by Kitty Cox
"No," she breathed as the next image popped up, showing Adam helping her out of the limo at Mycah's art gallery. "Turn it off," she hissed, looking at Void.
Chance was already moving. "We've been hacked," he told the team. "Stop the stream."
But the video only got worse. Her and Adam kissing on the patio at the art show. A photo of Adam being celebrated as the youngest multi-millionaire in the county. Then Kate's business card, showing not only her name and title but also her phone number. Cheaply made graphics were superimposed over it, making the card look like it was supposed to be burning.
That's when the voiceover started. "This is what they do. They sleep their way to the top, using their sex appeal to get ahead. She's not a gamer, she's a whore, and women like Katelyn Gaskill need to be put back where they belong."
"Turn it off!" Chance yelled.
But the video kept going. "This is war, and in war, people get hurt. The Kings of Gaming are looking for a few good men willing to make sure that bitches like thi-" Thankfully, the screen went black before the threat could be completed.
Kate still couldn't move. With one hand over her mouth, she stared at the now-dark screen, trying to remember how to breathe. Someone out there wanted her to get hurt. They didn't seem to care who was injured in the process. The thought crossed her mind, and she spun to look out at the crowd, her eyes seeking her own seat - and the man beside it.
Adam's face was just a little too pale. The people sitting around the room had all turned to get a better look at him, comparing the casually dressed man in the gaming hall with the businessman in those pictures. It wasn't hard to tell they were the same one.
"Fuck," Kate hissed.
Beside her, Riley just chuckled softly under her breath. "Well, well. It seems my second in command has been keeping his own secrets." She looked over at Void. "They will not touch my gamer girl. You hear me?"
That was when Kate realized exactly what this meant. That video had just taunted everyone in the room to hurt her. Her! She'd never been strong enough to fight back. Marshall had proven it time and time again. Was he the one behind this?
"Lith," Rhaven said, hurrying over to wrap an arm around her. "You need to lay low for a bit. C'mon, Ice is coming."
She felt like she was in a daze as Rhaven led her toward the door. Her mind was locked on his secret being revealed to the world and how she couldn't just leave. She was supposed to look professional and responsible up there. She was representing the hotel. How could she do that if she just left?
Adam met them at the door, taking Kate from Rhaven's protection to offer his own. "I'm taking her to our room."
"Number?" Rhaven asked. "So we can tell you what we find?"
He laughed once, the sound almost cold. "The penthouse. Room 801."
"Fuck. So it's all true?"
Ice didn't bother answering that. "Just find out who wants to hurt her!"
"Yes, sir," Rhaven agreed, spinning to run back across the room. Not toward the developers, but toward the mass of gamers. Right toward Kate's chair.
"I'm so sorry," she told Adam as he led her into the hotel lobby. "I didn't mean to ruin this for you. Oh my god, they all know."
"Kate," he said, making her look at him. "It's not me they're trying to hurt, darlin'. It's you, and that threat isn't an empty one."
Chapter 38
Kate didn't really remember making it up to her suite. Mostly, she just kept trying to get Adam to forgive her for messing up his game life. Over and over, he told her it was ok, but she couldn't accept that. He'd been doing just fine until she came along, and now she'd ruined it. She was supposed to be smart and successful, so why hadn't she seen this coming?
What she didn't do was cry. She was simply too shocked for that. Still, the message from the video played over and over in her mind, new details sticking with each repetition. The voice had been mechanically altered, changed so it wouldn't be identifiable. The images were things easily found online. Then there was the part about the Kings of Gaming.
Who were these people, and why did they even care? That was the part she simply couldn't comprehend. What difference did it make to them whether or not she played a video game? Was it because she'd been given one of the prize computers? Could it really be that simple? Some idiot thought that Void was giving her a computer because she was a woman, completely ignoring the fact that his girlfriend was not only gorgeous but also a gamer herself?
