Page 12 of Heartless Game

Of course the fucker did. I couldn’t talk, of course. This level of lux was something I’d grown up with. But I preferred my bedroom at the hockey house—and the house I owned situated between the edge of campus and the forest that surrounded it.

I knocked, twice.

“Coming,” Sebastian called.

Idiot.

He pulled the door open…and I shoved him backward as I stepped into the apartment. It was modern and clean and lacked any personality, but I ignored the boring space and focused on the douchebag in front of me, his dark hair wet, his jaw locked, and his eyes pissed.

Too bad. I was pissed, too.

“Get the fuck out of my apartment, Jones,” he spat.

“Nah.” I grinned at him. “I think I’ll stay for a while.” I pretended to glance around. “Your daddy buy it for you?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said, pinging an alarm in my head that he might know more than he should, but then he added, “Oh, please. You didn’t get that Tag Heuer on your own,” he said, nodding at my watch.

So he didn’t know who my family really was. Of course he didn’t.

I shrugged. “Sponsorships.”

He shook his head. “Fucking jock. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here, but I do think it’s time for you to leave.”

I didn’t have time for this bullshit. “What was Tovah Kaufman doing here earlier?”

His eyes widened. Just for a second, but I caught it. “I know you’re just a dumb jock, but even you know stalking is illegal,” he drawled.

I raised one shoulder. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“And what if I tell you she was here for exactly the reason you think she was?” He stretched, twisting his neck both ways before adding, “Gave me a real workout, too. Worth it.”

A red haze filled my vision, and then I was on top of him, my hand around his throat, squeezing. And his face was turning the same color red.

Fuck.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

Catching myself before I killed the fucker in my jealous fury, I took a deep breath, released it, and forced my grip to loosen. The red haze began to clear, and as it did, the realization of what I’d done dawned upon me. I prided myself on being the only member of my family who hadn’t killed someone—even though I’d been exposed to so much violence. But here I was, Isaac Jones, Good Guy, choking the fuck out of a guy for insinuating he’d fucked the woman I hated. I’d completely snapped. Just because I thought someone had touched a girl who wasn’t even mine.

The monster within was winning.

Her fault.

Sebastian gasped, but I didn’t fully release him.

“Was that true? Did you touch her? Did you fuck her? Because if you did…” I began to tighten my grip again.

“And so what if I did?” he taunted on a cough. This asshole must have a death wish. “What, are you going to kill me? What happened to Isaac Jones, everyone’s best friend? Has he been an unhinged, violent maniac this whole time? It’ll be fun to leak it to all of Reina.”

An unhinged, violent maniac.

Just like my father.

Feeling sick, I tried to release Sebastian’s neck, to back away. But the word “leak” made me think of newspapers, which made me think of Tovah, so I maintained my grip on his neck.

“Answer the question, or you won’t be around to leak anything,” I threatened, my voice low and menacing.

Wheezing, Sebastian said, “No, man, I didn’t fuck her. She’s like a sister to me.”

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