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 good at all.
Then it hit Tane, if Jacob was going to be anywhere in Pine Rise it would be with Ricki in the physio suite…
“Thank God I found you,” Tane said, bursting into the physio suite and seeing Jacob sitting on the physiotherapy bench next to Ricki, the glum look on his face telling Tane that he needed to step up to the plate and make his boy feel alright again.
“I’m sorry,” Jacob said, his bottom lip trembling. “I screwed up. I don’t know what came over me. I just wanted to-”
“No, it was my fault,” Tane said, stepping forward and brining Jacob in for a hug. “I probably weirded you out when we spoke in the locker room. I had my mind on something else.”
Tane had been debating whether to reveal the truth to Jacob or not.
The problems with revealing what had been going on between Tane and Antonio were numerous. In fact, Tane could only see it leading to trouble for both him and Jacob too.
However the consequences of keeping Jacob in the dark could be just as serious. In fact, they could be deadly.
In his heart of hearts, Tane knew that his darling boy deserved to know what was going on. This had always been a difficult secret to keep, but recent developments had taken it way beyond that.
So, no matter how difficult it might be, Tane knew that it was time to tell Jacob the truth.
“Boy, you might want to hold my hand for this…”
“I don’t like the sound of…” Jacob said, his hand instinctively reaching out to Tane.
Tane held Jacob close and began to explain…
“There’s a situation,” Tane said, his brow furrowed. “It’s a business situation. Cardini business.”
“Right, b-b-b-but that’s between them,” Jacob stammered. “I’m just a player. This won’t affect me. Or you. Right?”
“Boy, listen to me,” Tane said, his grip on Jacob tightening.
“You’re the Toronto Enforcers largest and most public asset now.
So, yeah, this is about you. If the Cardini family are at war, we’re all at risk.
Trust me, I’ve been there enough times over the years.
But, like I said, you’re the big new shiny star. And with that comes danger.”
“Holy fuck, I’m freaking out,” Jacob said, visibly trembling as Tane held him close. “Please. Take me away from here. Anything. I’ll go anywhere. I just don’t want to get hurt.”
“Easy now,” Tane replied, knowing that while he wanted to protect Jacob there was no use in trying to overly sugar coat the situation.
Jacob needed to know the reality of what was going on, even if that meant some difficult to swallow truths.
“Running isn’t an option. You’re too valuable to the family.
You can’t run, and I won’t let you try. You have to be brave and stick it out. ”
“But…”
“No buts,” Tane continued, leaning his forehead down on the top of Jacob’s head and almost whispering to him. “I’ll look after you. Believe me when I say I won’t let anyone hurt you. You need to listen to me, and you need to listen good. Here’s how it will go down…”
And once Tane was done explaining, he could tell by the look on Jacob’s face that the news had come very much as a shock to his system.
“B-b-b-b-but why would… why did… will I be able to keep on playing hockey?” Jacob said, finally finishing his sentence.
Tane had to smile.
Even after explaining to Jacob that his life was potentially at risk, all the boy could think about was whether he would be able to line up in the next Enforcers game.
“I don’t know, boy,” Tane said, his face now serious. “The Cardini and Cardini feud has been simmering for a while. Good men have lost their lives. Innocent men in some cases too. I know you want to play and do your best for the team, but I’m really not sure if playing is a good idea right now.”
“And Antonio Cardini thinks this too?” Jacob said, a look of sadness in his eyes that Tane hated to see.
“I don’t know,” Tane said. “I’m about as close as it’s possible for a player to get to Antonio, but even I don’t know how he thinks when it comes to matters like this. Honestly, I don’t we can trust him right now.”
Tane felt Jacob squeeze his hand in fear.
This was a lot for the boy to deal with, and Tane knew that it wasn’t going to be something that Jacob would have even the slightest experience of in his young life.
“Boy, we need to leave,” Tane said. “The longer we wait around here, the more likely we are to find ourselves surrounded by Antonio Cardini and his bodyguards. Or worse, we might have a visit from some of the higher-ups in the Cardini family. And trust me, that’s not something you need to experience. ”
Tane could see that Jacob was scared.
The truth was that fear was coursing through Tane’s veins too at that moment.
But Tane was Jacob’s protector, and he knew that the only thing that mattered was keeping his special boy safe and out of harm’s way.
It was time to leave Pine Rise, and Tane had just the place to go too…
* * *
“You think We’ll be safe here?” Jacob said, taking his seat at the restaurant table.
“We’re amongst a crowd at the height of lunch,” Tane replied, feeling confident that the downtown restaurant district was the safest place to be. “They’ll be looking out for us at our homes, or maybe even Roast Days. But a Chinese restaurant during the busiest period of the day? I don’t think so.”
