a game journalist. Maybe you were his competition? I don't know, but I'll figure it out, because one of these guys is Soul Reaper. You saw him, Dez, and you're the only one who has."
Chapter 7
Eventually, Dez told him everything she could remember. Jason had a ton of recordings to go through, and he knew he'd have to get it all in order, but the simple fact that Dez would never have to do this again made him feel a bit better about it. And Dez? She headed back inside and declared that she was working for the rest of the night, proving she was a lot stronger than she thought.
No, Jason wasn't done working, but the rest he could do anywhere, so when Braden and Rhaven offered the use of their guest room, he and Zara accepted. Bradley had already headed off to get a rental car and hotel for the week. Jason knew his partner would call everything in, giving an update, so that was one less thing to worry about.
That meant Jason had the SUV, which worked out, because most people didn't want dog hair all over their backseats, and he no longer had to leave Crysis behind. He and Zara followed Braden back to a rather nice apartment complex, found a place to park, and then headed upstairs. Everything was fine until they made it inside - and then something began to whine very, very loudly.
"Dammit!" Braden hissed, rushing across the living room.
A very poofed-up grey cat was hiding under the coffee table, staring at Crysis like Jason's dog was a monster. Rhaven ducked her head and giggled before pointing the cat out to Zara. Braden, however, was doing his best to catch his cat - who seemed to be named Dammit - but the cat was having none of it. It spit and swiped once, but then Braden caught him.
"Sorry," he said. "Poor guy's never seen a dog before, I guess. Just figured Crysis would be fine. Didn't think about my cat."
"Put him in the bedroom," Rhaven suggested. "I have a feeling he won't come back out."
The whole time, Crysis sat beside Jason looking from the cat to his person and back. The little tip of his tail wagged, but the dog was trying so hard to be good. It didn't take long for Braden to put Dammit away, and then the big guy came back, looking a little embarrassed.
"Sorry. Yeah, Crysis can have the run of the place. Kinda have cat hair all over, so dog won't really matter." He waited until Jason unclipped Crysis's leash, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "This is the office. And across the hall is our guest room."
He gave a quick tour, mostly because his place wasn't big enough for a long one. It was nice, but clearly a bachelor pad - yet Jason could see Rhaven's influence slowly creeping in. Little things like the blanket crumpled in the corner of the couch or the clean kitchen. Never mind the women's shoes beside the door. From a casual glance, it looked like those two were working out just as well as everyone had thought.
"I'll need a wifi password," Jason said as he carried his laptop into the office - which was really another bedroom. "Zara didn't bring her computer, but from the looks of it, you have some spares."
"Saying you want us to game while you work?" Rhaven asked.
"If that's ok?" He paused. "I just have a lot to go over from Dez..."
"You get what you needed?" Braden asked. "I mean, she's never talked about it, so wasn't sure if... you know."
"She talked," Jason promised.
Braden reached over to rub his shoulder. "Sucks, right? Knowing how bad it hurts her and that there's nothing you can do? Trust me, I get it."
"That I had to make her relive it," Jason corrected. "And she fucking hacked the data storage company and copied the KoG database."
On the other side of the small room, Zara and Rhaven were supposed to be focused on setting her up with a computer, but Zara turned and asked, "Why didn't she do that before? I mean, you said that if you could see it, then it'd help, right?"
"Not that easy," Braden explained. "Dez just broke the law, Zara. Like, big time, and there's no self-defense option because she didn't attack KoG. She hit another company. An innocent one that gets paid to store ones and zeros."
"But she's a hacker, right?" Zara asked, looking to Rhaven