CHAPTER 15 #2
She smiled faintly. “You have been studying.”
“I am highly coachable under threat.”
“Coach Davis might disagree.”
The mention of Mark made Alex glance toward the bench area. The coach had left earlier to meet a retired team physician who claimed to remember Evan’s second clearance.
“He should have checked in,” Alex said.
“Call him.”
Alex did. The call went to voicemail.
He sent a message instead of immediately tracing the phone.
Call when free. Confirm safe.
Olivia noticed the restraint. “You can ask Noah to check whether his phone is active.”
“You are giving permission?”
“He is part of the investigation, and he missed a scheduled contact.”
Alex called Noah. The goaltender confirmed Mark’s phone had last connected near the South Harbor district, then gone offline.
“The retired physician’s office is north,” Olivia said.
Alex’s posture changed.
“Could be battery failure,” Noah said through the speaker. “Could be deliberate.”
“Check traffic cameras around South Harbor,” Olivia said. “Only Mark’s vehicle, not every person in the area.”
“Understood.”
They waited.
The silence gave Olivia time to study Alex.
He looked composed, but tension had returned to his hands.
Mark was more than a coach. He had been the first adult inside hockey who held Alex accountable without humiliating him.
If Parker had taken him, Alex would feel the old demand to become rescue and punishment at once.
“What will you do if Mark is in danger?” she asked.
“Ask what the plan is.”
“And if there is no time?”
“Keep him alive.”
“And after?”
“Accept the consequences.”
The answer matched what he had promised regarding her. The consistency mattered.
Noah called back. Traffic footage showed Mark’s truck entering the South Harbor rink parking lot forty minutes earlier. A black van followed. Neither had left.
“I am sending the location to police,” Noah said.
“Wait,” Olivia replied. “Parker may have watchers on dispatch systems.”
Alex looked at her. “Independent federal team?”
“Yes. The agents outside Robert’s office can coordinate without local radio.”
They returned to the suite and briefed the investigators. One agent contacted a tactical unit through an encrypted federal channel. Another advised them to remain at Titan Crown.
Alex said nothing until the agents left.
“You want to go,” Olivia said.
“Yes.”
“So do I.”
“No.”
The word arrived automatically.
His eyes closed for a moment. “I think it is too dangerous.”
“Better.”
“It is still too dangerous.”
“I agree. That does not mean we remain passive.”
They built a remote support plan: Noah on cameras, Luke and Daniel securing Ben, Adam monitoring the team areas for another diversion. Olivia would coordinate with federal investigators and analyze any communication. Alex would remain available if Mark’s knowledge of team systems became necessary.
It was careful, rational, and almost complete.
Then Noah sent a still image from South Harbor.
Martin Vale, bloodied and tied to a chair.
A second chair remained outside the frame.
Alex looked toward the dark ice. “They are going to contact us.”
“How do you know?”
“Because fear is not the objective. Choice is.”
Olivia understood. Richard had spent weeks creating impossible choices—Ben or truth, team or justice, privacy or evidence, love or autonomy. He wanted everyone to repeat the decision that destroyed Evan.
This time, she intended to change the structure of the game.
She opened a secure map and marked every entrance to South Harbor rink. Alex identified maintenance tunnels from old league records. Noah located a disused broadcast line that might allow them to access internal cameras without the main network.
Working together felt different now. Alex offered knowledge without seizing command. Olivia accepted help without surrendering authority. Their trust remained damaged, but damage did not make collaboration false.
“After this,” Alex said, “if you want me gone—”
“Do not turn a future choice into a sacrifice now.”
He nodded.
Olivia reached for his hand.
Alex looked down, surprised.
She threaded their fingers together for one brief moment.
“This is not forgiveness,” she said.
“No.”
“It is not a promise.”
“No.”
“It is me choosing not to stand alone right now.”
His thumb moved once over her knuckles. “Then I stand here.”
She released him before the choice became more than she intended.
The empty arena held them in silence.
Olivia looked once more at center ice, where the red line divided the rink without belonging to either side. Hockey made boundaries visible. Families did not. Love did not. The dangerous lines were the ones people crossed while insisting they had never moved.
She had crossed several herself. Choosing Alex tonight did not erase them; it only meant she intended to see each one clearly.
Then the phone rang.
Her phone rang.
Ben’s number appeared, though he stood inside Robert’s office across the suite.
Olivia answered.
Static filled the line.
Then Gerard Mills spoke.
“Do not turn around.”
Her blood went cold.
Across the glass, the reflection showed Ben still in the office doorway, staring at his own phone. His number had been cloned.
Gerard continued. “Martin Vale has the original ledger. Richard has Martin. If you want either of them alive long enough to testify, bring the medical file to the abandoned South Harbor rink at midnight.”
Alex heard the voice through the quiet box.
His expression changed.
Gerard laughed softly. “Captain, if you follow her, I tell the world what you did the night Evan died.”
The line ended.
A video arrived.
Martin Vale sat tied to a chair beneath a single industrial light. Blood covered one side of his face. Behind him, someone held up the original betting ledger.
Then the camera shifted.
A second chair came into view.
Coach Mark Davis was bound to it.
Olivia looked toward the bench below.
The coach had left practice an hour earlier and never returned.
The message beneath the video contained five words.
MIDNIGHT. OLIVIA COMES ALONE.
Alex’s voice was calm when he spoke.
“What do you want to do?”
Olivia looked at the man who had once decided everything for her.
Then at the evidence in her hands and the dark ice waiting below.
“We make them believe I am coming alone,” she said.
For the first time, Alex did not argue.
He asked, “What is the plan?”