Page 70 of Off Her Game
“Is working for you a requirement?”
Jake grimaced as if he didn’t like being interrupted. “No. But if you want to be involved in modifications, then you’ll need to be employed by us.”
“I prefer not to be locked into a long-term agreement.”
“We can do at a short-term contract position with an option to continue.”
“Hire me as a contract employee for the upgrades. If it works well, then before I work on the next in the series, which I have already partially developed, we can renegotiate. I also want to have my lawyer review an updated contract copy with these amendments before I sign.”
That sounded professional. But a lawyer?Where the hell am I supposed to find someone who won’t charge me to review this?Legal Aid? Maybe her failed date from last night.
Jake flashed a wide expanse of pearly white teeth. “Sounds like a deal.”
“They traced the call. It led to some guy that was controlled by Symphis. Another likely dead end.” Noah pushed a manila envelope across the table. “Pay him off when you go again. See if he’ll let you go.”
“Not unless that comes with a zip drive of the full code toZoneworld Two.” She stared at the envelope full of more cash than she’d ever touched.
“The money is yours free and clear in addition to what’s in the contract. A signing bonus,” Noah said.
She stared at the money in silence.
Jake said softly, “We can’t give you the code. I’m sorry. We were clear to the FBI about this. There’s too much risk. Since they stole the code toZoneworld Onewe’ve fought pirating and weird online modification complaints to the point it costs as much to do this as the game now brings in. I’ve got a whole departments whose sole job is to deal with it.” Sorrow filled Jake’s gaze when he met Noah’s glare and then glanced back to Tori. “I’m worried about you as a person, Tori, but I have to be hardass about this. It’s my job to look out for the company first.”
“I get it.” All hope of getting the code free and clear vanished.
“You’re under a lot of pressure from a psycho. That makes you a big risk from my perspective. Let me be very clear about this.” Jake stared at her in silence until she met his gaze. “If you do anything in an attempt to steal the code, we will be forced to prosecute you for the theft. We will no matter what. You will go to jail and never work in this field again.”
She glanced to Noah who wouldn’t meet her gaze, but he fiddled with his pen as if agitated.
Jake said, “On a lighter note, we’re doing a press junket tomorrow to launch the virtual reality goggles. I figured we can combine it with an announcement about your game. It’s kind of a rush but I had the team do some mockups that look pretty good. We can review them in the morning while our PR guru goes over sound bites with you.”
“A press junket? You mean answering questions about the game?” Tori asked.
Jake nodded.
“I’m not doing it unless Noah participates. No reason I can’t claim fear of the media, too.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “Fine. Noah will be there.”
“What?” Noah sat up straighter.
Jake shut off his laptop and closed it. “I’ve been doing them for years alone. Time for you to get out there. Maybe Tori there will distract the press piranhas from how thoroughly unprepared we’ll be for launching this game.”
“How’re you planning to angle the fact we dated before all this came about?” She stared at Noah, her heart in her throat.
Jake sighed and glared at Noah. “We could call it a disaster date where we fortuitously discovered you’re a programmer.”
“You implying I need to apologize to you for something, Jake?” Noah asked. “The only one who needs apologizing to is Tori for us fucking up her competition.”
“You’re supposed to be the sensible one, Noah.” Jake’s shoulders slumped. “You’ve always made sound choices. I’m usually the one with personal messes.”
Now even Jake admitted she wasn’t a “sound choice” for Noah? This hurt so much.
Noah stood and picked up Tori’s laptop bag for her. “Come with me. We need to talk.”
“No, thank you. Email me the updated contract so I can get a lawyer to look at it tomorrow.” She stood and took her bag from Noah.
Noah followed her out to the elevator. “What phone call are you talking about?”
“Stop.” She held out a hand to warn him to keep his distance. “As usual, my life’s a confusing mess. You and me? We’re not dating. It’s done. It’s for the best. You guys are nice to offer me a way to see if I can get out of the Stadium. It’s more than I had last week, even if I’m not feeling optimistic it’ll work. If something should happen to me before the launch, you guys should do whatever you need in order to make it ready. I’m sure there’s a death clause in the contract.”
“I don’t know what happened or what you think you heard, but you have to tell me.”
“I heard what you said.” She dropped her gaze, unable to meet his. “There’s no need for you to stress about us. We’re over. No more confusion over what’s real. Us working together is real.”
The elevator opened and she stepped on, jabbing at the door-close icon.
The door slid shut before he said anything more. One floor down, she hopped out and took the stairs from the twentieth floor, not out of fear of the elevator but to fight the tears threatening to spill.
