Virtual Reality

by Kitty Cox

  Riley had sat up a little straighter. Beside her, Void reached over to palm her thigh, almost like he needed the reassurance that she was still there. It was Braden who broke the tension. He marched right through them all carrying a very large, very full glass of what looked like whiskey. Holding only the top, he passed it over, making sure his fingers never touched Dez's.

  "Yeah," Dez agreed. "Kate, this is a big deal. This threat? It's not an empty one."

  She was starting to realize that. "So what do I do?"

  Dez rubbed at her face. "You need to know what you're getting into. And I happen to think you have the right to run away and hide. Now, everyone else is going to tell you to fight back, but what they want doesn't matter. You have to decide if you want to make this stop or if winning is more important." Her brown eyes looked up to meet Kate's. They looked empty and hollow, like this woman had seen things no person ever should. "There's no right answer. Only the one you can live with."

  "You should know," Cynister said softly, "that you're not the only one. They hit Dez. Dreadknot's sister, Eden was drugged and raped at a party, and there's reason to think it was the same people." He looked over at Riley. "They went after you. Same group."

  "It gets worse," Chance said. "Kate, your video wasn't the only one that had been tampered with." He pointed to Rhaven. "If she'd gone first, this would be even worse. They want both of you."

  "Yeah?" Rhaven said. "Well fuck 'em. Pretty sure I can take it."

  "Rhaven," Chance said. "I watched the video. I had to."

  Her eyes got a little bigger. "Was it bad?"

  He tilted his head. "The point was to embarrass you. I also have no intention of letting anyone see it who doesn't need to."

  She was shaking her head. "You know?" Then she looked at Braden. "Do you?"

  "No," he assured her. "I've been up here, and if we knew those existed before the awards, we never would've played them."

  "No one's seeing it," Chance promised her. "Not without your permission, and I'll let you see what's on it later, ok?"

  She was slowly moving back, putting space between her and everyone else. "Is it what I think?"

  "Probably. I have a feeling it's your biggest secret."

  "Fuck!" she screamed.

  Hearing the panic in her voice mixed with the rage of such betrayal made up Kate's mind for her. Clearly, Rhaven had something to hide. Most people online did. For Adam, it was his wealth. For so many others, it could be worse. It could be things that would actually hurt. Then there was her. Kate had nothing, absolutely nothing that she was trying to keep to herself. All of her secrets were someone else's.

  "If Rhaven's next, then I'm not running," she decided, raising her voice, so everyone had to hear her. "Someone has to stand up, and I'm the best one to do this."

  "Lith," Riley said, "these people could hurt you."

  "Like they want to hurt Rhaven? Or like they did to Dez? No, fuck that. My ex-husband tried to smack me around a few times. You know what I did? I stood back up when he was done. No, Q, I'm not going to run and hide. Let them tear my life apart. I'm fucking a rich guy. So what? I've got a damned good job. So fucking what? They've got nothing on me, and I'm the only one of us in a position to be safe."

  Riley reached out and grabbed her hand. "And you won't be alone. That's how I got through this. I had my guys. Well, you know what? They're yours now. Maybe you're new to this whole gaming thing, but I'm not, and I know how to motivate people online."

  "And I can see everything on the backside," Dez added.

  Adam moved closer, stopping behind Kate to rest his hand on her shoulder, but his eyes were on Dez. "How do we do this?"

  "We," Riley said, "need to make a scene. We need to stand up and call them out, making sure those dicks can't focus on anything but a group of girls they can't control."

  Dez nodded. "I need access to the back side."

  "The network," Cynister clarified, his eyes on Adam. "You need to give her full access."

  Dez pointed at Cynister. "And I'll have my friend monitor a few things. Call him an independent contractor for Deviant. Network security specialist or something. Don't really fucking care. Or give me admin rights, and I'll just pass it to him, but could be legal problems if we have to use it later."

  Adam just chuckled. "Pizza, huh?"

  "Pays better than hacking," Cynister assured him. "Lucky for you, I met Dez before she was a big name. Back before Silk even released, and not a hint of that can leave this room."

