Duncan moves from his seat up to the front of the bus and joins me.
"I’m about to talk to Coach about the mood in the room."
"Better you than me." He grumbles
"I’m happy to do it, but I need to know something first."
"What’s that?"
"Would getting physical help you tonight or hurt you more?" His chin tucks back in surprise. "Because I can go tell Coach we need to let you fucking loose, or that he needs to set fines for penalty minutes tonight."
"I want to fuck people up."
"On Croc’s behalf?"
He pauses just long enough to confirm he’s about to lie. "Obviously."
"Okay then. We can’t do anything about fines from the commissioner but you won’t get any from the Renegades tonight."
"Thanks Cap."
"Yeah." He stands and moves back to his seat. Time to delegate. "Young Gun!"
"You have one minute before I go into game-time mode." Our brick wall of a goalie says as he walks towards me.
"Sometime tonight you gotta get a read on Pay Day."
Aiden glances over his shoulder in Duncan’s direction. "Why?"
"Because Rhys moved back to Nashville and he hasn’t been good this entire road trip."
"Right. Umm, sure. What do you want to know?"
"Just that he’s okay. That we can focus on Crosby and the shower."
Aiden nods. "You thinking Big Guns?"
"Not yet."
"Okay. I’ll check in with him. He was slow earlier in this stretch but he’s picked it up. No one is beating him down the boards."
"I know, but is he pushing himself too hard?"
"Could be." Aiden shrugs.
"Go run through your routine and let’s close out this day with a W."
We shake hands and I clap his shoulder before letting him get back to his process.
Okay, time to talk Coach into letting them get rough tonight.
I only hope it helps.
Chapter forty-one
Duncan
One More Penalty
