"But he's a lovable one," Riley said, reaching over to muss the kid's hair. "Part of the family now too, so get used to him."
Chapter 36
Everyone arrived that night. The whole crew pitched in to set up their gear. At some point, Riley broke out the alcohol, Adam had a collection of food sent up, and the fun started. They were all supposed to be focused on Soul_Reaper, and yet no one could forget that tomorrow, they were going to a wedding. Jason tried to keep them focused, but with Riley at the helm, it was a lost cause.
"Tequila!" she yelled, walking into the room with a full bottle. "Shots for the happy couple!"
"Oh, no," Jason told her. "That is your drink, not mine."
"Cyn," she groaned, handing him a shot glass. "Just one. It's good luck."
"One," he said while she filled it.
But behind her, Void was pouring a shot for Zara as well. He leaned in for a second and whispered something in her ear, then called out, "To the happy couple!"
"We need strippers!" Knock yelled.
"What kind?" Bradley asked, teasing the kid.
"Don't even care," Knock said. "Can we get one of each? Dressed as an FBI team. The guy can give Zara a lap dance, and the girl for Cyn."
"Or Zara could give Cyn a lap dance," Psyc pointed out.
"Drink!" Riley yelled.
Jason couldn't make the smile leave his face. Catching Zara's eye, he lifted his glass and she matched him. Then, as the room around them started to chant, they both tossed back the tequila and swallowed it. The room burst into cheers, but Jason had to shake his head to get rid of the taste.
"Oh, that's horrible," he told Riley. "Why do you drink that?"
Void just passed him a beer. "Because she's certifiable."
Then Zara made her way around the table and dropped into his lap. "Ok, we're supposed to be focusing, people. We're here for work, right? Have a bad guy to catch?"
"Kiss him," Rhaven dared.
Oh, Jason didn't need anyone to encourage him for that. Rhaven was right; Zara looked amazing, like she'd never been happier. Catching the back of her head, he pulled her in and kissed her hard. She met him halfway, their tongues tangled, and he savored the taste of her. Like apples. Wait...
He pulled back to meet her eyes. "That was not tequila."
Zara just threw her head back and laughed. "No, we just wanted to see if you'd do it." She stole another kiss from his lips, and then slipped away to vanish in the crowd of people hovering around him.
Jason looked around until he found Riley, then did his best to glare. "You are an evil, evil woman. You know that?"
So she dropped a bottle of scotch on the desk in front of him. It wasn't the cheap kind. "Happy rest of your life, Cynister. Besides, your best man has to make a fool out of you at least once."
"I thought we were going to at least organize a little of this," he told her.
From the side, Amy blew that off. "I don't know how to break this to you, Agent Raige, but you are no longer in charge. Bradley is keeping track of our plan, Zara and I are keeping the teams on track, and right now, half of Ruin is running through something that makes my head hurt."
"Personalized ad algorithms for the known advertising options used on the Kings of Gaming website," Knock told him. "We're localizing, using that to pare down the list of social media contacts, and trying to find where all of that overlaps."
"Data mining," Cade said. "And when they reach a brick wall, they'll go to social hacking. Zoe, Jericho, and Kitty are already making their way into friend's lists and follow groups. A few likes, hashtags, and retweets will make it seem completely normal when they contact anyone."
"Shit," Rhaven breathed. "You people are kinda scary."
"I've shown them a few things," Jason admitted.
From the back of the room, Dez just laughed. "And I gave them access to my toy box." She pointed at Riley before the woman could say anything. "Not that kind. The scripts, spiders, and bots I've written in my life. Right now, Ruin has the power to hack every triple A game company in existence, reverse engineer a few tech companies' protected algorithms, and..." She patted her hands on the desk like a drum roll. "That includes FreeShare's ad placement software, which is the company that had the