She dropped onto the couch in the living room, trying to figure it out. If she could just think a little harder, maybe she'd find the answer. There had to be a way to fix this. There always was, if she could just stop her mind from spinning long enough to think.
Adam, however, was pacing across the center of the room with his phone to his ear. "Mom?" he said after a moment. "Shit just hit the fan. Look, I need you to call Fizz and get him up to my suite, because I'm about to be busy. Someone just exposed me in the gaming hall." He paused. "Yeah, I know you don't get it, but you don't have to. I need you to call Darius first. After that, get Martin to call me. I don't care what else he has going on, but I need the network logs backed up and his complete attention."
"The cops," Kate said, realizing what he was forgetting.
He waved her away. "No crime to report. All of that is public, and the threat wasn't specific enough to get more than a write up." Then he sighed. "Mom, Kate's been targeted by this men's right's group. It's gamer-centric, but they're whack. Yeah. I'm gonna need a couple of extra hands, because someone has to see how deep I can go into this data pipeline without confidentiality issues."
"Tell her," Kate said, "to brace the company for a sexual harassment investigation. This is going to go public somehow, and you're going to be accused of taking advantage of me. You know that, right? Degrass Industries is about to get a whole lot of bad press."
"Fuck!" Adam hissed before relaying all of that to Nancy.
Kate went back to trying to think, but a knock at the door interrupted her. She hurried over, making sure to look through the peephole first, half expecting it to be the press. Instead, it was Braden, the big guy from Deviant Games. She quickly opened the door and waved him in.
"Thank god, you're ok," he breathed, gently rubbing both her shoulders before reaching up to flick the panic latch. "Chance sent me up here to make sure. Lith, he's got the best out there trying to figure out who swapped out the video files. Most of the development team is suspect and everyone in the gaming hall."
"How does this even happen?" she asked.
He rocked his head from side to side. "Could be a few ways. Easiest would be to go in through the router, since a lot of those have hard coded admin logins and passwords. Know the brand, you know how to become god. Or it could be something as stupid as a virus sent through the game network."
"I don't know what any of that means!" she groaned.
He pointed to the bar. "Alcohol in here?"
Ice answered, proving he was listening in. "Over the sink."
"Pick your poison, little one," Braden teased as he headed that way.
"Whiskey?" she asked.
He shot her an impressed look. "You don't fuck around, do you?"
She held up her hand showing only an inch between her fingers. "Just a bit, or I'll be trying to dance naked on the tables."
"Remind me of the downside again?" He laughed, but didn't overfill her glass. "So, full disclosure, since I'm not sure what you do and do not know. Chance, Dez, and I all have known that IceMan is Adam Degrass since we signed the expo contracts with him. Chance helped him get the PLG tours as well."
"And now everyone knows," she said, climbing onto the stool set before the counter. "How is this going to affect his gaming?"
"He may want to change his game name. PMs and friend requests might be stupid for a bit. I'm pretty sure we can handle that without making him completely re-roll his character, though."
"Not changing my name," Adam said, tossing his phone on the coffee table as if he were done
. "I've had it since I started play- " Another knock at the door interrupted him, making him change course.
This time, it was a crowd, but the good kind. The moment the door opened, QQ walked in carrying a bottle of tequila. Behind her was Void, Rhaven, Knock, Fizz, and Cynister.
"The army has arrived," she announced before pausing in the middle of the suite. "Damn. This is nice."
"Perk of the job," he told her. "What do you want, Q?"
She pointed across the room at Kate. "We're here for her, rich boy. And so you know, I'm closing in on you pretty fast, so you're not that special."
That made him finally smile. "Thanks, Q," he said, moving closer to hug her. "That was exactly what I needed to hear."
"Ice, it's not a big deal," she promised. "So what if you own a few hotels. You're still the second in charge of Paradox, and you're a damned good gamer. Granted, I do feel a bit less bad about making you buy my drinks that first night."
"Then there's an upside." He gestured for them to all take a seat. "Braden, you playing bartender?"
"I will if Rhaven helps," he said.
