you their hero. You, Dez. The girl who makes the impossible happen. The woman who has code running through her blood. The developer who doesn't let things like rules limit her ability to create something great. You're amazing, and they idolize you. Not because of your past, but because you won't let even that stop you."
She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I kinda needed to hear that this morning."
"The forums?" he asked.
She chuckled. "Yeah, although you aren't supposed to know about those. But it's nothing but hate, and I feel like this lull is nothing but them getting ready for the next attack." Then she sat up and twisted to look at him. "Oh! Soul Reaper's losing control! The Kings of Gaming is starting to splinter. That's why Jason's had so much trouble following them. When Frenzy attacked Riley at home? That wasn't Soul Reaper. It was just Frenzy! He was one of the top-ranked members - or whatever they call it. He had access to everything, and it's like he was treated as one of Soul Reaper's surrogates."
"So when he called for a hit on her, people assumed it was coming from the top," Chance realized. "How many others are like that?"
"A lot," Dez admitted. "Someone called Ch40Sacid has been taking a lot more control lately. Reading their conversations with each other, I want to say the two are friends, but that's not the right word. They know each other well, but they have very different end goals. Soul Reaper wants to attack women in games. Ch40Sacid wants to attack all women. Games are at the top, simply because it's clear he's involved in them, but he's the one who's encouraging the split. It's almost like a coup, except they both know about it."
"Fuck," Chance breathed. "Have you told Jason about this?"
"I will when he gets in," she promised. "The database is currently updating to the latest backup, and then I'm going to get back to it." She reached over to grab his wrist, twisting it so she could see his watch. "Which I should be doing right about now."
Chance waited until she let go of him, then reached up to push back the hair over her ear. "There's something almost magical about you when you're on a mission. You know that, right? I think that's the thing I fell in love with: the way you never do anything a little bit. It's always all or nothing, and usually all. Go play with your boyfriend, Dez."
She leaned in and stole a quick kiss. "He's not my boyfriend, Chance. But you're still cute when you're jealous."
"Because there are only two things in this world I care about enough to fight for. You and Deviant. If I have to choose, I'll choose you every single time."
"Then don't choose, because I'll pick Deviant," she teased before hopping up. "Work time, Chance. Come act like you own the company or something."
"Damn, you're hot when you're sassy." But he pulled himself out of the chair and followed her back inside.
And there, on her monitor, was the updated forum. It was the first thing they both saw when she stepped inside, but something had changed. Dez hurried over to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Damn being a day behind! They were always fucking playing catch-up, and this looked bad.
"Shit," she breathed. Then she raised her voice so it would carry across the warehouse. "Is Jason here yet?"
"He's getting coffee," Tim called back.
"Someone fucking get him," she snapped, looking back at Chance. "This is bad. This is so bad."
Because the top of the page made it clear that KoG was far from done. They declared it with a bright red banner that was visible on all of the sub-forums. It was the same type of thing Deviant did to warn of server maintenance or other downtime. The type of thing that was meant to be read, and what it said made Dez's blood run cold.
LET THEIR WORLD BURN. Together, we are stronger than all of those bitches. TIME TO LIGHT THEIR WORLD ON FIRE.
Chapter 18
Adam sat at his desk, listening to the accountant drone on about revenues and losses. He nodded, following along with the numbers on his own screen. Profits were down by two percent, it seemed. Not that they were losing money, but it seemed that Degrass Industries wasn't making quite as much as it had last year. Not surprising, with the economy going the way it had been.
His