“You’re right. There’s no excuse.” He lowered his gaze. “I hate that my stupidity hurt you. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea at the time.”
“Maybe because Clarissa is so persuasive?”
Slowly, he shook his head. “I can’t blame your sister. This one’s on me. I was the one who introduced Jake to Planet Wargames. I coached him until he surpassed me. Since he had plenty of time to play, he racked up tons of experience, weapons cache, and spent hours in the chat rooms. It was his life. Last year, he was so close to winning. Then a group of cyber bullies attacked him. They tricked him out of his password and stole his character. Everything he had was gone, and he had to start over.”
“We have an investigations division that could have restored his character to him,” Safire said. Not that it mattered anymore. Not when the entire integrity of Thrive Entertainment was at stake.
“We didn’t know that. So I basically bought Jake every power he could get, but because you guys don’t want people buying your way to the highest level, he had to put in the hours by himself. His mother was getting worried and I had to make sure he did his physical therapy, so I promised him that if he won the world tour, I would go with him, and he promised me he would walk instead of sit in a wheelchair. That gave him the motivation to do his physical therapy.”
As angry as she was at Gunner’s stupidity, Safire couldn’t help kissing him on the forehead. The man really cared about Jake, and it wasn’t easy getting the double amputee to work on his physical therapy enough to put on his prosthetics and walk.
“Dex will probably honor the contract for Jake, but if any word of this gets out, our competitors would have a field day. I’ll resign of course, but Dex is going to have to do something to regain trust—maybe offer another competition.”
“He can’t fire you,” Gunner said. “I’ll pay for your salary. I’ll pay damages. I can’t let you take the fall.”
“I’m responsible.” Safire’s heart cratered to her stomach. “You say Clarissa hacked into my account New Year’s Eve. I should have been suspicious why she wasn’t going out that night. I thought it was because she’d broken up with Alan. I had no idea it was to hack my account.”
“I’m sorry.” Gunner brushed a kiss on her lips. “I should never have taken you to the party.”
His words socked her in her already queasy stomach. Take her to the party? Was that the distraction to get her out of her apartment?
Safire could only gape at the double-dealing, underhanded, crooked, selfish pig in front of her. She raised her hand to slap him, but lowered it. She couldn’t stoop to his level.
Instead, her voice turned to ice. “Are you saying the only reason you asked me out was so Clarissa could pull off the hack?”
“No, not the only reason,” Gunner stuttered.
“Don’t. Lie. To. Me.”
“I’m not lying, Saf. I liked you from afar. And as stupid as I am, maybe I thought that if we did this trick, Clarissa would help me get a date with you, or at least she wouldn’t mind me taking you to Dex’s party. It gave me the courage to ask you out.”
“Courage? As if you’re afraid of me?” Safire shook her head so hard her neck joints cricked. “You. Mr. Player with tons of models and strippers. What do you have to be afraid of?”
“You. A woman who tells the truth.”
“And you? Do you tell the truth?” Safire pinched the corded muscles on his neck.
“I do with you. I love you, Safire.”
He looked so sincere it made Safire’s heart ache. But she steeled herself and grounded the butterflies taking flight in her gut.
“You’re lying, Gunner, or should I call you Fire_Hunter?”
“Huh?” His head jerked back, and he drew in a sharp breath. “That’s Jake’s account. The one that was stolen.”
“Nice try, Gunner. You’ve been lying to me from the first word out of your mouth. Fire_Hunter sent an email to my boss accusing me of cheating for Jake. Fire_Hunter’s been trying to take me down since the day I got promoted to lead designer. Fire_Hunter spreads vicious lies about me. And you, Gunner. You’re Fire_Hunter.”
“I swear, I’m not. You have to believe me.” Gunner grabbed her as she tried to leap from his lap.
“Let me go.” Safire tore herself from his grasp. She slid down the bench seat of the limo and took her phone from her purse. “Take me back to Thrive. I don’t know what you have against me. I don’t know who I pissed off. I don’t even know what you’re all about, but I don’t like you anymore, and I don’t ever want to see or speak to you again.”
