Page 13 of The Puck Stops Here

‘Your brother seems to think it might help.’

‘Aiden? Aiden said that? When?’

They had to be kidding him. Aiden was his teammate, his brother both on and off the ice. What the fuck was he playing at? Talking about him behind his back. Feeding this drama. This crazy ass idea.

‘I wouldn’t look so angry about it,’ Stella said in that same smooth tone that was beginning to grate. ‘He’s trying to do you favour and dig you out of the hole you’ve found yourself in. You’d do well to take a leaf out of his book.’

Words he’d heard on repeat his entire bloody life. He hadn’t listened then, he wasn’t about to now.

‘I don’t need my brother digging me out of anything. As for taking a leaf, we work because we’re yin and yang. He’s Ice. I’m Fury. It’s what our fans love. It’s what the team needs. And it’s what the franchise has exploited well enough up until now so I fail to see the problem.’

‘Thatwe can’t exploit.’ She pointed to the TV where a replay of last week’s match against the Rangers was underway, overlaid by a static shot of him outside McGinty’s – the bar he and his buddies favoured when they wanted to avoid the puck bunny circuit.

A bar he wouldn’t be able to return to any time soon thanks to this shot that had gone viral.

Even in the dim light being cast by the pub window, his side profile was easily recognisable. The aggression on his face too as he pinned the scumbag to the wall by the scruff of his judgemental neck. The guy had deserved it, running his mouth off like that.

Andhe’d drawn the first punch, not Blake.

Though saying as much wasn’t going to help him now. Nor was the suspicion that the guy had set him up. He’d beenlookingfor him to do just this.

If you’d been more like Aiden, you’d have taken a second and realised it in the moment too…

Rolling his head on his shoulders, he stretched out his fingers and took a breath. ‘Look, I know?—’

‘This isn’t open to debate, Carter,’ the GM cut in. ‘From now on, we say jump, you say how high.’

Blake’s eyes snapped to his, the fire reigniting – hownotto help.

The GM shrank back in his seat, eyes lowering as he cleared his throat and adjusted his tie.

‘What we’re saying is,’ Coach hurried out, drawing Blake’s laser-focused gaze his way, ‘go and see Lisa. Talk. Work out what’s going on up there and calm it down out there.’ He pointed from Blake’s head to the glass. ‘You know you’re good, Blake. You and your brother, you’re our all-stars. The best pair of forwards the Titans have ever seen, but that temper, it needs reining in before it costs you everything. Youandyour brother.’

Blake stiffened.Low blow, Coach.

‘And while you go about fixing your behaviour, we’ll go about fixing your image,’ Stella added.

‘Fixing my image?’ he sneered. ‘And how do you plan on doing that, because as we’ve already established, I’m not my brother. I’m not about to whore myself to the sponsors and pose shirtless with some lousy energy drink to keep the media happy and the dogs at bay.’

That was Aiden’s bag. Being the face of whatever paid to top up his brother’s nest egg and Blake wasn’t about to judge him for it. But he wasn’t about to join him either. Never in a million years.

Aiden was the pretty boy. Blake was… how had Stella put it just the other night, the diamond in the rough. He preferred asshole. Blunt and honest. Why try to dress it up?

‘The sooner people see you in a different light, the sooner the league will ease off,’ Stella said, looking past him to the door and waving someone in.

It had to be Aiden, coming to join the force against him. He turned, ready to give him a piece of his mind and – and lost his tongue.

‘Welcome, Astrid,’ Stacey said, giving a name to the dark-haired voice-stealing woman stepping in.

Who wasthis? And how soon could he get acquainted? Becausethiswas the kind of woman he wouldn’t mind going one on one with. Dressed in a black skirt suit that flaunted every curve, a hell of a lotta leg, and stilettos that made a man think of only one thing… It was her sleek no-nonsense ponytail and black-rimmed glasses that told him she was here for business and not the fun he had racing through his mind.

Though her don’t-mess-with-me vibe instantly made him wanna do just that.

Her eyes found his and a bolt shot through him.Holy mother of…

It was working its way through her too if the subtle parting of her pink lips was anything to go by.

‘I’m so glad you could make it,’ Stella said, calling those eyes back to her and he found himself craving their return.

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