care if you look. I don't even care if you flirt. But here's the thing. Destiny Pierce is my fianc茅's hero. She's my friend - or I'd like to think she is - and real women don't steal each other's crowns. We help straighten them." With that, she stood, aiming for the door.
"Zara?" he asked, stopping her.
She turned. "I don't know why I'm here, Chance. This is Jason's job, not mine."
He gestured back to the chairs. "Sit down. Please?" He paused to scrub at his face. "I'm sorry. I'm a wreck, and I fucking hate that these assholes make me feel powerless. I'm not the coder that they are. I'm the fucking paper-pusher. It drives me crazy that the woman who owns me, heart and soul, looks at Jason the way she does."
"It's trust," Zara explained as she returned to her chair. "The wounded recognize each other. Same reason I felt safe with him."
He nodded to show he'd heard, but decided to answer her question. "Dez invited you because she wants to make an offer." He pulled open the lower drawer of his desk and began flipping through files. "She knew you were off for the summer, and we'll be there for the wedding." Finding what he wanted, Chance pulled it out and dropped it on his desk. "So, because you have nowhere else to be, we thought this was a good opportunity to do this face to face."
"To do what?" Zara asked, looking a little worried.
"Someone showed Dez your music. We're looking to license three of your songs for our Renegade trailers." He pressed his hand over the file before she could reach for it. "We also want to offer you a contract job with Deviant making the music for the actual game."
Zara's mouth parted, and her eyes widened, as she sat up. "What?!"
That was the reaction he'd been hoping for. "You want to do this professionally or like gamers?"
"Gamers," she said without hesitation.
"My partner's going to make problems for yours. Dez is done fucking around, and she's pissed. When that woman gets angry, she makes the computers sing, and they are. The downside is that Bradley's admitted to me that Jason isn't in a good place with the FBI. A shitty agent, I think were his words. He's going to help us solve this, but I can't promise we won't destroy his career in the process, and I don't even care." He pushed the file a little closer to her and lifted his hand. "But I can soften the fall. The thing is, I come out winning either way."
Zara picked it up and opened the cover. Her eyes quickly tracked the first page inside. "You want me to make all of the soundtrack for your game?"
"Games," Chance corrected. "Renegade is the first. It won't be the last. I will send a copy of that to Void as well, since I'm sure you won't make a decision without his approval. That means he and probably Riley, will counter the initial offer, so I started low. Zara, gamer to gamer, your music is good. It's not the best, but it's damned good, and it's what we need. I know I could hire some guy online who'd take half as much, but I won't. You know why?"
"Because I'm flawed?" she asked.
He laughed once, realizing she wasn't wrong. "Because you walked in here and told me why I can't help Dez. Because you're not groveling in front of me. Because I think you'll honestly tell us when we can't have something or if we're wrong. And yes, because you're flawed too."
She turned the page and then pulled in the smallest breath. "Six figures?"
"Plus royalty share," Chance said. "We'll also produce an album of the music for download at an additional cost. Dez wants you on the team because that means she'll keep Jason safe. She owes him her life, Zara. You're that man's life, so this is how she's paying her debt."
"And you're winning on both sides of it," Zara realized.
Chance just smiled. "There's a reason we're a triple A game company, honey. It's not because I'm a sucker. Yeah, Deviant Games wins either way. You gonna take it?"
Zara tossed the folder back onto his desk. "Send that to my attorney, would ya? If you're using me, Chance, then I'll use you back. Expect to pay twice that much."
He reached for his mouse, woke up his computer, and clicked send on a message he'd already written. "Just over twice," he said as