by Kitty Cox
"Jason?"
"Yeah?" He didn't look away from his monitor.
Dez dropped her voice to a whisper. "Why can't you catch him?"
Slowly, he looked up. "Because I can't get into his inner circle. He meets his cronies online, but they never mix his forum name up with his game one. Never. What I need is a place to bump into him, and that shit just doesn't exist. FPS games are match-based. Lobbies are pretty random. It's not like MMOs where you can get to know a person. It's all just luck of the draw, and I'm not a good enough gamer to drag the attention to me."
"So you're undercover?"
He laughed. "No. If I was, I sure as shit wouldn't tell ya. I'm just assigned to this case, and prolly the only person in my division who actually understands this whole gamer culture." He jerked his head back toward the lobby where Chance and Agent Matthews were working. "Guys like him just don't get the line between online and real life. They have no idea how easy it is to pretend to be someone you aren't."
"Or forget to mention who you really are. I gotcha."
"Yeah, babe. I kinda think you do."
C
hance made his way to the break room, looking over to check on Dez again. After that idiot had grabbed her yesterday, he was a little worried that she'd retreat into herself, but she hadn't. She was honestly doing pretty good. Unfortunately, she was also laughing with the FBI agent sitting across from her.
Yeah, he knew that putting the guy next to her was supposedly a good idea. Mostly because no one knew their system like Dez, and it meant a lot less holdups while this wannabe tried to figure something out. The downside was that Special Agent Jason Raige was enough of a gamer to understand exactly how to talk to her, and Chance didn't like that.
He didn't like seeing her laugh at the guy's jokes. He didn't like the way she leaned over her desk to say something. He certainly didn't like the way that creep smiled at her. Bradley said Jason was a weird one, but it seemed like he was Dez's kind of weird, and for the first time in his life, Chance was jealous. Nothing he could do was making it go away, either. Dez had improved so much that he couldn't even convince himself that she wouldn't touch the guy, because she might, and Chance wanted to make sure she only wanted to touch him.
Unable to take it, he dropped his cup on the counter and headed over to the back corner. Dez looked up at him with the sweetest smile. Agent Raige, on the other hand, didn't even turn. Chance hated the fucker. With every step closer he got, he hated the man more.
"Agent Raige?" he snapped. "Come with me."
The bastard looked up at him with a smug smile. "Wondered when you'd be by." Then he pushed himself up and waited for Chance to lead the way.
The loading dock seemed like the best place. Inside, Chance was cussing himself for not thinking this through, but jealousy wasn't something he knew how to deal with. He didn't get jealous. His dates were measured in hours, not months. Then again, Dez wasn't a date. She was Dez, and that made her so much more than any of those women he'd lost himself in for so many years. He stormed outside but kept going, knowing that his little taste of sugar was smart enough to eavesdrop, and this was one little chat he'd like to keep private.
On the far side, Chance rounded on the guy, determined to make sure he knew his place. Instead, Agent Raige was peeling a smoke out of his pack. With a lazy look, he offered one.
"You smoke?"
"Not normally."
"Gotcha." Agent Raige dug in his pocket for a lighter. "This about Dez, right?"
Chance had to take a deep breath before he could answer. "Agent Raige – "
"Jason," he interrupted, before taking a deep drag.
"Jason," Chance corrected, "you are here to track the people threatening my employees, not to spend all day laughing with my girlfriend."
"Yep." Another drag.
Chance couldn't take it. The asshole was intentionally taunting him! "So stop talking to her. Stop looking at her. And if you so much as make a move on her, I'll have your ass fired. Am I clear?"
Again, that smug look teased the man's mouth. "Yep."
"That's it? That's all you have to say?"
Slowly, as if he didn't have a care in the world, Jason shifted over to the wall and leaned back. "That's all I'm supposed to say, Mr. Hunter. Promised my handler I wouldn't make problems. Gonna be a little awkward to explain to your girlfriend why I can't talk to her, though. Might get her a little pissed at you."
He wanted to punch the dick's face off, but that was probably illegal. "She loves me. Don't think she's going to fall for your little show of geek."
"She does love you." Jason took another pull on his cigarette. "I know, because she told me. Mr. Hunter, my only interest in your girlfriend is to make sure she keeps designing the kind of games I've always dreamed of. In other words, making sure these people can't get close to her. I promise you, sir, I have no interest in doing anything at all inappropriate with her."
"And why should I believe you?"
For a moment, neither man spoke. Jason just took another drag, savoring it as he let the smoke slowly drift out of his mouth. Then he blinked, but his focus wasn't on anything close.
"You shouldn't." He laughed once, then forced his attention back to Chance. "But acting like a caveman isn't going to impress her. Trust me. Pretty sure she's been thrown around by enough guys, if you know what I'm saying."
"And what do you know about that?"
Jason's voice was cold. "Everything. I've been working the case for a year. You need to be as paranoid as necessary to make sure no one can do it to her again. If that means beating my ass into the ground makes you feel better, then let's get to it."
That was not at all what he'd expected. Chance stared at the strange man, slowly shaking his head. "Why do you care? Why are you so intense about this?"