Gunner unlatched his seatbelt and scrambled to her side. “I’m not letting you go. You have to listen to me. You have to believe me.”
“No, Gunner. I don’t.” She called nine-one-one.
# # #
“I promise, Officer. I will not go anywhere near Safire Chu,” Gunner said, holding his hands behind his head.
Safire, of course, had been escorted away by the police and questioned separately. It wasn’t as if he were truly planning on taking her prisoner, but she’d overreacted. What must she think about him? Didn’t she trust him? After all they’d been to each other?
“The lady says she’s not pressing charges if you agree not to contact her. That means no texting, no email, no calling, and no dropping by her place. Do you agree?”
“Yes, yes.” Gunner shrunk at the sight of all the cell phone cameras pointed at him. “Now, am I free to leave?”
“Only if you autograph my notebook here.” The officer winked. He gave Gunner a push and said to the crowd. “Move along. Show’s over.”
Gunner scrawled his name on the policeman’s notepad and bade him goodbye, ignoring the crowd of people holding out objects for him to sign.
His driver opened the door of his limo for him, and he got in the back seat alone. How could he have fucked up so badly?
He’d been trying to reform himself—not just his image, and Safire was the perfect woman for him. He’d been following her on the gamer sites and had written good reviews for all her games. He was her fanboy, not a troll out to destroy her.
He had to save her.
Gunner scrolled through his contact list and found Siena Remington’s phone number. Maybe she could help. Dex was her twin brother, and if he explained everything to her, she could think of a way to fix this mess.
As the limo made its way around the City, Gunner explained the entire situation to Siena.
“So, Gunner, are you telling me you’re serious about being honest?” Siena asked, sounding skeptical.
“Of course, I am. I did everything you said about respecting women. I paid attention to Safire. I didn’t play with my phone. I waited for her to kiss me first. I let her take the lead, getting on top and—”
“Wait, wait,” Siena cut him off. “Too much information. What you need to do now is fess up to my brother. Usually, he wouldn’t take a call from you, but let me call him first.”
“What’s going to happen to Safire? None of this is her fault.”
“I know that, but my brother’s company’s reputation is going to take a hit. Sometimes, Gunner, it’s not about fault, but trust and integrity. The customers aren’t going to excuse Dex because it’s not his fault, and Dex isn’t going to excuse Safire because it’s not her fault.”
“Gosh, I feel horrible.” Gunner held his head in his hand. “I’ll wait for you to call Dex. Thanks, Siena. I owe you.”
“Sure, no problem.” She hung up.
Gunner took deep breaths and navigated to the site of US Daily, the rag mag that had a picture of him kissing Siena Remington. He scrolled through the comments, many of them lewd, of men making suggestive remarks against Siena. He had to make this right.
He entered a comment. This is Gunner Gibson. This kiss was posed. I kissed Siena Remington without her permission, and I apologize to her and to all her family and friends.
Swallowing hard, he closed the site, and told his driver to
go back to Thrive Entertainment where he would get the receptionist to take him to Dex’s office.
Everything was his fault, but as Siena pointed out, it didn’t matter. He’d fucked up both Safire and Dex’s lives—maybe more. What if all the employees of Thrive were fired? What if Jake was outed for being a fake? What if Safire retreated back to that hellhole she’d gone down a year ago when Finn had dumped her and she’d blamed herself for driving him away?
At least this time it wasn’t her fault. As if that mattered.
Gunner hated himself. Hated the way he’d put the ends above the means, justifying his dishonesty by saying he was doing it for a good cause. That was all he knew growing up in the trailer park, where getting out by any means possible meant survival and success.
Had he cheated on a test before? Yes, the football coach had hired a nerd to take his tests for him. How about when he was being recruited? Yes, the coaches had sent him to a hotel room where he could choose which woman to sleep with.
But he’d stopped short of taking steroids, and he had never cheated when it came to playing the game. He was a hero to millions of young fans, and he had to be honest, strong, and fair.
