Dez! I told you we need to keep this fucking clean or I can't use it. That? It's about the furthest thing from clean I can imagine!"
"I got the entire database copied," she told him. "I also left a cute little hook in there so I can get another image of it. I didn't even download it, Jason. I just got an image of the drive. We recently replaced one of the login servers. If I use the old one - which we pulled because it was hiccupping on the network - I can keep this offline completely. Just rebuild the forums on our own network, or limit the access to only those we want to have it."
"And?" Jason asked. "What fucking good does that do us?"
"I have login information, private messages, and everything else you wanted. I have the back side of their private little forums now." She leaned forward, her expression filled with the hate she felt for these people. "That means I can get names, addresses, IP addresses, and everything else. Not all of them, because Soul Reaper isn't an idiot, and he's not the only one, but there's a lot. You want to show your bosses something? Well, I got it."
"And it's fucking illegal," Jason snapped. "If I use that, you'll get jail time."
Dez just shrugged. "I'm mentally unstable. Means I'd be in solitary, right? Give me a little peace and quiet and I'll just write up a new game."
"And Deviant?" Jason countered. "That company will sue for all the profits this place makes. They'll shut you down."
"There's a reason I won't marry Chance," Dez told him. "Not because I don't love that man. It's because I'm a ticking time bomb, and he's going to protect our love child. I've vanished before. I can do it again."
"No!" Jason roared, slapping his hand down on the concrete to make his point. "Damn it. Fuck!" He pushed to his feet. "Destroy it. Get rid of the proof, because I can't use it."
Dez just lifted a brow. "Not in your case, but you can still use it. I can easily give it to Ruin, although I'm sure they don't have the hardware to run it. But I could get them some. Then they can re-route it back to you."
"With a trail so blatant that I'll have to arrest you when this is done," Jason pointed out.
"Then just use the data," Dez told him. "It's a day old, and I can get copies, but I'm on the backup, Jason. I hacked the restoration server so I wouldn't get caught. I played it fucking safe, but you can't see what the top people are doing, and my employees are being threatened."
"Because of Soul Reaper's post?" Jason asked.
Dez paused to take a long drink of whiskey, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. "They sent Rhaven a warning." She licked the last of the alcohol from her lips. "They're going to get her outside Braden's apartment, throw her in a trunk, take her to the middle of nowhere, cut her dick off, then light her on fire and watch her burn."
"Fuck," Zara breathed.
"It's what they did to me," Dez told her. "Not the act, but they left a post laying it all out - then they did it. They warned me, and I didn't listen. I spent days hanging in a warehouse because of it, and I will not let them do that to anyone else." She blinked her gaze back to Jason. "People are jumping the fence to get onto our property. Someone grabbed me out here! Do you understand what that feels like, Jason? Some random stranger found me on this loading dock and put his hands on me! They're in my home. They're doing it all over again, and if you can't stop them, then I will. I don't care about jail. I don't give a shit about how legal it is. I want this man to die!"
Jason just thrust his hand out for the bottle. "You can't tell Bradley about this. He'd have to pass it up the chain."
"And when he finds out you didn't tell him?" Zara asked.
Jason sighed. "Probably fire me. But the FBI won't know until we've caught him, right?"
"This," Zara said. "You want to know why I didn't like him for so long? This is why! You don't trust your own partner but you expect me to think he's a good guy?"
"I'm protecting him!" Jason snapped. "Dez is right. If we can see the inside