“What the fuck—” Bradley was standing too, wine forgotten.
Derek didn’t hesitate. He spat blood onto the ice—anda tooth,Jesus Christ—and then his gloves were off, his helmet ripped free, and he was on 47 before the refs could blow their whistles.
His fist connected with a crack that echoed through the arena. 47 went down hard but came up swinging, catching Derek in the ribs, shoving at his chest to create space. Derek absorbed the hit like it was nothing and drove him back down, fists landing with a cold precision that was almost more frightening than blind rage. 47 got an elbow up, clipped Derek’s jaw, and Derek just kept coming—relentless, methodical.
This wasn’t losing control. This was a man making a point.
You don’t get to do that and skate away.
The refs were shouting, scrambling across the ice, but Derek got in three more solid hits before they reached him. By the time they hauled him off, 47’s helmet was gone and he wasn’t getting up quickly.
“Holy shit,” Bradley breathed. “Why is that so hot?”
Derek let the refs pull him back. He didn’t fight them—the moment they had hands on him, he stopped swinging. Controlled even now. He’d made his point. He was done.
“That’s a match penalty for Kowalczyk,” Hana said, watching the officials swarm. “Butt-ending. Automatic ejection. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t get suspended for the rest of the season.”
“Good,” I said flatly. “That was assault. Derek lost a fucking tooth.”
“Butt-ending,” Bradley repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Now there’s a term.”
“Don’t,” Hana warned.
“I’m just saying, the name really undersells the violence.”
On screen, they showed the replay in slow motion. The deliberate thrust of the stick. The impact. Derek’s head snapping back. The spray of blood. And then the immediate, explosive response—gloves dropping, helmet flying, Derek launching himself at the guy who’d just tried to end his career.
The camera cut to Derek in the penalty box, pressing a towel to his mouth. The commentators were praising his reaction—how he’d stood up for himself, how he’d stopped the moment the refs intervened. A clean response to a dirty hit.
“That’s the thing about Sully,” Hana said quietly. “He’s the nicest guy in the league. But you come at him dirty? He won’t just take it.”
I watched Derek spit blood into the towel, his jaw set, his eyes hard.
No. He definitely wouldn’t just take it.
“Théo?” Hana’s voice was gentle. “You okay?”
I hadn’t noticed how close I had gotten to the screen, like I could physically climb through it and be there next to him. “Fine,” I said automatically, even though my heart was still lodged in my throat. “I’m fine.”
I forced myself to sit back down on the couch and drained the rest of my wineglass.
I wanted to kill the guy who’d hurt him.
The intensity of that feeling scared me more than the blood.
35. Derek
We had won the game. It cost me a tooth and a half but it wasn’t the first one I had lost and probably wouldn’t be the last.
The adrenaline carried me through the rest of the third period but by the time we were celebrating in the locker room, the pain was starting to creep in. A dull throb that pulsed in time with my heartbeat, radiating through my jaw and up into my skull.
The arena dentist checked me out—assessed the trauma, took some X-rays, did whatever dentists do to stabilize things. The verdict: I’d chipped my left front tooth and lost the incisor next to it completely. She packed the socket, gave me some gauze to bite down on, and told me to see an oral surgeon within the next 48 hours.
At least I’d gotten my money’s worth from Kowalczyk. I’d managed to knock his helmet clean off and given him a black eye that was already swelling shut by the time the refs pulled me off him. Match penalty. Automatic ejection. He’d be facing a suspension review and I hoped the league threw the book at him.
I think some players thought because I was generally a nice guy—because I didn’t go looking for fights, because I’d rather set up a play than throw a punch—that they could fuck with me. Take liberties. Push me around and expect me to turn the other cheek.
They learned pretty quickly that wasn’t the case.