She sighed. "Look. You may be some good-looking, hotshot developer with a little name recognition, but has it made it through your thick, testosterone laden head yet that right about now you might want to tone down the overt pickup attempts? Pretty sure you are only chasing me because I'm supposed to be all impressed that you helped make some game."
"Nah," Braden told her. "I'm trying to get to know you. See, I'm not sure what it is yet, but something about you makes me think you could use a little muscle on your side. You know what? That is what I'm good at. I'm only on the dev team because Dez took pity on me, and I fucking know it."
"Oh," she said, sounding like her fight had just vanished.
Braden nodded. "Now, come help me pour, and let's all pretend to be on the same side for a minute, ok?"
Trying to get out of the line of fire, Kate grabbed her glass and headed back to the living room, claiming the seat beside Adam. QQ and Void were talking to him about protections for Kate, including the legal kind. Void was offering his services but wasn't sure how much help that would really be, since this wasn't completely virtual. Fizz assured him that they could afford a team, they just might need some advice on who to hire.
It was Cynister who caught her attention. He was sitting alone on the loveseat, staring hard at absolutely nothing, his mind clearly working a little too hard. When the glasses started being handed out, he finally blinked away his trance, thanking Rhaven as he accepted something clear.
"Kings of Gaming," he said, making the room fall silent. "That's who made the video."
"Yeah," Adam told him. "We got that part."
But Cynister gestured at QQ. "The people who hit her house when she was in Denver? Kings of Gaming were involved. See, the assholes in that group? They aren't just dicks online, guys. Some are involved in horses, hotels, and just about anything else. I mean, there's always some sick fuck out there, and now they have a support group."
"So what am I supposed to do?" Kate asked. "Is Marshall one?"
Cynister laughed once. "Believe it or not, I don't know everything, babe. I think the safest thing for you would be to stop gaming."
For some reason, those words hit her like a punch to the gut. She didn't want to stop gaming! Looking around, she realized that the best friends she'd ever had would vanish if she did. Gaming was the reason she'd found these people, and she couldn't imagine a group she liked being around more.
"No." She made it clear she wouldn't budge on that.
"Good," Adam said, dropping his arm over her shoulder to pull her closer. "Darlin', I'm so sorry. I had no idea having you do the intro speech would cause any of this."
"How could you?" she asked.
He sighed and looked at Riley. "Because I've seen the kind of shit gamer girls get. Because I heard about Carebear."
"Who?"
"Me," Riley told her. "Back when I was younger, I tried to make a run for the PLG, hoping to be the first female professional gamer."
Kate was confused. "But I thought you were."
Riley nodded. "On my second try, and thanks to the help of some friends. The first time around, I got slut shamed and black balled. Thing is, I didn't do any of it. I didn't sleep with anyone. I was at the tournament with my dad."
"Oh."
Riley nodded, realizing Kate understood. "And for years, I thought all gamers were sexist pigs. I was wrong. I'd say that about eighty percent of the guys online are more than willing to jump in and help us. Maybe ten percent don't care and just want to do their own thing. It's the last ten percent that are the problem. They're the vocal minority. The assholes who scream loud enough and make enough issues that we can't see anything else."
"Kings of Gaming," Kate realized.
"Among others," Void agreed. "Racist groups exist too. There's even some cross over between the group."
"Told you," Rhaven said as she delivered the next round of drinks. "Cis white men."
"Cis?" Fizz asked.
Rhaven shot him a confused look. "Yeah. You know, typical. Cisgender people are the ones who fit in the expectations of their gender. Normal women. Normal men. Thing is, the word 'normal' implies that the other options are wrong."
Fizz nodded to show he heard her. "So, you mean straight?"
"No!" Rhaven groaned. "I mean that a girl who is a tomboy is at the far edge of cisgender. A man who wears eyeliner is just outside it. Gender fluid, transgender, or effeminate men. Women who are butch. It's not about who you fuck. It's about how society perceives you as male, female, or something in between."
