Clean Hit
When the Carrick Forge's enforcer is benched after a rage blackout puts an opponent in the hospital, Dr. Maya Sinclair is assigned to decide whether he is safe to return.
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The story
The story
When the Carrick Forge's enforcer is benched after a rage blackout puts an opponent in the hospital, Dr. Maya Sinclair is assigned to decide whether he is safe to return. She is the one clinician who watched it happen and refuses to flinch, and the only woman Silas Brandt cannot keep at a careful distance. But while she holds his case, wanting each other could cost them both everything. To have him cleanly, Maya must walk away first. To keep her, Silas must trust that the force everyone fears can be safe in her hands.
Spice map
Where it gets hot
Heat, chapter by chapter. No spoilers, just warning.
The world
Know your way around
Character
- Dr. Prentiss
- The director of Maya's program, who keeps his office too warm and shakes hands with both of his. He fought to give her the Brandt case, calls her perfect for the optics, and never hears himself say it.
- Maya Sinclair
- A second-year fellow in the psychology program, with an office in the athletics building, handed her first lead case: the mandated evaluation on Silas Brandt's road back to the ice. She was in the program's seat at the Foundry the night of the hit, and she gets to every room early so it's hers before anyone else walks in.
- Silas Brandt
- The Forge's number twenty-two, six-five and 235 pounds, off the ice since March fourth and waiting on the evaluation that could help put him back. The whole building calls him Brick, but up close he sits still with his scarred hands folded, and he left Maya the chair by the door without being asked.
Term
- March fourth
- The home game when an opposing defenseman ran a smaller Forge forward from behind, and Silas left his position and put that defenseman in the hospital with skull and orbital fractures. It took four officials to stop him, and afterward he looked at his own hands.
- The chair by the door
- Maya takes the seat nearest the exit in every room, angled so she sees whoever comes in before they're in. On the first morning Silas has already set the session room's two chairs and left her that one, without being asked.
Case
- The Brandt case
- The mandated performance evaluation on Silas's return path, limited to the control piece and ending in one recommendation. Maya leads it in the session room, Lena Okoro supervises every week, and Prentiss signs off as director.
Team
- The Forge
- The hockey team Silas plays for, in iron gray and ember orange with an anvil on its crest, at home in the Foundry. Its colors cover the walls of the athletics wing, and its playoff run is about to put cameras on everything.
Place
- The Foundry
- The Forge's home rink, where the March fourth hit happened in front of a full building. Maya's program keeps an observer's seat there, left of the tunnel, second row, behind the glass, and she was in it that night.
Spoiler-safe. Only what you learn in chapter 1.
