“Jacob!” Tane barked, skating over to him and Tremaine. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Looks like the boy’s new attitude was just a phase,” Tremaine scowled, a deeply unimpressed look on his face.
“Jacob, do you have anything to say about this?” Tane said. “From what I heard, it looked like Coach asked you to ease off but you ignored him.”
“That’s not true,” Jacob said, shaking his head. “Coach was trying to control me. I just want to do my best and win. This is fucking horseshit. I should be able to push myself on the ice. How else will I be ready for the game?”
“Jacob, calm down,” Tane said, a clear irritation in his voice. “We all listen to coach when he talks.Heknows best. Not you. Not me. But Coach. And I want you to apologize to him right this second.”
Jacob could tell from the look in Tane’s eyes that he wasn’t kidding.
But Jacob felt only a rising tide of frustration creeping up through his body. In this moment, the least Jacob expected was for his man to back him up and show at least a little bit of understanding.
Why is Tane not on my side?
This is wrong. It’s all wrong.
Well if they don’t want me to be good, I won’t be…
“Coach is an ass!” Jacob said, this time flinging his hockey stick across the practice ice. “I’mouttahere. Fuck this.”
With that, Jacob skated off the practice ice as fast as he could. He didn’t know what he was doing, or even why at this point, but all Jacob knew was that he was going to get changed as quickly as he could and get the hell out of Pine Rise.
Chapter 14
Tane
The practice session was in total disarray. Jacob’s blowup at Coach Tremaine was something that Tane couldn’t possibly have anticipated, and as such he was caught a little cold.
Tane had been distracted all the way through the training session by thoughts of Antonio Cardini and what he might do with Jacob. Had Tane been more switched on, he would have seen that Jacob was ignoring Coach Tremaine’s instructions and stepped in sooner.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case.
But training ground bust-ups happened often, and Tane knew that Jacob had plenty of credit in the bank with Coach Tremaine due to his recent improvements. That said, Tane knew that the situation had to be sorted out sooner rather than later – for more reasons than one too.
“Come back here!” Tane finally shouted, but it too little too late as Jacob disappeared inside the training complex.
Tane suddenly felt conscious that both Coach Tremaine and the players” eyes were on him. Would they figure out that there was something going on between him and Jacob?
“Tane, go after him,” Alex said, skating away from the group toward Tane. “He needs his captain right now. You’ve got all our support. Right guys?”
Alex turned to the players who all unanimously gave their approval.
Coach Tremaine wasn’t a man to show much emotion unless it was shouting or balling someone out, but even he smiled and nodded.
“Alex, you take Tane’s place calling the plays,” Tremaine said. “Tane, you go after young Jacob and see if you can work the old Tane Rivers magic. We’ve got your back.”
“Thank you, Coach,” Tane said, not waiting a single second longer before skating off the ice and heading straight to the locker room.
However, the locker room was empty.
“Jacob?” Tane called out, noting that the boy’s locker didn’t look like it had anything in it. “Gone? Already?”
There certainly hadn’t been enough time for Jacob to get showered and changed. Suddenly, Tane’s mind began to run wild with terrible scenarios. The threat of the Cardini family’s beef with the Cardini clan was one thing, but what if Antonio Cardini had decided to use Jacob as some kind of pawn in the deadly game the two families were playing?
Jacob could fell his stomach churn over at the thought of his darling boy being in trouble. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t goodat all.
Then it hit Tane, if Jacob was going to be anywhere in Pine Rise it would be with Ricki in the physio suite…
