Page 32 of Brutal Game

Jack stared at me for a long moment, his eyes searching mine. There was heat in them, heat that reminded my body of where it had been, only an hour ago. Heat and something else. Whatever he saw in my own eyes made him nod.

“I’ll let you win this battle,Aviva. But don’t mistake me: the war? It’s mine.And. So. Are. You.”

“For now,” I muttered.

He didn’t dignify that with an answer as he lifted his hand. “Jack and Coke for me, Jack and Ginger for him.”

“Cute,” I said.

He winked at me. Like we were just two college students, flirting, and not a desperate-for-justice woman and her mercurial, enigmatic bully.

Who was Jack Feldman, really? And why had he chosen to torture me this way? I wanted answers. But I doubted I’d ever get them. If anything was clear to me, it was that the Kings’ left wing carried his cards close to his chest. I shouldn’t want to know him better, but Idid.Mostly because knowledge was power, and if I did have his secrets, I might have leverage to use against him.

As I thought, I mixed his and Isaac’s drinks. Isaac checked his phone while Jack watched me.

“Are you two even allowed to be drinking during the season?” I asked.

Jack shrugged. “I’m twenty-two; Isaac’s twenty-one. Some players don’t drink during the season, but I’ve never beenthat way, and I let the team do what they want, as long as they don’t fuck up a game—or do anything stupid enough to get kicked off.”

I ignored the jab. “Twenty-two?”

He nodded. “I red-shirted. Meaning?—”

“Meaning you didn’t play freshman year to give you four full years after. So you’re a fifth year.” I put down paper coasters and placed both drinks on top of them. Jack handed over his credit card.

It was a black Amex.

I swallowed, aware just how out of my depth I was with him. He didn’t just have power over me as Reina’s king and overlord. He waswealthy, powerful outside of this little college bubble, too. Once again, I wondered what it was like to have that much power. How safe it must feel, knowing if you fell, you’d always land on your feet—or if not, that someone would catch you. I’d never had that, not since I woke up to gunshots at the age of ten and discovered my parents, dead in their bedroom…

“Aviva.” Jack’s voice was sharp. “Where’d you go?”

I swallowed again. It was none of his business, but if I said that, he’d only push harder. “Why’d you redshirt?”

He raised an eyebrow but let it go. “I was good, good enough to be recruited by Reina, but not good enough to get me where I needed to be.” He smiled at me, and despite myself, I smiled back. “I was actually pretty scrawny. Coach used to call me Jack the beanstalk.”

At the mention of Coach Jensen, we both stilled, remembering. We weren’t friends. We were on the opposite sides of this: for him, protecting his coach and his team. For me, getting justice against all of them for my brother.

Even though both of us were motivated by loyalty, it pulled us in two different directions. Jack was so, so surehe’d win. But I refused to let him. There was too much riding on it.

I took a deep breath, promising myself that even though I’d play his game, for now, I wouldn’t lose sight of my greater purpose. He wouldn’t destroy my mission, and he wouldn’t break me. I wouldn’t let that happen.

Jack Feldman didn’t understand the enemy he’d made in me.

But I lifted my lips in a fake smile and said, “Open or closed?”

Jack watched me, and I tried to shut him out of my brain. “Open. We’ll be here for a while.”

Isaac thumbsed-up, busy chatting with the two girls from earlier who’d made their way over to us. But every few seconds, he’d glance over to where Tovah was busy serving the other half of the bar.

Now,thatwas interesting.

“Jack,” the girl from earlier said. “I’m Lindsey. I’m a big fan of the team—and you.”

“Yeah?” Jack looked at me. I purposefully turned away, taking orders from other students. Even though it was a Monday night, the bar had begun to fill up. Reina was very much a “work hard, play harder” type of school—unlike Stanford, which had been very “work hard, work harder, sleep.”

Or at least it had been that way for me.

Don’t you think you should start living for yourself?

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