“I think Tina would know who the father of her nephew is.” Her mom paused, lowering her voice into her version of a whisper, which was still loud enough to be heard halfway across Target. “She has pictures of the two guys on her phone from a family Christmas they had eons ago. She was going through old pics and found one of the Alex guy and his humongous dad in the background. They were wearing matching sweaters. Tina said she remembers that Christmas, her sister was all weird about taking photos while the dad was there. She thinks that maybe the cops were after the David guy.”
“Wow,” Shelby said, her brain spinning out.
David Petrov hadn’t been hiding from the cameras because of an outstanding warrant. It was because he had a whole other family. Ian’s parents were still married up until a few years ago. And if what Tina was saying was true, then—
A flush sounded, the center stall door opened, and Harbor City Post columnist Maddie Peters walked out, a superior smirk on her face.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
This was big. Every media site in Harbor City would be all over it in a hot minute, and if all involved had been keeping it quiet on purpose, then having it blast out to the public now could really mess with team cohesion. That, in turn, could make their playoffs a disaster. None of that would matter to Maddie, though—the woman was all about getting the story no one else could, which was exactly what she’d been doing for twenty years in the ultracompetitive world of Harbor City media. She was a scary-ass legend in her own right, and she’d overheard everything.
Shelby gulped passed the oh-shit blocking her throat. “Mom,” she said, sounding a little panicky because any hope of her new job being a success was balanced on this moment like an elephant on a beach ball. “I gotta go.”
She hung up and tried to figure out her next move as Maddie washed her hands and then applied another layer of rose-gold lipstick. “Thanks for the scoop.”
“I’m sure it was just the Bellinis talking.” She gave her best impression of a chuckle, but there was no missing the edge of panic laced through it. “Tina’s always been full of shit.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Maddie said as she walked over to the door and opened it. “I’ll do my best to keep you out of it. Your shiny new place at the Ice Knights table will be protected.”
Then she walked out, leaving Shelby alone—really this time—in the bathroom as she tried to figure out if she was hyperventilating or having a heart attack. Either way, she was in deep shit. A few years ago, the answer would have been to find the closest bar with the cheapest drinks, and she’d be lying if she didn’t admit that the temptation was always there. And right now, it was humming in her ear like a song she couldn’t get out of her head. Sometimes it was louder than others, but after six years, she was starting to be able to block it out—at least a little. She looked down at the leafy tattoo climbing up her arm, counted the thorns, and breathed deeply.
Exhaling one last time, Shelby started for the door. As unlikely as it was that Maddie would be able to confirm the story Tina was slinging, Shelby had an obligation to her new employer to let the PR people know that trouble was brewing.
…
Two Weeks Ago…
Ian walked into the team’s workout facility, and it was as packed as a neighborhood gym after New Year’s. Down to the last man in Ice Knights gear, they were all in this together, fighting for that edge that could make a difference as the playoffs approached. Last year, they’d been too cocky and had gone down in six games. That wasn’t going to happen again. These were his boys and this was their year.
His phone buzzed in his workout pants for the fifth time since he’d walked into the building. Fucking A. There were a million things he’d rather do than talk on the phone, but whoever was on the other end was damn insistent. He walked through the workout room, heading for the locker room in the back to drop off his bag as he pulled out his phone right as the buzzing stopped. A notification that he’d missed a call from his dad appeared on the screen, but that wasn’t what made him halt in his tracks. Instead, it was the notification right below the missed-call alert. This one was from the Harbor City Post and it made absolutely no sense.
Ice Knights Players Secret Brothers: David Petrov Confesses All
Considering David the dick was his dad and he didn’t have any brothers—just two sisters who could make a grown man cry with a look—this was just nuts. He was gonna have to reach out to the team PR head, Lucy Kavanagh. She’d take care of it. Shaking his head, he continued on into the locker room. Even at one of the most crucial points in his career when everything was finally going right and he’d reached out beyond the journeyman limits everyone had expected of him when he’d been drafted in the seventh round, his dad took center stage.
At this point, he shouldn’t be surprised.
It had always been like this. He was never just Ian Petrov. He’d always been David Petrov’s son, held up to a standard that no one—with the exception of his buddy Christensen, fucking phenom—could come close to. Still, knowing his teammates, he was about to get a world of shit about his “brother,” so he might as well see who it most definitely was not.
He clicked on the story, and a photo of him and his dad standing next to each other, matching crooked grins on their faces and the same waves in their dark-brown hair that both men hated. Right next to
