The restaurant was called Casa Marie, a trendy Mexican place that catered to young couples on the town. Seraphina felt entirely too dressed up and she wished she hadn't worn white, considering Mexican had so many spices and salsas that could potentially stain her dress and she would be devastated if this dress was ruined in any way.

Despite the fact that the silver town car was heated, Seraphina couldn't get comfortable against the tan leather seats in the back. When she snapped her seat belt in, Phil laughed, calling her adorable and cute but insinuating she was an idiot with the brain of a child. Instead of talking about sports, he focused on her appearance. He used the word gorgeous three times and beautiful twice and actually asked if her players had asked her out yet and how they were able to hold themselves back from approaching her.

"My players are all professional," she told him, giving him a piercing stare from where she sat behind the driver. Not that he realized it, of course. "They would never ask their GM out."

"Well, I wouldn't fall into that category," Phil said, pride sparkling in his dark eyes. "If I saw you, it didn't matter who you were or what position of power you were in, I would go after you until I won you over."

"So you wouldn't respect what I said?" Seraphina asked. Perhaps she should have bit her tongue and ignored the remark. She was sure he meant it as a compliment. But she was starting to get annoyed at the fact that she had to be here in the first place, not because she wanted to be, but because she was trying to be professional and laidback and one of the boys. She didn't find it fair that she had to deal with all of that while the male GMs could reject a business dinner without thinking twice.

Maybe Brandon was right. Maybe she was overthinking things and she should just do what she wanted. This meeting tonight wasn't going to affect the team; it was going to make her look good. 

"Come on," Phil said with a roll of his eyes. "Girls love it when a guy chases after them. It's part of the fun, it's part of the game. When they say no, they really mean yes."

Seraphina snorted and rolled his eyes. She didn't care that he saw, either. She didn't care that he shot her a look like she was crazy for thinking otherwise.

"That's ridiculous," she told him. "Quite frankly, that's an offensive assumption and it could get you into a lot of trouble, if it hasn't already."

"Whoa, whoa," Phil said, gesturing with his hands that she should calm down. "I didn't realize I had asked my mom out to a sexy dinner tonight."

"Sexy?" Seraphina raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, sexy," Phil said as though it was the obvious thing in the world. "You have looked at yourself in the mirror, right?"

"Listen," Seraphina said, feeling herself shift uncomfortably. "I'm flattered that you're attracted to me but I'm not interested in a relationship, especially not with a GM. I mean, there's a conflict of interest there and-"

"Relationship?" Phil interrupted with a snort. "Jesus, I'm not looking for a relationship. I just want to have fun with you. The same kind of fun you clearly have with Brandon Thorpe." He wiggles his eyebrows at her, his lips curling into a smooth smile, and before Seraphina even knew what was happening, began to slide his hand up her thigh.

Seraphina immediately grabbed his hand and threw it off of her. Her entire body wretched at the touch, her insides screaming their protests. She needed to get out of here. She needed to get away from him. Brandon was right; Phil Bambridge was an asshole and she was too blinded by doing what she thought was the right thing to realize it. Hell, she hadn't even researched him after Brandon tried to warn her yesterday, back in her office. How could she have been so naive? Why holding she trust that Brandon was right? 

She needed to get out of here. She needed to get away from Phil.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, flashing her eyes at him.

"Oh, come on, Seraphina," Phil said with a roll of his eyes. "It's not like I grabbed your boobs or your ass. You're making this into a bigger deal than it needs to be."

Without warning, Seraphina reached back and punched him in the face. The crack of her knuckles sent pain down her hand but the sound was as beautiful as a bird singing a song early in the morning. She would deal with the pain later. The look on his face and the cry emitted from Phil's threat was worth it.

"You, bitch!" Phil exclaimed, clutching his face and shooting her narrowed eyes.

"Driver!" Seraphina called. "I want to get out!"

"Fuck, Seraphina, I think you broke my nose!"

"Maybe you should understand what the hell no means," Seraphina snarled, surprising even herself. She hadn't expected to sound so caustic, then again, she hadn't expected to hit a guy or even be assaulted in the back of a car on the way to what was supposed to be a GM meeting.

"You weren't saying no to Brandon fucking Thorpe," he said as the driver pulled to the side of the road. "You fucking puck slut. Typical female. This is why women shouldn't be in charge of sports teams. You can't control yourselves around successful athletes."

Seraphina punched Phil again, causing him to scream out a groan.

"You're right," she said as she opened the car door. "I can't seem to control myself."

She slid out with her clutch in her hand. She slammed the door shut and looked around. She was still somewhere populated so she wasn't afraid of being alone in an environment she didn't want to be. It would be easy to flag down a cab and head back to the hotel.

But first, she needed to call her sister.

