Page 29 of Off Her Game

Ninety minutes later, twenty-six levels in, the greenhorns already out, she made a mistake by moving through the indiscriminate fire line of her teammate. The cocky fifteen-year-old whose finger never let up on his fire button accidentally shot her. Maybe it wasn’t an accident. He’d positioned himself in a way that made it almost impossible for her not to cross through his active fire line.

She tried to compensate for the error, but as expected, her character died within a minute. This game was sudden death. One life. No extra life credits. She ripped off her headset with a curse. No matter whether this was real or show, she despised losing.

“What the hell?” Rand slammed his hand down on the table beside her.

She jumped. “My teammate shot me. Blame him.”

“You never mess up this early. Did you screw up on purpose?”

“I don’t mess up on purpose. It hurts my reputation to lose. You want me to do better? Then assign me people who actually want to work together. But that’s not the point of this circus, is it? As long as we keep screwing each other rather than working together we remain in debt. Right?”

Rand’s face mottled red. “Get out of here. Get some practice in for next time. Go blow Harrison and get us what we want. If he won’t give it to you, steal it. Don’t disappoint us.”