Read Online All-Star Pride by Sigmund Brouwer - Free Book Online

fought him here in St. Petersburg. I cannot really believe you did this because he struck me.”
    The Russians swarmed our net. Three shots later, they scored to make it 6–2. But I cared less about the game than I had earlier.
    â€œWhere I come from, it isn’t right to hit a woman.”
    â€œI wish I could believe that,” she said.
    â€œBelieve it,” I assured her. Then I asked, “What do you mean, assisted Boris in Moscow? And betrayed him here? Are you sure we’re talking about the same guy? The one with the eyepatch?”
    â€œYes. Boris.”
    â€œI did not assist him. I don’t even know him.”
    â€œYou and Chandler,” she said, “you are together, are you not?”
    â€œYes,” I said. “But it’s not what you think.”
    â€œYou are his bodyguard. Is that the way it is said in English?”
    It was very difficult to look at the ice as if I were watching the game. “What!? Bodyguard?”
    â€œThe black market in Moscow. It is a place where you can hire murderers. Robbery is as common as shaking hands. With someone as big as you nearby, Chandler has few fears.”
    â€œNo,” I said, “I only did it because...”
    Because he had offered me a large sum of money. To walk with him. I guess it did make me a bodyguard, even if I didn’t know it at the time.
    â€œYes?” she asked.
    â€œNothing. But hanging around with Chandler doesn’t make me friends with Boris.”
    All the time we talked, she leaned into me. I wondered what it might be like to sit this close to her at a movie. I remindedmyself that girls like her would not date guys like me.
    â€œI wish I could believe that too,” she said, so quietly I almost missed it.
    â€œPlease, tell me what is going on.” I wasn’t good at riddles, and this one was driving me nuts.
    â€œIf you already know, I shall be wasting my breath. If you don’t know, it is best for you it remains that way.”
    Another riddle answer. “Nadia, I—”
    She squeezed my arm. “I must go before Boris wonders about my absence.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œDid I thank you last night for facing Boris? If truly you did it for my sake, I owe you a debt.”
    With that, she disappeared back into the pushing crowd. Instead of answering questions, she had raised too many more. So why did I have this insane urge to want to trust her?

chapter fourteen
    I was allowed to dress for game five. We needed the win badly. By beating us the night before, the Russians had tied the series. Whoever won this game would go up three to two in the best-of-seven series, and with the two remaining games back in Moscow would only need one more win to take the $100,000 prize.
    Klomysyk was not dressed to play for the Russian all-stars. It shouldn’t have surprisedus, though. Since he had ripped my face open and hidden beneath the net, the Russian fans had booed him with their weird whistling every time he’d stepped on the ice.
    Maybe losing one of their biggest guys demoralized the Russian all-stars. They skated poorly and made it easy for us to get the go-ahead game with a 7–3 victory.
    We were on the return train to Moscow by ten the next morning. This time, however, it wasn’t the Avrora high-speed train. Today was an off day. Because there was no hurry to get to Moscow for an evening game, Henley had decided to save some money and put us on the slow train.
    This one seemed straight out of a Second World War movie. It clacked and swayed. We traveled second-class, called hardseat because we sat on wooden benches with only thin cushions for comfort.
    I had the aisle seat. It was stuffy in the train, so Nathan, in the window seat beside me, had no trouble sleeping. But despite the heat, I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking toohard about the events of the previous few days. What was Chandler’s game? How was he linked to Boris, the eyepatch man?