Page 57 of Puck You Very Much
“That’s just what’s in it for you. I’ll let you have as much of him as you want. I’ve got my sights set on taking care of that neanderthal boob Jax Echlin. Levi can probably take on two or three of those assholes on his own if push comes to shove.”
First of all, Levi couldn’t take on two or three guys on his own, unless it was in a video game. In real life, he could make short work of any one guy, sure, but let’s be realistic. I’m telling you this because I felt like I couldn’t speak sense to Ryan Detenbeck. Not that I could ever really do that, but this seemed worse than normal.
“Look,” he said, “I’m not telling you to bring a shotgun to the game. I just want you to be ready to take it to those fuckers.”
“That doesn’t sound like what you were suggesting only a minute ago.”
“Because you looked timid at the idea of even a little aggression.”
“But you weren’t talking about alittleextra aggression. I don’t know what you were getting at, but it didn’t sound that innocent.”
Okay, I’d officially disappointed my teammate. I didn’t need anyone to tell me. I wanted to think I wouldn’t have been on board with something like this even before Zane Hirst jumped up my ass. That just wasn’t how you played the game. Period. To borrow a page from Bills coach Marv Levy, “You don’t play dumb, and you don’t play dirty.”
“Okay,” Detenbeck said, “I’ll be more direct. We need to go out there and kick the shit out of those guys.”
“But why?”
“Because they’re going to do something very, very nasty to us.”
“They are?”
“Uh huh.”
“How do you know?”
He smiled and managed to suppress a laugh, like I was the last person to learn a hilarious secret.
“It’s the Remington Riptides,” he said, “no explanation is needed. But if it really needs to be said, I fully expect them to pull something.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. I think they’re going to try to hurt us, but I’m not sure how. I want to think it’ll happen on the ice, but I can’t guarantee anything now that shit’s gotten extra crazy between our teams.”
I felt cold all over. Despite all that’d happened lately, the idea that they would want to hurt us physically hadn’t crossed my mind.
“You mean they’ll try to purposely injure us or something?” I asked.
“Jeez, Jakob, aren’t you a quick fucking study?”
“I don’t get why this is such a big deal now. We’ve played them since the Colter Bay Grill brawl. Why didn’t they try to put a hurt on us then?”
“Probably because they were too brat up and only semi-conscious from the night before, bro.”
I couldn’t help smiling. He had a point, but I felt uncomfortable with the whole ordeal.
“Before you start thinking I’m a bad guy, let me assure you I’m not,” he said. “It’s just that unpleasant things have got to be done.”
“It’s not that I think you’re a bad guy, but?—”
“But what I’m thinking of doing to Remington is kind of bad?”
“That’s your word, not mine.”
“But you’re thinking it. I know you are. I can tell.”
I didn’t respond partly because I didn’t want him thinking he possessed some kind of crazy mind-reading ability. Also, I would’ve done nearly anything to shut him up.
“I don’t know if the others would go for something like this,” I said. “It’s pretty questionable, don’t you think?”