  Everyone nodded their agreement, knowing the things they were talking about could make more problems if it got out. Hopefully, this group had the right people in it to also make things a little better. There was just one problem.

  "But what do I do?" Kate asked. "How the hell am I supposed to keep the focus on me and make sure they don't move to anyone else?"

  "You can't," Chance told her. "They already have someone else to torture, and if you're not scared enough..."

  "Shit," Rhaven said, moving around to sit on the bar stool. "Which means I can't stop it from getting out."

  Cynister just looked up, his strange eyes filled with sympathy. "I already know. I don't think anyone in this room would care, though."

  She glanced back at Braden, then wiped at her too-shiny eyes. "This isn't how it's supposed to work. I'm supposed to pick when I'm ready."

  "And not a single one of us are pushing you," Chance promised. "We're also on your side."

  When the tears began to well up in Rhaven's eyes, Kate pushed herself off the couch and hurried into the downstairs bedroom, grabbing a box of tissues. With those in hand, she pulled a few out, passing them to Rhaven when she got close enough. The box went beside her on the bar, then Kate reached up and hugged her friend around the neck, giving her a shoulder to either lean on or cry on. It didn't matter which she chose.

  "Tell me how I can help, Rhay?" Kate begged. "You were my lifeline when I was freaking out this morning. How can I make it up to you?"

  With a shaking breath, Rhaven leaned back to blot at her lashes, trying hard not to smear her mascara. "My legal name..." She pressed the tissue to her almost-black lips. "Ethan Moore." The words were a whisper.

  Standing behind her, just across the counter, Braden heard. "That's your dead name. What's your real one?"

  "Rhaven," she whimpered. "I want to change it to be Rhaven. I want to be a real woman."

  "Rhaven?" QQ said, raising her voice. "I don't give a shit what anyone says. You are a real woman. And if they don't like it, they can come through me."

  "And me," Kate told her. "Look, I may not know how to fight like QQ, and I can't do all the geeky stuff like Dez, but you know what?" She bent to look at Rhaven's face. "Someone told me something the other day, and I think I just figured out what he meant. Being strong? All it means is that you stand up one more time than you get knocked down. It means you won't let anything stop you when you set your mind to it. And anytime you need a hand up? You've got mine."

  "Wait," Fizz said. "You're telling me that she's a he? But she's hot!"

  "Jesus, Darius," Adam hissed. "You realize that Rhaven can now call you the N word, right? Because that's kinda what you just did to her."

  "No," he hissed. "That's not what I meant! I'm just saying -"

  Void lifted a hand. "Quit while you're ahead, man. Right about now, you're just digging your hole deeper. Yeah, Rhaven's transgender. It's also none of your fucking business."

  "Wouldn't be," Fizz agreed, "if some cocksuckers weren't trying to mess with our gamer girls." This his eyes went wide. "Shit, is that bad too?"

  Dez groaned. "How?" she asked, looking at Adam. "How are you two related?"

  "Mom did a lot of drugs when she was pregnant with him. She won't admit it," Adam teased, "but it's the only explanation for his foot in mouth disease."

  "Fuck off!" Fizz groaned. "I don't know what all the special terms mean!"

  But while they were all giving him shit, Kate was focused on making sure Rhave
n really was ok. She couldn't even imagine how hard it would be to admit something like that. Talk about a deep, dark secret, and if that was what these Kings of Gaming were going to use against her?

  "I'm so sorry you had to tell us," Kate whispered, rubbing Rhaven's arm sympathetically.

  "You don't hate me?" she asked.

  "Why would I?" Kate countered.

  She gestured at her body. "For lying to you."

  "You didn't lie." Kate caught her hand. "If this is you, then this is the you I accept. Kinda like you accepted me when we met."

  Rhaven nodded. "I just know that if it gets out, I'll never get a contract. I mean, if QQ had all those problems? And without one, I'm stuck in Montana. Do you know what they do to people like me where I'm from?"