Except, he’d thought cheating on a video game was okay. That a video game wasn’t real. That it was being played in a virtual world. That it was only a game.
Except it wasn’t. And it had cost him Safire Chu, Rose_Colored_Gun, his friend and lover inside Planet Wargames.
Chapter Sixteen
After being interviewed by a police officer on whether she’d been abused or not, Safire was finally dropped off at her office building. Her head was ready to explode as she strode through the lobby. She tried to ignore the bright display of flowers on the receptionist’s desk courtesy of Gunner “Guilty” Gibson.
Safire punched the elevator button, then pulled out her cell, texting Mitch. Meet me in the lab. We have to go over Jake Rodriguez’s access logs for New Year’s Eve. Don’t say anything yet to anyone, please.
The elevator doors opened and Stacy Sparks stepped out with a smirk across her face a mile wide. “Look what Gunner got me.”
She twirled around to show off the large New York Furies jersey with Gunner’s number and name across the back.
“That’s nice.” Safire brushed by the receptionist. She had no time for the former engineer who’d been demoted after leaving a big security hole in World of Thieves II. “Have you seen Dex? Is he back from his meeting yet?”
“Not yet. I’ll let you know when he returns.” Stacy sashayed toward the receptionist’s desk and made a show of admiring the oversized flower arrangement.
Safire numbed herself and stepped into the elevator. This was no time to feel pain. No time for emotions. Nothing but focused attention to the problem in front of her. Snapshotting the time and location of Jake’s access, recording the points, weapons, abilities, and other items given to him, and figuring out if any other player was close enough to have won if Jake hadn’t received the help.
She needed Mitch for a witness, as well as to help her sift through the data. Then, she’d type up her resignation letter and present the case to Dex.
Despite the numbing, Safire shuddered as the elevator reached her floor. Gunner’s cologne was still on her clothes, and the memory of his hands, lips and chest lingered. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but during the magical weekend she’d spent with him, she’d allowed herself to wonder if he was the one for her.
Too bad she’d been wrong. Better to nip it in the bud.
She shook off his words, the lie that he loved her, and headed to the lab.
Before she could open the door, Mitch rushed out. His hair was disheveled and sweat poured from his forehead.
“We’re doomed. All of us are doomed,” Mitch said.
“Why? What happened?” Safire looked over his shoulder and noticed Regina standing over a monitor.
“Regina found out Gunner is Fire_Hunter,” Mitch said. “And he’s pirated Zombie Warlord and uploaded them to all the pirate sites. It’s being seeded on Torrents worldwide.”
The bottom dropped from Safire’s stomach, her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. “Why would he do that to me? Why? Why?”
Every breath left her body, and a giant hand wrenched her heart and squeezed all the blood from her veins.
“Hey, you okay?” Mitch bent over and pulled her to her feet. “We’ll fix this. They only got the client, not the server code. All we have to do is change all the APIs and break all the calls.”
Regina shook her head. “That may work technically, but our plans are busted. Everyone knows what the features are, the artwork, everything. KI Industries just issued a press release mocking us. They’re saying we should have named the game Zombie Pirate.”
“Who cares what they say?” Mitch dragged Safire to the rows of keyboards and monitors. “Let’s start patching the code.”
Tears rolled down Safire’s face, but she swiped at them angrily. “Fire_Hunter’s going down. I’m taking him out.”
“You can’t go into a game and mess with the players,” Regina said. “Although, since he stole the code, we can get him on the terms and conditions.”
“Fuck the terms and conditions.” Safire logged onto the Planet Wargames server. “I’m nuking him out of the database.”
Regina leaped forward and shoved Safire away from the keyboard. “No, you’re not. Fire_Hunter could lead us to more pirates. We have to let this play out, spy on their whispers and see what else they’re up to. This could be an inside job.”
“I thought you said Gunner’s Fire_Hunter.” Safire couldn’t believe what she was hearing. An inside job?
