Taking One for the Team Read Online Free PDF Page B

him when the ball was back on their side of the field, or when she'd backed out of range for a breath and a spit.  When she was dancing with the Equinox center, he was all she saw.
    It was a bit like missing her target, really.  They didn't like each other.  They didn't know each other.  But they were close to each other, as close as two people could be.  She could see when his muscles tensed, she knew when he was tired, and knew what he was thinking.  And he knew her just as well.
    Every exchange, she risked a pin for a score, and though she got it every time, there was only one way the dance could end.  Both of them knew it; she danced and threw, he aimed and swung.
    Rest of the team was helping as best they good.  Pranah and Rache and Cali running interference when they could, using Raven's distraction to sneak in points when they couldn't.  And from the look of the board, Born and Katy and Train had stepped up their game too.
    It was 95-87 Bobcats when the Equinox center landed a chain.  Raven'd gone under his left hand chain, took a running jump off Chev, launched a scoring try in midair.  And then his right hand chain looped back around in a turn that must have made him bend backwards in half, and which still hit hard enough that the chain was wrapping.
    Twist, get a hand out, and then a bright burst of pain from the wrist.  Busted.  Then the chain wrapped her legs, and the prickle catch hit, and she went down, maybe three feet from Chev.
    One chain left on their tower, and damn if he didn't give her a look like he was going to use it.   Let him—center tower with no chains, and Bobcats would score on every try.
    He didn't.  Didn't have to; she was caught, and he was at half strength but Bobcats were down two.
    Wrist hurt like hell when she moved it.  Right hand, which was going to make things hard.  But there was blood, and mud, and the little bit of slack she'd earned with that twist, and two months of spending her game nights wrapped in chains, tight and loose.  Raven jerked and twisted and got the blood between the links.  Left side of center, well clear of the left side tower.  Twist and jerk and then pull out of it, grab the ball on the bound, and put it into the goal.
    Maybe there were ten thousand people in the stands, maybe there were twenty.   But they roared like goddamn anything when Raven got clear, and put that ball in the goal.
    And damn if the Equinox center didn't try to pin her with that last chain.
    Yeah, her right wrist hurt like hell, and yeah, she hadn't been expecting it.  But it was game fucking on, and she heard it and ducked it, and picked up the ball on the bound and scored again.
    Then the Equinox runner picked it up and took a dash.   Raven followed, brought him down with legs and her left hand, picked up the ball and dumped it to Cali.  Cali to Rache to Pranah to Rache to score.
    And then she was up for the bound, and scored, and scored again, and then the timer blew at it was 103-102 Bobcats, and it was the loudest goddamn thing in the world.  Hell, even some of the folks wearing L&R colors were up and shouting.
    Equinox's center came off his stump, tapped her shoulder as he came down.  "Looks like I'm in for a rough night of it on account of you," he said.  "But seeing play like that. . ." he shook his head, tapped her shoulder again.  "Almost worth it.  Sorry about the wrist."
    Raven grinned up at him.  "See play like that again next time we match.  Wrist'll be fine."
    Then it was back to the bench so that coach could splint up her wrist.  Looked clean, and she'd healed up worse before.  There was a bit of dicker with the Equinox coach about untying Chev—didn't take too long, because their coach's heart wasn't in it.  He was in for a rough night back in Longkey and Ratmouth, and it didn't seem like watching some solid play had seemed quite as fair a compensation as it had for the center tower.
    Well, his problem.
    Raven's problem . . . wasn't a