Page 13 of Heartless Game

Before I could respond, Sebastian’s phone started buzzing in his pocket. Still gripping his neck, I reached into his jeans and pulled it out.

A name flashed on the screen.

Tovah L. calling.

L?

Why had he put L as her last initial?

Because I know what it’s like to have to hide who you really are. She’d said those words to me at the arena earlier, but I’d been too distracted by thoughts of fucking her into the ground to really consider them.

What was she hiding?

“What’s the L for?” I asked him, voice thick.

“What do you mean?”

I tightened my grip, letting the monster show in my eyes. “TovahL.What is the L for, Sebastian?”

He swallowed beneath my hand but didn’t speak.

“Here’s how this is going to work,” I said. “You’re going to stop doing this bullshit prevarication thing you think you’re so good at. Instead, you’re going to tell me exactly why she’s listed that way in your phone, or I’m going to fabricate evidence thatyouare dealing Vice and Vixen—believe me, I can. And then there goes your entire future. Got me?”

“You think I’ll give her up to you?” he glared at me.

The fact that he was protecting her pissed me off even more. No one was getting between Tovah and me. Certainly not this fucking nerd.

“No, but I think if you have to choose between her and your brotherhood, you’ll choose your brotherhood. And so I’ll up the ante: I’ll make sure it looks like Fire and Hail is behind the Vice and Vixen distribution on campus, so that you andevery single one of your ‘brothers’winds up in prison. How does that sound? Knowing that you could’ve saved them, but you chose an outsider instead?”

Sebastian didn’t speak for a moment, shutting his eyes.

When he opened them, and I saw the pain and guilt there, I knew I had him.

“Don’t hurt her,” he said.

Oh, I was going to hurt her. I was going to leave the kind of wounds that remained long after the scars faded away.

“You aren’t in the position to make requests,” I said instead, squeezing his throat again. “Now, tell me. Why ‘Tovah L?’”

He coughed. “Tovah’s last name isn’t Kaufman. It’s Lewis.”

He watched my expression, like the last name was supposed to spark something. I kept my face blank, but my brain was spinning.

Tovah Lewis.

I knew all about fake last names.Ihad one, after all. I’d chosen “Jones” because I wanted no association to my crime lord of a father, or the “organization” I was going to inherit when I graduated Reina.

But what was Tovah hiding? Who was Tovah Lewis?

I released him. He leaned over, gasping.

“Don’t. Hurt. Her,” he repeated.

“Don’t you fucking get near Tovah again,” I told him. “Whatever it was youaredoing with her—it ends now. Or I really will ruin you and your brotherhood. Don’t test me, Sebastian. As far as you’re concerned, TovahLewisno longer exists.”

He glared at me. “Heard.”

Exhaling slowly, I turned and slammed out of the penthouse. As I walked to the elevator, I grappled with everything I’d just learned. It was possible that Lewis was her dad’s last name, and Kaufman was her mother’s. But if that were the case, it wouldn’t have been some big secret. Also, Aviva had once said that Tovah was an orphan, so it wouldn’t make sense she used different last names.

---