laughed. He was gonna get fired and knew it deep within his gut. There was an accusation floating out there that was completely unfounded, but it was enough for the media to go digging around once more, and he had skeletons in his closet.

Oh boy, did he have one big nasty skeleton…

“Was it true? Any of it? Can you argue it in court or counter-sue for libel or slander…”

“I stopped by the Tavern to get potato skins for dinner on the way home,” Keith said grimly and saw Lafreniere slap himself on the forehead. Coeur rubbed both hands over his face, mutteringsomething unintelligible. Giroux, Batiste, and Thierry looked at each other, giving a single shake to their heads, their lips pressed together grimly. The Tavern was a seedy hole in the wall near the arena that made chicken wings and potato skins so good that it would make the angels in heaven weep for joy.

“Brother,” Lafreniere began, obviously losing his temper. “We makebank! Why didn’t you have it Doordashed or something? That was so stupid…”

“Whoa, Dustin, hold up…” Coeur interrupted and cut him off. “That’s not going to help Boucher right now, and we need to think.”

“No, he’s right. It was stupid. I can’t go out in public like other people because I’m an easy target, and I slipped,” Keith said hoarsely, feeling tears sting the back of his nose. He wouldn’t cry in front of them, but it wouldn’t be the last time that regret was so overwhelming that he’d bawled like a baby. “I’d love to shout ‘It’s not fair!’ or ‘I’m innocent!’ or anything at all to defend myself, but when the deck is stacked against you – and it has been for a while, you start to get numb and give up. This is me, and I think I’m giving up.”

“No, brother…” Thierry said, taking a seat beside him. “We changed our reputation once when Giroux wrapped his Porsche around a light pole drunk, forcing us all to clean up our acts, and the media loves us now… we can do it again.”

“The media loves you – not me.”

“They do, and if there is one thing they love, it’s an abused puppy…”

“Thanks a lot.”

“You need to do more charity work, be seen with one of us at all times in public, and you need to put a stop to the gossip. You’re single and have something on your rap sheet, you have a bad boy image. Unfortunately, that brings out the people who are willing to lie to trap someone for money…”

“Don’t say it.”

“The trash,” Thierry continued, and Keith sighed. “That brings out the money-hungry, the loose-morals, the extortionists, all of it… and you need to remove it from your life. You need to get married…”

“SAY WHAT?!” Keith yelped, standing up from the bench and staring at the man in disbelief before yelling and pointing at himself. “HAVE YOU LOST YOUR BLASTED MIND? WHO IN THE HECK IS GONNA WANT TO MARRY ME? WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT…”

“Quit yelling.”

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