Page 160 of Twisted Play

I shook my head. “They’re just bruised, but the rest of me hurts like the devil too.”

“Stretch tonight,” the doc continued. “I’ll send Eva to meet you in the PT room next door, and we’ll tape them tomorrow if they still hurt.”

“Thanks, doc,” I said, flashing my most charming smile as my mind raced. Eva had fucked with the wrong man this time. It was one thing to spy on us and share information with the bratva, but now, she’d moved on to throwing the goddamned game. For myfather. Her broken promise dug into my soul like jagged bits of glass, leaving an angry wound I intended to fill with her pain.

“I gotta do the presser,” I continued, “and explain why I missed so many shots. Maybe Eva could wait in here?”

The doctor nodded absently before moving on to her next patient. We all looked like shit.

When the staff had mostly decamped from the lockerroom, Massi stood and scrubbed his hands over his face. “What the fuck was that?”

I didn’t say a goddamned word. Eva might be a traitor, but she wasmine. I would punish her, and I would make her as miserable as she made me, take her apart and not bother putting her back together again.

How fucking dare she.

59

INTERLUDE

Dmitri

Jed Carter also recommended her.

Alek

Are you sure?

Dmitri

I’m sorry, brother.

60

EVA

When I finally forced myself towalk through the door of the locker room, Cole waited on the wooden bench, his equipment bag packed beside him, radiating fury. Tristan slumped against the far wall, golden eyes distant and unseeing.

I hovered in the doorway, every instinct screaming at me to run. But where could I go?

“Hi.” The word came out barely a whisper.

Cole’s head snapped up, dark eyes boring into mine with an intensity that made my knees weak. “Give me your phone.”

My blood turned to ice in my veins.

“Cole?” Tristan’s voice held a warning note.

“Now, Eva.” Cole’s voice was rough, raw, nothing like the commanding tone that usually made heat pool between my thighs.

My hands shook as I pulled my regular phone from my backpack, extending it toward him with trembling fingers.

“No, the one you use to communicate with the bratva.”

The sneer in his voice when he saidbratvamade mybreath catch in my chest.No. Oh no, oh no.He knew, and now my father was going to die because I’d failed at the one thing that mattered.

My fingers found the burner phone, and I handed it over, knowing I was sealing my fate. Cole’s jaw worked as he scrolled through the messages, and I watched understanding dawn on his expression—the photos, the information, all of it.

I stood frozen, chest heaving, watching Cole’s face transform into cold mercilessness.