Page 2 of Brutal Game

“Okay, so, the twins are Levi and Judah Wasserman. They’re both first line defensemen. The one with the glasses and the super serious look in his eyes? That’s Levi. Judah’s the one with the man bun; he thinks he and his hair are god’s gifts to women.” She rolled her eyes. “Separately, they’re like, the brain and the brawns. Together…” she shivered. “Well, obviously I’ve never experienced it, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that they like to share.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s new.”

Tovah shrugged. “Things at Reina U can get a little…wild. You’ll see.”

With that ominous statement, she turned her head, then scowled. “The curly-haired flirt with the dimples and smirk is Isaac Jones. He’s a player. Probably a talker in bed, so maybe he’s your in if Plan A fails…”

“Do you not like him?”

She shook her head, her curly hair—dyed purple this month—flying every which way. “I don’t anything him. He doesn’t matter.”

I raised an eyebrow, briefly distracted by her denial. “Maybe we should talk about why you feel that way.”

Tovah rolled her eyes. “Don’t therapize me right now,Dr. Gold.I swear, you’ve been doing it since we met.”

“Future Dr. Gold,” I corrected. Hopefully I would become Dr. Gold one day. When my parents died and Great Aunt Gladys took us in, she’d sent us to a psychologist for grief counseling. The psychologist, Abby, was kind and wise and patient with us, and the only reason Asher and I managed to grieve healthily and healat allfrom the trauma of losing them. Ever since, I’d wanted to be a psychologist, and help other people the way she’d helped me. For now, all I could do was be there for Asher while he saw a real, licensedtherapist.

“Whatever.” Tovah cleared her throat, her eyes catching on a tall, built guy with dark, straight hair. “Andthat, well, that’s Jack. He’s hockey captain, king of the Kings, king of everything, really. He’s not only scored the most goals for the Kings, he’s had the most assists in the league. The sports department at the Daily Queen nicknamed him ‘Jack Hat Trick Feldman.’ Everyone knows Jack. EveryonewantsJack, or at least wants to rub shoulders with him, in case some of his power will rub off. And in turn, Jack knowseverythingthat happens on Reina’s campus, and controls everything, down to who deals Vice and Vixen.”

Confused, I opened my mouth to ask what Vice and Vixen were, but at that moment, the guy with dark hair—Jack—turned around.

His eyes, a dark, magnetic gray, locked on mine.

I swallowed, my mouth and throat suddenly dry. The room disappeared, the people disappeared, until it might as well have just been him and me, alone in space, no gravity, no nothing. The only thing keeping me from floating away was the heat of his gaze on mine.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been truly noticed by someone before. It’s…disconcerting, to say the least. It’s like your clothing, your makeup, your armor, the cover-up you religiously paint over your scar—all the ways you try to fade into the background …they just fall away. And suddenly there’s a spotlight on you.

I’d never had someone’s complete and undivided attention before. That it was the ‘king of the Kings’ made it especially disturbing, but I couldn’t stop watching him.

He looked and looked, and even though other people were trying to get his attention, he didn’t take his eyes off me. Like even if the house burned down, he’d still notice the slightest change to my expression. It made my breath leavemy lungs, being noticed like that. Made me forget everyone and everything, including Asher, including my mission to get vengeance and take this whole fucking team and institution down.

Until all that was left washim.

Or would’ve been, because then the asshole winked at me.

Winked.

My own eyes narrowed, the room and the people and my mission reappearing around me with a pop of reality. If Jack “Hat Trick” Feldman knew everything that happened at Reina U, then he probably knew what his horrible coach had done to my brother.

A girl standing next to him whispered something in his ear, and he laughed, but he was still staring at me.

The asshole winked again.

I straightened my shoulders for the second time that night, determination filling me with steel.

Jack Feldman might be my way in.

But I doubted I could trust him. I wasn’t sure I could trust any of them. And that meant that whatever had just happened between us was completely meaningless.

If only my racing heart believed that.

2

Jack

Iwas bored.

These days, boredom was my constant companion. People were all the same—easily read and manipulated. Classes no longer felt challenging, especially because my professors gave me automatic A’s for playing on the Kings. Coach said I was too smart for my own good.

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