Page 136 of Heartless Game

“Oh, Toby, I have a bone to pick with you. Well, several bones. And honestly, they may be picking your bones off the ground in a bit.”

He blanched, then lifted his phone, probably to call the cops. Fortunately, I had hockey reflexes, and the phone was out of his hand and in my pocket before he could dial 911.

“I didn’t do anything,” he cried.

“No? You weren’t planning on publishing an article with naked photos of her calling her journalistic integrity into question?”

“How…how did you find out about that?” he practically choked on his question.

I’d bugged his office, that was how. But I wasn’t about to say that.

“I don’t think you should be worried about my sources. I think you should be worried about your own skin. Because if you don’t kill the article, I’m going to…well, do I have to finish that sentence?” I asked coldly.

“You fucking hockey players think you run this damn school. And your little whore is just as bad?—”

Rage filled me. He had no right to call her a whore. No one called her that and lived.

“Wrong answer,” I said, dragging him toward the window.

“What’s that word for throwing someone out a window?” I asked casually.

“You won’t get away with this,” he spluttered. “I’ll call the cops. You’ll go to prison?—”

I paused, staring down at him, knowing there was death in my eyes. “Toby, I’m now the proud owner of an entire criminal empire. The cops are in my pocket. The judges are in my pocket.Everyoneis in my pocket. Now, tell me the word, or you’re about to experience a four-story drop.”

His eyes practically bugged out of his head, making him look particularly froglike.

“Defenestrate,” he said weakly.

“That’s a really big word for a hockey player. Spell it for me.”

“Isaac, I swear, I’ll never?—”

“Spell. It. For. Me.” I repeated, glaring at him.

He swallowed.

“D-E-F-E-N-E?—”

He didn’t get a chance to say the “s”—I’d already lifted him up and tossed him out the window.

Moments later, I heard a loud thump, then screams.

I texted one of the men who was loyal to me.

Need cleanup on the newsie job. Let our people in the Gehenom police department know.

That done, I left Toby’s dorm room, no fingerprints, and moved my way through the chaos in the hallway, spotted the emergency exit, and headed down it and into the night.

* * *

I thought takingcare of the Toby problem would give me at least some peace.

It didn’t. Not when Tovah was so close, but still out of reach.

But she’d be back in my arms soon, I promised myself. Soon.

I stood in the shadows, watching Tovah as I toyed with the ring box in my pocket. I’d bought it in the city after killing Donny Rabin. It was perfect for her: a rose gold band and something called a halo diamond. One day, soon, it would be on her finger. I kept it on me all the time, taking it out to look at when I really wanted to hurt.

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