Page 44 of The Wrong Play

His expression didn’t change. His eyes stayed on mine, assessing, calculating.

And then, he smiled.

A slow, knowing smile that sent butterflies shooting around in my stomach.

“Not yet,” he murmured.

I took a step back, forcing space between us. “Leave me alone, Jace.”

For a moment, he just watched me, like he was deciding whether or not to listen.

Then, finally, he lifted his hands, palms up.

“Whatever you say, Riley-girl.”

I didn’t wait for anything else.

I turned and walked away, forcing my legs not to shake, forcing my heart not to pound, forcing myself not to think about how good it had felt when he touched me.

Jace Thatcher was dangerous.

I’d already been burned by one fire.

I wasn’t going to get burned by another.

JACE

Riley ran.

Again.

And I let her—for now. But if she thought that meant I was letting her go?

Adorable. Truly.

I leaned back in my desk chair, biting into the Costco corn dog I’d just heated up—because my body was a temple, obviously—as I stared at my laptop screen, my fingers twitching with anticipation.

She thought she could walk away, that she could just pretend like last night never happened.

She thought she could run from me…

Precious.

Her name was bold at the top of the page. Riley St. James.

Mine.

I wasn’t good at school—not in the traditional sense, anyway. Classes, tests, actuallystudying? No, thanks. The only reason I was even here was because of football. But computers?

That was different.

It started when I was a kid—messing around on an old laptop that barely functioned, figuring out how things worked, breaking them down, and building them back up. By the time I was thirteen, I had figured out how to hack into my middle school’s grade system. Turns out if you changed your grade by one point every other week—no one noticed.

From there, I started messing with stocks.

At first, it was just a game. I ran simulations, learned the system, and read the trends. By the time I turned sixteen, I was making actual money. My friends in high school spent their part-time paychecks on specialty Nike sneakers and video games. Meanwhile, I was reinvesting mine, building accounts in fake names, keeping things quiet.

I managed Parker and Matty’s money now too.

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