Chapter 21 Containment #2
Rowan's pulse beat hard beneath his jaw.
"I said I would correct it."
"You admitted the pass. Then you did the same thing with a different tool."
Vale collected one of the abandoned pucks and slid it to Finn. "Take your own shots if you want them. Bennett is finished."
Finn caught the puck against his skate. His attention remained on Rowan.
"He was starting to trust the release," Finn said.
It could have meant the shot. Rowan knew it did not only mean the shot.
He left the ice before Finn could say more.
By the time Rowan reached the video suite, most players had showered. Luca occupied the workstation nearest the open entrance, tablet connected to the larger screen. He was reviewing the first failed trigger.
Rowan remained in the hallway. "The route was available."
Luca paused the clip. "Vale established that."
"My correction was wrong, and my tone was unacceptable."
"Yes."
"I am apologizing."
Luca turned in the chair. "You admitted a hockey error in front of the team. That mattered."
The measured response offered no relief.
"I should not have brought outside pressure onto the ice," Rowan said.
"That is the apology."
"It will not happen again."
Luca's fingers stilled on the edge of the tablet. Rowan had used the same promise after their first kiss, as though a declaration could erase appetite, fear, or memory.
"What happens instead?" Luca asked.
"We create distance outside the rink until the team stabilizes."
Luca unplugged the cable with deliberate care. "Of course."
"The last two weeks have affected the line."
"Your decisions affected the line."
"Yes. Which is why I am reinforcing the boundaries."
"No one knows. Nothing during team responsibilities. Not a relationship. Ends with the season. Which part was too generous?"
"No dinners for now. No visits to my house. Contact stays professional until this is under control."
Rowan heard himself turn a personal decision into instructions. He continued anyway.
Luca slid the tablet into his bag. "You do not need my agreement."
"I am trying to protect the team."
"The team needed you to make the right pass today."
"I corrected that."
"After Vale made you prove it in front of everyone."
Rowan stepped into the suite but kept the entrance open behind him. "This is also about protecting you. The endorsement will increase scrutiny."
Luca went still.
"Do not make this for me."
"You have not dealt with this level of attention before."
"Then help me when I ask. Don't remove yourself and call it help."
"That is not what I am doing."
"You changed a correct hockey call because you were angry with me. Now you are using that mistake to take away the part of us that exists off the ice. The solution always costs me and leaves your life exactly as it was."
Rowan's hand tightened around the strap of his bag.
Luca's voice remained low. "If you need distance because you're afraid, say you're afraid. If you don't want me, say that. Just don't decide what is good for me and expect gratitude."
Rowan had admitted fear once on his living-room floor. That fear had been about pain, time, and a body he could not command forever. This one required him to admit that Luca mattered enough to alter choices beyond a game.
His throat constricted.
"We need distance," he said.
Luca nodded. The movement was small and final enough to make Rowan reach for another justification.
"The campaign -"
"Is mine to manage."
"Yes."
"The line is ours to manage."
"Yes."
"This decision is yours."
Rowan did not deny it.
"Okay, Captain."
Luca passed him on the way out.
Finn waited near the equipment racks, still in team sweats. He watched Luca continue toward the player exit, then turned to Rowan.
"What did you do?"
"Line issue."
Finn's face hardened. "Vale fixed the line issue."
"It is handled."
"That is not how Bennett walks when something is handled."
Rowan lowered his voice. "Do not involve yourself."
"Wasn't planning to." Finn picked up his keys. "I'm going to make sure my winger doesn't drive angry. Purely professional."
He followed Luca without asking permission.
Rowan returned to the workstation. The clip remained paused before his late pass. He advanced it frame by frame.
Luca's cut began as Nolan shifted his weight. Rowan's first stride put him beneath the puck. His second should have released the pass.
Instead, his hands held for three frames.
He had seen Luca's route and pictured how easily the team might read preference into trust. By the time he moved the puck, the opening was gone.
Rowan trimmed the sequence and sent it to Vale with two lines.
My support was on time. My release was late.
Restore the original trigger tomorrow.
Vale replied within a minute.
Already on the plan.
The correction should have settled something. It did not.
Claire's message arrived next, confirming Boreal had accepted most of Luca's protections: no implied relationship, no dating questions, separate framing with Nadia Bell. Luca still had to approve the final campaign.
Rowan typed Good and deleted it. Claire had not asked for his opinion.
He completed treatment, reported the unchanged ache to Owen, and left the arena after the parking level had emptied.
The next day's practice plan listed the original trigger first.
Rowan had repaired the professional mistake.
The restrictions he placed on Luca remained.