Page 27 of Boss Level

I caught snippets of talk about AcesPlayed, and had to stop and listen every time. There were the vocal people upset that the game had been down at all, and most of them were convinced it was solely Elliot’s fault. As if he were a magical game god who was responsible for every single thing that happened at AcesPlayed.

But most people were surprised that it was the only real downtime we’d had this week, and they were loving the game.

A little before one, I headed toward the front of the hall, toward the AcesPlayed booth. I wasn’t surprised to see Dominic had arrived, and was talking to Xander and Phillip.

Phillip saw me approach, but the other two had their backs to me. He didn’t say anything.

“Excuse me.” Satisfaction flitted inside me when Xander and Dominic both jumped a little. “I don’t pay you guys to stand around.”

“Pretty sure that’s exactly what you’re paying me for,” Xander said.

Dominic scowled. “Wait. You’re getting paid? I’m not getting paid.”

I stared at him in mock disbelief. “You’re not working.”

“You’re paying him to stand around. I’m standing around.”

Phillip raised his hand. “Can confirm.”

“Are you gettingactualmoney?” Dominic sounded genuinely surprised.

“Actual money, yes,” Phillip said. “Not even Monopoly money or bottle caps.”

“Don’t tell them.” I pretended to growl. “They’ll want the same.”

Xander moved to stand next to me. “Nah. I’m cheap. Let me buy you lunch, and I’ll keep doing the job.”

The way Phillip rolled his eyes, I was surprised they didn’t pop out of his head. “Not how jobs work. Should I be concerned that you’re one of our money guys?”

“Shhh.” Xander pressed a finger to Phillip’s lips. “Don’t talk. Don’t think. It’s better that way.”

“Come on. Let the man work.” I was laughing as I grabbed Xander’s and Dominic’s arms and tugged the men toward the outer wall of the room.

We weren’t leaving, but traffic was lightest here. This way we could loop around to one of the mini food courts without much obstruction.

As we wove our way through people, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see what it was, and almost missed it. There it was—Link was sitting on the ground against a far wall, next to Fallyn. Second time in as many days I’d seen them together.

It shouldn’t strike me as odd, and if it were anyone else besides the two of them, I probably wouldn’t notice. But I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Xander, me, and Dominic. Big difference—Dominic and I didn’t have a history before that night, seven years ago, and we were never enemies.

I needed to stop. Who Link spent his time with had nothing to do with my past, and was none of my business until it impacted his work. Which he wouldn’t let it do.

We grabbed our food, and I led Xander and Dominic toward a quieter part of the convention center. “Great thing about knowing the people in charge,” I said, as I unlocked a generic door with no label, “is keys to all the secret places.”

I let us into a room where the tables were stored when they weren’t in use. The vast space spread out in front of us, empty aside from the broken tables shoved against the walls.

“This reminds me of sneaking into the janitor’s closet at school.” Xander’s voice was light.

Dominic raised an eyebrow. “You do that a lot?”

“Not after a point.”

“That’s not what I heard. Xander had areputation.” The teasing came easily, and I wasn’t worried about this being a surprise to Dominic. They knew each other, including their pasts.

What did surprise me was the shadow that crossed Xander’s face. But it vanished again before I could process it further.

“Busted. Which I never was back then.” Xander winked.

That was more like it. “I was thinking this was more like a picnic than a closet,” I said. “And me without my blanket.” I frowned. “That came out wrong.”

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