“He is, but he’s too stupid to break into our code repository,” Regina said. “Unless there’s someone on the inside helping him.”
“Who?” Safire sputtered. “Who’d give Gunner access to our code base?”
The door to the lab opened and Dex Remington stepped through, flanked by two security guards.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Chu,” Dex said in a grim voice. “But we have to escort you from the premises. Leave your laptop and cell phone behind. Jerry will go to your apartment and collect your access point.”
“Wait. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t help anyone steal our code.” Safire’s mouth was rubbery and her tongue felt large and slow. “It wasn’t me. I swear. I’ll help catch the hacker. I can help.”
“Sorry,” Dex said. “If you are truly innocent, we’ll find out soon enough. But right now, you need to leave. KI Industries just announced a free upgrade to their upcoming zombie game for anyone who has our zombie client code. I’m not firing you yet, but I need you out of the building.”
Mitch put his arm over Safire’s shoulder and hugged her. “I’m sure we’ll figure out what happened. Come on, I’ll walk you out.”
Safire gave her phone to Dex. “I have nothing to hide. I still need someone to check Jake Rodriguez’s access on New Year’s Eve. Gunner says my sister hacked into his account and cheated for him to win the Planet Wargames Worldwide Tour. I’m sorry. Even if I didn’t know about it, it’s still my fault. My mother always said, if you want to smell like a rose, don’t sleep with pigs.”
# # #
“You boys want anything to eat?” Jake’s mother, Gladys, called through the door. “Chicken soup? Or a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich?”
“We’re good,” Jake said, his eyes glued to the screen in front of him.
“Yes, thanks. I’ll get some after we finish here,” Gunner said, glancing briefly at Gladys.
“Okay, boys. I’ll set the tray right here.” She walked out of the room.
All attention was on the game. Gunner had resurrected his character, Guns4Roses, and together, with Jake, Thumper_Gunner, they were exploring the North Realms on the trail of Fire_Hunter.
“I’ve got a bead on him,” Jake said. “Looks like he’s picking up a carrier pigeon.”
“Means someone sent him a message. I wonder what he�
��s up to.” Gunner shot a Cyborg who’d gotten too close, but he wasn’t interested in leveling up or picking up coin.
“No good, I’m sure,” Jake said. “Let’s butt in on them. Shake them down some.”
Together, Jake and Gunner’s avatars advanced on the barricaded building where Fire_Hunter crouched.
On the way, they had to shoot at multiple enemies, including a mob of Undead Militants. At one point, Fire_Hunter had actually joined in on the firefight.
After the Undead Militants had been looted, Gunner opened up a chat window to Fire_Hunter and typed.
Want to join my guild?
No, I fight and hunt alone, came the answer.
Who are you hunting for? Gunner typed into the window.
An enemy. She’s come back from the dead. If you see her, trap her, and let me deal with her. Fire_Hunter messaged back.
What’s her name?
Rose_Colored_Gun, the vigilante’s back. Fire_Hunter typed in the chat box. But this time, she’s going down for good.
Great. Message me when you find her, Gunner’s character whispered.
Not a chance, Fire_Hunter messaged. Find your own vigilante to frag.
With that, Fire_Hunter dematerialized as he logged out of the game.
“You see that?” Gunner said to Jake. “He’s after Rose, and that means she’s back.”
“Maybe it’s another one with the same name,” Jake said. “I heard you can’t bring a character back after it’s been wiped from the database. After Fire_Hunter stole my account, he went around bragging about how he killed all the vigilantes, then wiped Rose_Colored_Gun from the database.”
“Looks like she’s found a way back.” Gunner smiled to himself. “My wife is back.”
He well remembered those heady days when he and Rose_Colored_Gun had said their vows in front of the Grand Wizard of Paradise. It had been a sweet ceremony, and they’d spent many hours planning and writing their vows, to always travel together and watch each other’s backs, and to build their dream home in the land of rainbows to live in after their journey’s end.
The Remingtons_Blush of Love Page 9