Page 71 of Heartless Game

I glared at him. “I don’t actually have to go to every single one of Reina’s sporting events. I can send a staff writer instead.”

“No,” he said, imitating me, before adding, “I want you there. As mygirlfriend.”

I scoffed. He couldn’t be serious. And the word girlfriend, fake or otherwise, shouldn’t make butterflies dance around in my chest like that. “You think I trust you enough to come to your game? What are you going to do, strip me naked, tie me to the Zamboni, and let everyone take photos?”

One of the eggs Isaac was holding cracked, yolk spilling onto the counter.

“I think you’re supposed to usually have a bowl for that,” I said.

He glared down at his hands like he didn’t trust them. “No one is fucking taking a photo of you. And I wouldn’t do that.”

I rolled my eyes. I was still pissed. “You kind of already did. Speaking of which, did that guy even survive? Do you not care?”

Another egg cracked and spilled out everywhere. At this rate, someone was going to have to go back to the store.

“He’s fine,” Isaac said shortly. “I don’t want to talk about that asshole. I want to talk about the hockey game and what you’re wearing. You need clothes. Actually, you need one of my jerseys.”

I bit my lip.

He couldn’t know, could he?

“We’ll make a trip to your apartment after breakfast to get your stuff,” he decided. “And you can wear one of the extra jerseys I have here.”

“I can go to my apartment by myself.”

He snorted. “Like I’m letting you go anywhere on your own. You’re a flight risk.”

He wasn’t wrong.

* * *

I hadtwo goals when we got to my apartment.

One was to grab one of the burner phones I had hidden under the floorboards. My mom hadn’t heard from me in days and I needed to both alleviate her fears and also make sure she was okay. That was my main priority.

The second was getting clothes from my closet without Isaac seeing what was hanging in there. If he found out, he’d never,ever, let me live it down.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull either goal off, though. Especially as Isaac loomed behind me as I unlocked the door to my apartment.

“The only thing I like about your place is the locks,” he grunted.

“Well, you can thank Jack for that,” I said. “He had them replaced when he first started stalking Aviva.”

Isaac chuckled. “You know, I’m not even going to defend him. I don’t blame him, though.”

I looked up at him in consternation. “You don’t blame him for being a creepy asshole without any respect for boundaries or like, the law?”

“It got him Aviva, didn’t it?”

Damn.I couldn’t contradict him; Isaac was right.

I used to think my best friend needed to get her head examined, but then here I was with the man who’d kidnapped, blackmailed, and then humiliated me. Maybe I owed her an apology.

Unlocking the door, I let us into my apartment.

I thought I’d miss it. Ishould’vemissed it. But my apartment looked unfamiliar and strange, like it belonged to someone else. There was nothing comforting about it anymore.

I headed into the bedroom. “You can wait out here,” I told Isaac.

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