Page 46 of Tangled in His Game

“Victor!”

I hop through the window and press myself against the wall. Then I take a peek inside. As soon as Victor opens the door, Jake punches him so hard that Victor falls down on the floor.

My eyes bulge, my heart pounding like crazy. Within seconds, Victor is curled up into a ball as Jake kicks him.

“Where the fuck were you?” Jake screams.

“I’m sorry... I was really sick.” Victor lifts his hands up but doesn’t move off the floor.

“I don’t fucking care! You should’ve been there!”

One of Jake’s bodyguards steps into the room and starts toward the window. I duck down and scurry away from there.

My whole body trembles as I call security to report noise and violence in the dorm rooms. Then I just sit down on the ground in darkness and curl up into a ball, trying to take deep breaths and think about something other than Jake’s face twisted with fury. But all that comes to my mind is Sebastian, and I just burst into tears as I rock back and forth.

It’s my fault.

What happened to Victor tonight is my fault, and I don’t know how I’m going to recover from that.

Chapter 22

AFREAK ACCIDENT KEEPSthe main star, Victor Overton, out of the most important hockey game of the season.

I stare at the sentence, barely believing my eyes.

A freak accident. That’s all there is about Victor. Then there are photos and videos of Victor, smiling, with a black eye. He’s telling everyone that he slipped in the locker room, fell, and hit himself on a piece of equipment.

And everyone believes him, because who the hell would think a guy as big and strong as him was brought down easily by someone else? Sure, he was under the influence of meds and no one knows that, but still.

I know I didn’t hallucinate or dream last night. It was all real, and if I close my eyes, I can still see Jake punching Victor and kicking him while he was on the floor. The images are so vivid and etched in my brain forever.

I don’t know what happened after I called security, but it took me a while to calm down and get home. After a night of tossing and turning in bed, I woke up and looked for any news. And this is the only thing there is. As if last night didn’t happen or wasn’t real.

I chew on my fingernails—something I haven’t done in, like, forever—because I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should be glad that Victor is fine and that my little stunt didn’t end up in a tragedy. Or that no one is investigating any strange substances in Victor’s bottle.

Then again, if they did that, they’d probably figure out he was using something else, so I get why he doesn’t want anyone to do anything about it.

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