Page 29 of Slap Shot (Charm City Chill #3)

O liver

Coach Vicky was in her office two hours after security had dragged Travis from the building. She sat behind her desk, staring at her laptop screen like it might explode. Her usual commanding presence had been replaced by something raw and vulnerable that made Oliver knock softly on her doorframe.

"Coach?"

She looked up, and he saw the full weight of what Jack had told her written across her face. "Hey, come in and close the door."

He did, Charlie padding beside him to settle near the window. The afternoon sun cast long shadows across Vicky's desk, where printed copies of Travis's messages lay scattered like evidence at a crime scene.

"Jack told me everything," she said. "About Travis, about why I was targeted, about the whole sick conspiracy to get me fired because I'm a woman who dared to coach men's hockey."

"Coach—"

"He also told me you were instrumental in catching them. You and Heather." Her gaze sharpened. "How long have you known?"

The question landed like a check into the boards. Oliver sat down across from her, buying time while he figured out how much truth to share.

"We only confirmed Travis’ involvement yesterday."

"Yesterday." Vicky leaned back in her chair. "And you went straight to Jack this morning?"

"We needed to be absolutely certain.”

"You did the right thing," she said. "But I wish you'd trusted me enough to loop me in."

Oliver felt the familiar spike of anxiety that came with disappointing people who mattered to him. Charlie must have sensed it too, because the dog moved closer, pressing against Oliver's leg. "You're right," he said. "We should have told you as soon as we suspected. I just... I was afraid."

"Of what?"

"Of losing everything." The admission came out rougher than he'd intended. "This team, this life, the chance to play hockey without my past following me everywhere. I was afraid that getting involved would expose things about me that would make you question whether I belonged here."

Vicky studied him for a long moment. "We all have pasts, Oliver. What matters is what we do with our present."

"Even if that past involves mistakes that could destroy the team's reputation?"

"Did you sell out your teammates? Did you try to destroy my career because you couldn't handle a woman in authority?"

"No."

"Then your past is your business." She gathered the printed messages, stacking them with deliberate precision. "What matters is that when this team needed protecting, you stepped up. That's the Oliver Chenofski I know. That's the player I want on my team."

The relief that flooded through him was overwhelming. Oliver had to look away, focusing on Charlie's golden fur while he got his emotions under control.

"Thank you," he managed.

"Don't thank me yet. The media's going to be all over this once it breaks.

They'll want to know how we caught Travis, who was involved, every detail of the investigation.

" Vicky's smile was sharp. "I'm going to tell them it was a team effort.

That when someone attacked one of us, we all stepped up. Let them make what they want of that."

BY LATE AFTERNOON, the entire building knew about Travis.

Oliver walked into the locker room to find his teammates clustered in small groups, voices low and angry.

The betrayal hit different when it came from someone they'd seen every day, someone they'd trusted with scheduling and logistics and the thousand small details that made their professional lives function.

"Fucking Travis," Mateo was saying. "Guy helped plan our charity events. Sat in on team meetings. Had access to everything."

"And the whole time he was selling us out," Jax added, his voice carrying the kind of controlled fury that preceded fights. "Because he didn't like Coach having tits."

"Is more than that," Dmitri said from his stall. "Is about fear. Weak men always fear strong women."

Kane noticed Oliver first. "Chenny. You hear about this shit?"

"Yeah." Oliver moved to his stall, aware that every eye in the room was tracking him. "Jack called a meeting earlier."

"Must have been some meeting." Kane's tone was carefully neutral, but Oliver heard the question underneath. "Heard you and Heather were there when they confronted Travis."

The locker room went quiet. Oliver could lie, could deflect, could maintain the careful distance he'd cultivated for years.

But these men had stood by their coach when the entire media tried to tear her down.

They'd refused to let salary leaks divide them.

They'd earned more trust than he'd been giving them.

"We were," he said simply. "Heather and I caught him."

"Knew it," Ethan burst out. "I told you guys Chenny was involved. The way he and Heather have been sneaking around."

"We weren't sneaking," Oliver interrupted. "We were investigating. Someone was destroying this team from the inside, and we couldn't do it officially without tipping them off."

