Chapter 101 The GM Meeting
Chapter 101 The GM Meeting
I knew I was in trouble the second I asked for the meeting.
The receptionist looked up when I stepped in and probably saw enough on my face to know not to ask questions.
I nodded once and kept moving.
The office door was open, the GM was behind his desk with two folders open in front of him and the kind of expression men in that job always wore when they thought they were being reasonable.
He looked up when I entered.
“Torin,” he said, then glanced towards the chair across from him. “Close the door.”
I did.
Then I stayed standing.
He noticed that too. “You can sit.”
“I am fine.”
That got the smallest flicker of impatience in his face.
He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands. “You asked for this meeting privately.”
“Yes.”
“About the Cassian situation.”
I did not move. “Yes.”
He looked at me for a beat longer than necessary, then opened one of the folders on his desk. I could see my own name in one of the top corners, that was not a good sign.
“We have received interest,” he said carefully.
I did not respond.
He continued, “A rebuilding team offered a very aggressive package. Picks, prospects, cash considerations, the works. It is the sort of offer that requires us to consider the future.”
“His future?” I asked.
“Our future.”
I stared at him.
He held my gaze like he expected me to understand the business side of it and soften.
The room was quiet except for the low hum of the air conditioner. The blinds were half open, and the afternoon light cut across his desk in narrow stripes.
I took one step forward.
“Let me be clear,” I said.
He looked up from the folder. “Go ahead.”
“If you trade him, I retire.”
The GM blinked.
For one second I thought he had not heard me correctly. Then he sat back slowly and stared at me like I had just said something so unreasonable he needed to decide whether I was serious enough to be dangerous.
“You are the captain,” he said.
I nodded once. “I know.”
“That is not how this works.”
I held his gaze. “It is how this works for me.”
His mouth tightened. “You are talking about leaving the team over a hypothetical trade.”
“No.” My voice stayed steady. “I am talking about leaving if you force me to choose between the man I love and the uniform on my back.”
The room went still.
The GM looked at me as if he were deciding whether to talk sense into me or wait for me to talk myself out of it. He clearly thought the second option was more likely.
I moved one hand to the back of the chair in front of me and gripped it lightly. “You can call that emotional if you want, you can call it unprofessional. You can also tell me I am overstepping, I do not care.”
He leaned forward slightly now. “Torin, you are his captain.”
I looked at him. “I am his partner first.”
That landed.
I saw it on his face before he even spoke again.
The GM rubbed a hand over his mouth and looked down at the folder.
“Do you understand what you are asking?” he said at last.
“Yes.”
“You are threatening to retire over a rumor.”
“I am telling you what happens if the rumor becomes a decision.”
He was quiet again.
Then, very carefully, he said, “The league does not usually appreciate ultimatums.”
“I am not asking the league.”
He gave me a look that suggested he had not expected this much steel from me when the meeting started.
Maybe that was his mistake.
I stepped closer to the desk and put both hands flat on the edge. “You want honesty? Here it is. Cassian is not a piece of depth I am willing to lose because somebody thinks the package looks pretty on paper; he is the center of this locker room, the reason we win games we should not win, the reason half the young guys in this room know what professionalism looks like when the pressure gets ugly.”
The GM did not interrupt.
“He is also the reason I still know how to breathe when the season gets heavy,” I said. “So if your plan is to move him, then you can find another captain.”
That made him go still.
He looked at me for a long second, then he finally closed the folder.
I knew what that meant before he said anything.
“We are not moving him,” he said.
I did not relax.
Not yet.
His voice went quieter. “There have been conversations, but it has not moved past inquiry. But I hear you.”
I held his gaze without blinking.
He added, “And I understand that this is not just a business matter for you.”
“No,” I said.
He nodded once, then leaned back in the chair like he had decided this one was done for now. “The answer is no, we are not trading him.”
I stayed where I was a second longer just to be sure.
Then I let out a breath I had not realized I was holding.
The GM watched me carefully. “For what it is worth, you do realize that coming in here with a threat like that puts me in a difficult position.”
I met his eyes. “You should have thought of that before you let the rumor reach the wrong ears.”
That almost pulled a laugh from him.
Instead he stood and reached across the desk. “This stays in this room.”
I shook his hand once.
Then I left.
By the time I got back to the locker room, I had the strange, hollow feeling that comes after you throw yourself at a wall and it actually moves.
The hallway outside was loud with the usual late-practice noise.
Cassian was not in the main room.
That was the first thing I noticed.
I found him in the side hallway outside the training room ten minutes later.
He was standing there with his bag over one shoulder and his phone in his hand, jaw tight, eyes fixed on me the second I turned the corner.
That look stopped me cold.
“I saw you,” he said.
I stopped walking.