* * *

Brandon couldn’t relax enough to enjoy himself at the first nightclub he’d been to in a while. He was never into the nightclub scene, preferring to stay at home and either read, swim, or play Final Fantasy. Sure, he was thirty, but sometimes playing an RPG game on his Playstation 4 helped calm him down after a particularly frustrating game. He had beat the game in record time last season. It also helped take his mind off of the fact that he absolutely, one-hundred percent was head over heels for his boss, Seraphina Hanson. He wasn’t the sort of guy to believe in love at first sight, but after their initial encounter, he couldn’t get her out of his head and suddenly, he didn’t notice the pretty girls in the stands, the pretty news anchors who interviewed them for their half-hour sports show. All he could think about was Seraphina and the utter faith she had in him, despite the fact that he had been a suspect in her grandfather’s murder.

Of course, she had the same faith in her team, regardless. Zachary Ryan had been arrested early in the season for assaulting an ex-boyfriend of his current girlfriend, Harper Crawford. Brandon didn’t know much about what happened but it sounded like the jackass totally deserved it.

Seraphina was just that sort of person. Filled with faith, even in people she didn’t know.

Brandon couldn’t be like that. He had grown up with a single mom working two jobs to keep a roof over his head and a sister who took care of him instead of socializing with her friends or go out on dates with boys. They had sacrificed everything for him and his dream – a dream that had never really been his, but his sister’s. A dream that she shared with him willingly and without bitterness or jealousy. He owed everything to his family.

But that focus and determination to be a success due to the inspiration his mother and sister had given him led him to also sacrifice. He grew reserved and guarded. The more successful he got, the less friends he had. Not necessarily because they changed, but because he had, and he wasn’t sure if they had been there for him or for his success.

When he was drafted, he worked that much harder. His girlfriend broke up with him – something he couldn’t blame her for – and it freed up even more time to focus. He played one season in the minors before being brought up to the Gulls in order to back up their starter, Misko Jarvinnen. He was an NHL player by the time he was nineteen and took on the starting role when Jarvinnen retired. His entire career was here, with the Gulls, which wasn’t very common with goalies.

But once again, Ken had faith in his abilities and Brandon became unstoppable.

He knew he wasn’t the friendliest guy. When the Gulls did fan events, he was called in and given an extra talking to be the event coordinator in order to ensure he would actually go out of his way to socialize with the guests. He was captain, after all, and that role came with more responsibility than most.

It was ironic, actually, when Ken suggested him as captain in the first place.

“You’re the hardest working player on this team,” Ken had pointed out. It had changed his life; Brandon had Ken’s words memorized. “I don’t give a shit if you can’t talk. You can play. You can inspire. You can lead. That’s what a captain must do. He must stand tall and hold it together when his team is falling apart. You do that every night.”

With Ken’s recommendation, Brandon was awarded the C his third season, with a unanimous vote by his team.

He earned that C, and he continued to earn it. He knew one of the things he had to work on was his interactions with people so he decided to do something about that during the summers and force himself to date. Nothing ever stuck but at least he could practice opening up to people, putting himself on the line whether he was asking a beautiful woman out or breaking up with her. He never let things get serious because he had never met anyone who had captured his full interest and he stayed celibate during the season in order to focus solely on the game.

But he liked dating, he found, and once the season was over, he looked forward to meeting new people he knew wouldn’t last more than a few months in his life.

Until Seraphina.

At first, she was just another pretty girl he had seen in passing. He knew she was one of Ken’s granddaughters but she was in school and didn’t really involve herself in hockey-related events. Then, Ken was murdered, he wanted more money, and Seraphina inherited the team. This girl with no experience. He thought for sure they were going to let him go, if not because of his asking price, then definitely because he was a suspect.

But she didn’t.

And that was when he knew she was different.

When Katella got that call in the nightclub – he couldn’t even remember the name due to the fact that he wasn’t paying any attention and didn’t actually care to be there – his entire body tensed. He knew something had happened. He knew Seraphina was in trouble.

“Is everything okay?” Brandon asked her, shouting over the loud music after Katella put away her phone.

Katella looked up at him with her green-gold eyes and instantly, he could read her like a book. She wasn’t as closed-off like her younger sister was, and, in this moment, he was grateful for that. No, everything was not okay. Something clearly happened to Seraphina, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Brandon clenched his teeth together and reached out one hand, gently placing it on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “Please, Kat,” he said in a tight voice. He hated saying please at all, but he knew this was important. He didn’t care about putting his pride aside if it got him information of Seraphina’s well-being. “Tell me what happened.”

“She’s okay,” she assured him, and Brandon could see he was telling the truth. “But she’s coming back now. He tried something…”

“What?” Brandon snapped. He hadn’t meant to but he couldn’t stop it if he tried. He clenched his jaw and tried to control himself. Seraphina needed him to be calm when she came back.

And he would be. For her.