Page 2 of Off Her Game
“You play?” He stopped chewing his gum and gazed at her out of the corner of his eyes with a guarded expression.
She nodded.
Quickly, he asked, “Who do you play?”
“InZoneworld OneorTwo?”
“Two.” He uncrossed his legs and faced her.
“Evelle.”
He nodded and resumed chewing. “Of course. You’d choose the femme fatale.”
“She gets more weapons than any other character.” And, she didn’t have enhanced tits or a bubble butt. In this classic role-playing game she adored the avatar for being an ordinary-looking brunette with glasses, rare attributes for a gaming character. The glasses might be a nerd stereotype, but she’d take it over a sexualized female.
“She doesn’t need a single one of the weapons.” His eyes flared. This was a test to see if she was only a talk-the-talk kinda girl or a serious gamer.
“That’s why choosing her is a no brainer. You gotta admit the best part of theZoneworldgames is their storylines.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d talked gaming with a guy who piqued her interest for something other than kicking his butt in front of a screen. She found herself on edge, giddy for his next question.
“Evelle is a tough play because of the level of extra work required, since she can seduce the other characters.”
Whoa. Hold the boat. What, what, what? She hadn’t known that. She knew a hell of a lot of about the game, being ranked in the top twenty in the legit, up-and-up, non-gambling world of multi-character gaming competitions and top fifty online. Talk about shattering her love for a non-cliché female character.
Maybe he lied. Who was this guy, anyway?
He grinned wide. Dimple alert. Damn, he knew he’d surprised her. He asked, “I assume you masteredZoneworld Warrior One. What level have you gotten to inTwo?”
“Forty-one,” she admitted with pride. It was as far as anyone else online had achieved.
“Nine away from the accolade. That’s pretty good. Did you get stuck at the cave?”
“What’s the accolade?” He’d made it all the way to the end? In the four months since the game released no one had made it that far. If he’d finished the game, it’d been offline. Unless everyone witnessed your success online, no one believed it.
He shook his head in anI’m-not-tellingway,but no comment on if he’d mastered the game. “You’ve got to make it to there to find out.”
“How do I get out of the cave without getting killed by a scorpion bot?”
A voice yelled, “Harrison and…” The thin cop at the exit read names off a clipboard. “Duarte.”
Not now. I need this answer!
A burst of dignity backed her down from begging.
The cop held open the swinging door into the station’s lobby. A floor wax machine hummed its circular wipes up the hall.
High heels that probably cost as much as had been in her wallet fast clicked against the worn linoleum in her direction. Each click ratcheted up her nerves. Did she beg for the bots answer before he disappeared or ready herself to face off with her pissed-off sister?
“Guess it’s a two-for-one special tonight.” Emma flicked imaginary dirt off her designer dark coat. Her sister had been the last person she’d wanted to call, but she had no other option with Quan on a train to D.C. tonight.
“What do you mean?” Tori started when her fellow offender stopped next to her and shrugged into his jacket. Her flawless, had-her-shit-together sister who could maintain an impeccable facade at all times, even in the middle of night at the crappiest police station in New York City, knew this man? Emma didn’t hang around gamer guys with earrings who got arrested.
Emma said, “Tori, meet my boss, Noah Harrison. Noah, this is my sister, Tori.”
He wastheNoah Harrison? The mysterious, reclusive billionaire to which her sister had risen in the ranks of his company to become his personal assistant a few months ago? The guy who co-designedZoneworld Warrior?
Oh my freaking God.
She’d conversed one-on-one with one of the Game Lords? No one got that kind of quality time with one of them. At least, no one she knew. Over the past year she’d begged her sister for info on Noah since little was posted publicly about him, not that she’d found out much. Noah avoided media exposure like the plague. His business partner, Jake Allen, Game Lord number two, was the face of the company, but everyone knew Noah was the brains. Jake’s line on the mystery of Noah’s media reticence was that he wanted his work to speak for itself. She hadn’t expected him to look likethis.
