Page 6

Dax knew he was damn lucky.

Not because he was rich and not because he was good-looking, although both were true. It was simply because he had a job that he loved.

He loved the ice, the sound of his blades on the cold surface, the swinging lines his skates left behind. He loved the game, the adrenaline that pumped through his body and made him feel invincible for a few moments. He loved his team, and he loved knowing that a single moment could make the difference between winning and losing.

But as much as he adored his job, if Dax were to name three things he hated about it, he could without hesitation. The answers were obvious: He hated journalists and photographers—and the people who forced him to interact with them.

He had never understood why people were more interested in his life than, say, the chimney sweep who checked their chimney once a year. Dax immediately thought of a dozen things he would like to know about that guy. Had he ever gotten stuck in a chimney? Had he ever tried to recreate the chimney sweep scene from Mary Poppins? What was that bristly thing called that they used to clean the chimney? And did he find Cinderella discriminatory?

Dax, on the other hand, was merely a normal guy—admittedly, very athletic—who struck a puck with a simple staff almost every day in the hope of maneuvering it into a net.

As far as he was concerned, that was all people should find interesting about him. But no, they wanted to know how he spent Christmas, what he liked to eat, what qualities he liked in women, whether he crumpled or folded his toilet paper—and, of course, how he would work with Jack fucking West, as Leslie Forth continually reminded him.

“That grim expression has got to go, Temple,” the Dragon instructed him sharply. “Especially when it concerns West. He’s on your team now. He’s an ally.”

We are allies. Us against him. If we stick together, nothing will happen to us .

Unsolicited, the words entered his mind, and he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to get rid of them.

“I don’t know, Leslie. How am I supposed to respond to stupid press questions with a blank expression?” he replied dryly. “Because, seriously, who really ‘smiles like there’s no tomorrow’? Wouldn’t the end of the world be a reason to be sad?”

The daggered look the Dragon gave him could have punctured metal cans from around a corner. “You will do as I tell you or you will sit out the first game,” she informed him. “It’s as simple as that.”

He snorted and glanced discreetly over her shoulder. Where the hell was Lucy? She had promised he would only have to answer one question. He wanted her to keep that promise. Shit, what had gone wrong in his life that he was actually hoping for Lucy James?

“If you don’t believe me, ask your coach,” the Dragon continued undeterred, nodding to the left, where Gray stood, glancing from his watch to the door and back.

“Gray,” the Dragon barked.

“What?” he snapped, blinking at her.

“Tell Temple he’ll sit out the first game if he doesn’t behave and tell the press that he idolizes Jack West. At a minimum, he’ll have to shake his hand and smile for the cameras.”

A faint blush crept up Gray’s neck. “Um…” he said fruitlessly and stopped.

Oh, he couldn’t be serious! The Hawks coach was afraid of nothing and no one. He stared down Goalie Moreau on a daily basis, who was known to make children cry with one glance. And now he was letting a sixty-year-old woman with toothpick arms bring him to his knees?

“It’s okay. I’ll shake his hand,” Dax muttered, annoyed.

“…And here I was hoping for a hug,” a deep, calm voice came from behind his back.

His shoulders stiffened and he shoved his hands in his pockets. Mindlessly, he touched the dice in his right pocket with his fingertips, but the cool plastic couldn’t stop the blood from whooshing in his ears.

He turned. He didn’t want Jack to think he was afraid of him—afraid of the whole situation. Even if Dax realized that might be exactly what was making his heart beat faster.

Fear. Fear and too many emotions.

“West,” he said coolly, nodding to the new arrival.

“Dax,” the other man replied, lifting one corner of his mouth casually, as if they encountered each other on the regular.

God, when was the last time he’d seen Jack without his helmet and hockey gear? He couldn’t recall. It must have been almost ten years ago, and yet he hadn’t changed much. He still wore his blond hair short and was a few inches taller and broader than him, still a few years older and a few goals ahead.

Still a disloyal bastard.

“Ah, Jack, just in time,” Gray said with relief, joining him. “Nice that you’re here. Happy to be working with you. The conference starts in fifteen minutes, and I bet the Dra…uh, Leslie wants to give you a quick briefing.”

He nodded at the gray-haired woman. “Pleased to meet you, Jack,” she said abrasively, sticking out her hand. “As you may know, politeness has no place in this sport, which is why everyone here calls each other by their first names.”

“Sure. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he replied lightly, grasping the PR manager’s hand and giving her a broad smile. “Pleased to meet you.”

Leslie’s eyebrows rose in delight. “You see that, Dax? He can smile like there’s no tomorrow,” she remarked, then added to Jack, “That’s exactly what I want to see when you shake Temple’s hand on camera, are we clear?”

“No problem.”

The Dragon sighed. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Rub off on Dax a little and you’re good, in my book. Please and thank you are two expressions it appears he never learned. We…”

“Leslie?” a lanky guy in skinny jeans and a headset interrupted her. “We don’t have enough chairs. More press than expected showed up. I’m supposed to ask you if you know…”

“I always have to take care of everything myself,” she interrupted him hastily. “Gray, come with me, you can carry the chairs. We’ll come get you both soon,” she added with a warning look in their direction. “ Please, thank you, we look forward to working together. That’s what I want to hear when I come back!”

