right?" she asked.
"Mhm," he agreed. "Pretty purple thing with sequins. Yep. I'm going to have a lot of fun taking that off you."
She grinned. "I think this plan just keeps getting better and better."
"Except for the whole psychopath wanting to kill you," he pointed out. "Rhave, please, please, please, be careful this week? I know it's your first time at F5 as a dev and not a player, but don't take any risks, ok?"
"Promise," she said.
"If I can't be with you, call Void, or Knock, or even Psyc."
That wasn't what she expected him to say, but she didn't know how to deal with it, so she changed the subject. "Yeah, so I talked to Kate. It seems that Riley and Knock are sharing a suite. Void with her, Knock's boyfriend with him. It's one of those mega-suites with a large party room attached, and we're going to make that into the war room."
"Ok, so like the biggest suite in the place?" Braden asked.
Rhaven nodded at the road. "Yep. Jason and Zara are getting the honeymoon suite. Evidently, it's got all the goods for a kinky time, but only one room. I'm not sure about everyone else, but he's booked off the top floor of this place for us."
"Last year, dev suites were somewhere in the middle," Braden said. "I heard that the top of that tower is like, really fucking nice."
"Yeah, I know," Rhaven said. "I was in a normal room last year! I can't even imagine what this is going to be like." She paused to glance over. "And I'm not letting KoG ruin this for us."
"Can't believe that fucker gave Jason the slip," Braden said. "And Dez! They always said he was smart, but this shit is crazy."
"Brae?" Rhaven said, her voice just a little softer. "I'm kinda scared."
"I think we all are, baby," he assured her. "We just don't want to talk about it."
"We're not the FBI." She paused to lick her lips. "We're not the cops, or the military. We're just some fucking gamers! This was supposed to be fun, and maybe a great career. That's it!"
"Want to turn around and go home?" he asked. "We can make an excuse. Food poisoning. Couldn't make it. They won't care."
For a little too long, she just watched the road ahead of her, her heart rate picking up. "No," she finally admitted. "But I'm not brave like the rest of you. I'm not the hero. I'm just the girl who always got lucky."
"I kinda think you've been brave your whole life," he countered.
"Being trans isn't being brave," she snapped.
"No, but you could've hidden it. You could've pushed it down, called yourself Ethan, faked a relationship, grew up, got married, had a few kids, and never said a thing. You could've been what everyone else wanted, Rhave, but instead you stood up and said that's not you. That's the brave part."
"I didn't ask for this," she reminded him. "I dealt with it. Not the same."
"And you think Knock and I asked to be bi? Or that Riley, Zara, Kate, or Dez asked to be born with a vagina? That the rest begged for a dick? Nah, baby, that's not how it works. We got dealt a hand in life, and we figured out how to make that a good thing. We said no sometimes and yes others. Right now, this is us saying that we will not just sit down, shut up, and stay in line. We are not alone, Rhaven, but there are a lot of people out there who are."
She nodded. "I just want a happily ever after."
"Me too," he agreed. "Me fucking too." Then he reached over to lace his fingers with hers.
The town car pulled up in front of the airport and Adam got out first before turning to offer Kate a hand. A man was already hurrying around to the back to grab their things. Kate just rolled her eyes at him, but allowed Adam to help her out like a lady.
"Why do I feel so nervous about this?" she asked.
Adam lifted her hand to his lips. "Darlin', that's the rush. Grab hold of it, embrace it, and do not let it go. It's half fear that you're about to make the dumbest decision of your life, part excitement that this could really work, and a little bit of waiting for the unknown." He gestured for the assistant to load their things onto a trolley. "It's how I got where I am. Believe it or