Page 16 of Tangled in His Game

I give him my best serious look, but he doesn’t seem to care at all. Something catches his gaze outside, and I look through the window too.

There’s some guy lurking across the street, maybe the same one who was with Victor in that dark alley. Victor is doing drugs, isn’t he? Or selling them. Or something like that.

“Are you done?” he asks, returning his attention to me, annoyance showing in his voice.

But I don’t think he’s annoyed because of me. It’s because of that guy. I want to tell him that I know about his little drug deal, which might be something that could get him kicked out of college and potentially end his promising career.

Okay, he’s rich, so he’d probably somehow get away with it, unless I let the whole world know about it so he couldn’t cover it up. But I’m not sure that’s what’s happening, so I don’t want to say anything just yet.

Instead, I storm out of there. If Victor wants to play a game, then so be it. I can do it too. I let Sebastian mess me up, but I won’t let Victor do it too. He’s going to regret picking me as his target. I just need to come up with something that he can’t just shrug off.

If he doesn’t leave me alone, then I need to figure out when he’s training and playing his hockey games so I can avoid him. He can’t be in two places at the same time. I don’t know if he has to study too or if he cheats somehow, but it doesn’t matter.

If I can find proof that he’s using or selling drugs, then I can get rid of him forever. Going to the cops won’t be necessary because I can just anonymously send the proof to all the news portals and it’ll be a huge scandal that no one can sweep under the rug, not even someone rich and powerful like him.

And if Victor isn’t doing anything with drugs, there has to be something I can use against him. I don’t want him to have any power over me.

Once I reach Emberwell, I spot Vanessa talking to a group of girls. When she sees me, her eyes narrow and she presses her lips into a white line. Is she mad at me because Victor is paying attention to me? If she is, then that’s crazy.

I don’t think anyone deserves to have Victor’s attention, not even my worst enemy. Vanessa will probably never be my friend, but I wish I could tell her that he’s not worth it. I don’t know what she sees in him.

Sure, he’s hot, but that’s it. If he’s stalking me for no reason at all or just for fun, then he’s not a good person or boyfriend material. The sooner Vanessa realizes it, the better. But she’s been his friend for a long time, so maybe she doesn’t see it, or he used to be a different person before all the popularity and everything.

I stride past her. Hopefully, Victor didn’t get his friends in on this whole thing. I don’t need multiple people watching my every move and coming up with ways to terrorize me. If it’s all just to get me to leave Emberwell, they’re wasting their time. I’m not going anywhere, especially if that’s what they want.

Bullies should never win.

Maybe I should take a page out of their playbook and become the one who’s annoying them. I could watch Victor play and potentially distract him. Okay, he probably wouldn’t even see or hear me in the stands.

But if he expects me to avoid him, then seeing me—if he doesn’t see me, his friends will—at the game will show him that I’m not afraid or intimidated by him.

I spread my lips into a smile.

Game on, Victor.

Game on.

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