A second later, they were alone.

“I thought I taught you to say please and thank you ,” Jack said quietly, raising an eyebrow.

“The only thing you taught me was how to recognize a coward,” Dax replied flatly. “But do you know what’s nice about you being here? I’m no longer the biggest asshole in the organization.”

Jack snorted loudly and rocked back on his heels. He had done that as a teenager whenever he was nervous. And it was gratifying to know that he was a little unsettled about facing Dax again.

“Come on, Dax,” he murmured. “I tried to be nice. I’ve been trying to be nice for ten years. At least I warned you about a potential trade to the Hawks, didn’t I? Even though I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone and could have received a hefty fine. Because I knew you’d want to know sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah, fucking great, Jack,” Dax replied flatly. “You wrote me a message saying, I’ll probably be traded to the Hawks soon . Congratulations. You did something right for once. I’m sure your medal is already on the way.”

Jack rubbed his face. “I don’t want a medal. I just want to talk.”

“Yeah, that much I gathered from all the texts you’ve been bullying me with. But you know what? Talking isn’t my strong suit. Ignoring you is. And hey, you know who taught me to focus on my strengths? You did.”

“Fantastic. So what are you planning to do, Dax?” Jack asked bleakly, his eyes suddenly hard. “Are you not going to look at me when you pass me the puck? Write little hateful messages on the foggy mirrors in the locker room? Stop passing to me so I can’t score? Give the press ammunition to tear us apart? You know as well as I do that if the team doesn’t trust me and they’re afraid of pissing you off when they’re nice to me, we’re going to suck on the ice. And, as I recall…” He narrowed his eyes. “No matter how different we are, we both love hockey. And we want to get to the damn playoffs. Besides, I’m not truly mad at you yet, just slightly irritated and annoyed. But if you ruin our season, we’ll have a completely different problem. And you know I’m still stronger than you. That much hasn’t changed.”

Dax’s entire body was now so tense he was afraid he would burst. But he wouldn’t give Jack the satisfaction of flying off the handle. That was what Jack expected from him. Yet even though so much was the same—Dax wasn’t.

“I don’t know why everyone is so worried,” Dax said calmly. “The press loves that we hate each other. Why not give them what they want?”

“I don’t hate you,” Jack replied calmly. “I never hated you.”

“Not a problem,” Dax said in a patronizing tone. “I have enough hate for both of us.”

Jack sighed and his shoulders sagged. “It’s been twelve years, Dax. It’s time to…I don’t know.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Get over it. If not for us, then at least for Anna. I plan to see her regularly. I want more. More than you’ve given me in the last few years.”

Dax clenched his hands in his pockets so that the edges of the dice pressed uncomfortably into his flesh, but when he spoke, his voice remained calm.

“You should have thought about that sooner, Jack. Before you left in the middle of the night and never came back. Shittiest birthday present ever.”

Jack sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a few moments. “I can’t change what happened, okay?” he finally mumbled, exhausted. “But you could quit keeping Anna away from me.”

"I’m not keeping her away,” he snapped. If Jack believed Dax had any say over Anna’s life, he didn’t know Anna very well. “If she doesn’t want to see you, that’s her decision. She has had a mind of her own since she was six, as you damn well know.”

“She feels like she’s betraying you if she so much as talks to me, Dax,” Jack snapped. “And I can’t be part of her life without being part of yours, too!”

“Of course you can,” he replied stiffly, even though the idea of Jack spending more time with Anna left a bitter taste in his mouth. “But maybe you shouldn’t if you’re just planning on leaving again. Last time, Anna cried for six days straight. And if she cries for seven this time, I might have to kill you.”

“Well, now you’re starting to piss me off,” Jack replied darkly.

“Great, I must be doing something right.”

Jack snorted and replied brusquely, his eyes narrowed, “I don’t care what you say or think, Dax. I won’t disappear again. I won’t leave you alone. I’m not the guy I was twelve years ago, but I’m still your damn brother. And that will never change.”

Dax’s stomach clenched and the old anger, the old disappointment that he hadn’t been able to let go of for over a decade rose inside him, burning hot in his veins and sour on his tongue.

“Half-brother,” he said between his teeth.

A muscle in Jack’s jaw twitched as if Dax had thrown his fist, but he didn’t lower his gaze. He had always been the one with nerves of steel. At times when Dax had lost his cool, Jack hadn’t so much as twitched.

“For me, it’s one and the same, Dax. Brother, half-brother, I don’t give a shit. And I don’t want your firstborn son, I just want you to talk to me! You’re my fucking family!”

Someone sucked in a sharp breath and they both whirled around in surprise.

They were no longer alone.

Lucy stood not three feet behind them.

And, judging by her shocked expression, she had heard most of their conversation.

Dax closed his eyes and sighed quietly.

Fuck.