Page 48 of Ice-Cold Obsession
“Yeah. They wanted him off the team for whatever reasons, probably because he’s good and we had to lose the game.”
“And what happens if you fail?”
“When I scored just one goal more than they wanted, they beat up my dad in prison. If I’m late for a meeting or if I don’t do something they ask, I get to choose if my parents pay the price or if I do.”
I swallow hard. “And me? What do they want with me?”
“They pick students to do other tasks for them, depending on their usefulness. And now they picked you. They actually ordered me to become your boyfriend. It’s not that I didn’t want to, but it wouldn’t have happened so fast.”
My jaw goes slack.
“So tomorrow, you’re supposed to have your first meeting and receive your task. And then you’re screwed.”
What the actual fuck? I can’t believe a word of what he just said, except it all makes sense... Kind of.
Oh, for fuck’s sake! There I was, wondering how my sister could’ve gotten involved with the mafia, and suddenly, I’m involved too, and I didn’t even realize it. This whole thing with Gabriel just keeps getting weirder, but I don’t think he’s lying to me.
Chapter 29
GABRIEL
“UNTIE ME,” I SAY.
“No. We’re not done yet.” She crosses her arms.
“Scarlett—”
“Do they know who I really am?” she asks.
I blink at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’m Carla’s sister.”
My breath catches and my whole body goes rigid. “What?!”
“I came here to destroy you because I thought she killed herself because of you. I found your texts and thought you were in a relationship.”
Carla’s sister? Scarlett’s been here this whole time, thinking I drove her sister to suicide, and I never realized or put it together? Fuck.
“No,” I say. “We weren’t in a relationship. She was just a girl they picked for certain tasks, and we had to do some things together.”
“Like what?”
“She was studying journalism and writing for the college magazine and social media. She was writing about the hockey team and some reports about the games that would be sent out to all the other interested media outlets. She had to manipulate people’s opinions, like cover up anything suspicious or make people think some player is going to play or perform in a certain way. So she had to meet with me so she’d know more about hockey and about my teammates and everything.”
Scarlett stares at me. “Do they know I’m not a writer? What other task do they think I could do for them?”
“Well, as my girlfriend, you help keep my popularity. But they probably want control over what you photograph and post since you can basically change narratives too with a few carefully snapped photos or some mild retouching that no one will notice. Or maybe they want you to create some scandals out of nothing. They have a whole gambling network that they want to spread, and they have to keep things interesting for their big players because those people won’t care about college hockey just like that.”
She’s quiet for a moment. “And you meet with the mafia boss?”
“No. He’s some underboss or something because it’s a powerful and big organization. He always wears a hat and sunglasses so I don’t know who he is, and I don’t know his name. I just know he has a fancy walking cane that hurts like hell when he hits me with it.”
She stares at me in shock, and I know it’s a lot to take in. But I have a question of my own.
“You said you came here to destroy me,” I say. “That audio that ended up online... Was that you?”
She nods. “I followed you around and tried to figure out how to make you pay for my sister’s death. But let’s focus on more important things now. How do we get out of this mess? I don’t want to work for the mafia.”