Page 53 of Stripping Bare
Jonah scooped up his VR goggles, came to his feet, and absently shoved his hand down the front of his jeans, adjusting what appeared to still be a partial erection. At least he hadn’t been unaffected. He’d wanted her, whether or not he’d wantedto.
“Look,” she said, “I’m just going to get Badger, gather our things, and get outof—”
“You’re not going anywhere.” His steely tone invited noargument.
“I can’t do this with you. I thought I could, but your hot-and-cold act is too much for me tohandle.”
That seemed to grab his attention, and he glanced down at her. “Dammit, Tessa. You’ll be lucky if I let you out of this house, and you’re sure as hell not going anywherealone.”
Who did he think he was? And how hadherorgasm flipped a circuit inhisbrain? “You push me away and then you want to tell me what todo?”
Unbelievable.
“Put this on,” he demanded, shoving the goggles into herhand.
“What?”
“Look in the fucking goggles.” He held them up to herface.
The visual had gone black except for three words. The same words that had been painted on her condo’s wall. Before she could process exactly what that meant, the letters faded like blood soaking into the ground. Then a new character—dressed in jeans, white T-shirt, and blue coat—strolled onto the screen, hands stuffed into his pockets. “Grab the other pair,” she told Jonah. “Hurry.”
Above the neck, the on-screen guy slowly morphed from one character to the next. Short, choppy hair. Micki. Then a man with shaggy golden blond hair—one of Jonah’s brothers—who transformed into a head with Tessa’s own wild corkscrew curls. Her curls faded into Jonah’s messy brown hair and facialscruff.
If that weren’t eerie enough, the on-screen Jonah began to speak. “In every game, there are the strong and the weak. Winners and losers. Killers and victims. I know your secrets because I’m inside you. The only way to find me is to chase yourself. And in the end, there can only be onesurvivor.”
The Jonah-esque character turned and walked away, into a faint background image. It was a street with shops lining each side, and there in the middle of it all was the sign for La Belle Style, Brynne’sboutique.
The scene once again faded away, replaced with two words this time. GAMEON.
“What…what is this?” Her voice shook and her arm fell to her side, the goggles resting heavily against her thigh. Her subconscious was clanging—danger, danger,danger.
Whoever had tinkered with Jonah’s game was the same person who was blackmailing Carson and theothers.
Jonah lunged for the box that had come in the mail and rooted through it, tossing packing paper right and left. “Empty, dammit. And no return address.” He tossed it aside and reached for her. The kiss he pressed to the top of her head slowly reunited the fragments of her heart. He turned her in his arms and pulled her close. “Someone is fucking withus.”
Tessa rested her cheek against Jonah’s chest, listening to the reassuring thump of his heart. “We should callsomeone.”
Jonah gently pressed his thumbs under her jaw and tilted up her face. His hazel eyes seemed to burn with a fire—not a quick flame-and-out blaze, but one that smoldered and hid depths that could sear skin and soul. “You realize this is the same person who was in your condo,right?”
“Yes, and it means the hacking and the game mods are somehowrelated.”
“Whoever this is has an agenda that includes both ofus.”
“Then why aren’t we calling the police right now? You said we’d inform the authorities in Asheville if we discoveredanything.”
“Did you notice anything about that cut scene?” he askedher.
“You mean the guy at the end? He was walking down Main Street in SteeleRidge.”
“Where Asheville PD has nojurisdiction.”
“But Maggie does. She needs to know aboutthis.”
“I’ll let her in onit.”
But something in the way he drew out the words warned Tessa they didn’t share the same idea of informing the authorities. “Then why aren’t you dialingnow?”
“Because this modder is flipping me the big fatfinger.”