"Oh," Fizz breathed. "Yeah, never heard that term, but willing to bet I'm a cis black man, huh?"
"Yes, you are," Rhaven agreed. "And you three know Kate got doxxed?"
"What?" Riley gasped.
Kate just bobbed her head, starting to feel resigned about all of this. "Yeah. I spent most of the day cancelling my cards and changing my accounts. I can't go home, since my address is out there, and they posted my business card in that stupid video, so I'm willing to bet my office line has been insane today, too."
"Don't worry about it," Adam told her. "Our main concern is making sure some psychopath can't find you."
"Doxxing is illegal," Riley pointed out, looking around the room as if for backup.
Cynister shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Most police agencies aren't up to speed on this stuff. Sure, if she can prove who did it, then there might be charges filed, but the cops won't go out and find them. They can't. Hell, most cybercrime units are running on tech that's a decade old. Not even a fair fight."
Riley looked at him for a little too long. "How do you know all this, Cyn?"
"Got a little juvie for hacking. Learned to cover my tracks better when I got older. Stop poking, babe."
"Ok," Kate said, interrupting. "So what are we supposed to actually do about all of this?"
"That," Riley told her, "is why we're here. I asked Synjd to stay downstairs and watch the chatter because we need to know what we're working with, and it'll come out in gossip."
"And when we know? Seriously, guys? What can we even do about this crap?"
Riley lifted her chin and met Kate's eyes. "We can show those fuckers that we're not scared. Lith, I'm tired of it always being us on the run. I'm fucking sick of this shit. Doesn't matter if we've got an innie or an outie. We're all gamers, and you know what? If someone wants to make this a fight? I say bring it." She gestured to Rhaven. "Tell me we chicks can't kick some ass. Go ahead, but we all know it's a lie."
"I'm so on board with this," Rhaven agreed.
Riley just nodded. "Lith, what they did to you? Yeah, that just started a war, and this?" She gestured to everyone in the room. "This is my fucking army. If those asshats come at one of us, they come at all of us, and I'm ready to lead the charge."
Chapter 39
Almost an hour later, someone else decided to knock on the door. Adam gestured fo
r Kate to stay, and headed over to look through the peephole. With a single laugh, he stepped back and opened the door. Chance walked in with a hand outstretched to Adam. It was the thin, tattooed woman standing in his shadow that made everyone else fall silent.
"Dez," Cynister said, moving to the other end of his loveseat. "I got room."
Her eyes flicked across the group of people, but she walked to the loveseat with her chin up and her shoulders set. To Kate, the woman was a strange mix of timid and brazen, all rolled up into one very little package. It was the laptop in her hands that made it clear she was here for business.
Cynister pointed at the woman beside him. "So, I said I knew someone at Deviant. Double pepperoni, extra cheese, right here."
Dez gave him an incredulous look. "I see how it is."
"Figured."
Now that exchange, Kate didn't follow, but over the past few days she'd come to realize that this Dez person was pretty important. She didn't touch people, Braden had been called away to be on her guard duty, and she clearly got respect when she walked into a room. The bigger question was why. Hopefully, Kate wouldn't piss anyone off if she just asked.
"So," she said, leaning forward. "I'm kinda new to gaming, and I feel like I'm missing something."
"Destiny Pierce," Chance said from across the room. "Probably the youngest game developer to make an impact on the scene. She vanished for a few years, and I found her working at Home Depot. Convinced her to join the Deviant team, and that's how we got our first game out to the public."
Dez grunted at that, then pulled her legs under her on the cushion, almost like she was pulling into herself. "I disappeared because of your new fan club. The Kings of Gaming? Well, I was the one who didn't get away." When she took a deep breath, Cynister passed over his glass. She immediately took a pretty impressive gulp before continuing. "I was kidnapped from an interview, chained up in a warehouse, raped, cut, and held for two weeks. They did all of that to convince me to stop making games."
"Oh, fuck," Kate breathed.