Page 100 of Payback On The Ice

Mikey Brandt in an office in Ashby with the door shut.

I write every one of them down. Every single thing I took from him because I decided I knew better. When I'm done, it's three pages, and my hand's cramping, and it's almost one in the morning.

I read it over.

Then I close the book and put it on the nightstand.

Through the wall, where his room used to be, it's quiet. It's been quiet all week. Nobody's knocked on the plaster since Sunday.

I put my hand on it anyway.

Friday morning, I'll be in my crease at five-fifteen. He won't come. And I'll be there Saturday, before Game 3, too, and if he doesn't come then either, I'll still have something to say to him.

27

THEO

Mikey calls me Wednesday night.

Not a text. A call. Mikey Brandt hasn't called me since last April, when he called to tell me he'd always have my back, and then didn't.

I'm sitting on Wes's floor in the sleeping bag. Wes is at the library. I almost don't pick up.

"T." His voice sounds like he's been yelling. "You there? Cole's on too."

"Hey, man," Cole says.

"I'm here."

There's a long breath on the line. Mikey's breath. I know it. I sat next to him on a bus for two years.

"He wants me to sign something," Mikey says.

I go cold.

"After Game 2. In his office. He had it typed up already. A statement. That I was on the bench that night and I heard you say you were going to get Kovač. That you were a discipline problem all year. That he'd warned you." Mikey laughs, high and wrong. "He said if I sign it, my money's safe. He said the budget review's going really well for guys who understand the program."

"Mikey—"

"I didn't sign it."

I close my eyes.

"I didn't sign it, T. I told him I needed to think. And then I went home and I threw up. And then I called Cole."

"He's going to pull your money anyway," Cole says quietly. "Whether he signs or not. We all know it. He's going to pull Mikey's, and he's going to pull mine, and Reese's is already gone. That's how it goes."

"I'm sorry," I say. "I'm so sorry, this is my fault, Dane went to Halvorsen and⁠—"

"Theo, shut up," Mikey says.

I shut up.

"It's not your fault. It's his. It's always been his." Mikey's voice is shaking. "I'm so tired of being scared of that guy. Cole's tired. Reese is tired. We talked about it all night. There's seven of us, T. Seven guys who'll say it. What he said in that room before the third period. What he says to guys in his office with the door shut. The video room this week. All of it."

"You'd lose⁠—"

"We're going to lose it anyway!" Mikey's almost yelling now. "That's what I'm telling you. He's going to take it no matter what. So I'd rather he took it after we told everybody what he is. You know? At least then it means something."