Dirty Score, A Rough Riders Hockey Novel by Skye Jordan, Joan Swan Page B

didn’t want to have anything to do with it. He wanted what he always wanted, to make Tate happy. To hell with Mia’s feelings.
    “It pisses me off that I have to do this at all,” she told Rafe. “But I’ve let it go on too long already. Did you even stand up for yourself or did you just let him walk all over you?”
    “He told me it was all fake.” Tate’s words snapped Mia’s head back toward her brother. “But that’s not the point. You know you can’t mess with team members. We’ve talked about this. You’re my sister . You know if you mess around with team members, it screws with the dynamic. You know how fragile that is and how important it is. Especially now. We’re almost to the Cup, Mia. The fucking Cup. Of all the times to start screwing with my team—”
    “I’m not screwing with your precious team.” She yelled the words even though they weren’t completely true. Several of the guys and a few people at the bar looked their way. “And don’t give me that fragile bullshit. You love to talk about how professional you are, so act like it. Professionals work together even when they don’t agree, even when they don’t like each other. Professionals put their personal feelings about each other aside to get the job done. Did you not notice how well you all played tonight? Like you were on motherfucking fire ?Don’t tell me I’m screwing with your team.”
    “Tate,” Rafe muttered beside him without meeting her eyes. “Drop it, for God’s sake. I told you you’re making something out of nothing.”
    Nothing.
    Fake.
    The words cut at her. Worse, they opened the door to uncertainty. And Mia wondered for the first time if everything he’d done last night had been an act. The same act he used with all women. If what she’d thought was so special had actually just been Rafe’s MO. And that—for him—it had all been fake. The fact that he didn’t step in to straighten Tate out certainly said everything Rafe wouldn’t. It just wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
    Mia was closer than she’d ever been to completely losing her shit. In public. While they were both with their teammates surrounded by fans. But she pulled on the composure she’d developed under pressure in her industry and drew herself up.
    “I guess it’s good to know exactly where I stand with both of you.” She couldn’t do anything about how Rafe felt, but she could change how Tate treated her. “Let me be perfectly clear, Tate. I am a grown woman, and I make my own decisions. They don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to like them. But you do have to respect me. And that means showing it, not just saying it.”
    She picked up her purse and met both Rafe’s and Tate’s gaze in turn. “I’m glad you’ll be in Boston next week. I could use some time away from you. Both of you.”

8
    M ia knelt on the family room floor in Tina and Jake Croft’s home, holding pins between her lips and scissors in her hand. But her gaze wasn’t on the fabric in front of her. She was watching television, where the Rough Riders’ fourth playoff game against the Bruins filled a massive screen above the fireplace hearth.
    The room was stuffed with Beckett Croft’s family—his parents, his sister, Sarah, Sarah’s two daughters, Amy and Rachel, Beckett’s own daughter, Lily, and Eden. Since they were all watching the game from home tonight, Faith had also come over to hang out and add inspiration to Mia’s work.
    So as Rafe sprinted toward the opposition’s goal with solid command of the puck, Mia didn’t have to yell in hopes of seeing him make it. The entire room was screaming for her.
    A Bruin cut in front of Rafe. Rafe turned to protect the puck, skating backward, still pushing toward the goal. But the Bruin reached in, knocked the puck from Rafe’s control and right into the stick of a fellow Bruin. Then the puck was spirited back down the ice in the opposite direction.
    Everyone in the room deflated.
    “Man, poor