Bender (Vegas Venom Book 4) by Colleen Charles

Author:Colleen Charles [Charles, Colleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Marco

I do not know what is wrong with me. The more I try, the worse I seem to get. I am no rookie, but the game is different here. As a defenseman, I am expected to bring the hits, battle in the corners, but… I keep running out of room. I am not used to this narrower ice and instead of making hits, I am taking them. Badly. I will be lucky not to land in the hospital one of these days, or… wait. Maybe that would be lucky. The pain? I can take it more easily than the humiliation. Everyone knows I am dead weight. The fans and the sports reporters question me. They question Dante for bringing me here. Even though they try to cover for me, I can see it in their eyes. Dante’s most of all. As a fellow Italian, I have disappointed him and our homeland. If someone took me out during this game, I could be on injured reserve and not have to embarrass myself for at least a few weeks. Then they might put my bandaged behind on a plane and send me back to…

“Tough break, Marco,” Anders says as he joins me on the bench, interrupting my depressing stream of thoughts. “Ref made a soft call on that offside. I thought you were okay. Don’t let it get to you. Shake it off next shift.”

“Grazie,” I tell my team captain, and yet I am feeling the shame. “But it still cost us a goal. I cost us a goal.”

He gives a flick of his glove. “Don’t sweat it. Happens to the best of us.”

It never happens to you. He is trying to be nice, but I can tell by his tight-lipped response he is just as angry as Coach Brenig. I can feel the man hovering at my shoulder, his breath puffing out in angry clouds of steam in the chilled air.

We are down an abominable 5-4 in the third to Latham’s old team, the Storm, and it would not even be this close without the first-class firepower of our captain and his linemates. It certainly has nothing to do with me. I have… what do my teammates say about this?… shit the bed so hard this game I might as well be rolling with the pigs back in Italia.

If it was not for Madison, I might just return without being asked.

I squirt water on my face and in my mouth, but it does little to cleanse me of the fact that I am not talented enough for this American style of play. Bless Dante for giving me this chance but damn him to hell for setting me up to fail in front of so many. This… this is to be my legacy when I desired it to be so much more. It is like my original hope has been snatched away by the jaws of defeat. I do not belong here. I am over my head at this elite level

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.