Page 36 of Heartless Game

“Freedom, here I come,” I said to myself, humming “Tiny Dancer” fromAlmost Famousas I headed into the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth before embarking on my fact-finding mission.

15

Isaac

“You don’t call, you don’t text. No one’s posted on social media lately about you saving old ladies or helping puppies cross the street. Where the hell have you been?” Judah asked me as we sat on the bench, lacing up our skates.

I tugged them extra tight in frustration. “I can’t be a hero every day,” I said, but winced at the strain in my voice.

Levi joined us, dropping down on the bench to put on his skates, too. “You know, my brother likes to give you shit for girl trouble, but there’s girl trouble and there’s girl crisis.”

I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t fucking psychic.”

“What fun would that be?” Judah asked.

I hesitated. I tended to be a closed book around most of my friends, because it was safer that way. But I could tell them what was going on without telling them who I was. So I cleared my throat. “Tovah Kaufman is living with me.”

Levi raised an eyebrow like he was impressed. “That was fast.”

Judah laughed. “He’s been hyperfocused on her for over a year now. Doesn’t seem that fast to me. How’s the sex? I’ve heard she’s?—”

My hand fisted. “Don’t talk about her that way.”

Judah raised his own. “No harm meant. Girl has a reputation, that’s all.”

I forced myself to relax my fingers.Fuck.Why was I defending her this way? Had the little snoop gotten under my skin that quickly? But then Judah was right; she’d crept her way under there long before she tried to blackmail me.

Speaking of which, I needed to talk to the team about that. Give them a heads up and get their help.

“Gentlemen, what’s with the dawdling? Practice started five minutes ago,” Coach said, blowing his whistle. Jack stood beside him, eyes trained on me.

Ah damn. Lowering my voice, I said, “the crisis applies to all of us.”

“Let’s talk on the ice,” Levi said, and rising, we entered the rink. The four of us found each other, doing hip and quad stretches.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked.

“Tovah knows about Vice and Vixen.”

Judah and Levi glanced at each other. Jack looked pissed.

“We’re out of that game,” he said. “I thought we’d agreed on this already.”

“We did,” I said, continuing to stretch. “But Tovah got evidence of it and was planning on writing an article about it. So I uh, kind of kidnapped her and blackmailed her into living with me so I can keep an eye on her.”

It was almost comical, the way all three of my friends’ mouths dropped open. Judah had frozen in a lying quad stretch, like a statue of a hockey player mid hump.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said in a choked voice. “You ‘kind of’ kidnapped her? How do you ‘kind of’ kidnap someone?”

“You kind of chase them down on the street, throw them in the trunk of your car, drive them home, lock them in your house, and handcuff them to you at night so they can’t get away from you,” I mumbled under my breath, but given the acoustics of the arena, all three heard me.

After another frozen moment, my friends started stretching again.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to court someone,” Judah said.

“She was going to write an article exposing all of us. It’s less of an issue for those of you who were already drafted, but for the younger guys…well, it could fuck up everything for them. Not to mention for the Kings going forward,” I said, somewhat defensively. “I did it for the team.”

“Sure, for the team,” Judah repeated, raising an eyebrow.

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