Brad’s eyes widened in shock when they adjusted to the light of the room. Maybe the grin that cut into my cheeks was a little too wide. Or maybe the look of pure homicidal rage was a little too real. Either way, he backpedaled, tried to gain a footing in the pod while covering his pindick with a hand.

“What the fuck are you doing in here, you crazy bitch?” he asked, attempting an air of assertiveness, but his voice cracked. “Salvo, call her off.”

He shook his head with smug satisfaction. “Sorry, bud. There’s no turning back once she gets like this but I’ve heard if you go limp, it’ll hurt less.”

“Let’s talk about this,” Brad said and whimpered while my fingers wrapped around the front of his haptic suit and pulled.

My fist connected with his jaw on the first strike, and he cried out in pain. “Shut the fuck up,” I hissed, inches from his face. I could feel the spittle leaving my lips while I spoke, but was too angry to care. A second impact sent a blaze of pain through my knuckles, and his nose burst in a bloody geyser.

Tears ran down his cheeks and his body shuddered back a cry.

“All right, I think that’s enough. Liz, what’s going on?” Cale asked, his warm hand on the back of my neck.

“Should I tell them?” I asked Brad. “Or are you going to man up and admit what you’ve done?”

“Tell them what?” he asked, though his expression, a mixture of fear and realization that there’d be repercussions, and he’d actually have to face them, said he knew exactly what I meant.

I pulled my fist back, and his hands flew to cover his head. “I’ll talk, just let me out of the pod to put some pants on.”

My fingers released their hold with a little shove, and he fell back into the pod.

Salvo grabbed a pair of boxers from a crumple of clothing on the floor and tossed them at him. “Talk.”

After a few quick glances from me to Salvo, Brad sighed and wiggled his way into the underwear over his haptic suit. “After the first fight in the warfields, before Salvo and I even met officially, a couple of goons offered me a ton of cash to keep an eye on you all.”

Salvo’s jaw dropped. “Before we even met? Like before we were PvP partners?”

A sneer worked its way on Brad’s face. “Out of all the players in the game, do you honestly think I’d choose you to be my doubles partner? You suck at PvP.”

I jumped at him to defend my friend, but Salvo pushed me back before slapping Brad hard across his cheek. With a calming breath, he straightened himself and looked over his shoulder, “Liz, get some pot, we both need to mellow out.” He turned to the whimpering asshole in the pod and said, “That’s the last time you’ll get hit. As long as you play nice, we will too.”

Luke had been pounding on the door to my suite while I grabbed the stash, so we returned to the scene together while I updated him on the events the best I could.

By the time we entered the room, his nostrils were flaring. With little to no effort, he plucked Brad from his pod and marched him to the living room, dropping him on the couch. “Let me get this straight, we almost got our brains drained because you wanted some extra cash on the side?”

Brad shrugged, unwilling to look in the over-sized man’s eyes.

“Who’s doing it then? Do you know that much? Or are you just some middle bitch?” Luke snorted and cracked his knuckles. “I bet you are, huh?”

“I don’t know who’s behind it. I needed the cash so I took the opportunity.”

A red haze fell over my vision. “I don’t give a shit what happened before today. But now, you’ve met us, hung out with us, hell you’ve been fucking one of us and you still tried to get us wiped out. What kind of fucking psychopath are you?”

His shoulders fell. “The kind keeping his mom out of trouble.”

The collected rage died, until I almost felt bad for him and looked to Cale, who seemed equally uneasy.

Luke, on the other hand, pulled back and smacked Brad upside his head. “Shut that lying mouth before so much shit falls out it attracts flies.”

“You said I wouldn’t get hit anymore,” Brad cried out at Salvo.

“Oh, right, my bad. Hey, Luke, I told him we wouldn’t hit him anymore if he was cooperating. Silly me, always forgetting little details like that.”

“It was justified then. Any of you play cards?” Luke asked to a room of blank stares. “Poker? Blackjack? Anything? Anyway, this kid has a tell you can see from a mile away. Outside of anytime his mouth is flapping, you know he’s lying if you watch his thumb. Thing has a mind of its own, twitching around like that.”

“I’m not lying. My mom is sick and I need money to get her medicine,” Brad protested to a room with all eyes on his twitching thumb.

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at him.

Luke emitted a deep belly laugh and whistled through his teeth. “If I had a dollar for every broke motherfucker I’ve met who needed medicine for their momma, I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life. Now, look, I’m still on the side of talking things out nicely, and it’s in your best interest if we keep it that way.”

The gears in Brad’s head turned as he glanced from face to face. His eyes fell on the front door and back to Luke, who shook his head at him. “Fine. I wasn’t lying about getting paid, and I swear I don’t know who’s behind the attacks. Only that they were hoping if you were all taken out, Mr. Williams would stop poking his nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“That doesn’t explain what happened tonight. How’d they get in the dungeon with us? Isn’t it an instance, as in, only group members allowed?” I asked to the group as a whole.

Brad rolled his eyes at my stupidity. “They have access to the code for mage portals. I asked Ice9 to summon one before she logged off so they could get in.”