With a flick of his wrist, Jason sent the last of his smoke to burn out on the far side of the concrete. "Because I'm tired of always being the bad guy and this time I might even get it right."
Without another word, Special Agent Jason Raige headed back into the building. Chance stood there with his mouth open, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. He had a funny feeling that the only way he'd find out would be to ask Dez. That meant admitting he was jealous.
Walking over, he stepped on the end of Jason's smoke, extinguishing it. Maybe the arrogant little bastard was onto something. He was weird as shit but had a strange way of putting things into perspective. This wasn't about whether or not some guy was hitting on Dez. It was about whether or not they'd come after her again. Chance had a funny feeling they would. Soon.
For so long, it had seemed like a distant threat, some vague "they" who were the enemy. Now it was real. They'd abused her before – Chance refused to think about how – and it sounded like they weren't willing to let her be the one that got away. This thing was real. There were crazy people in the world, and they wanted Dez. The last thing he needed to worry about was her finally feeling safe enough to flirt with someone else.
Chapter 39
That evening, the whole team stayed late. Silk released in the morning – eight am sharp, or so they'd promised. Chance was locked in his office, running the numbers. Bradley kept wandering through the building, always with a phone to his ear. The coders were checking every last bug report. They wouldn't get them all, but they wanted to make sure the worst had been fixed. And across from her, Jason kept his attention locked on his screen.
Everything seemed fine. Everything was going just like she'd planned. There was nothing at all wrong – and that was the problem.
Jason said the group was called the Kings of Gaming. He said she wasn't their only target, just the one who'd managed to come back after their abuse. That made her high priority, so why weren't they trying to stop the release? What were they planning?
"Anything?" she asked, unable to take it anymore.
He shook his head. "Checked all of the usual sites, but I can't find a damned thing." He rubbed at his ey
es as if trying to reset them. "Maybe they moved on."
But they hadn't. First, they'd attacked her. When she'd kept her nose out of games, just like they said, she'd been fine. When she came back, they'd drugged her, vandalized the building, then tried to publicly shame her on the forums. Never mind the damage it caused when the news had picked the whole thing up. They'd come so close to destroying Deviant Games that she knew they wouldn't quit now.
"Do you even know who they are?"
He sighed, sounding like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. "No."
"So how can you be sure what they're doing?" Dez ran another check of her servers, looking for any variance out of the ordinary. "Their IP addresses?"
"Just gets me a location, usually." Jason shook his head, proving her idea wouldn't help.
But Dez was chasing the lead in her mind. "With the MAC address. That should get you a better idea of where they are, right?"
"Unless they have multiple devices – and most of us do. It's a dead end, babe. Right now, all we've got is wait and see. Following them back is easy. Figuring out where they went? Not so much."
"Yeah." She pushed her chair back and checked the clock. Almost ten, and there was nothing at all wrong. "Ok!" she called out, making everyone look at her. "I need one person from each team willing to stay the night and keep an eye on things. At midnight, the servers go down and we wipe the beta characters. I have backups, so don't worry. At eight, we go live. That means I want everyone in their chairs by six-thirty. Go home, people!"
"That means you, too," Jason said, jerking his head back, toward the stairs. "And take that man of yours with ya. He's worried I've been too nice."
"Chance?"
He nodded. "I think your boyfriend is jealous. Tell him he scared me off or something."
She looked at the man across from her again, sizing him up. "Did he?"
"No offense, babe, but you're not really my type." He leaned down for his laptop bag and began putting his things away. "Learned the hard way that mixing work and pleasure is a real bad idea, so just let him know he's safe."
"But Chance doesn't get jealous."
Jason chuckled. "He does. I think every man in the world does for the right girl." Then he stood. "Night, Dez. Good luck with Silk tomorrow. I'll be here by seven."
"Night, Jason, and thanks."
He just dipped his head and left. Dez watched him go, thinking about what he'd said. Every man got jealous. Chance never had before, but he'd also kept all of his dates at arm's length. Until her. He said he loved her, and now he was jealous. Dez knew she shouldn't like it, but she did. No, she loved that someone cared enough about her to be worried about losing her, so she decided to make sure he knew the feeling was mutual. Not like it was hard to find him.
Peeking her head into his office, she said, "Chance, I sent everyone home and I'm going to bed."
Both he and Agent Matthews looked up from the papers between them. Bradley's brow furrowed. "Where's Jason?"
"Packed up. I think he's headed back to the hotel. You two gonna be long?" Her eyes were on Chance.
He shook his head. "Nope. Bradley, you need anything else?"
"Nah," the man assured him. "I'll just take the rest of this back to the hotel. Gonna be a big day for Deviant tomorrow. Your dad wants me to let him know how things turn out."
"You gonna?" Chance asked.
Bradley shrugged. "Shouldn't, unless you ask me to. Thin line between work and friends, but I'll make sure I stay on the right side of it."
"Then feel free to let him know, and tell him I'll call when things slow down. Hopefully, we're all bored to tears tomorrow." Then Chance turned to Dez. "Silk still doing ok?"
"It's perfect," she assured him. "Running as smooth as we could all hope for."
