Page 3 of Heartless Game

Feeling eyes on me, I turned my head. Tovah was staring—no glaring—at me. Knowing she was watching made me stand up straighter, smile bigger, and become the best, most charming version of myself.

“I’ll do you one better,” I said. “If you come to the locker room in about thirty minutes, I’ll sign a jersey for you.”

His eyes went wide. “For me?”

I grinned. “Yup.”

I turned to the woman I assumed was his mom. “I’ll make sure they let you back there, just tell a security guard named Bill that Isaac said Charlie’s VIP.”

“Oh my god, thank you,” Charlie’s mom said on one grateful breath.

“Don’t mention it. I love my fans, young or...still young,” I said, winking at her. She blushed, but it wasn’t nearly as captivating as Tovah’s, which was fucking bullshit.

“See you in thirty,” I said, jerking my chin up at Charlie, who, after a second, copied me.

Smiling to myself, I skated away. Tovah might bring out the worst in me, but to everyone else, I was still Isaac Jones, Good Guy. As long as it stayed that way, I’d be fine.

Judah, and his twin, Levi, appeared, bumping me from both sides. Levi was the other defensemen for the Kings, and my other best friend. Together, he, Judah, Jack and I made up what everyone at Reina called “The Core Four”—the four best players on our hockey team…and the four biggest players on campus.

Or we had been, until Jack met Aviva.

Judah’s long hair was down, a rarity since he usually wore it in a man bun. He slapped me on the back, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Good game, Jones. That was a nice goal at the end.”

Levi, who was more of an insightful Loki to Judah’s brash Thor, but with glasses, cleared his throat.

“You’re distracted,” he said. “What’s going on?”

I didn’t want to answer either of them, so I smiled.

“Nothing.”

Judah shook his head. “Don’t pull that bullshit with us. We know you too well for you to pull a Dr. Dimples on us,” he said, calling me by the irritating nickname he’d come up with when we were freshmen.

“Right, Jack?” he added.

But Jack ignored us, focused on his fiancée, Aviva, as she made her way down to the ice. The second she put a foot on the ice, Jack lifted her up, spinning her around and kissing her. There was a familiar burn in my chest. I’d admit this one to myself: jealousy. Not for Aviva, but for what they had. I was alone, and okay with being alone. I couldn’t bring a woman into my life, not when it didn’t belong to me. My world was too dark for love, and loving a woman would be a death sentence for her. I knew that, which was why I had fun with girls but never got serious with any of them. No, I was fine with being alone.

But sometimes, it fucking sucked.

Especially with Tovah Kaufman glaring down at me, like I’d committed some huge crime by my mere existence.

I smiled at her, giving her the full-onDr. Dimples.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. But I could tell she was pissed.

Good. Her very existence pissed me off. It had since the first day I’d seen her, and it had rocked my very foundation. When seeing her woke up a monster inside me I’d never known existed, I’d had to confront a darkness, a violence, that was too much like my father’s.

I hated that side of me.

But not as much as I hated her.

And she should at least feel a little of what I felt when I was in her presence.

Hey, she might take over my brain and haunt my dreams—including the ones where I woke up and immediately needed to jack off. But I’d won this round.

Judah whistled. “Oh, I see how it is.”

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