The teeth in Luke’s mouth gnashed together so hard they screeched. “You asked the kid’s mom to help you put her son’s life in danger? How do you think she would feel if her son didn’t crawl out of his pod because of something she did? What kind of crazy shit did I get myself involved with?”

The last question echoed my own thoughts as I stood in stunned silence. “If Mr. Williams, Mark, is a part of this, and since he’s paying for you to be here, I have to let him know what’s happening. Maybe he’ll have a better idea of what to do with you.”

“If you call him in, I’m dead,” Brad said, his face as white as the rest of the sterile white room. “I only came here because they promised to get me out of the resort before shit got too real and Williams got involved.”

“Maybe you really are just that fucking stupid,” I said, rubbing the stubble on the side of my head. “If they, whoever they are, gave two shits about you, they wouldn’t have let you come here. You’re just as disposable as we are. If not more so since you have dirt on them. Do you honestly believe they wouldn’t turn on you the second we were down?”

“They wouldn’t do that,” he whispered, but his thumb twitched.

Cale crossed his arms. “What a shocker, you hadn’t thought that far ahead. I’ll go grab your phone, Liz.”

There was less than five minutes between the time my call with Mark ended and two gorilla-sized men in expensive suits came to haul Brad away. Where he went, I didn’t really care. Only that we had added concerns, including how much I really knew about Viv’s family. Outside of the fact that her mom passed a few years before college and her dad was a big name in the Vegas World community, the source of their wealth had always been a mystery to me.

Neither Cale nor I slept well that night. For my part, Luke’s earlier question, What kind of crazy shit did I get myself involved with?, kept echoing in my mind.

Finally, around five in the morning, we both conceded to a day of no sleep and made our way to the restaurant downstairs for some triple espressos. Only to find Luke and Maddie already there, talking seriously over cups of coffee. He waved us over to the table to join them.

I sat, guilt gnawing away at my insides, and blurted, “I’m so sorry I got you both involved in this mess.”

A fire ignited in Maddie’s eyes as she shook her head defiantly. “Don’t apologize. I feel like I’m back in college with a cause to rally against. Not to mention I have more time to spend with Nathan than I have in years.”

“Not gonna lie,” Luke said, staring into the depths of his mug. “I thought real hard about getting on the first plane back to Seattle. But after I thought about it, I realized I’d only be running from the chance to help poor folks out that no one else seems to care about. Besides, if you do figure this shit out and get that payout, I’d have kicked my own ass for walking away from that reward.”

“I appreciate your optimism. But holy fuck, did it get a lot more complicated than I realized last night,” I said, sipping the too hot coffee and burning my tongue.

“So,” Luke started, leaning in as he spoke. “Do we have any ideas where to start looking?”

I glanced over at Cale, who was distracted by his phone. “He’s working on it.”

We waited until he finished reading and put his phone on the table, screen side down. “Two things. The first and overall uninteresting, Leland Bouchard has a stripper claiming he knocked her up. But she’s out of the running as a potential responsible party for the in-game attacks. According to my contact, he’s amazed she remembers to breathe. His words, not mine.” He glanced in my direction.

I gave his arm a light pat in reassurance as I thought and frowned. “Seems a little low rent for a guy with access to centerfolds and supermodels to knock up a local stripper.”

“I think so, too. But the good news is, he did find something of interest. There’s a van full of government spooks staked out near Leland’s house. My guy’s going to go poking around places they wander off to, see if staff might have overheard anything while they were there.”

“Dumb motherfucker,” Luke mumbled.

Cale shrugged, “I didn’t ask him to go that far. I think the spy thing is going to his head.”

“All right, so either the government is thinking the same thing we are or, what?” I asked.

“Wait, wait, maybe I’m a bit behind,” Maddie said, shaking her head. “Who’s Leland Bouchard, and why is there someone watching him?”

I flinched, ready for the ridicule at my and Cale’s logic. “Long story short, he’s the CEO’s son and a rich douchebag. Screenshots from the attack on the paladins at the championship games were compared to images of living people, and he’s the closest match. Combined with a tip we’d received fairly early on about it likely being someone on the inside, we ran with it. Probably won’t amount to anything, but we had to try something.”

Luke ran a hand over his bald head and said, “Better than sitting on your hands. Anything else?”

“I have occasional access to the employee forums, but it’s quiet. Lately it’s just people upset their employment status disqualifies them from the reward,” Cale said, the last half of his sentence muffled through a yawn. “I’m gonna head up to the room and get in Arcadia. If I don’t, I have a good feeling I’ll pass out here at the table.”

“Do you think it’s safe?” Luke asked. “Last time we were there…”

“I’d love to say that was the first time Cale or I got attacked by the Static Assassin, or Lone Swordsman, whatever you want to call it. Though, the Lone Swordsman doesn’t fit anymore, does it?” I finished the last of my coffee and stood. “After we realized we could hurt him, we focused on leveling. Make it as difficult as possible for him to take us out. If you don’t want to go back in, I understand. You especially, Maddie.”

