Page 139 of Heartless Game

London, UK

Kathmandu, Nepal

Lima, Peru

Ushuaia, Chile

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Todos Santos, Mexico

Melbourne, Australia

Tokyo, Japan

Prague, Czech Republic

Please schedule a meeting with one of our assistants at your earliest convenience.

Thank you,

Ilana Brandeis, Esq.

Every timeI reread the email, my heart sank a little more.

“Why do you like this show so much?”

“It’s the combination of them finding a home, a place that’s theirs, a place to be safe in, and the freedom to go wherever they want. I’ve never had any of those things. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

He’d remembered. Down to each individual city I’d listed.

And he’d bought homes for me in all of them.

It hurt, knowing how much he loved me, and how he still insisted on staying so far away.

He’d saved me from Toby’s exposé, too. Toby was in the hospital with broken bones, but he was alive. Everyone on campus was talking about the editor-in-chief falling out of his window. No one seemed to suspect Isaac—but then why would they, when he had the power of the Silver family behind him? Besides, no one but me and the Core Four knew who he really was or what he was capable of. And I’d make sure to keep it that way. To protect him, too.

I should’ve felt guilty about Toby, but I didn’t. Instead, it just made me love Isaac that much more.

You wonderful asshole, why do you keep breaking my heart?I thought, closing out of the email and picking up my phone to text him for the thousandth time—knowing it would go unanswered like all the rest. Two months of complete silence from him.

Putting my phone down, I lay down on the floor and did my PT exercises and stretches. The doctor had pronounced me completely healed from the gunshot and cleared me to return to all normal activities. But I wasn’t healed. How could I be, when half my heart was missing?

At that moment, the security alarm went off.

My mom had changed the locks and reset the system after we’d moved in, insisting that we didn’t know who else had it. She liked having an alarm system. I think after years of feeling unsafe, that fear still never went away.

The alarm was blaring.

Could someone be after me?

My mom was out of town—she’d gone to the city to see old friends she’d fallen out of touch with years ago—and I was alone in the house.

Fuck, what did I do?

I called Isaac immediately, but he didn’t answer.

Hanging up, I called 911.

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