"So you did it unofficially," Marcus said, understanding dawning on his face. "That's why you've been so distracted. You weren't just hooking up with the hot computer lady."

"Her name is Heather," Oliver said sharply.

"You were playing detective with Heather," Marcus corrected himself. "While pretending everything was normal."

"Someone had to." Oliver met each of his teammates' eyes in turn. "Travis was using his position to feed information to someone who wanted to destroy Coach Vicky, create chaos in this room, turn us against each other. We couldn't let that happen."

"Damn right," Kane said. "Anyone else tries to hurt this team, they go through all of us."

The murmur of agreement that ran through the room was fierce and unanimous.

"Is like Russian novel," Dmitri announced, breaking the tension. "Betrayal, romance, computer crime. But with less vodka and more hockey."

"Your analogies still suck," Liam called out.

"Your glove hand sucks," Dmitri shot back.

"Both of you suck," Mateo added. "But at least you're our kind of suck."

The familiar chirping was like coming home.

THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT meeting that afternoon included Oliver, Heather, Jack, Coach Vicky, Stephanie from PR, and various department heads who needed to understand the scope of Travis's betrayal.

Oliver sat beside Heather, their chairs carefully separated by professional distance even though everyone in the room knew they'd been working together.

"We need to control the media narrative," Stephanie was saying. "If this gets out wrong, it looks like we had a massive security failure."

"We did have a massive security failure," Vicky said bluntly. "A senior administrator was systematically sabotaging this organization for months."

"Which is why we need to frame it as a victory," Jack countered. "We caught him. We stopped him. The system worked."

"The system failed," Vicky shot back. "Travis had access to everything because the system trusted him implicitly."

"Are you suggesting we air our dirty laundry to every sports reporter in the country?"

"I'm suggesting we tell the truth instead of spinning it into something prettier than it was."

The tension between them crackled across the conference table. Oliver caught Heather's eye, both of them recognizing the charged dynamic that had nothing to do with media strategy.

"The truth," Jack said slowly, "is that we identified a threat and eliminated it. That's the story."

"The truth is that you ignored my concerns about Travis for months because you trusted him more than you trusted me."

Silence fell over the room. The other department heads suddenly found their phones fascinating.

"You're right," Jack said. "I should have listened when you raised concerns about certain administrative decisions. I chose established relationships over new perspectives. That was my failure."

Vicky's expression softened slightly. "We all made mistakes. What matters is that we caught him before he could do permanent damage."

"Thanks to Heather and Oliver," Jack added, gesturing toward them. "Which brings me to another issue we need to address."

The conference room door opened before he could continue. Ivy Hodges from HR entered, her face set in lines of barely controlled fury.

"Mr. Westlake, I need to speak with you about the blatant violation of HR policies."

"Perfect timing, Ivy," Jack interrupted. "I was just about to discuss those policies."

Ivy's gaze locked onto Oliver and Heather sitting beside each other. "These two deliberately defied explicit instructions about maintaining professional distance. They've been conducting unauthorized investigations, meeting privately, clearly involved in a personal relationship that violates—"

"That exposed a massive conspiracy and saved this organization," Jack finished. "Your policies, Ivy, actually helped Travis by keeping our best investigators from working together effectively."

"My policies exist to protect this organization from lawsuits and scandals."

"Your policies exist because Dmitri Volkov turned down your dinner invitation," Vicky said.

The room went absolutely still. Ivy's face flushed deep red.

"That's completely inappropriate and untrue."

"Is it?" Jack's voice was dangerously calm. "Because I've had multiple complaints about your policies seeming personally motivated. And now I find out those same policies prevented two people from stopping someone who was actively destroying us from within."

"The anti-fraternization policy is standard in professional organizations."

"Then it needs to be re-evaluated. Effective immediately, the blanket prohibition on relationships between players and staff is lifted.

We'll implement a disclosure requirement and conflict of interest protocols, but we're not going to pretend that adults can't make their own decisions about their personal lives. "

Ivy's jaw worked soundlessly for a moment. "This is a mistake. When this blows up, when someone claims harassment or favoritism—"