Guys started moving again—slow, mechanical. Gear stripped. Showers turned on. No one spoke above a murmur.
Jacob glanced across at Tane.
Tane was staring at the floor between his skates, shoulders rounded, hands clasped loosely in front of him. Tane looked smaller than Jacob had ever seen him—years of leadership and pain and quiet strength suddenly carrying the full weight of a 4-0 loss and a coach’s locker room dressing-down.
Jacob’s throat tightened. He wanted to cross the room, wrap his arms around Tane, tell him it wasn’t his fault, that Tremaine was wrong. But the locker room wasn’t the place, not with twenty other guys still in there, not with cameras potentially lurking in the hallway.
Instead Jacob stood, walked over quietly, and dropped onto the bench beside Tane. Their shoulders brushed… subtle, hidden in the angle of their bodies.
Tane didn’t look up, but he leaned into the contact just enough to acknowledge it.
Jacob kept his voice low. “You okay?”
Tane exhaled slowly. “I’ve had worse, kid.”
“That doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt,” Jacob said, his quiet voice full of emotion.
Tane’s mouth twitched—almost a smile, but not quite. “I’mfine. Honestly.”
Jacob wanted to argue, wanted to push, but he knew better. Tane would talk when he was ready. Or he wouldn’t. Either way, Jacob would be there.
He bumped Tane’s knee with his own.
“We’ll get them next game,” Jacob said quietly. “We’re not done. No fucking way are we done.”
Tane finally lifted his head. His eyes were tired, shadowed, but there was still fire in them—stubborn, unyielding.
“Yeah,” he said. “We’re not done.”
Around them the locker room slowly emptied. Guys headed for the bus, for the hotel, for whatever quiet they could find before tomorrow’s film session.
Jacob stayed seated beside Tane until the last stragglers left.
Only then did he stand, offering his hand.
Tane took it—firm grip, callused palm—and let Jacob pull him up.
They walked out together, side by side, into the fluorescent-lit hallway.
The road to glory wasn’t over.
But if the Enforcers wanted to reach the finals, they needed to find something tonight… something fierce, something unbreakable.
And Jacob knew exactly where to start looking.
It was in the man walking next to him.
Chapter 25
Tane
Tane Rivers had taken worse tongue-lashings in his career.
Plenty of them, in fact.
He’d been called every name in the book by coaches who thought volume equaled motivation, had his manhood questioned in front of entire locker rooms, had his contract threatened when the points dried up.
But he always came back strong, faster, and better than ever.
