Judging by the looks on the faces of the senior players, Jacob’s words were not going down well at all. And having already had one private warning from Tane, Jacob knew that he was running the risk of another – perhaps more severe – talking to from the team captain.
But Jacob couldn’t resist poking at the rest of his teammates.
Such was the injustice that Jacob felt at being sidelined in the final third, he just had to get it all off his chest.
“You know, I’m not going to celebrate a win on the final play when we should have won easily,” Jacob said, raising his voice. “That’s not what winners do. I guess some of you guys just ain’t me though.”
If Jacob’s plan was to get his teammates angry, it hadn’t worked.
Instead of confronting Jacob, the senior players like Alex, Connor, and Tane simply turned away from him and continued to celebrate with the rest of the team.
This infuriated Jacob.
Why was no one listening to him? He simply couldn’t get his head around it.
“Screw it,” Jacob said, picking his bag up and storming out of the locker room even before the head coach had come in to give his post-game debrief.
Jacob was still very much going out to party that evening, but he was doing it in the blackest of black moods now. And more often than not for Jacob, going out to party in a bad mood was just asking for trouble…
* * *
The drinks were flowing at Lux Lounge, as they always did on a Saturday night. With its exclusive guest list clientele and prices that would make even the highest earning hockey player take note, Lux Lounge was somewhere where the rich and famous could come and let loose.
“Another! Another!” Jacob said, now showered and changed having driven home for a quick pitstop after leaving the Enforcers stadium in a hurry.
“Hey, take it easy, J,” Ricki said, barely having finished his previous drink. “Let’s just hangout for a bit. There’s no rush. I mean, Iamplanning on leaving in an hour. But that’s plenty of time.”
“Nawwww, an hour?” Jacob said. “It’s not even midnight yet. The night is young. We’ve gothoursleft to play.”
Ricki smiled and went along with having another drink, but Jacob could tell that his heart wasn’t totally into it. The next hour passed by in a flash though, and soon enough Ricki had gone home in the back of an Uber.
“Pffft, I’ve got more life left in me,” Jacob said, stumbling out of the bar. “All I need is my cellphone to call those two guys fromPaddle Palaceand I’ll be in for a fun night…”
Jacob had barely spoken to the two men who spanked him. And there had been barely any further communication since that night. But Jacob was feeling horny, lonely, and full of energy.
The last thing that Jacob wanted to do was admit that the night was over, so thought nothing of getting in touch with the two hunks and seeing if they would be up for indulging in some overtime…
However as he fumbled with his cellphone, Jacob began to cross the road without looking. It might have been his youthful arrogance, or the fact that he had already taken on board too much to drink that evening, but before Jacob knew what was happening, he saw two blaring headlights coming right for him.
“What the f-” Jacob shouted, the oncoming SUV looking like it was making a direct line toward him.
Jacob wanted to move. But everything felt slow and out of sync. It was like time had slowed to a snail’s pace, but Jacob was glued in position.
Not like this.
Please no.
I don’t want to d…
But before Jacob could finally put his body into action, he felt himself being picked up and swooped away from the menacing SUV.
It happened in such a blur, that Jacob was barely able to put any words together. In fact, had he been asked to spell out his own name at that point he almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to.
Luckily for Jacob, Tane Rivers was there to do the talking.
“I guess they never taught you road safety at Hotshot School?” Tane said, arching his eyebrow. “It doesn’t matter. I need to get you off the streets. The last fucking thing we need is a paparazzo seeing you like this.”
“B-b-b-but, where are we going?” Jacob said, finally able to get his words out. “I don’t know what happened. It was like…urgh… I just don’t know.”
