Page 21 of Tangled in His Game

Sebastian’s face flashes in front of me, and I close my eyes. But a punch doesn’t come. No pain. No contact. So I open my eyes.

“You’re threatening me. Seriously?” he says, his voice low and dangerous.

“I guess I am.” I hold my breath as I look into his icy eyes. “Just leave me alone and nothing happens.”

“You’re playing with fire.” He lifts his finger in front of my face. “And you’re going to get burned.” His voice lowers to a whisper as he bends his head, his lips almost brushing my ear. “I hope your parents have enough money for your coffin. And if they don’t, it doesn’t matter because there won’t be anything left of you to bury. I’ll ruin you.”

I gape at him, but before I can say or do anything, he storms away from me. Dread fills my stomach.

It’s just a scare tactic. He wants me afraid so I wouldn’t reveal anything, which means there are probably worse things he’s done.

I take a deep breath, but it doesn’t chase away the jittery feeling. If he’s not bluffing, then I’m so, so screwed. He’s psychotic, and his family must be the same. Why did I even think I could easily stand up to someone like him?

But all he has to do is leave me alone. Why is that so hard for him? I don’t get it. I force my legs to move, but my whole body feels heavy and numb.

Is Victor really like Sebastian? A guy who can’t handle someone else having an upper hand over him? I don’t want to deal with that again.

The only thing I can do is wait and see what happens. Maybe he’ll just leave me alone and pretend it’s for some other reason. And if he doesn’t, I’ll try to come up with something else.

But I have to be careful. Victor is very dangerous, and I can’t let myself forget that and let his pretty face fool me.

Reporting him to someone probably wouldn’t do anything. His family is rich and can make it all go away, or nothing will happen. Maybe I should transfer to another college, but that’s complicated and expensive.

And I don’t want Victor to win. I really don’t. He thinks he can do whatever he wants to me and suffer no consequences. That’s just disgusting. But I guess that’s how he was raised. People like me are nothing more than dirt to him. Just toys to play with.

My threat must’ve rattled him because he didn’t expect it. He thought I’d bow down to him like everyone else, so he snapped.

But if he doesn’t like how I’m acting and reacting, he might leave me alone. I hope that won’t mean he’ll move on to someone else, but most kids here have powerful parents too, so maybe that helps. And if he starts pestering someone else, I can try to report it since it won’t involve me directly.

I don’t even know why he’s pretending that I’m the one after him, but I guess that’s because he needs something to humiliate me, and he believes he’s out of my league because I’m not rich like him. It’s all so stupid.

Maybe things will calm down. He can’t drag out that story forever because people will realize I want nothing to do with him and they’ll get bored of the whole thing. Besides, if anything happens to me, people will know there was something going on with the two of us.

Making someone disappear isn’t easy, and not everyone is bribable, especially because there’d be a lot of attention. A non-problematic scholarship student going missing at Emberwell?

Yeah, the press would be all over it. People would be looking for me, and I don’t think Victor’s family would risk everything just because Victor got upset. His family probably isn’t the mafia or anything like that.

I sigh. If Victor isn’t bullying me, then he’s constantly on my mind.

Victor.

Victor.

Victor.

Everything is always about him, and it’s getting annoying.

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