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I N THE MORNING, I FIND a coffee shop because coffee is probably the only thing right now that can keep me alive. I’m drowsy and sleepy, and with the dark bags under my eyes, I look like a raccoon.

And all because of Victor.

As I take a sip of my coffee, my gaze lands on the door. My jaw goes slack, my eyes widening. I blink because I’m sure I’m hallucinating.

Except I’m not.

Unfortunately, I’m not that sleep-deprived.

Victor strolls inside, and it looks like he got his beauty sleep without a problem because he’s as gorgeous as ever. Ugh!

Of course he didn’t spend a second worrying or wondering how I felt after he almost terrified me to death.

I glare at him as he places his order, but he doesn’t even glance at me. This coffee shop is totally random, and I don’t think he’s here by accident. He’s been following me again, but I don’t know how because I didn’t see him.

As he grabs his coffee, his gaze meets mine, and he smiles at me. He actually fucking smiles as if we’re closest friends in on some big secret. And then he goes to the table in the corner as if nothing is happening at all.

My blood boils, and I stride over to him.

“Are you following me?” I ask, holding his gaze.

His eyebrows shoot up. “Following you? Don’t be ridiculous.”

I cross my arms in front of me. “Fine. Lie to me. What is it that you really want from me? Do you enjoy making me miserable? Is that it? Why? What did I ever do to you?”

“You’re only miserable because you want me and you can’t have me.” He grins.

“What?” I gape at him. “Seriously? What’s wrong with you?”

“Obviously nothing.” He points at himself. “Feast your eyes while you can.”

I open my mouth and close it because I just don’t know what to say to him. Either there’s something seriously wrong with him or he’s messing with me. Maybe he got hit in the head at one of his hockey games, and it left permanent damage.

He takes a sip of his coffee and then makes a show of slowly licking his lips. I can’t look away from him because for some reason him doing that is hot like hell, but he’s an asshole and I can’t let him distract me.

“I don’t care what you’re telling yourself,” I say. “I know you’re following me, and I know you were in my house last night. If you don’t stop and leave me alone, you’ll regret it.”

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.