Page 84 of Heartless Game

“I love you,” I said.

“Love you too, Tovahleh. Check in with me in a couple days, okay? Or I’ll worry.”

So would I.

“I will,” I promised, before hanging up.

Pocketing the phone, I planted my hands on the sink in front of me, staring into the mirror. A woman, angry, desperate, and determined, stared back at me. Her dark eyes promised perseverance and retribution. Her lips were set in a firm, resolute line.

It didn’t matter how complicated my relationship with Isaac had grown. Or that I had feelings for him, real and confusing. My mother always had and always would come first, and that meant I would do every goddamned thing in my power to protect her. She was going to be sitting in the audience at my college graduation, safe and worry free. Even if I had to go against my own morals and hurt Isaac to make it happen.

Exhaling slowly and releasing the guilt that my thoughts had caused, I turned away from the mirror and pulled back out the phone, sending a text to Sebastian, who had one of the few phone numbers I’d memorized.

Does your Fire and Hail brother have any Vice left?

Sebastian responded immediately.

Probably. Why?

I need it for something.

Something? Or someone?

You know the answer to that.

Just be careful. I don’t want you getting into more than you can handle…

I can handle this.

I’ll leave it in a hollowed-out book for you at M Libe’s check-out desk.

He always thought of everything. Malek Library, or M Libe, was the social sciences library, where we both spent most of our studying time. I had every excuse to be there.

Thank you.

With that conversation done, I hid the phone at the bottom of my purse, going to the bathroom door and unlocking it.

Lawson was scanning the hallway.

“There you are, damn it, Tovah. You disappeared on me.”

“I had to pee, and you were gone a while,” I fibbed. “Where didyougo?”

“Thought I saw someone I recognized. Wasn’t her.”

The investigative reporter in me that could sense a good story glanced at him. “Her?”

He shrugged. “She’s from a long time ago. Better left in the past.”

“Really?”

He sighed. “No, not really. But there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’m forcing myself to leave it in the past. Saw someone who looked like her and I had a flashback to … well,” he said ruefully, “I was a different man back then. He’s better left in the past, too.”

Thatwas interesting.

He spotted Asher in the quad.

“Okay, handing you off to your next bodyguard,” he said.

---