Power Play (Nashville Assassins Next Generation 2)

Aiden laughs. “Hope you got the money to replace that.”

“I don’t. I’m poor. Pay for me?”

We all chuckle as I spit some Gatorade onto the ice, cleaning out my mouth. Jakob leans on the boards, his eyes moving between us. “Posey says 1-3-1, no S, they are on to us.”

We all nod in agreement as I tap Reeves in the chest, and we skate out. Aiden lines up, taking the face-off, which unfortunately, they win. As we skate back, I glance over at him. “Don’t you get paid a lot to do that right?”

He scoffs. “Fuck you. Let’s do this.”

But of course, their goalie is standing on his damn head. He is blocking everything, keeping the Knights in it. When he freezes the puck, I glance up to see we have fifty-one seconds left on the power play and a minute before we go into overtime. We’ve been traveling so damn much, going all the way out to Vegas and back, and I’d rather not go into overtime. I’d much rather win, give some handshakes, and then wrap my arms around my girl.

Speaking of my girl…

As I skate back to the bench, she’s there, calling a time-out. I skate toward her, admiring her beauty. She let Shelli order her a purple Assassins dress. Her hair is up in a bun, and I think she might have on those new black red-bottoms I bought her. I wanted her to have her own, and I wanted to buy them. Stay in my lane? Nope. Not unless Posey is in it with me.

“They are seeing everything y’all are doing,” she yells, tapping that damn tablet. “I want the S, but this time, we need Reeves to shoot. Brooks, Mac, I want you here,” she urges, marking the screen that puts them in front of the goalie. “Bacioretty, I need you at the blue line, running this damn play, and Hoenes, I need you here. They aren’t paying attention to our left since Aiden is right. Plus, the goalie is weak blocker side, so go over the fucking blocker if you have the shot. Don’t go five-hole. Don’t go glove side. He’s blocking that like it’s nothing. We have to think out of the box.”

The ref blows the whistle, and Posey’s eyes meet mine. My lips tip up, and I expect her to tell me she loves me. I mean, this is a high-emotion situation. But instead, she yells, “Blocker side!”

Jesus.

I skate away, adjusting my girdle as we line up to the right of the goalie cage. When the puck drops, Aiden does his job and wins it back. I send it up to Reeves, who carries it to the line with ease as we all set up. I go where Posey told me to, and we move the puck, bringing the Knights in. When I have a shot, I take it, but the asshole blocks it with his damn blocker. I want to yell at Posey that she was wrong, but the rebound comes back to me. The goalie is right there, so I send it over to Aiden. But his man closes in, so he sends it to Wes. He moves it to the middle, all of us shifting with the move, and he sends it for a one timer to Reeves. His stick explodes with the shot, and it all happens so quickly. But I feel it hit my stick before going right over the blocker.

Into the back of the net.

Shock washes over me as I watch the red light flash. The world falls away as Aiden screams, throwing his gloves up before skating to me. I glance at the clock, and there are two seconds left on it. The guys all huddle around me as the crowd loses their damn minds. Posey is screaming, jumping behind the bench. Holy shit. This happened. We did it.

We drop the puck again. It’s only for shits and giggles because as soon as the game horn sounds, I’m at the bottom of an Assassins pile, and I still can’t process what just happened.

Did I really just score the game-winning goal?

“With the game-winning goal, number twelve, Boon Hoenes! The Assassins are going to the Stanley Cup Finals!”

Well, holy shit, I did.

We’re going to the finals.

Soon, we get up to do the handshake with our opponent. As I shake each one of their hands, I find myself looking for Posey. I don’t see her until I come around, and she’s leaning on the boards.

“Told you,” she calls to me, and I stick out my tongue at her.

“You did,” I say as I stop in front of her. I gaze into her beautiful eyes, and then I cup her chin. “You’re going to remind me of this for the rest of our lives, huh?”

She nods. “Every waking moment.”