Page 21 of Don't Game Me
It was a start, but it wasn’t an exit. Getting out would never be that easy. Back to her original plan. Live to next week, meet her contact, and see if that offered a credible solution for a permanent exit.
She clicked off the phone with a shaky finger and glanced at Jake.
“Bad news?” Jake asked.
“Work crap.”
After more silence, he suddenly demanded, “What’s wrong with this work-study job?”
A topic low on her list of want-to-discuss. “It’s not the opportunity I’d hoped for.”
“In what way? Is someone harassing you or something?” Jake glowered.
“It’s…”Tell him the truth. Maybe he can help.Her mind calculated the risk of divulging, something she’d done a zillion times. If she told Jake or one of her brothers, they’d go nuclear and drag her to the police or FBI. Pascal and Symphis would retaliate by releasing the video of her stealing. Regardless of if she’d been fooled into it, her crime was real and had led to the victim company losing millions in stolen tech. Aside from that, other players told horror stories of their attempts to leave Symphis’s organization and the catastrophic effects on their families done by Symphis to keep them playing.
Not worth the risk.
Carefully, she said, “It demands a lot of time. Not sure it’s worth the investment.”
“You didn’t answer my question if someone is harassing you.”
Harassing? How about threatening? “I wouldn’t say I’m being sexually harassed beyond what you’d expect in a male-dominated workplace. I’m handling it.”
“I don’t like it. Who’s this job with?”
“GenShare.”
He frowned as his gaze returned to the road. “I know them. Thought they were located down in Southern California, not up in Berkley.”
Shouldn’t have given him the company name. Bad mistake. He might do research. “Branch office.”
“Sounds pretty bad. I assume it’s an internship type of position. Our internship is usually pretty good for those selected. Sexual harassment isn’t allowed.”
“NJ Legacy is different. You guys care about anyone you bring into your company, whereas with my internship they just want the work done for as cheap as possible.”
“I think we’ve kept all our interns so far. Sounds like you need to walk away. Whatever job you apply for won’t care about some shit internship with GenShare, not with your skills. What’s your next step?”
She picked at a hangnail.
She glanced up, finding his gaze on her. His eyes held true interest.
Desire to spill the truth ate at her. “I want to finish my master’s and get a job that pays. I’m not sure I want to stay in computer engineering though.”
“Grad school burning you out? You don’t need to graduate to get a job. Most at our company don’t have degrees, myself included.” He zipped around a few cars on the highway. His radar detector beeped loudly, and he slowed with a frown.
“Been caught speeding before?” She couldn’t resist asking. His resistance to changing cars, to keeping the original car he bought six years ago when he said he could first afford his own car, fascinated her. She’d asked him about it before because they both loved high-tech, fast cars. He claimed he had yet to drive anything he liked better.
“I’ve been pulled over a time or two. The car is a cop magnet. I think because it’s red.” He flipped on the radio. A country song blared a twangy tune.
“I didn’t know you liked country.” She hummed along to the familiar tune.
“You’ve made lots of assumptions about me.”
“Like what?”
He shrugged and wove around cars. She almost grabbed the oh-shit handle but caught his smirk. Instead, she fisted her hand. He was driving like this on purpose to get a rise out of her.
She snapped, “Assumptions like you’re a player since you bang a different girl every weekend?”
