All Chapters of Hockey Obsessions: Bound by Ice : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Kai’s POV The drive back to Frost City had given Kai too much time to think. He sat in his car in the Frost City Titans facility parking lot for a full three minutes with his phone in his hand and the screen lit up with an email he had read four times already. It came through late Sunday night, from a private address he didn't recognize, with no subject line and only one attachment—a scanned document that looked like an internal staff evaluation report.Mila's name was at the top.He had read through it slowly, looking for what wasn't being said as much as what was. It painted her as emotionally compromised, professionally distracted, and—the part that sat worst with him—potentially responsible for creating an unstable dynamic within the team.Someone had written this deliberately. Someone who knew exactly what language to use to make it sound official, credible, damaging.And whoever sent it to him had done so anonymously, whi

Mila's POV Cole Hendrix was already waiting outside the medical bay when Mila arrived, two cups of coffee in his hands and he looked like he had run out of options days ago.Mila stopped in front of him. She eyed the coffee, then him.“It’s not a bribe,” Cole said quickly.“What is it then?”“Respect,” he answered. “For the process.” He paused. “And maybe for the person running it.”Mila’s lips twitched. “That too?”“Yeah. That too.” He held one cup out.She took it and stepped inside. He followed, already talking—ice twice yesterday, the mobility drills, the alarm he’d set for two in the morning because he was, in his words, deeply committed to getting back on the ice.“Sit down, Cole.”He sat.She worked through the assessment in silence. Cole stared at the ceiling like he was trying to vanish from his own body for a few minutes.The swelling had gone down and his

Jace's POV Jace went straight to the ice. Practice wouldn’t start for another forty minutes, but the rink was the only place where his body knew exactly what to do and his mind had to follow. Right now, he needed that. He stepped onto the empty space alone and skated. No drills. No purpose. Just the scrape of his blades, the cold air biting his face, and the deep silence of the arena that had always felt more like home than anywhere else. He wasn’t angry. That surprised him. He had braced for anger on the walk from the medical bay, but what sat in his chest was harder to outrun. He had kissed her. She had kissed him back. Then he had asked the question he already knew the answer to, and her silence had told him everything. He had picked up her clipboard, set it on the desk, and walked out because it was the only thing he could do that didn’t make it worse. He drove hard into th

Luka's POV He watched her from across the rink and said nothing.Watching Mila had become second nature, like reading the ice before a shot. It had become something deeper without his permission.She moved between two young players efficiently, clipboard in hand, touching one’s shoulder to adjust his posture. She was so focused and completely unaware of how she filled every room she entered.Carson had watched her the same way.Luka leaned back, the pieces falling into place.Carson had looked for a weakness in her. When he couldn't find one, he went after her another way.Luka’s grip tightened on the boards.Mila looked up then. Her eyes found his across the ice. One second, but it was enough.He pushed off and skated away, telling himself he would get through practice and the rest of the day before he let anything else in.He almost managed it.Mila's POV She fin

Ryder's POV Ryder lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling with Jace’s words looping in his head.She didn’t answer.He had said; I know like it was simple, but it wasn’t. He had driven home, sat in his car for eleven minutes, stood in his kitchen staring at nothing, and finally given up on pretending he could rest.She didn’t say yes.She didn’t say no.He knew that space. He had been living in it with her for weeks. What he hadn’t known was that he wasn’t the only one.Fuck.He got up at five, ran until his lungs burned, stood under a cold shower until his skin went numb, and drove to the facility as he kept on mutteringHe was a professional, and he could do this.The medical bay door stood open at seven-forty.Ryder meant to walk past it, but stopped in the doorway instead.Mila sat at her desk, hair pulled back, writing in a file, coffee going cold beside her. S