I shrugged. “Don’t explain it to me. I’d be happy to watch you guys do all sorts of things for good luck.”
Andrei rolled his eyes while Griffin cackled. “No chance of that.”
I put my helmet on and nodded at the boys. They did the same, and we lined up behind Keiran, who had just given a little speech about the Breakers thinking they could outsmart us. The talk was that their new captain, the very Mr. Kane, whoseyounger brother I had slept with last weekend, wanted the team to toughen up.
It didn’t surprise me that Nick Kane wanted to push the line. He could preach all he liked, but when push came to shove, he was rolling in the dirt like the rest of us.
What Nick didn’t realize was that Seth was in the audience, cheering me on. It hadn’t been difficult to talk him into coming. His roommate had a crush on the team and wanted to see if there would be any accidental skin when things got rough.
I’d met with Seth in the library, where he accused me of looking like I’d just landed from Mars, and then I pinned him against the bookcase and showed him that I belonged just about anywhere. The ridiculous flare of happiness that passed through me at remembering the moment was telling. And the moment itself had been more powerful than I’d ever anticipated.
When he’d told me about Silas, it made me wonder who the crush was. I had my money on Mason, who was big enough and cute enough to steal more than a few hearts with his cocky attitude. After that, getting Seth to accompany Silas to the game was only a matter of bribing him with the things I’d let him do if the Titans won.
“I’m not coming to any parties,” he said. “Your teammates mingle with Nick’s team too often.”
That was true. A few years ago, the unthinkable had happened when a Titan began dating a Breaker. They’d built a bridge that had never again fully collapsed. It was a useful thing because some of the Breakers had low alcohol tolerance and would complain about Nick’s single-minded tactics while the Titans were within earshot.
To say we were ready for tonight would have been an understatement.
Nick Kane towered above his teammate and their coach before coming onto the ice. He was unmistakable. Tall, broad,obsessed with his hair and his proportions, and with a gaze so cold that it left frostbite as soon as it landed on me.
And when the game began, that gaze hardly ever left me. Nick matched my moves, covering me and letting his teammates take care of the others. He wasn’t here to score points for himself. He was here to eliminate the threat that was the Titans’ winger. And when his shoulder slammed into mine, tipping me off-balance, he stole the puck, sent it flying to another Breaker, and remained near me to cover me.
“What’s this, Kane? Can’t live without me?” I growled when we clashed again in my attempt to bypass him.
Nick didn’t dignify me with a response. His stick found itself under my blade, almost sending me sprawling on the ice.
For all his attempts, the Titans took the first period with a three-to-one score.
I sat through the second period to give someone else a chance. While I did that, I also tracked Nick Kane’s movements. He wasn’t nearly as aggressive with Toby, who took my place. Either he didn’t perceive Toby as much of a threat, or the lust for revenge wasn’t so strong. After all, he didn’t fall out with Toby six years ago and never learned how to deal with it.
The Nick I remembered from before that summer wasn’t a bad person. Sure, he’d dismissed his brother’s aspirations and interests as nerdy. He’d lacked the interest that Seth had somehow always found in my eyes, long before I knew there was more to be interested in. It was my interest in Seth’s geeky topics that contrasted so strongly with Nick’s contempt for all things non-hockey. Yet other than that, Nick had been a friend I cared about. And I did care. I cared too much. That was why being all he hated still stung a little.
We’d fired shots at each other too many times to count. I had never forgiven him for half the things he’d done. He’d given me such a bad concussion one time I’d passed out on the ice. I’dtold everyone he pissed the bed when he’d stayed at a sleepover some years earlier, which was a blatant lie people simply wanted to believe. And the war had never ended. We were both still standing, and Nick just couldn’t live with that.
The Breakers took the second period with a five-to-four score before I was unleashed again. After the longer break, I stepped onto the ice and found Seth deep in the crowd. It was the weight of his gaze on me that drew me right to his seat. He held my gaze, nodding to something Silas was saying, even though he clearly wasn’t listening. He let his lips stretch into a small, encouraging smile.
Yeah. Seth didn’t mind if I knocked Nick down a peg or two on the ice. And why should he? Unconditional brotherly loyalty had never gone both ways between them, even when Seth had offered it. Nick’s love was conditional, and it hinged on a whole score of things Seth would need to deliver in exchange. For one, Seth could never be near me if he wanted Nick in his life. Nick had made that clear six years ago, and Seth had shrugged and agreed to it. He’d had nothing to lose at fourteen and only a passing knowledge of me.
Yet even then, forbidding Seth from doing something was the quickest way to get him to do just that.Never speak to Damon again, Nick had said. It had taken Seth three days to call me and invite me to shoot cans with a bow and arrows.
It would take another four years for Seth to kiss me in the shadows of a massive oak some three miles from the nearest house. We’d gone hiking because Nick had been granted a scholarship and a place on the Blizzard Breakers, and the celebration at his house was insufferable. Seth needed a break, and I was it.
I was also leaving at the end of that summer. I had just told him so, told him about the acceptance letter and the team, when Seth stopped abruptly, took my hand, pulled me in, and roseon his toes. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he whispered, pressing his lips against mine clumsily, making my whole body scream with gratitude and an avalanche of desire.
We took our position, and the final period kicked off. Keiran snatched the puck right away, leading it close to Nick, while I watched his back and put myself between Nick and our captain.
Nick slammed into me, cursing, but I blocked him. Keiran led the way with Mason hot on his tail, cutting right and opening a position to score the point when Keiran sent the puck to him.
Breakers’ defensemen clustered around them, but I cut left. Nick was close by, but not fast enough. Never fast enough. Keiran received the puck in a direct shot from Mason, then sent it wide to me, almost losing it to Nick, who missed it by a second.
The thud of my stick against the puck was the most satisfying sound I’d heard all day, soon followed by the announcement that we’d scored the first point.
The game raged on, and I had no other chance to score a point, too busy surviving the barrage of attacks Nick led toward me. Every time I even got the puck, Nick and another Breaker swarmed me.
Sweat broke through me as Coach rotated me off and on the ice every few rounds, making me save my energy and trying to confuse Nick. It didn’t work. Nick wanted me off. He wanted to give Coach a reason to take me out for a round or two. He also wanted me to cross the line and hurt him.
I could see it in his eyes the next time we came face-to-face. He bared his teeth, ready to be slammed into the boards hard enough to ruin his life, only to have me pay the price. But I wouldn’t bite the bait.