Chance clicked something on his computer, then pushed his chair back. "Bradley, you know your way out. Just make sure you lock the door after you."
"Heading that way now," the agent promised. "Have a good night, you two."
Dez stepped back but caught her boyfriend's hand as soon as he was in the hall. Locking her fingers with his, she hauled him across the empty warehouse, listening to the sounds of the night shift running their last-minute checks. This was everything she'd dreamed of when she was a girl. Granted, without the FBI agents and she'd imagined a nicer apartment a bit farther away from work, but still. This was her game, and in only a few more hours it would be a reality. The whole thing was like a dream come true.
"I never thought this would be possible," she said, pushing open the door, releasing him when she got inside their apartment.
Chance chuckled. "Which part, Sugar? The holding my hand while you drag me up here, or the game?"
Dez just shook her head. "I guess those too, but I mean living with someone."
His feet stalled out. "You mean up here?"
"It's our apartment, right?"
"Yeah," he said softly, moving closer. "I guess it is."
"Which means I live with you." She took another step back, aiming for the bedroom. "And that means I managed to snag my high school crush."
"Dez..."
"I did!" She bit her lower lip, well aware that he was following. "And he made a game for me. Now that is love."
"Yeah."
As she crossed the threshold into the room, she tugged off her shirt, dropping it haphazardly on the floor. "And some FBI guy couldn't ever give me that, right?"
Again, Chance paused. "What are you saying?"
"That you," she replied with a giggle, "are cute when you're jealous."
He shoved a hand into the disheveled copper mess on his head. "I'm sorry, Dez. I keep trying to remember that bringing him here was my idea, but I keep looking over and seeing you laughing with him and want to break his neck."
She shimmied out of her jeans, talking while she worked them off. "I can touch you. I can almost touch Braden, Jeff, Mark, Amy, Sam, and some others. Jason? He's smart, we talk the same language and all, but no." Her socks came next. "I just think he's not going to hurt me. Doesn't mean I'm ready to shake his hand."
The corner of Chance's mouth twitched higher. He tried to stop it, making it into a jerky motion, then rubbed it away. "So you're not going to strip down in front of him, huh?"
Her panties were next. Those hit the floor, and she kicked them to the side before walking right up to her boyfriend. "Chance, this is all for you. In all my life, you're the only person who can get this close to me and make me like it."
His eyes raked over her body. "That mean I'm allowed to touch?"
"That means I want you to." She pressed her hands to his chest and reached up. "Tonight I want to try it like real people do."
"Dez?" His hand slid around her back. "You don't like it when I lean over you."
"I want to try," she said again, but it was breathless.
His other hand found the back of her neck, and slowly, he bent. As his mouth found hers, he took a step, guiding her back. "I won't hurt you. All you have to say is stop, and I will."
"I know."
She felt the stubble on his jaw when he kissed her neck. His breath was warm and heavy on her skin. Each kiss accompanied a step until her legs hit the mattress. Dez clung to him, forcing her mind to enjoy this. She was better. She was so much better, but that didn't mean she was ok – not yet. The only way she'd ever get there was to keep trying.
"Get in bed," he said, releasing her to pry open his jeans. "And grab a condom."
Dez scooted back to the middle of the mattress. "No condom."
He had one shoe off and his pants halfway down when he looked up. "Is that what you and Amy were doing the other day?"
"Yeah. I got a shot. The doctor said it'd take a week, then I wouldn't need to use a condom." She picked at the comforter. "It's been a week. I mean, unless..."
In a smooth motion, Chance lost the last of his clothes and crawled onto the bed, making his way closer. "Really?"
"Happy release?"
She hoped he wouldn't mind. He'd said she should get on birth control, but Dez kept waiting for him to say no. He said he always used a condom. He didn't want part of his dates clinging to him, but she didn't want to be like those other girls. She wanted to be special.
He crawled another pace closer until his arm pressed on the far side of her head. "That," he leaned closer, "is the best present I could ask for." And he kissed her.
He didn't try to be gentle. He didn't warn her first. Chance claimed her mouth, his tongue diving deep into hers. Dez grabbed his arm, feeling his muscle flex as he held his body off hers, and she stopped worrying. This was Chance. This was what she'd wanted. With a moan, she stopped thinking about everything else in the entire world and just let go.
The stubble on his face was rough. His tongue was warm. His hands teased as they slid over her skin. Nothing else mattered but them. He touched her, each sensation making her feel so alive. The moisture from his lips left a trail down her neck, and her body ached for him. Her pulse throbbed low her in her belly. Her legs wanted to writhe against him. Her back arched into his kisses and her nipples burned for his mouth.
He sucked, licked, and nibbled on her until she couldn't hold back her whimpers. Each time she strained for him, those strong hands played down the muscles along her spine, and he kissed even lower, pulling her body to him as if she were a toy, a very small toy that he could have his way with.
Her eyes flew open.
"All you have to say is stop," Chance promised, licking at the crease of her leg. He slid farther down the bed. "Just takes one word, Sugar." His tongue flicked against her curls. "But I've been dreaming of how sweet you'll taste."
"I'm ok," she swore, forcing her stupid body to relax. "I've just never done this before."
