Page 34 of Brutal Game

But what made the difference between him and Jack? Why would I let Jack coerce me, but not my boss? Yes, I was repulsed by Dick, and not by Jack, but?—

—oh god, was I into Jack, even though he was horrible to me?

“How about it, Aviva? You suck my dick good, and I’ll even let you leave early.”

I shook my head.

“Absolutely the fuck not.”

Dick’s face turned pinker than it had when Alex had given him shit earlier.

“Listen here, you little slut. I’m being generous with you. You don’t do this, and I’ll make sure you don’t get a jobanywhere. I’ll?—”

The door opened behind me, and someone cleared their throat. “I wouldn’t finish that sentence, Richard Doyle,” said Jack from behind me.

12

Jack

When my brother Micah re-entered my life, he had a lot to say. Micah thought he had a lot of sage advice, and although I’d never admit it to him, he was right.

One piece of advice was this:If you let anger control you, it will destroy you. But if you harness it, you can use it to destroy other people.

As I stood at the entrance to Dick Doyle’s office and witnessed him leering at Aviva as he threatened her, I reminded myself about Micah’s advice. It was difficult as hell, because all I wanted to do was plant my fist in the bar owner’s face and punch him in the junk for good measure before carrying Aviva out of there. It didn’t matter that she was the enemy, that I hated her for trying to ruin Coach’s life. She wasmine, and no one else in the whole fucking world got to talk to her that way. Only me.

I’d address the hypocrisy of that later.

But punching him in the face wouldn’t get me anywhere,except maybe kicked off the team for violence against a community member. No, as satisfying as it would be to hear his nose crack and blood explode everywhere, I had better options than my fists. I had power, real power—and I was going to use it.

Aviva stared at me. The relief on her face was obvious; her anger at being relieved was subtler, but I still saw it. She didn’t want me to be her savior. Too fucking bad. I’d taken her virginity. She was mine now, when so little was.

“Jack—” she started.

“Jack Feldman?” Dick spluttered, eyes wide. “I’m a huge fan, son.”

Only Coach got to call me son. He was the father figure in my life.

“Really?” I said, affecting a casual tone. “Because I’m not a fan of yours. I heard what you were saying to her.”

“How?” Aviva asked.

“Through the door.” I didn’t even look at her. If I did, she’d be in my arms before I could stop myself, and I needed to focus on the worm in front of me, first.

Dick waved that away. “We were having a performance review.”

“A performance review, huh? Pretty sure that most job performance reviews don’t include harassing your employees or threatening to fire them if they don’t perform sexual favors. But I’m sure the Gehenom Chamber of Commerce would love to hear all about it.”

Aviva laughed but covered it with a cough. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her shoulders straighten.

Dick glared at me. “Now listen here, kid, you have no idea what you’re talking about, and no one would believe you. I’m a pillar of this community, and?—”

“Are you, Dick? Or are you just some pathetic collegedropout who lucked out that his dad died and left him a successful bar?”

“How dare you?—”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t want to know what else I’d dare to do. Like, for instance, inform the Gehenom police that you’ve been selling Vixen and Vice here, and the only reason no girl’s been roofied or raped is because you have good, responsible staff. LikeAviva.”

For a moment, Dick stopped breathing. If he had a heart attack right here and died, the world would be a better place.

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