Page 97 of Brutal Game

Finally, Jack’s phone buzzed. He checked it, then shook his head.

“Nothing.”

I stared at him, my heart pounding.

“There can’t be nothing.” There was no way.

“My brother is a genius, Aviva.”

“And he wouldn’t lie to protect you?”

Jack glared at me. “Not about something like this. Do you want to check my text messages to him? Prove to yourself that this isn’t some whole plot against you?”

The room began to spin around me. I was running out of options, and the knowledge made it hard to breathe.

Panic attack, my brain supplied.

A moment later, Jack was there, his arms around me. “I’ve got you, little fury,” he said, stroking my back. “Inhale and exhale okay? Deep breaths. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”

I let him soothe me, slowed down my breathing. But I wasn’t going to be okay. Desperate, I began pulling open drawers and shutting them, rifling through papers and pens. Maybe there was a USB drive somewhere? Maybe the coach had another laptop, hidden away?

I started pulling out books and checking them to see if any were hollow. None were. Jack patiently took each one from me and put them back to rights.

“Aviva,” Jack said, voice filled with pity. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing. And we should go before wedoget caught.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, resolute.

Not until I found the evidence I needed.

“You need to face the truth, little fury,” he said gently. “You’re looking for something that doesn’t exist, when you really need to look closer to home. Asher is lying to you. It happens sometimes. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth of it.”

He grabbed my hand. I ripped it away.

“Don’t touch me.”

He raised an eyebrow, reaching for me again and capturing my wrist in his big hand. “Come with me to the alumni dinner next week. You can meet Coach, get a feel for him. Ask him yourself if he abused your brother, if that’s what you need to get closure on this. You’ll see what I see in him, I swear.”

I couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. “You think I’ll be your date to the absolute last place in theworld I want to be.” Not to mention, the closest thing I had to formal wear was the second hand, threadbare black dress I’d worn to my aunt’s funeral.

“I want you there, princess.”

Great. We were back to princess.

He must’ve seen the look on my face, because he softened.Slightly.“Come home with me tonight. And then we can go shopping for a dress tomorrow.”

“No.”

He shook his head, turning to go. “I’m not playing this game with you anymore, where you pull away and I retaliate. We’re together now, and whether you come home with me or I sneak into your bedroom again, I’m going to bed with you and waking up with you. But I’m giving you a choice this time. It’s up to you if you don’t want to take it—if it makes you feel better to think you were forced.”

He was right. I hated that he was right, that I wanted to go to bed with him and to wake up with him. I stared around the office.

“What kind of choice is that, if the result is the same either way?” I shot back.

He opened the door for me. “The only kind you’ll get.”

31

Jack

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