Blind Ice (Razors Ice Book 5) (16 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Dead in the Water

Logan looked around the locker room at his teammates. They were men from all walks of life, several different countries, and had a plethora of personalities. Team captain, Cody “CoLa” Lambert, always kept everyone motivated and pumped up. JD “Hollywood” Mason was the most mature of the bunch and wisdom rolled off the guy in waves. Patrik “Trik” Levine was just as competitive with Seb at how many women he could sweep off their feet as he was on the ice. Lucas “Lucky” Leighton was quiet in general and even more tight-lipped about his conquests, but everyone knew he never spent Friday nights alone—or any night for that matter. Resident goon, Pete “The Fist” Fontaine, could be counted on to take cheap shots at himself even though everyone knew he was the smartest guy in the room with a degree from Cornell to prove it.

And then there were the goalies. Back-up, Nathan “The Con Man” Connors, was always quiet, mostly keeping inside his own head. And Alexadre “Sebby” Sebastien, ladiesman and wisecracking Russian, was the backbone of the team.

As rough around the edges as they all were, a few of them had even found love in unlikely places.

Logan figured it wasn’t so unusual that he’d found love on the other side of an optometrist’s exam table. Connors had settled down with Sarah, a shy hair stylist from Los Angeles. His former teammate Ben Price had fallen for his dog’s veterinarian’s assistant. Hell, even before Jace “The Ace” McQuaid retired, he got with his massage therapist and made it a permanent thing.

Ooh, Logan thought, maybe he could talk Kate into oiling him up and giving him a massage tonight after the game. Just the thought of her running her hands all over him had him swallowing hard and adjusting in his seat. Even better would be
her
body slick with oil, writhing beneath him as he massaged her from the inside out.

When Coach Baker entered the room and launched into his pre-game speech, all extra-curricular activities were put aside and Logan focused on hockey. As tempting as it might be, he wouldn’t let himself be distracted by anything. His teammates deserved his all and they would get it. Especially tonight. They were playing the Las Vegas Greenbacks, one of their biggest rivals, and pride, bragging rights and two points were on the line.

Logan left the locker room with the confidence of a peacock. He felt fantastic and he planned on scoring a goal tonight—maybe even two. His teammates sensed his enthusiasm and he knew they’d do all they could to assure he got on the board tonight.

“Tonight’s Logsy’s night,” Trik proclaimed. “I’m callin’ it.”

“Let’s make it happen, boys,” Cody encouraged.

Tonight was going to be a winner. Logan could feel it in his bones.

* * *

For helping out as the team’s back-up optometrist, Kate had the opportunity to watch tonight’s game from a luxurious suite. She settled into her seat next to her colleague Dr. Mallan and focused on the ice, bright and shiny beneath the overhead lights.

The energy inside the NorCal Center was palpable. Excited fans, heart-thumping music, the smell of food…it all contributed toward the experience of seeing a hockey game live in person.

And all the fans knew that when the Red Valley Razors played the Las Vegas Greenbacks, it was guaranteed to be a game to remember. When two rivalries came together under one roof, anything could happen.

Dom “The Bomb” Devereaux, who had been traded to the Greenbacks, wouldn’t be playing because of an injury and the fans were disappointed. They wanted to get their first look at the D-man since he’d been traded to the Nevada team.

Kate had seen her share of hockey games, but she’d never had a specific player to root for before. When the teams took to the ice for their warm-ups, she scanned the backs of the red jerseys for names. There it was.

Murray
.

Without his helmet, Logan’s blonde hair ruffled in the breeze as he skated laps around his team’s half of the ice. He looked incredibly sexy in all his gear, even more sexy than he looked in a suit or his street clothes even.

Butterflies fluttered inside her stomach and Kate shifted in her seat. They’d done everything under the sun together and she still felt a shiver whenever she saw him—even from all the way up in the luxury suite.

Logan didn’t look her way and she was glad he was focused solely on the game at hand. In a sport where the participants wore sharp blades on their feet and brutal fights broke out on a regular basis, it was too dangerous
not
to give your undivided attention.

There was beauty in the game, Kate decided. Beauty and an art in the way the players knew right where to go and which direction to take and shoot the puck. And then when you let the noise overtake your senses, it became an intense battle of skill and determination. She wondered why she hadn’t made the time to come to a game sooner.

She could easily understand why Logan loved it so much when it could overwhelm every one of the senses. People spent their hard-earned money on these tickets and, boy, did they get their money’s worth!

When she closed her eyes she could still feel the energy pulsing around her and knew her sister would enjoy the experience. Kate thought Julia would benefit from coming to a game and decided she’d press the issue more when her emotions weren’t so raw. She had invited Julia to come tonight, but her sister had not-so-politely declined, claiming she could go to a hockey game any old time and that she didn’t feel like sitting amongst thousands of people who weren’t Gabe.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come to the game?” Kate had asked. “It might help take your mind off things.”

Julia had scrunched up her face and made a noise that sounded like a balloon deflating. “That’s the
last
thing I want to do. You go and have fun and watch your man be all studly on the ice and do manly things. I’ll stay here and organize my stamp collection.”

“You don’t have a stamp collection.”

“Then I’ll start one. Go forth and have fun.”

Kate knew Julia just needed some time. The pity party would eventually pass and she would absorb back into her music again and look forward to her and Gabe’s next visit.

When Kate opened her eyes again, a Greenbacks player deflected Trik Levine’s slap shot.

And that’s when all hell broke loose on the ice.

* * *

The Greenbacks had stepped off the plane and onto California soil ready for a fight. Unfortunately for them, the Razors were ready to do battle as well. The NorCal Center was their building and they would do all they could to prevent defeat on their home turf.

