Three years of rivalry. One red line neither of them was supposed to cross.
Julian Vance and Gabriel Thorne have hated each other since their first faceoff, two captains, two egos, one league too small for both of them. At least that's the story everyone believes, including, for a while, the two of them.
Then a photo leaks. A quiet, careful man from the front office starts talking about "narratives" and "distractions," and suddenly the rivalry the league has sold for three years is a liability someone wants erased. What looks like a scandal is only the opening move.
As the walls close in, Julian and Gabriel discover the obsession they mistook for hatred was never that at all, and that someone far more powerful than either of them is rewriting their careers from the shadows, using their own story as leverage. A National Team selection. A "lucky" trade offer that isn't lucky at all. A happy ending engineered to look like fate.
They have two choices: let someone else decide where their story ends, or cross the one line neither of them has ever dared to, together, in full view, and fight for a future nobody handed them.
The ice was never the only thing keeping them apart.