MasukScarlett's POVTwo days later, I was on a flight to Iceland.The in-flight map showed the little plane icon crawling across the North Atlantic.I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, running through what I knew about Soren Voss. Twenty-six years old. Icelandic national team. Three Grand Slam titles in the past four years.He was exactly what the youth program needed. Someone the kids could actually look up to, not just a name on a poster.The plane landed at Keflavik right on schedule. I grabbed my bag, cleared customs, and headed straight for the local club facility on the east side of Reykjavik.I hadn't even made it through the front entrance when I heard a familiar voice behind me."Scarlett? No way. What are you doing here?"I stopped walking.I knew that voice.I turned around slowly. Pierce Sterling was standing twenty feet away, carry-on bag slung over one shoulder, looking at me like he'd just run into an old friend at a coffee shop."Pierce." I kept my voice flat. "Wha
Scarlett's POVMy phone went off at seven in the morning.I grabbed it off the nightstand without opening my eyes. The second I saw Sarah's name on the screen, I sat up."Sarah. What happened?""We have a problem." Her voice was clipped. "I just got off the phone with Evan's manager. Beaumont Group has been in contact with him. More than once. Their acquisitions team reached out earlier this week and they're moving fast."I was already out of bed.Evan Callahan.Twenty-three years old, fastest skater in Iceland's national league three years running, and one of the most marketable players in the sport right now. We had been in negotiations with him for months.His numbers were elite, his brand was clean, and his commercial value was the kind that could put a brand-new hockey company on the map in a real way. Not someday. Right now.And Beaumont Group was circling him.Of course they were."How serious is it?" I asked."Serious enough that his manager called us. He wanted to give us a h
Scarlett's POVI glanced at Preston, then at Sienna, and immediately figured out what she was trying to pull.She'd thrown herself to the ground and was already setting up the performance, waiting for me to look guilty.Her eyes flicked to Preston, all watery and wounded.I almost laughed.I looked at Preston once more, then walked over to Sienna and grabbed her by the arm with one hand, hauling her straight up off the floor."This," I said, "is what a push actually looks like."Then I shoved her back down. Hard.Sienna hit the ground with a cry and grabbed her elbow, face twisted in pain. Preston's mother, standing a few feet away, went completely still, mouth open.Sienna recovered first.She looked up at Preston with tears spilling over, voice cracking just right."Preston, did you see that? She just attacked me. I barely even touched her and she's been treating me like this the whole time. I don't know what I did to deserve it."She pressed a hand to her side like she was in agony
y desk going through contract revisions with Sarah when my phone lit up with an unfamiliar number. I almost let it go to voicemail. Then I picked up."Scarlett." The voice was smooth and deliberate and immediately recognizable. Preston's mother. "I'd like to meet with you this afternoon. There are some things I'd like to discuss."I kept my voice even. "Of course. When and where?"She gave me an address and a time and hung up without anything that could be described as warmth. I set my phone down and looked at the wall for a second.Sarah glanced up from her laptop. "Everything okay?""Fine," I said. "I need to clear my three o'clock."The address was a private dining room at a hotel I recognized, the kind of place that charged you for the air. I had thought about what I was walking into.What I had not thought about, specifically, was Sienna.But there she was.Sitting across from Preston's mother at a table set for three, her hands folded in her lap, wearing the expression of some
Madison's POVThe guard didn't even look up when she slid the tray through the slot."Dinner," she said. Like I couldn't see that."Thank you so much," I said, keeping my voice sweet.She still didn't look up. Neither did the woman two cells over, who'd been ignoring me since the second I arrived.Everyone in here acted like I didn't exist, which was almost impressive given that I had been the only person in this place who actually belonged somewhere else.This was temporary. I had always known it was temporary. People like me did not stay in places like this.The guard from the morning shift passed by and made that little sound she always made, somewhere between a laugh and a sigh, like I was a joke she was tired of hearing."Something funny?" I said."Not really," she said. "Just thinking about how every person in here thought they were too good for it.""I'm not too good for it," I said. "I just don't belong here. There's a difference."She kept walking.I set the tray aside and lo
Scarlett's POVPreston went still for just a second. Then he stepped back from me, not far, just enough to create some space between us."Give me a minute," he said.His voice was even. His face was composed. He crossed the room and went through the front door without hurrying, pulling it mostly shut behind him.I stood in the middle of the dining room with the candlelight still going and the violin still playing from somewhere I couldn't locate, and I told myself not to move toward the door.I didn't move toward the door.But the walls in that room weren't thick, and the woman's voice carried, and I wasn't trying to listen. I genuinely wasn't.I busied myself with setting my napkin on the table and adjusting the placement of my wine glass and looking at the flower arrangement like it required my full attention.None of it worked.Her voice drifted through anyway, soft and a little unsteady at first, and then steadier as she found her footing."Preston." A pause. "I know I shouldn't h
Scarlett’sPOVI stood frozen, my brain struggling to process what Preston had just said.Marry her? Within three months? Was he insane?The reporters were practically climbing over each other now,
Scarlett’sPOV"Let me drive you home," he said. "We're all going to the same place anyway. It doesn't make sense for you to get a separate ride.""I can call an Uber.""Don't be ridiculous. Come o
Scarlett’sPOVThe reporters pounced like sharks smelling blood in the water."Ms.Huntington, you just admitted your PR team coached you on how to manipulate public sympathy. Can you explain that?"
Scarlett’s POVThe kiss caught me completely off guard. I shoved him away hard."What the hell are you doing?" I demanded."Just collecting interest on my investment."Before I could even process that, he pulled me back in. This time it was a full French kiss, his tongue sliding past my lips.He wa







