Page 109 of Ruthless Game

Without giving it a thought, I slapped her, right across the face. As she shrieked, I slapped her other cheek good measure. The sound echoed through the mostly empty hallway.

“Hell,” Tovah murmured to Aviva. “She’s more bloodthirsty than you.”

“I knew I liked her,” Aviva didn’t even bother to whisper.

“You bitch!” Melanie’s whole face was red, and it wasn’t just because of the slaps. I hoped they would leave a handprint or two on her face. Really, what I wanted was to write “Sexual Predator” across her forehead in permanent marker, but I doubted she’d stay still long enough for me to be able to pull that off.

“I am a bitch,” I told her. “And I promise you, I’ll be a hell of a lot worse than that if I ever learn you did this to anyone else. In fact, I will destroy your life.” I looked at Stephanie. “Both your lives. Don’t think I’m bluffing. I don’t bluff when it comes to the man I love. Hurt him—hurt anyone, ever again—and I will end you. It will be the sole purpose of my existence. Do you hear me?”

“Please,” she said, because she clearly was a complete idiot. “Like you could⁠—”

I was on her before she could say another word, knocking her to the ground and throwing punch after punch. She tried to scratch me, to shake me off, but I was possessed by a version of myself much stronger and more ruthless, because I was too busy beating the shit out of her to notice her attempts to stop me. Blood was pouring down her face, and she was screaming, and still, I wasn’t done.

“If.”

Punch.

“Someone.”

Punch.

“Doesn’t.”

Punch.

“Consent.”

Punch.

“They didn’t want it.”

Punch.

“Bitch.”

Before I could kill her, arms were dragging me backward. I glanced over to see Aviva and Tovah on either side of me, stopping me from getting back at her.

Well, I guess I’d done my job. She was a fucking mess.

“There’s more where that came from,” I gasped, chest heaving from exertion. “If you don’t get the hell out of here and never come back to Reina’s campus ever again. You hear me?”

“She hears you,” Stephanie said quickly, hauling her bleeding friend up and dragging her away. “And we’re sorry. When that guy paid us to hit on Lawson, we didn’t realize how out of it he was, or that he didn’t want it. I get it now. I’ll make sure Melanie does too, I promise. I’m sorry.”

What the fuck?

Paid?

“Wait, wait,” I said, putting up my hand. “What do you mean, ‘That guy paid us.’”

Melanie glared at me, blood dripping down her nose.

“That guy. He came with Lawson to the party. Dark hair, kind of skinny—at least he used to be. Paid us to hook up with Lawson. Told us he needed cheering up. I forgot his name.”

I stared at her in shock.

But it was Stephanie who rocked my world upside down.

“Jeffrey, remember? His name was Jeffrey.”