The Bet Book

Synopsis

When Viktor Petrov—the UHL's most feared forward—is traded to the Atherton Wolves, goalie Brady Callan and his teammates prepare for the worst. For years, they've tracked every blocked shot against Petrov on a locker-room whiteboard, turning their fear of hockey's most dangerous player into a running drinking game. But the man who walks into their locker room isn't the cold-hearted villain they expected. He knows every player's name, remembers their strengths, and somehow turns their old rivalry into a joke. The only thing the Wolves can't figure out is why their new captain keeps disappearing. Petrov politely declines every invitation to team dinners, backyard grills, and post-game drinks, always offering a different excuse. So the team does what any group of curious hockey players would do: they create an official betting pool and start guessing what their captain is hiding. A secret lover? Trouble from his past? A strange obsession? Even Leo Davenport—Petrov's longtime rival from Rosemont—joins the bet with a theory of his own. But when a forgotten Bluetooth connection reveals Davenport's voice coming from Petrov's room, the truth finally comes out. Their captain wasn't hiding a scandal. He was hiding the man he loved. Viktor Petrov and Leo Davenport were never enemies. They were the secret love story behind hockey's greatest rivalry.