I winced. That shit was bad. Isaac Hefferman had gotten picked up by the cops soliciting prostitutes for blowjobs in the back of his Bugatti. It got rough, and the guy ended up losing his contract, being forced to retire.

I gulped. Surely, that wasn’t what was about to happen here, right?

River made an angry noise in the back of his throat. “We aren’t fucking hookers in dirty back alleys. I’m—I mean, we’re in a committed relationship with Nova. It’s no one’s fucking business who we date, and whether we date three women or one.”

River was angry. Like he’d jumped past seeing red and gone straight to seeing incandescent white. I bumped his knee with mine, trying to get him to calm down without giving away he was about to blow his shit like Vesuvius.

“Muss has nothing to do with this; we were literally at his house for dinner. All of us. If that doesn’t tell you the level of reporting, then nothing will,” I told Caitlyn from PR, and she shrugged.

“The truth doesn’t matter. Just the optics.”

Muss leaned forward. “That’s fucking bullshit. So how are we, as players, meant to protect against blatant fabrication by the media? You want us to become fucking monks? Recluses except for team-approved outings?”

Caitlyn gave him a cool look. “It would make my job easier.”

Harvey looked at Muss. “I believe you. Go to training.” He turned his gaze to us as I went to stand. “Not you.”

I gulped again, but tried to keep my face impassive. I reminded myself we weren’t doing anything wrong. We weren’t breaking any laws, clauses in our contract, nothing. We were in a committed relationship, even if it was unconventional.

Harvey stroked his jaw, looking between us. “The IceCaps have always been the family club. You can bring your six-year-old daughter and know she’s going to enjoy a good hockey game without the fighting and the drunk assholes. We’ve spent a lot of time and money cultivating the image that we are community focused. Toy drives, family events, peewee training and mentorships. Millions of dollars in marketing. And you guys come along and decide to all fuck the one girl like she’s group property?”

River was out of his seat with a roar. “You don’t fucking talk about her like that. I won’t hear any fucker talk about her like that. Not you, not the press—no one.”

I jumped up before he could do something dumb, like hit the owner of the team that literally had us locked down in airtight contracts for the next year. I got in front of him, the big bastard. Fucking enforcers.