Page 188 of Game Misconduct

“2026 Cup champions, bay-bee!” Tanner hollered.

Crawford flinched and rubbed his head.

“Best in that way, yeah,” Tom said. “But also best because—because this is the tightest team I’ve ever been on. The most inclusive. Do you know how hard it is to be a Black man in this league and polyam on top of it? I’ve never fucking felt like I reallybelongedbefore.”

“Well, you fuckin’ belong here,” Connor said.

“I don’t want to lose that,” Tom admitted. “I know I’ve probably only got another year or two in me, but I hope I can retire here.”

Gavin sighed. “We have to hammer out your contract next season, but believe me, unless you’re looking to make bank, we’lldo everything we can to get you squared away before the current one is up.”

“So I have a question,” Tanner blurted out.

“About Tom’s contract?” Gavin looked confused.

“No, about Darla. How’d she get in anyway? I thought security knew she wasn’t allowed in the building.”

“Ahh well,” Gavin said. “It appears she had a plan for that. From what we can tell, she was following Tom in L.A. When she couldn’t get to him there, she kind of … snapped, and uprooted her life to come to Boston. She made friends with someone in the security department and—and told her a sob story. Convinced her that she was the one who’d been wronged but now she just wanted closure.”

“And the guard, shebelievedthat?” Leif asked.

Gavin shrugged. “It appears so.”

“I assume that guard has been fired,” Connor said.

“Pending a full investigation, yes,” Gavin said.

“So this guard lady,” Tanner said. “I’ve never even seen her before. How newisshe? Seems weird they’d put her in the players’ area, you know?”

“Not that new,” Gavin said with a sigh. “Shana has been working different areas of the arena but got herself put on relief duty this season. Norman, who usually works the family lounge door, was on his break. Shana was supposed to fill in and that’s when she let Darla in.”

“Okay,” Tanner said, nodding. “This is making more sense now.”

“Clearly, the organization is going to have to do a full evaluation of policy and protocol this summer,” Gavin said, dragging a hand through his hair, looking a lot less relaxed now. “Retraining. The whole thing.”

“Is this going to hit the public?” Connor asked with a frown.

“It shouldn’t,” Gavin answered. “The police were discreet about the arrest and because of Darla’s mental state and that she didn’t actually threaten to harm anyone else, she was sent directly to a psychiatric facility.”

“I hope she gets some help.” Tanner frowned too. “She made me sad.”

Leif reached out to take his hand.

“You’re a very empathetic person, Tanner,” Gavin said. “Though we’d all prefer if next time you didn’t try to hug women holding knives.”

“I still can’t fucking believeTannerof all people was the one who disarmed her,” Luke rasped.

Tanner shrugged. “Nah, just gave Tom and Krista the assist. They were doing fine.”

“Youhelpedthough,” Krista said. “You could be more objective about it than we could. Really listen and get through to her. That—that means a lot. What she did was terrifying, but I did—Idocare about her. I want her far away from me and my family, but I do want her to get help.”

“Hey, we’re a team,” Tanner said. “We help each other out, right?”

Everyone fell silent for a moment before Tanner remembered something else he wanted to ask. “Hey, so, question, Krista. Were you all lying to her when you said that you weren’t dating Brie?”

Krista and Tom both looked startled. “Oh, no. That wasn’t a lie. Tom and I need a good long while before we get involved with anyone else.”

“And I don’t date hockey players.”