Page 58 of Off Her Game

“You put Tom and Sam on figuring out who called her?”

“Done hours ago.” Noah jumped up and stalked to the mini-refrigerator for a water. “They’re tracing the call, but not much to go on. Sam did the evil laugh, which I normally find disturbing but right now I think it’s good.” Noah collapsed onto the sofa.

“Chill out before you have a heart attack. Or give me one,” Jake muttered. Louder, he said, “I want to hire her to work on her game and whatever else comes out of her brain.”

He twisted the top off the water bottle and chugged half of it before answering. “We can’t hire her. It’d mess up Tom’s master plan. She also won’t go for it because it looks like she used her body to get us interested in her game. And it’s true. No, it’s not. I mean, I got to see her game because of it but not because she wanted me to. Had to twist her arm into it once Emma told me Conjur had acquired it.” He slammed down the bottled water so hard water exploded out the top and went everywhere on the sofa. “Damn it.”

He wiped at the water droplets, pushing them to the edge of the sofa, which didn’t help. Now the wetness locked itself to the cloth.

“To hell with what’s right or FBI plans. Hiring her to work on her game makes business sense. I don’t care how complicated it makes the FBI crap. The company needs this. Her career needs this. Maybe this is what she needs to get free.” Jake parked himself at the opposite end of the sofa. They both stared at the blank screen for a while in silence.

Jake said quietly, “Maybe we can spin it that I saw the game before I knew she was dating you.”

“That’s weak. I don’t think she’ll go for it. She’s been the brunt of a lot of shit as a hot gaming girl for years. Her being perceived as sleeping her way into it or even using a date as a way to suck up to us might kill her.”

“We need to make this work. The company’s in a bind ” Jake squeezed his shoulder. “I don’t want to be an ass, but I had a feeling this fake dating plan would implode. A week and you fell in love.”

“You’re an ass. I’m not in love with her.”

Can’t be.

Shit, maybe I am.

“Look at it this way. If we make her famous, it’ll be tougher for that freak to kill her.”

“Or it’ll make her death all the more sensational.” Noah dialed Tori for the sixth time today. It went straight to voicemail. “Damn it. Why won’t she answer?”