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She hoped that wouldn’t be the case with Julia and wondered if it warranted a conversation with her sister before Jen jumped in with both feet. For now, however, she was already thinking about another facet of what Axel had said.

  “There were other school-age kids in that group? In your gang?” She’d wondered about that biker who’d nearly run them off the road earlier. “I just assumed you were the anomaly.”

  “Recruiters had a field day in the poor high schools. Kids either got into drugs or motorcycles, often both. But mostly they just craved the security of friends. The family they never had.”

  “Yet, from what I’ve read about you online, you found a supportive family when you came to the States.” How had he navigated the wealthy, privileged world of the prominent Murphy clan when he’d come from such a gritty background?

  “I owe my career to the Murphys.” He spoke with a reverence she hadn’t heard from him before. “I wouldn’t have been playing recreational hockey the year I met Kyle except that some kid on the team got hurt and a camp director sought me out because I was big and could skate. At that level, they didn’t ask for much more from a defenseman.”

  “So you hadn’t even played hockey before then?” Her hands roamed his biceps, marveling at the years of muscle that had built there since those days. “I thought hockey was the kind of sport you were born into. Don’t a lot of kids play it by the time they’re in elementary school?”

  “Yes, but you don’t have to. And I skated on the ponds in Finland where I grew up. Lots of kids do. Hockey is a backyard sport there.”

  “Okay, so you got tapped by a youth coach to fill in. Then what?” The filmmaker in her needed to visualize the story.

  “I played a good game defensively. But a kid on their team got pissed when I checked him into the boards. He came back with a fist that knocked out one of my teeth. That was my introduction to Kyle Murphy.”

  “You’re kidding.” She’d seen Kyle play tonight. Had read about him in the days leading up to the game. He was all about precision and timing. Speed and agility. “He doesn’t strike me as the brute type.”

  “Unlike me, right?” He flexed a muscle to emphasize the point and she couldn’t help but remember what it felt like to be wrapped up in all that strength.

  “I just pictured you being the victor in that fight.” She molded her fingers to the bulge of his upper arm, amazed how unyielding it felt.

  “All of my foster brothers are fierce competitors. They don’t look at how big the obstacle is. They just knock it down. And you know, it made me realize that some of my own teammates might have held back around me because of the—”

  “Gang connection.” She didn’t doubt it for a minute. “No one wants to cross the guy whose friends carry guns.”

  “Right. But Kyle didn’t know. And possibly even if he had, he wouldn’t have cared. He plays to win.” Axel released the muscle he’d been making and slipped a hand beneath the covers to skim over her bare hip. “After the game, his parents came to check on me since their kid had knocked out my tooth. They were standing there, ready to give my folks their insurance information. They were horrified to realize no one was going to take me to see a doctor.”

  Any good parent would have been. She wanted to ask about his folks, but since he hadn’t offered up much beyond the fact that his stepdad took off after introducing him to the motorcycle club, she thought it would be wiser to wait for him to share what he chose.

  “Did they end up taking you?” Her opinion of the wealthy, jet-set Murphy family was softening.

  “Yeah. And that was cool, but the best part was talking to Kyle about hockey. He was so driven and the sport was—always has been—such a science to him. He analyzed every part of his game and found ways to improve it. Other players I’d met before him were spoiled rich kids who cared more about meeting girls and soaking their parents for a new stick.”

  He was a million miles away as he told her that story and it was obvious the meeting had been monumental for him. Kyle had given him something to care about besides his gang brothers. Something to think about beyond what she guessed was an impoverished and dangerous childhood. The Murphy money had done some good there.

  “So you became friends and they invited you back to the U.S.? Akseli Rankinen officially became Axel Rankin?” She had to admit that was a generous move. No doubt it had been a risk on their part if they knew anything about Axel’s background.

  “Something like that,” he hedged, his fingers tightening on her waist. “It wasn’t easy to accept the invitation, knowing the Destroyers might kill me before they let me out of the group. But I chose a good time to announce my decision—right after a successful beat-down that resulted in new terrain for the club. And they decided I’d be worth more to them down the road.”

  A knot tightened in her belly.

  “Except now they expect their pound of flesh.” She realized how simple and superficial her worries about her sister must sound to a man who had survived the childhood Axel had.

  “I’ll make sure they don’t take it.” He pulled her closer, pressing a warm kiss into her neck. “Don’t think twice about that.”

  She itched to ask him more. Find out how he could fend off the group’s renewed interest in him and stay safe. But he nipped her ear and tucked her hip close to his. In theory, she didn’t appreciate how easily he could distract her. Yet this was their first night together. A stolen moment behind locked doors that she never wanted to end, even though three weeks from now she’d have no choice in the matter.

  Just this once, she could forget about her social responsibility to noble causes and simply enjoy the night. Tomorrow would be time enough to find a way to make sure that old gang stayed far away from him. Even if she had to use the bright light of the media to chase them back to the other side of the globe.

  9

  “YOU DON’T LOOK ALL THAT surprised about my past.” Swiping the puck to Kyle, Axel tried to gauge his foster brother’s expression. He’d just spilled his guts about his years with the Destroyers, culminating in the confrontation with the biker on the way to the flight to Montreal.

  After sleeping with Jennifer and realizing he needed to protect her at all costs, Ax figured the time had come to make his foster family aware of the details of his past. While he didn’t need help fighting his battles, it wouldn’t be fair to the Murphys to be targeted without any warning. When he’d alerted them recently about increasing security, he’d been purposely vague. Now he needed to reveal the truth, not just to his parents, but to his four other brothers—Ryan, Jack, Keith and Danny.

  He flipped a shot into the practice net beside Kyle—the two of them were alone in a training room at the New York visiting-team facility.

  “Actually, I’m not.” Kyle pulled a puck closer with his stick, setting it up for his shot at the practice net next to Axel. “You never wanted to tell us much about your background, bro, and Dad couldn’t leave it up to chance.”

  “I don’t follow.” Frowning, Axel stabbed his stick into the mat and stared at his foster brother—hell, his true brother in every way that counted.

  Thank God the camera guys hadn’t been trailing after either of them today.

  “You know Dad.” Methodically, Kyle fired shot after shot, pulling a new puck into position between each goal. “He thinks research is the key to business success. He’s ordered preliminary studies for every property he’s ever considered buying. Do you really think he’d bring home a foreign teenager without looking into your past?”

  Stunned, Axel watched as one puck after another drilled the practice net. When the last one left the goal swinging gently, he blinked away his shock.

  “You knew all of it?” Axel had omitted a few of the more hellish moments, of course, figuring no one needed to know about the beat-downs he’d seen. The abused teens that showed up at the club, willing to sell their souls to be part of a new cycle of violence. One where they used their fists.

  “Yeah.” Kyle nudged Ax’s