Page 115 of The House of Wolves

Before he took the field for our first offensive series, I put my hands on his shoulders, smiling as I realized I was looking down at him.

“You trust me?”

He smiled. “Is that a trick question, Coach?” he said before quickly adding, “You know I do.”

“Then trust me when I tell you that you’re going to do something today you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”

It was exactly what he did.

The defense did more than he did to win us this game and keep us undefeated. But my quarterback was great every time he needed to be, especially in the last couple of minutes, when he took us down the field with the game tied at 12–12, finally scrambling his way into the end zone with forty seconds left and giving us the six-point lead that held up until it was over.

I gave Noah one of the game balls. On my way over to Wolves Stadium to meet with Ryan and talk about our strategy when Billy got to the stadium tomorrow, I stopped at Chris Tinelli’s house and gave him a game ball of his own.

When I got to my office an hour later, having stopped on the way to grab a sandwich, my brother Danny was waiting for me.

“I want to come back,” he said.

Eighty-Six

ON THE FIELD BELOW ME,the Wolves were finishing up the noncontact drills Ryan always put them through the day before a game.

Danny had taken a seat across from my desk. When I turned away from the window to face him, I said, “You don’t have any guts, brother. But you sure didn’t get cheated on having a lot of nerve.”

“I can help you,” he said.

“You want tohelpme?” I said, laughing. “You’re like the guy who tries to burn down the house and then runs around trying to find a hose.”

I walked over and made myself a cup of coffee from my Keurig machine. I didn’t offer Danny one. Ryan and I had a lot to talk about once practice was over. I hadn’t come out and said it, but my brother Danny wasn’t going to be staying long.

“Did Jack send you?” I said when I sat down. “Slow news day for him now that the poor thing can’t seem to locate Billy McGee?”

“I came on my own. You can believe me or not, but I finally got tired of being on the wrong side of this.”

“Not to put too fine a point on things,” I said, “but you’ve pretty much been on the wrong side of things with me your whole life.”

I sipped some coffee.

“And if you don’t mind my asking, what brought about this epiphany?”

He didn’t answer right away, as if the question were some kind of brain buster for him.

“It wasn’t just one thing. But if it started anywhere, it started with Thomas dying.”

“Imagine that.”

“I’m being honest.”

“And I honestly need to remind you that even after Thomas died, you still went down to LA and tried to torpedo me with the other owners. But now you show up wanting your old job back?”

“You need a general manager,” Danny said. “I was always more my own general manager than Mike Sawchuck was.”

“Ryan’s my acting general manager even though I didn’t make an announcement about giving him the title,” I said. “You remember Ryan, right? The guy you tried to blackmail into quitting on me?”

Danny shook his head, as if trying to shoo away a fly.

“Things just got out of hand. It’s the only way I can explain it. It’s time for me to get off the crazy train.”

“Gee,” I said. “Youthink?”