Page 16 of The Puck Stops Here

Stella grimaced. ‘How about we just call itwinning? Wiping the ice with the opposition one too many times is why we’re in this position in the first place.’

Coach suppressed an eye roll. ‘Winning it is.’

Blake stared at them in disbelief. Could they hear themselves? He looked to Aiden. PleaseGod, let his brother have the good sense to tell them all where to go. The team couldn’t afford to piss them both off. They didn’t need this distraction. Hell,hedidn’t.

His brother held his gaze before turning to Astrid. ‘You have our word, anything you need, you only have to ask. Isn’t that right, Blake?’

Anything? Was the man crazy? Because any profile piece would mean digging into their childhood. Their father. Their misery.

And now everyone was looking at him.

‘Fuck this.’

He shoved out of his seat and walked. He could already hear Aiden smoothing over his exit. Playing nice. And he punched the wall with a growl, not breaking stride.

Over his dead body was he going to let a journo into his life.

And he’d thought talking to a shrink would be bad…

Talking to a woman with a licence to publish his demons to the world…

Not gonna happen. Not now. Not ever.

3

Astrid watched Blake go, clutching the notepad to her chest like it might somehow save her from the guilt clawing its way up her throat.

Man, she felt bad.

Really bad.

If she’d learned anything since the post-airport hangover had lifted, it was that she was rubbish at deception. And she hated lying, period.

But you’re not lying, not right this second.

You’re doing your job.

‘He’ll come around.’ Aiden stepped into her field of vision. She hadn’t realised she’d stood when Blake had risen, and now his brother was standing too, blocking her view of Blake’s rear as the door rebounded off the wall.

‘You reckon?’ she said, her eyes narrowing on her true target. The man she wanted to break, not the man she had unintentionally broken by getting him caught up in her scheme.

Caught up in it? You made him the centre of it.

Thoughtechnicallyhe was already broken, the question was why.

Sienna had given her titbits of their past. Of an unhappy childhood with an abusive drunk for a father and a mother too terrified to speak out. Their home under constant threat of foreclosure and a society that shunned them. But she was hungry fortheirstory,theirversion. And was that fair? Not to this guy, but to his brother?

‘I’ll talk to him.’

She suppressed a frown, wishing she could smother the inner wrangling as easily. ‘Thank you.’

‘Hey, don’t let him scare you,’ he said, misreading her reaction. ‘Underneath the tough exterior, he’s really just a pussycat.’

‘A pussycat?’ She gave a hitched laugh. ‘If you say so.’

‘Scout’s honour.’

She cocked her head. ‘Were you actually in the scouts?’

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