“Are you kidding me? For the first time in a long while, my life is more than cataloging books and making dinners. Besides, there’s no stopping Nate from getting in the game. I’d rather be there to protect him.”

I nodded. “Luke?”

He waved a hand and stood. “I’ll see you in Arcadia.”

The second I logged into the game, a wall of private messages hit me from people I’d never even heard of before, let alone met. Most asking if the footage was real or not. Not having the slightest clue what they meant, combined with the irritation of the sheer number of strangers invading my personal space, I may have snapped at a few.

Okay, more than a few.

Every time I turned around, there were dozens of new messages of a similar type. It became so bad, I eventually had to turn private chat off completely.

As a group, we stared at each other in stunned silence. I wasn’t the only one getting bombarded.

“Does anyone have an idea what they’re talking about?” Maddie asked, her eyes settled on the location where her chat bar would be.

“I got someone to send me a link to the footage,” Cale said. The icon above his head displayed he was in menus. “I can’t watch the full thing from here, only a teaser, but it looks like it’s from last night when we got attacked by the two static asshats. If I had to guess, judging from the perspective, Salvo is the one recording.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” Nate asked. “People can see they can hurt them and protect themselves.”

Maddie frowned at her son and shook her head. “It only means they’ll be less likely to run if they’re attacked. More people could get hurt.”

With those words out in the open, I shivered. A mix between anger and fear rose in my throat, leaving me at a loss for words. The paled cheeks and wide eyes of my friends spoke volumes. I wasn’t the only one grasping the new reality that this could double the number of lost players.

Finally, Luke broke the silence by clearing his throat and said, “I understand why he uploaded it. Just wish he would have gotten a group consensus first. Something tells me he doesn’t think before he acts too often.”

I snorted. “That’s an understatement.”

“All right,” Cale said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Let’s run through a dungeon until our rogue decides to logon, which could be anytime between now and sometime in the afternoon.”

No one seemed too excited about Cale’s direction. In fact, Maddie flat out shook her head. “I need to see the footage. I wasn’t there last night and I need to see what could have happened to my son.”

Cale moved to object, and I held on to his lower arm to quiet him. She needed this. After being used to cause the attack, she needed to see we weren’t powerless and evidence that it wasn’t her fault. Plus, I had a good feeling it would be more fuel for the fires already churning deep in her belly. The one’s that had died down to embers since she was in college. The same flames I could already feel adulthood snuffing out in me.

Without another word, we all logged off and regrouped in the living room of my suite.

I dragged Salvo out of bed. When he asked me what I was doing, the look on my face must have answered the question for him. He fell silent and followed.

Together we watched the video, which had been uploaded in the early hours of the morning, that caused such a commotion. The footage began shortly after the assassins made themselves known and was all from a rogue’s perspective. Daggers whirled in supernatural speeds, landing blows on the Not-so-Lone Swordsman’s back.

Apparently, I hadn’t been the only one who’d seen the little nod Brad gave to the assassins. I saw the face that wasn’t truly my own contort in fury. I saw the relief on all of our faces when the last one fell. The game feed cut shortly after I’d logged out, replaced by Salvo’s actual face, the living room suite behind him. He gave the camera on his laptop a tired smile and waved before he started talking.

“Some people are going to think it was a bad idea to post this footage. In fact, I haven’t even asked my group if I could do this. I’m just doing it. It’s not to get a ton of internet points and definitely not to stroke my ego, I have more than enough of that to spare. Don’t watch this and think you’re safe. Because you’re not. I’ve watched this a few hundred times now, and I’m still not sure how we survived. Watch it to understand the threat is real and super fucked up. If you know anything that might help, please speak up. Don’t feel comfortable going to the cops like most of us out there? That’s fine, come to me or any member of the Bookhouse Boys. We’re doing what we can to stop this shit because we already lost one of our own.”

A little gasp left my lips as a few images of Viv replaced his face on the screen; her lively smile nearly as bright as her hair. He continued speaking, “This is Viv Williams, and she’s a pretty badass chick. Right now, she’s in the hospital. Her condition is stable, but she’s empty, and she’s not the only one. If you think you know something, remember Viv. Remember the paladins from the championship fights. Remember the countless others less fortunate than we were last night. Thanks for watching.”

The video ended, and the room fell silent until Salvo fidgeted and sighed. “Do you think anyone else will notice my crow’s feet? I knew I should have cleaned up the footage a little.”

Guilt over doubting Salvo’s intentions worked its way into my guts, and I hugged his neck. “The video was good but”—finished with the niceties, I cuffed him on the backside of his head—“That was a dick move posting it without telling us. Ask us next time, Dickbag.”

“Still deciding if I’m pissed you posted it or not,” Cale said and groaned. “At least a heads up would have been appreciated. That way we knew what we were logging in to.”

Salvo gave him a questioning look, and we filled him in on his newly acquired celebrity status. Much to his delight.

“Do you think it’ll work?” Luke asked.

“It has to,” Maddie said, her eyes shining with hope and fury. “We’re gonna take this bitch down.”

“Mom!” Nate cried in shock.