For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,73

people, and another driver once she gets there. She won't have a chance to do anything stupid, because we're not going to leave her the fuck alone!"

"Good," Dez said, reaching over to rest her fingertips on his arm. "Do you need to go?"

He shook his head. "No, I think she needs her best friend right now, and I kinda made things worse. Dez, I told her I was worried about exactly this."

"Ok, then you'll be on the first team out," she decided. "I'd rather you were there and she doesn't want to talk to you than for her to wish she could see you."

He glanced down to her hand. "Why? I mean, you barely know Rhaven."

"But I know what it's like to be like her," she reminded him. "I also hate KoG enough that everything else can stop and I won't give a shit. Those fuckers picked the wrong people to mess with." With a sigh, she pulled her hand back. "Braden, she's a good coder. She's probably even more terrifying to them than I am. A woman - who was born a man - and knows more than they could ever dream of? She's young, she's brilliant, and she's an easy target. I don't want her story to end like mine."

"You think they're doing all of this to chase her out of gaming? She's not even on the high table!"

"And probably never will be," Dez pointed out. "Braden, be honest. What company is going to risk their reputation on a trans woman? With the sentiment in the country right now? Their executives will say it's not a good business decision. They're fucking wrong, but we all know that's how it will go. And she's not a good enough player to take out QQ, Void, and Murder. Hell, Knock doesn't even have a PLG contract. All I'm saying is that for KoG, this is an easy hit."

"Huh?"

"They outed her, Brae. They tipped off a small town paper with a story that's sensational. It's almost no work for them, and a huge hit to Rhaven. Her options aren't good. In most cases, this would knock her out of the running, but what if we change the rules?"

"Find her a sponsor, you mean?"

She smiled. "No. Not at all. Braden, they want to scare her off the same way they tried to with me. They don't care if they break her in the process. They want to hurt women, to make sure the gaming industry is so painful that they can get their sandbox back. There's just one problem. It's not their fucking sandbox."

"It's yours," he realized.

She nodded. "And I can't think of anyone more flawed than Rhaven. Her background check came back clean, Brae. We don't do drug tests."

"She'd pass," he said. "Even if we did, she'd fucking pass. The only thing she's hooked on are hormones."

"And Deviant Games has a good insurance plan. Chance made sure it covered reassignment."

His breath rushed out. "You're going to offer her a job?"

"Not until after the tournament, because employees of Deviant Games can't compete in sanctioned events." She tilted her head. "So long as you're ok with this?"

"Put her on the interface," he decided. "Shit, Dez, make her fucking lead of the interface."

"Hmm," she murmured. "That was going to be Andy's gig, and I'm not demoting him, but I may have an idea. I also know that most women undervalue their skillset." Then she pushed back her chair. "Not a word, Brae. I just wanted to make sure you had a head's up."

He nodded. "Yeah. And you need to make sure that Jason knows they made another hit."

"No." She pulled in a breath, a fury simmering in her eyes. "He just became a godparent, and I'm not going to ruin his day."

He gestured to the screen where the website was still visible. "But they can't get away with this!"

"Nope. See, that's the other thing." And she smiled, the look one of the cruelest things he'd seen in his life. "It's still my internet. No one fucks with my best friend's girl, Brae. No one."

Chapter 25

She got off the plane to find an older man holding a sign that said, "Rhaven Moore" on it. It seemed he'd been sent from the hotel to drive her back. He called her ma'am over and over, offered to carry her bags - even though he was probably in his seventies - and chatted with her the whole way. Then, when he pulled up in front of the hotel, a