“You’ve been divorced from her for a few years. The legal part is a formality, but you need to be the judge. It’s not too early for me. I want to try again, Jock, and your support would mean the world to me.”

“Even if I don’t approve of the man you’re trying with?”

“Even if.”

He nodded grimly, dragging his gaze back to mine. “I won’t give you shit about Axel, even if I don’t approve.”

“Thank you.” Now back to the other serious business at hand. “Did you hear about Kaden?”

Jock’s gaze narrowed and concern flashed across his face. “Did something happen to him?”

“He spent the night in jail. Not sure what happened. Last Axel knew, he was out with Ziggy and Cave. He dragged his ass in this morning with a black eye and in bad shape.”

“Oh, fuck.”

That pretty much summed it up. Heaven only knew what kind of trouble those three might have gotten into.

Chapter 23—Trouble Brewing

~~Axel~~

I showered and dressed for morning practice. Tomorrow we’d fly out to Vegas for our playoff game the day after. My very first playoff game. I was giddy with excitement over my future in hockey and personally. I focused on the good things and ignored that black storm cloud looming on the horizon.

Only I wasn’t able to ignore the impending storm for long.

I walked into the living room to find Steele waiting for me. We usually drove to practice together.

“Where’s Kaden? Praying to the porcelain god?”

Steele’s concerned frown said more than words. He shook his head.

“What’s going on?”

“He got a text message while you were in the shower and got the hell out of here fast.”

“Any idea who it was from?”

“Yeah. Mr. Parker.”

“Oh, fuck. What did he do last night?”

Steele shrugged, his expression grim and worried. “It can’t be good if Parker is involved. He usually stays out of personnel issues.”

We drove to the practice facility in silence. The majority of the team was in the locker room already, partially dressed in practice uniforms and sitting around staring at each other. Conspicuously absent were Cave, Kaden, Ziggy, and Ice, along with Gorst and Coop.

The silence was deafening, and I, for one, couldn’t tolerate it.

“What’s going on? Did someone die?” I quipped, then realized by the long faces, someone could’ve died.

Rush met my gaze. Rush had once been the team’s ultimate playboy until he’d fallen for a nerdy bookstore owner. He was still one of the team jokesters and was rarely serious. As an assistant captain, he took it upon himself to keep the team positive and focused. He was dead serious now.

“Yeah, our playoff run.”

“Our playoff run?” I glanced around the room at the discouraged men with slumped shoulders and hanging heads.

“Westbrook, Ziegler, and Flint have been suspended for the rest of the season,” Smooth said. Smooth was the other assistant captain and also a former playboy who’d been tamed by Bella.