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Prologue

Hawke

SEVEN YEARS AGO

"Dudeyou are going toplane We do not have ti as we pull up in front of Vale's father's house

My head is pounding, my throat is dry, and I feel like I'm about ready to hurl Oh, yeah, and I'ht's party

"This will only take a minute," I mumble as he puts the car in park and I practically fall out when I open the door

Fuck, I'over No, waitdefinitely still drunk

Not sure how last night got so out of control on me

No, waitI know the answer to that too

Because I love to get out of control I love to party my ass off Love the freedom that comes with a killer buzz Love how happy and carefree it allwith irl

Mostly ht with me when it comes to our booze She's as crazy and as uninhibited as I aet the two of us going at a party, we take it to a whole new level We are young, boisterous, crazy daredevils We get jacked up on alcohol and do stupid, whacko things Hell, it's not considered a real party unless Vale and I end a glorious, drunken night getting new tattoos together

It's what you do when you're twenty years old, and we do it well

Actually, I ht I woke up about an hour ago on the floor of Oliver's living roonize There was a girl lying next toout of her mouth

For a brief, panickedon I didn't see Vale, but rather a strange girl lying there We were fully clothed Hell, everyone was, and after a few unsteady heartbeats, I realized we all had possibly passed out right there Empty Solo cups littered the floor, a fifth of vodka lay next to me with maybe three ss left in it

So where the fuck was Vale?

We had coiven it for me, a last farewell thron, so to speak, in ot there, and I actually felt drunk just on i that night, but then Vale cracked open a beer and handed it to ht, I drank it down

Then another

And another

How could I not? All ood luck The small community of Sydney, Nova Scotia, nestled on the east coast of Cape Breton Island, boasts only a little over thirty-one thousand residents, but I'm well known around these parts

As the league's leading defenseue--better known as the "Q"--houtfor the Cape Breton Oilers since I was sixteen years old, and with h Titans when I was eighteen

Third round, sixty-second overall

For the next year, I had a brief and glorious rise up to Titan training caames before I was scratched because I pretty much sucked

Too young Needs more development Not ready

I was sent back to Cape Breton to play another year in the "Q" rather than Pittsburgh's ue team out of Wilkes-Barre Scranton, a eht back with Vale, as content to take soe, not sure what she wanted to do with her life While I had been gone ether, so we just picked up right where we left off

It's not like I was happier to be with Vale than building a professional hockey career, but I was okay with the decision to send me back down to the "Q," and so Vale was sort of like a bonus formuch, so what if it took airl beside me

Vale Campbell

Sae as metwenty, but definitely the free spirit of the two of us While I can get as wild and crazy as she does on any given day, I'm usually the voice of reason within our relationship when I bother to care enough to bring reason into a situation Vale is such a fly-by-her-seat kind of girl, and it's one of the things I love about her the ht there beside her, urging "let's do it" We are more than lovers We are the best of friends, two peas in a pod, Frick and Frack

Which ht that I woke up on a beer-soaked carpet without her, rather than naked in the bed we shared at our apartment?

I checkedShe did nothing more than let out a soft snore and roll over

No es

I called Vale and it rang four tiot her voiceover gunk I gave a hard cough and tried again "It's me Not sure where you are Hopefully at home I'm on my way there now, so I'll see you soon"

I hung up,to rebel on me, and stumbled down the hallway to wake up Oliver I found hiht It took ood five minutes to rouse him so he could driveto drive me to the airport in Halifax

Unfortunately, when I got there, my throbbin

g headache seenify even et a sick feeling inbad had happened Bits and pieces were returning towell and wanted to leave the party Period cra her I didn't want to leave because this wasout to Pennsylvania, and I wasn't about to leave just because it was "that time of the month"

I had been called up to the Titanfor My foot was back in the door and it was a , and if I was lucky enough to get solidified within the Titan organization, I probably wasn't ever coained , ues and they wanted oodbye I was going to be sad to leave this community where I've lived for the past four years, so I wanted to make it count

Of course, I would be crushed to leave Vale, but inher to come with me Despite her libertine ways, she was at heart a sirl deeply meshed within her community and even closer to her dad So, we'd be separated for a while until I could get her toher Surely she'd co-distance relationship work But these guysmy bros that I'd played junior hockey with for so ht with them Surely she understood why I didn't want to leave

Surely she wasn't pissed at me for that?

Oliver made a quick call to Avery, his twin sister and Vale's best friend The call was short, and even though Oliver tried to find out where they went last night, thewell and was staying at her dad's house I' well" translates into her being pissed at me