  "Rhaven, this is why we girls have to stick together, and just so you know, I'll be damned if I let these Kings of Gaming chase me off. If you can stand up to this, then I'll stand beside you, ok?"

  "So you'll be at Las Vegas?" she asked.

  Kate nodded. "Yeah, I will. But you might have to help me get through the speech."

  "Wait..." Rhaven looked over at Adam. "You own that hotel too?"

  He groaned. "Yeah."

  But Rhaven had clearly thought of something. "Which means the site could actually do something to protect the gamer girls? I dunno what, but if the hotel chain - or whatever you call it - got involved, we wouldn't need to go through the PLG or different game companies hosting the expos?"

  Slowly, Kate turned to look at Adam. "I don't know about you, but I think that falls under the Executive Marketing Coordinator position."

  Adam chuckled. "Yeah, and you talk to Mom and see if she has any ideas. We can do this. Not sure what this is, but we'll be ready by the next event."

  "Bigger problem," Riley said, "is how we're going to handle the main FPS tournament tomorrow."

  Dez hummed like she was thinking. "Well, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not brave enough to do it, but you three?" She looked from Riley to Kate and ended on Rhaven. "If you can taunt these fuckers, and Adam gives us access to all the networks, we can catch them. We just have to give them the chance to fuck up."

  "No," Adam said. "You're not making Kate a target, and if she tries, Rhaven will be outed."

  "I'm down for that," Riley told them. "I'm so down for that you have no idea."

  Kate looked at Rhaven. "What's the worst that happens? And if it did, could you handle it?"

  Slowly, she nodded. "I think I could. I mean, people already think I'm gay, and this isn't that much worse, is it?"

  "But is it worth it?" Kate asked. "This is just a game."

  "No," Rhaven told her. "It's not. Things that happen in game happen in real life, too. This place is supposed to be our sanctuary. It's supposed to be where we can finally relax and just be our real selves for a moment, and now they're trying to take that from us." Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "I honestly didn't expect you all to be ok with me."

  Braden reached over and touched her arm. "Sweetie, we're all flawed. See, that's something the Deviant team knows. We're all fucked up, and that's what makes us beautiful."

  She huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, but my flaw means you just stopped flirting."

  "So you're saying it's a good time to ask if I can walk you back to your room tonight?" he countered. "See, I don't give a shit. You're cute. You also seem a little bit vulnerable, and I got a real weakness for that."

  On the other side of the room, Dez giggled. "He does. Brae's a total sucker for someone in distress. Now, let's figure out how the hell we're going to make all of this work." She opened her laptop. "And how the hell we're going to get through tomorrow because what we're talking about doing isn't going to happen this weekend."

  Kate rubbed Rhaven's shoulder and stepped closer to the main group. "Degrass Industries does not tolerate hate groups. That's standard for all of our marketing events. Tonight, we figure out who the hell put those videos up, and we kick them out."

  "That'll send a message," Cynister agreed.

  Kate nodded. "And when I give my speech in the morning..." She looked over at Chance. "I'm going to change a few things up. You want to see it before I go on?"

  "I can wing it," he promised.

  "Good, because I'm going to make it very clear that all of the guests in our hotel are safe, and abuse of the private network is cause for being banned from all properties owned and operated by Degrass Industries. If they think I'm getting power because I'm fucking the man who owns the properties, then I'm going to use it. Let them think I'm overstepping my place. They can call me a bitch or whatever else they want, but if they're focused on me, then they'll leave the rest of you alone."

  "You," Fizz told her, "are a momma bear, aren't ya? The kind of woman who'll keep on taking the shit thrown at her, but soon as some idiot goes after a person you care about, the claws come out?"

  For a moment, Kate had to pause and think about that. Then, slowly, she began to nod. "Yeah. I guess I am. I've also never really had anyone in my life worth fighting for."

  "And now you do," Riley said. "Welcome to the club, Lithium. We're going to need new shirts."

