Page 110 of Break the Ice

“Because Hawk paid him to do it. He told him he wouldn’t be held accountable if you had an accident on the ice. Morasca was just an easy sell because you were fucking his wife and he already hates your guts.”

“You knew this?”

“Knew it? I’ve warned you about it every chance I’ve had. You just refused to listen.”

“Why would he want me on the team if I was tarnishing the Wolves’ reputation?”

“Keep your friends close. Your enemies closer. If you were on his team, he could control you. He could sabotage you the second you went against his plan.”

“I don’t believe this. None of this—your feud with each other—has anything to do with me!”

“You’d be done for if you hadn’t done it. If you hadn’t got to him first. Reckless as it was, as much as I wish you’d gone about it differently, it was a necessary evil. Now let me handle it from here.”

“I didn’t kill Hawk,” I snap. “How many times do I have to fucking tell you?”

Dad shares a disbelieving look with Gomez, who’s remained quiet up until this point. The same look he’d worn when I’d fucked up big time in the past and he bailed me out of trouble.

“We should focus on what’s important. Protecting what’s ours. Everything I’m doing now will ensure that happens, Rafe. Marisse is the only one who can take the fall. The evidence has been planted against her. We have eyewitnesses to corroborate the version of events we’re going to sell to the authorities. She’s got to be collateral damage if we’re to make it out of this. You’ll understand someday.”

“I’ll understand some day!?” I explode. My voice deepens, booming around the vacant arena. “You think you’re going to pin this all on her?”

“Think of it as being for the greater good of our family. You have no one to blame but yourself for losing a handle on your temper and doing what you did that night.”

“You’re fucking despicable!”

“You’re my son,” he says, then he smirks. “Do you think that makes you any better? Look at you—you’re a wild animal in the body of a man. You’ve been that way since you were a boy. Chaotic and violent. If I weren’t a good father, I’d have let you self-destruct. Instead… instead I guided you to greatness. I protected you when Hawk was going to capitalize off your downfall. Why don’t you see it?”

The pent-up anger that was about to release itself by way of my fists fades away. I lower my fists, then slowly glance over at Marisse handcuffed on the sofa.

Sugar.

Dad and Gomez might not realize it, but for a moment, they don’t exist. It’s me and Marisse zeroed in on each other. Nobody else is even a blip on our radar.

My chest pulls tight.

We’ve never been good at words. I’ve never been good at giving a fuck about others. And the few that I have given a fuck about, I’ve never been good at letting them know I do.

I’ve made myself thrive on chaos, championing the fact that I’m a selfish asshole so I never had to deal with rejection. I never had to feel betrayed or let down. But, despite my best efforts, I’ve wound up wanting somebody’s trust.

I’ve wound up with feelings for a woman I set out to torment. All the things I once balked at are things I treasure about Marisse.

Her affection. Her loyalty. Her trust.

It’s now or never. The make-or-break moment.

She knows it and so do I.

As our eyes lock onto each other, we’re aware of it. She’s waiting with bated breath.

I return my attention to Dad, steeling myself for what I have to do.

“You were protecting me?” I ask him.

He nods. “It was you or Hawk that night, son. Why do you think he invited you to his penthouse suite? He was going to put feelers out for how you felt. If you would be staying or leaving the team.”

“He would’ve ended my career,” I repeat.

“That’s right. But don’t you see? His absence is a blessing in disguise. We’ll take over the way we should’ve when I medically retired. I was supposed to be the one who bought the team. Not Hawk. Now he’s out of the way. So is Blackman. That leaves Beringer, but he’s easy work.”