Page 25 of Heartless Game

10

Tovah

Holy shit. He’d put me in the trunk of his car.

Like full on threw me in the trunk of his goddamned car.

I reminded myself to breathe. Usually when someone who was part of an organized crime family put you in the trunk of their car, it meant you were about to die. But I doubted I’d pissed him offthatmuch.

I wasn’t risking it, though. And I’d watched enough movies to know that older cars were built so if you were locked in the trunk, you could kick out the taillights. It wouldn’t actually get me out of the trunk, but I could wave my arm around and scream for help and someone would see me. I hoped so, anyway.

Taking a deep breath, I kicked out my leg, hard, directly at the taillight. Nothing happened, so I did it again, and again. Finally, on the fourth kick, I heard a crack and then cold air greeted me.

I did it!

Turning around in the tiny trunk wasn’t easy. I had to slither on my stomach, which hurt. I was going to have rug burn on my stomach later. After a few tries, I managed to turn around and stuck my arm out the hole where the taillight had been. I started to scream for help at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t see anything, had no idea if there was anyone around, but it didn’t matter, it was my only chance.

As I continued to scream, the car slowed to a stop.

Oh, shit. Had Isaac heard me somehow?

I pulled my hand back into the car, preparing to run.

The car stopped, a car door slammed, gravel crunched, the locks beeped, and then the lid of the trunk was being raised and I was exposed to fresh air, moonlight, and Isaac’s cold expression.

“That was clever,” he said, sounding amused, not irate like I’d expected him to be. “Fortunately, I already knew how clever you are.”

Crap.

I shouldn’t have appreciated the compliment, but Isaac’s admonition did stir up a little satisfaction in me. Or would’ve, if it hadn’t screwed me over. Because from what I could tell, we were alone.

Isaac reached into the trunk, grabbing me by my armpits and hauling me out. We were front to front for a moment, and the proximity to the heat of his body made my breath stutter. He slowly slid me down his body until my sneakers hit gravel. I expected him to release me from his hold, but he just gripped me tighter. His hands were so big, the tips of his thumbs teased the edges of my breasts. Inhaling sharply, I forced myself not to react, looking up at him.

“Let me go,” I said softly.

He jerked his head to the side.No.

“Isaac, let me go. You’re hurting me.”

“You agreed to this,” he said, also softly—but there was a danger in the quiet of his voice. “And then you kneed me in the balls and ran. Leaving a few bruises on your arms is the least I’m going to do to you.”

“Really?” I scoffed, hiding my fear. “What would the students at Reina think if they could hear you threaten me right now? What would your teammates or your new coach think?”

I expected him to release me, but a smirk played on his face, illuminating his left dimple in the moonlight.

“It doesn’t matter what they’ll think, Tovah. They won’t ever know.”

And then he was releasing me briefly, only to grab my left wrist and drag me behind him down the gravel path to a house a few hundred feet ahead of us.

Huge oak trees surrounded us, the darkness and shadows only broken up by the dim light of a crescent moon. It was mostly silent, except for the nearby hoot of an owl as it observed me stumbling after Isaac as he took long, angry strides toward the house ahead of us. In the dark, it was an ominous gray, with closed shutters and a large porch.Old Colonial, my brain supplied, but the fear and frustration eclipsed it.

“Are you seriously kidnapping me?” I huffed.

Isaac ignored me.

“You know that’s a crime, right?” I continued.

“According to you, I’m already a criminal. What’s one more felony?” But he didn’t sound as blasé as he was trying to be. I’d hit the target, but it didn’t mean he was releasing me.

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