Icebreaker Read Online Free PDF

service.”
    “Sorry.”
    “Me, too. Because you owe the locker room fund five hundred dollars. If you’re ever late again, you’ll owe a thousand.”
    Saari muttered something under his breath.
    Adam narrowed his eyes. “What did you say?”
    “Chill, okay? I’m here now.”
    Adam slowly walked over to him, grabbing him by the collar. “I don’t give a shit if you have no self-respect, but as long as I’m the captain of this team, you better start showing respect for your teammates and the game. Do we understand each other?”
    “Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Saari muttered, eyes darting away.
    “Good. Now get your ass out there on the ice.”
    Arrogant little prick, thought Adam. You’re not going to be so smug by the time I get through with you. He strode out of the locker room, his anger energizing him. Time to go out and do his job.

3

    “Holy shit.”
    Sinead sat on the couch in her office beside Oliver, showing him the footage the NHL had sent her of Adam Perry’s hit on Nick Clarey. She knew nothing about hockey violence, but the force of the hit shocked her. It was brutal. She found herself wincing every time she watched Clarey’s head snap back before his body crumpled to the ice.
    She’d decided to show the footage to Oliver as a way for her to gauge whether she’d overreacted to the hit. But she hadn’t: Oliver’s eyes popped out of his head the moment the hit was made, his body leaning forward as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
    “Holy shit,” he repeated. He turned to Sinead, incredulous. “He hit the guy so hard he was unconscious before his head hit the ice.”
    “Yeah, I noticed that,” Sinead said grimly.
    “I can’t believe the dude isn’t paralyzed. Let me see it again.” Sinead showed it to him again. “Poor bastard. It was like he was taken down by the Incredible Hulk.”
    “So you agree that hit was incredibly violent?”
    “Well, yeah, but I’m not a huge hockey fan, so I don’t know if it was above and beyond the usual level of hitting. I mean, these guys really beat each other up on the ice.”
    “I’ve deduced that.”
    Sinead turned off the footage.
    “Did the league suspend him?” Oliver asked.
    “Two games.”
    “Has Clarey said anything?”
    “No.”
    “Perry ever been charged with anything before?”
    “No, thank God.”
    “What’s your strategy gonna be?”
    “Right now? That professional hockey players give their explicit consent to the risk of this kind of on-ice contact, and that this hit was not outside the norm.”
    Oliver nodded approvingly. “You’re gonna have to interview enough hockey insiders to prove those points to jurors, who may be as surprised by the violence of the hit as we were.”
    Sinead grimaced. “I know. Believe me, I’ve already started compiling a list. Referees. Sportswriters. Retired players. Active players.” She rose, riffling through some papers on her desk. “He’s from a small town in western Canada. Claresholm. I’ll have to go up there, too.”
    “That’ll be riveting,” Oliver deadpanned. “You talk to Perry himself yet?”
    “He’ll be here soon.”
    The thought made her nervous; she kept thinking back to her meeting last week at Kidco, his silent watchfulness, the way his hazel eyes betrayed nothing. There was something unnervingly primal about him.
    “How’s it going with the socialite gazillionairess?” Sinead asked.
    “She dumped me.”
    Sinead was shocked. “ What ? Who’s she getting to handle the case instead?”
    “She didn’t dump me as counsel. She dumped me as her boy toy.”
    “No offense, but you’re too old to be a boy toy Oliver.”
    “All together now: ouch .”
    “Well . . .”
    “It’s probably for the best,” Oliver said with a regretful sigh. “I mean, what if she’d fallen in love with me?”
    “They all fall in love with you.”
    “Too true.” He studied her face. “You look tired.”
    “Do I ever not look tired?”
    “Come to think of it,