Page 47 of Stripping Bare

“Did your sister have any suggestions?” Tessaasked.

“She suggested I play a video game to try to unstick mybrain.”

“Because what else would youdo?”

“Sometimes it’s like a form a self-hypnosis,” he explained. “I’ve had some of my best ideas, my most innovative concepts, come to me whileplaying.”

“Kind of like taking a shower or driving.” She nodded thoughtfully. “Hey, if it works, it works. Can I play,too?”

“I’m going to play the modded version of SteeleSurvivor.”

“Okay.”

“It’s a first-person shooter game.” Even if the weapons weren’t machine guns and hand grenades, they were used to inflict a certain amount of damage on the otherplayers.

“Jonah, I contracted for Steele Trap. Of course I know about thegame.”

Resigned, he led her back to his dim tech cave. Badger trotted along and settled into Jonah’s favorite gamingchair.

He clicked the smartphones into the VR goggles and outfitted Tessa with a pair, along with a headset and controller gauntlets. She looked as if the hardware on her head would tip her over, but she rocked the gauntlets like a pair of Wonder Womanbracelets.

When she thrust her arms this way and that, making littlepowandwhooshsounds, he wanted to hugher.

“Be careful not to lose your balance or bump into anything,” he warned her. “You can just move inplace.”

The game’s opening sequence played as normal, with a cut scene of four guys joyriding in the back of an old pickup that closely resembled the POS truck Britt still drove. They wound their way down a mountain road, then cruised Main Street under the baleful eye of a stereotypical potbellied Southern sheriff. As closely as Jonah had modeled the dude on Sheriff Caldwell—who’d lorded over Haywood County before Maggie—he should’ve beensued.

But when the old sheriff had seen the game, he’d strutted around for days telling people he was famous and that it was only a matter of time before Hollywood came calling. Far as Jonah knew, he was still waiting at some retirement community inGeorgia.

At the far edge of town, the truck stopped and all the characters piled out. They were joined by a few more guys loosely based on Jonah’s high-school friends. But there was no mistaking the four main characters as Jonah and hisbrothers.

“They look like you,” Tessacommented.

“Since I’m the youngest brother, they would say I look likethem.”

“Did they have any idea you were immortalizingthem?”

“Britt had a shit-fit when he found out.” Jonah chuckled. “But by that time, I had people beta testing demos. Reid and Grif didn’t have a problem with any ofit.”

“Why are all the characters guys? Where are thegirls?”

Yeah, Micki and Evie had asked that a million times. “It just wasn’t made that way. I was ten years old when I first came up with the idea. It was a game forguys.”

“You’re honestly too young to be thatsexist.”

“It’s not sexism, dammit. But even on-screen, I have a thing against hurtingwomen.”

“Seriously? It’s agame.”

“Holy shit.” His attention was snagged by what was happening in front of him. The lineup of eight male characters was expanding as more people strolled onto the playing field. Tessa had certainly gotten her wish, because the new characters sure looked a helluva lot like Jonah’s sisters and mom. His heart was thumping painfully. But that was nothing compared to the way it seized when another character joined them. She was wearing a red business suit and high heels—ridiculous for playing a shoot-’em-up survivalgame.

The person who’d modded his game had rounded up all the people Jonah cared most about in thisworld.

IncludingTessa.

Well,how about that. Someone obviously thought enough of the women in Jonah’s life to add them to his male-dominated game. “Who did you say sent this to you? Because I like him, whoever heis.”

When Tessa peeked out from under her goggles, Jonah’s face was immobile except for a tiny twitch in hisjaw.