Jace's POV
The locker room smelled like sweat and rubber, the usual mix that came after two hours of drills on the ice. I sat on the bench unlacing my skates, my shoulder throbbing low and steady, the kind of ache I'd gotten good at ignoring by now.
Ryan dropped down on the bench across from me, toweling off his hair. "Yo, Carter. Heard your girl's writing another piece on the team."
I didn't look up. "She's got a name."
"Ariana, right." He said it slowly, like he was testing how it sounded. "Journalism major. Scholarship kid."
Something in his tone made my jaw tighten. "What about her."
Ryan shrugged, tossing his towel into the bin. "Nothing, man. Just saying. She writes one glowing article about you and suddenly she's basically embedded with the team. Kind of convenient."
Across t