  Chapter 40

  For most of the night, they all planned. At some point, Adam called down for room service, using his real name to make the order. After all, there was no reason to hide anymore. His secret was out, but no one seemed to care. Especially not the members of Paradox. They just picked on him for having a "lame" job.

  The problem was that they had too much information and not enough time to go through it all. Information Security had logs of every network interaction since the event went live. Deviant Games had chat and game logs. Between the two, they would tell a story - eventually. For now, all they could do was start setting things up to sort through later, and hope they could find something that would stick.

  Granted, one little piece of the puzzle had been solved for Kate. It seemed Cynister really was a hacker, and he knew as much as he did because he'd been friends with Dez for years. That explained so much, and the fact that he'd been given full access to all the server information for everything Deviant had produced? Well, maybe he wasn't quite as creepy as Kate thought. Granted, he still had no interest in telling them a single bit of personal information, except that he delivered pizza.

  But they had to trust someone if they wanted it to work, and this group seemed like the best of the best. Kate never would have expected to end up rubbing shoulders with these people, but it had still happened. Just like she'd ended up in a much better job than she'd ever dreamed of, and with the kind of man she hadn't known actually existed. For the most part, her life was perfect, except for this one, big, glaring issue. But it wasn't really her they were threatening.

  It had been Adam who had his life exposed. Rhaven was the one with everything to lose. This attack hadn't really been on her. It had been on everyone around her, and that was something she couldn't ignore. All her life, she'd thought she was weak, but this was different. Right here, right now, other people were counting on her, and what was the worst that would happen?

  There was no way they'd ever get their hands on her. Adam was moving her into his overly protected apartment. Her office had layer upon layer of security. All she had to do was make sure she didn't walk to her car alone, and she'd be fine.

  No, the worst they could do was embarrass her, not realizing she'd done that a few too many times on her own. She'd told her gamer friends when her husband had abused her. She'd laughed when she made mistakes in game. And considering she was sleeping with her boss's son? She had a feeling her job was pretty secure.

  That night, she fell asleep in Adam's arms, staring out at the skyline of Columbus. For once, they didn't jump into bed pawing each other. This time was different. She just wanted his arms around her, and he was more than happy to hold her until she fell asleep. Somehow, for Kate, that was the last thing she needed to know she was making the right decision.

  But she didn't fall r
ight to sleep. Sure, she was scared, but under that was something else. It was like a tiny little ember in the back of her mind that refused to go out. She couldn't forget the big tears filling Rhaven's eyes when she'd said her name was Ethan. A boy's name. A secret name. Then there was the hollow look in Dez's eyes that came from the torture these men had inflicted on her.

  That little spark was fueled by all those stories, and Kate knew there were more. She thought about the things Marshall had said and realized they were no different. This wasn't just about a handful of women playing video games. It was about a handful of men thinking they had the right to tell someone else what to do. This was about all those stories when the victim was asked what she was wearing instead of asking the attacker why he was there in the first place.

  For Kate, one line of that video kept playing on repeat in her mind. "Women like Katelyn Gaskill need to be put back where they belong." That was what the Kings of Gaming thought, but she was sick and tired of being pushed around by men. For once in her life, she wanted to say she'd actually fought back, and this was a fight she thought she could actually win. If nothing else, at least she'd go down swinging.

  She didn't remember falling asleep, but when the alarm went off the next morning, she knew it hadn't been that long ago. Her exhausted body wanted nothing more than to stay in bed, but she was a woman on a mission. One hot shower later, and Kate's mind was finally starting to work like normal. And that spark was still there, burning brighter than ever before.

  She was sitting in front of the mirror, putting on her makeup when Adam walked out of the shower with only a towel around his waist. He paused to watch for a moment, then moved around behind her to get dressed. Lucky for her, that meant she got a very nice view when he dropped the towel.

  "Trying to distract me?" she asked.

  He glanced back with a smile. "Actually, no." He shoved both legs into his jeans and stood, looking at her in the mirror. "Are you sure you're ok with staying at my place?"

  "Yeah." She nodded to prove her point. "I'm actually counting on your annoying lobby to make sure these guys can't come after me between events."