Within the first five minutes of play, the home team scored and sent all 16,492 spectators to their feet. Lucas Leighton found a hole in their defense, careened the puck up under the crossbar and across the blue paint. The Vegas goalie angrily swiped the puck out of his net and cursed a string of colorful words together. In reply to the goal, the Greenbacks tightened up their defense. They wouldn’t let that kind of mistake happen again.

Halfway through the first period the net was knocked off its moorings and the referee blew his whistle. The interruption gave both teams a much needed breather. Sebby was holding strong between the pipes and was determined to shut this team out and send them packing back to Sin City.

When play resumed, Trik made a long pass up the middle. Before he could shoot, a Greenbacks player swooped in, zoomed back toward the Razors net and made a wraparound goal.

The fans booed and the boys on the bench rallied together and encouraged each other to keep their heads up. They had two more periods to gain their momentum back and come out on top. All they had to do was feed off the energy in the building and keep focused.

Cody fended off a Vegas player and played the puck off the boards to himself. He pivoted, passed it to Logan and Logan saw the opportunity and fired it at the net. The goalie gobbled up the puck and the whistle was blown.

“Next time,” Cody reassured Logan.

There would always be a next time.

A few minutes later, when Logan and his linemates were catching their breath on the bench between shifts, Matti Nieminen was high-sticked in the mouth by Greenbacks enforcer Aleksi Nikkola. It was a brutal hit and Matti’s lip was busted open as a result. Mattie had been called up from the Vikings, the Razors’ minor league affiliate, and his first game in the UNHL wasn’t turning out as he had hoped. He went into the locker room for repairs and came out later with a jagged row of stitches.

“How’s the lip?” Trik asked Matti when he scooted back onto the bench.

“Thixteen thitches,” the Finn replied. His bottom lip was so swollen that it looked like he’d just come from having botched back-alley Botox.

Trik cracked up laughing. “It’s an improvement on your English, that’s for sure.”

Matti started to grin, but the stiches reminded him that wouldn’t be a good idea. He groaned and ducked his head in pain while his teammates laughed.

At the end of the second period, Cody made a beautiful pass to Trik. Logan was skating toward the net from the corner when Trik unleashed a slap shot that was redirected off the stick of Nikkola.

One minute Logan was telling Trik he was open and the next there was an explosion behind his left eye that radiated pain out to his cheekbone. Logan clutched at his face and fell to the ice in a heap. The pain took his breath away and he gasped for air and pulled his knees up to his chest. The only thing he remembered was writhing in pain until the trainer rushed to his side. That and holding his hand over his eye as if his eyeball might fall out if he didn’t.

He couldn’t hear the fans react or see the replay on the JumboTron. A collective gasp came from the stands when everyone saw the incident replay again and again on the giant screen.

Finally, he heard the trainer’s voice in his ear asking him if he was all right.

“My face,” Logan repeated over and over. “It’s my fucking face!”

Cody skated over and leaned down over his fallen teammate. “You okay, Logs?”

“What the fuck happened?”

“A puck hit you. Come on, bud. Let’s get you off the ice.”

It hadn’t dawned on him that he’d taken a puck to the face. He’d had a skate blade slice him in the leg once, but it had been nothing like this. Nothing compared to the explosive pain next to his nose.

The excruciating pain surprised the hell out of him because he’d been poised to hit the puck out of the defensive zone and them
bam!
lights out.

He wished he could say he’d been distracted or focused on something besides the puck, but he hadn’t been. He’d kept his eye glued to it just like he always did. One second it was on the ice being hit by Trik’s stick and the next it was deflected and hurtling through the air.

He hadn’t even been thinking about Kate, dammit.

And, besides the pain, that’s what made him mad most of all.

* * *

The scene on the ice was harrowing. Kate was on her feet without even realizing she’d stood up from her seat.

Watching from a distance didn’t diminish the terror roiling in her gut. The butterflies were long gone, pure horror had doused them out the second Logan hit the ice. He was in pain. She could tell by his body language.

And then she saw the blood.

There was blood everywhere. Logan’s blood. Splattered on the ice, dropping from his face…

As if an invisible hand touched her arm and said “
go to him
,” Kate bolted out of the suite and through the maze of tunnels and hallways that led toward the locker room. She heard footsteps behind her and realized Dr. Mallan was right behind her. He didn’t say anything, he just met her step for step, knowing his medical expertise would be needed if Logan’s eye was injured.

Kate hadn’t run in years, probably since gym class in high school, and now she was breathing hard. She stuck to yoga and Pilates and shied away from intense cardio. But now, with Logan’s health and safety hanging in the balances, she ran like a cheetah was chasing her.

Everything happened in slow motion and lightning fast all at once. As fast as her legs pumped, the concrete walls of the tunnel seemed never-ending. The tunnel echoed with the sound of her pounding footsteps, but she couldn’t hear the sound over the pounding of blood in her ears.

And then they were there. Up ahead, she heard voices and skidded to a stop. Dr. Mallan placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. It took everything she had not to shrug it off.

Inside the medical room in the locker room, the medical staff surrounded Logan. He sat on the exam table, blood dripping from his face. The red blood merged with his red jersey and absorbed into the fabric. Kate wouldn’t let herself look away from the gruesome scene.

Inwardly, she cringed. The sport of hockey was notorious for these kinds of injuries, but that didn’t make it any easier to witness. This was Logan,
her
Logan, not just a faceless, nameless patient.

“Hey, Doc,” Logan greeted her over the din of voices. His voice held an acrid bitterness she didn’t fully understand. “Gang’s all here, I guess.”