Chapter 22 Jakob
JAKOB
“Anything happens, you take their heads off.” Ryan Detenbeck spoke with his mouth full at Spot Coffee. Yes, he had approximately the same table manners as Levi Dunn, and even less self-awareness.
“Dude, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the Remington Riptides this Saturday. We’ve got to smash them in the mouth… in more ways than one.”
I paused to gauge how serious my teammate was about that comment. Did he mean physical and aggressive play, or was he calling for us to literally smash them in the mouth?
Or worse?
“I don’t think I’m following,” I said.
“How can you not be following? It’s Riptide week. It might as well be Christmas.”
“Well, deck the fucking halls. Didn’t we have Riptide week just a few weeks ago?”
He shrugged and said, “They’re our cross-town rivals. We play them a lot. The stakes are even higher now.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Despite the long and bitter rivalry, we’d somehow managed to raise the temperature even higher. I might’ve been the only Larkin Lion not looking forward to the game. No explanation necessary, right?
“I know,” I said, “but didn’t Coach Hardison say that all games are the same? You know, that we’ve got to have winning in mind at all times and take the ice playing with passion and intensity?”
“I know what he said, but aren’t there exceptions to everything?”
“I guess.”
“And the Remington Riptides are the biggest exception to the rule I’ve ever seen. It’s personal. It’s about pride. I can’t believe our coach doesn’t get that.”
“Okay, so we’ll play for our pride. It doesn’t matter as long as we go out there and win, right?”
“But it can’t be just about that pride or winning one damn game. We’ve already shown them who the boss is both on and off the ice, but our position is fragile. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer, but not because I didn’t want to. My search for an intelligent response to a ridiculous comment had turned up dry. What the heck would you do?
“Jakob, don’t you get it?” he asked. “I figured you’d be more gung ho than anybody to go out there and kick some serious ass.”
“Because of Zane Hirst?”
“No, because of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Of course I’m talking about Zane Hirst. Think about it, Jakob. Think about it, Jakob. Wouldn’t you like to show the world your laying Zane out flat wasn’t a fluke?”
“It wasn’t a fluke.”
“But they don’t know that. Zane Hirst sure as hell doesn’t. He wouldn’t have pushed you so hard for a rematch if that whole thing at the Colter Bay Grill didn’t have some serious question marks around it.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“That’s just what’s in it for you. I’ll let you have as much of him as you want. I’ve got my sights set on taking care of that neanderthal boob Jax Echlin. Levi can probably take on two or three of those assholes on his own if push comes to shove.”
First of all, Levi couldn’t take on two or three guys on his own, unless it was in a video game.
In real life, he could make short work of any one guy, sure, but let’s be realistic.
I’m telling you this because I felt like I couldn’t speak sense to Ryan Detenbeck.
Not that I could ever really do that, but this seemed worse than normal.
“Look,” he said, “I’m not telling you to bring a shotgun to the game. I just want you to be ready to take it to those fuckers.”
“That doesn’t sound like what you were suggesting only a minute ago.”
“Because you looked timid at the idea of even a little aggression.”
“But you weren’t talking about a little extra aggression. I don’t know what you were getting at, but it didn’t sound that innocent.”
Okay, I’d officially disappointed my teammate.
I didn’t need anyone to tell me. I wanted to think I wouldn’t have been on board with something like this even before Zane Hirst jumped up my ass.
That just wasn’t how you played the game.
Period. To borrow a page from Bills coach Marv Levy, “You don’t play dumb, and you don’t play dirty. ”
“Okay,” Detenbeck said, “I’ll be more direct. We need to go out there and kick the shit out of those guys.”
“But why?”
“Because they’re going to do something very, very nasty to us.”
“They are?”
“Uh huh.”
“How do you know?”
He smiled and managed to suppress a laugh, like I was the last person to learn a hilarious secret.
“It’s the Remington Riptides,” he said, “no explanation is needed. But if it really needs to be said, I fully expect them to pull something.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. I think they’re going to try to hurt us, but I’m not sure how. I want to think it’ll happen on the ice, but I can’t guarantee anything now that shit’s gotten extra crazy between our teams.”
I felt cold all over. Despite all that’d happened lately, the idea that they would want to hurt us physically hadn’t crossed my mind.
“You mean they’ll try to purposely injure us or something?” I asked.
“Jeez, Jakob, aren’t you a quick fucking study?”
“I don’t get why this is such a big deal now. We’ve played them since the Colter Bay Grill brawl. Why didn’t they try to put a hurt on us then?”
“Probably because they were too brat up and only semi-conscious from the night before, bro.”
I couldn’t help smiling. He had a point, but I felt uncomfortable with the whole ordeal.
“Before you start thinking I’m a bad guy, let me assure you I’m not,” he said. “It’s just that unpleasant things have got to be done.”
“It’s not that I think you’re a bad guy, but—”
“But what I’m thinking of doing to Remington is kind of bad?”
“That’s your word, not mine.”
“But you’re thinking it. I know you are. I can tell.”
I didn’t respond partly because I didn’t want him thinking he possessed some kind of crazy mind-reading ability. Also, I would’ve done nearly anything to shut him up.
“I don’t know if the others would go for something like this,” I said. “It’s pretty questionable, don’t you think?”
“For your information, Levi Dunn is onboard with it. In fact, he put the whole thing to me to make sure I would do it. Now I need to make sure you’ve got the cajones for it, too.”
“Levi might’ve suggested it, but he’s a barbarian with a boyfriend.”
“Why cares? He’s still willing to go balls to the wall and take care of these guys. It isn’t just about hockey supremacy in the city of Buffalo. It’s about survival.”
“Survival?” I sputtered. “Give me a break.”
“You think I’m joking? I think these guys are planning to do a lot worse to us. So basically, we would be doing unto them before they can do unto us.”
That didn’t change my mind exactly, but it gave me pause.
Our team considering intentional violence meant the Riptides might’ve been doing the same.
Since they were low-down, dirty, disgusting, and cringeworthy, it seemed like a given.
And if they really planned to harm us, it seemed smarter to stop them before they got going.
Still, I knew this couldn’t be that simple.
“What about Coach Hardinson?” I asked.
“What about him?”
“You know what he told us about getting into any funny business with Remington. And we both know he wasn’t kidding around.”
“He was talking about getting into fights off ice, not standing out ground during a game.”
I flashed him a look that said he and I both knew that wasn’t true.
“Okay, fine,” he said, “so, maybe Hardison meant to cover more ground than that. But think about it: Can he punish the whole team?”
I couldn’t commit to anything, especially with Zane on the Riptides. And then there were basic principles to consider. Self-defense at the Colter Bay Grill was one thing. Picking a fight was another.
“Yes or no, Jakob. Can he punish the whole team or not?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Don’t look so timid. We wouldn’t be doing anything seriously bad. We would just be defending ourselves. And sometimes the best defense is a good offense.”
He stuffed half a pizza bagel into his face, and I looked away.
“Does this all make sense?” he asked.
“I guess so.”
“Why does your tone not fill me with confidence?”
“Gee, Ryan, I don’t know. It all sounds like a little bit much. Hopefully we won’t have to drive to the arena in a tank.”
The goalie touched his fingers to his chin like I’d triggered one heck of an idea.
“If nothing else,” he said, “I want you to at least be prepared.”
“Thanks for the courtesy, I guess.”
“And remember, if the shit does hit the fan, Zane Hirst is all yours.”
“Lucky me.”