Tane smiled and did his best to fill Jacob with confidence.
But Tane could see that Jacob was still shaken up by what had transpired earlier.
It was time to open up to Jacob and give him a greater insight into what it was like playing under the control of a notorious Mafia family…
“It all started a few months after I signed for the Enforcers,” Tane said, motioning to the waiter to give them a few more minutes before ordering.
“The Cardini family had only recently come in and taken over the franchise. It was on its knees. The Enforcers could have gone under, that was a very real threat back then. But the Cardini’s brought ambition, a desire to reach the top.
And they were going to do it their way.”
“How did you know they were… you know… bad guys?” Jacob said, leaning in to listen as attentively as possible.
“It didn’t take too long,” Tane said. “Some of the other teams didn’t like the Cardini family becoming involved in hockey so decided to send thugs down to the old training complex.
But what they weren’t accounting for was the fact that the Cardinis saw the play coming and were lying in wait… with some semi-automatic machine guns.”
“O… M… G…” Jacob said, a look of shock on his face.
“Yeah, that’s what the thugs said just before they got blasted off the face of the earth,” Tane replied, a wry grin on his face. “And I should know, I was watching the whole thing play out from Antonio Cardini’s old office.”
Tane felt himself back in that fateful moment.
Nothing would be the same again after that. In fact, it had been so long ago that Tane had almost forgotten that it had ever happened in the first place.
“I don’t think about it much these days,” Tane continued.
“And after that, the other franchise owners knew to never fuck with the Cardinis again. But that wasn’t the end of the violence I’ve witnessed.
There have been some dark times over the years.
Assassinations. Betrayals. Beatings. It’s all gone down.
But somehow, the Enforcers have gone from strength to strength on the ice.
I don’t know, I guess it all just worked out in a crazy way. ”
At that point, the waiter returned to the table and Tane ordered some dishes for him and Jacob to munch on.
Tane could tell that Jacob was deep in thought, no doubt trying to figure out how the hell the Enforcers were able to operate so smoothly given that they were owned by a family like the Cardinis.
“You know, there’s worse people in the world than the Cardini family,” Tane said.
“I know it’s hard to imagine, but not all bad guys carry guns and live violent lives.
There are plenty of corrupt people in hockey who act like the sun shines out of their ass.
You can trust me on that too. The Cardinis have done bad things, and they’ll continue to no doubt about it.
But at the end of the day, they’ve never crossed a line that I can’t accept. ”
“But what are we going to do?” Jacob said. “You said that we might need to take this into our own hands and not do what Antonio wants. But isn’t that risky?”
Tane could see Jacob’s point – he’d thought the exact same thing himself.
“Ultimately, I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” Jacob said. “If you want me to help you disappear, I’ll make it happen. If you want to stick it out, I’ll be by your side until the very end.”
Tane could see that this was a difficult moment for Jacob and put his hand over Jacob’s delicate hands.
“I’ve got you, sweet boy,” Tane said, looking deep inside Jacob’s eyes.
“Thank you, Tane,” Jacob replied, his voice quivering just a touch.
“Look, the food is on its way,” Tane said, noting the waiter approaching with their selection of sharing dishes.
The food duly arrived and Tane watched a Jacob eagerly devoured his plates of Chinese delights.
But for Tane, he took a watching brief rather than tucking into the food.
Tane knew that logically, him and the boy were safe hiding in plain sight. However, it was easy to know that logically, but with the threat of the Cardini family and the Cardini family too for that matter, Tane knew that he had to stay alert at all times.
“The food is delicious,” Jacob said, eagerly polishing off another dish. “Have you been here before?”
“Once or twice,” Tane said, his attention distracted by an SUV across the street. “We shouldn’t stick around here for too long. There are plenty of places in the city we can rotate between until we come up with a plan. The last thing we need to do is making ourselves a sitting target.”
“Can we have desert though?” Jacob said, making his best puppy dog eyes at Tane.
Tane was about to agree, but then saw his phone flashing up with a new message…
ANTONIO: Come to our safehouse. NOW. I’ve sent you the address. This is not a drill Tane. The Cardini’s are making a move, they’ve been spotted downtown. Get you and the boy’s asses to the location right this second.
Tane knew that he didn’t have a single second to waste. Desert would have to wait. Now it was time to get into his Porsche and get to the Cardini safehouse in triple-quick time.
Everything was up in the air right now.
This might have been his final season in professional hockey, but more important than even that was the fact that Tane didn’t want this to be his and the boy’s last day on earth.
“Jacob, up on your feet,” Tane barked. “We don’t have single second to spare. It’s time I showed you that I’m not just fast on the ice, but I’m pretty fucking speedy on four wheels too…”