Page 104 of Boss Level

Nope.

“Thank you.” I was sincere with my words. Knowing that cloud no longer hung over us…

“I did it for Judith.” Joker raised his voice as a cacophony of enthusiastic drumming sounded in the background. “And you’re dead to me, Xander,” he shouted.

I chuckled. “As if. I owe you, though.” One of those important lessons I’d learned from Judith—favors were the most valuable currency there was, whether they were good favors or bad.

I rang Elliot’s doorbell and Mrs. Ria answered. She greeted me with a warm smile, and gestured behind her. “He’s expecting you. You know the way.”

I did. I’d been here several times in the last few months. Sometimes it was because Judith, Dom, and I were hanging out with Elliot, Link, and Fallyn. Most of the time it was because I was listening to pitches from people in Elliot’s incubator.

My grandfather had a house like this, positioned at the edge of Haddarville, up on a hill like he was overlooking his entire fucking legacy. Elliot was putting his home to much better use. It felt alive in here, the way a home should.

Elliot screened the projects of everyone who lived here, on an intense level, before letting them sign on. All of their projects were solid at least in concept, and he felt they had the skills to make them happen.

I came in a little later in the process. As people were nearing completion, they got to do a trial run of their pitch with me. As far as they were concerned, I was doing Elliot a favor. He told them he had a friend in investment who would give them tips and pointers before they started the real deal of finding investors.

But it served me too. It gave me first pick of any project that caught my attention. We didn’t tell them that though, not to be deceptive, but because we didn’t want the knowledge adding extra stress to what they were doing.

As I headed toward the drawing room at the rear of the house, voices caught my attention as they floated out from the kitchen.

“It’s built-in, the developers put it there.” That was Landon. He and Nigel spent a bit off time over here, especially those weekends where Megan was working. For some reason they all made excuses likethey’re helping people learn industry standards for coding, and it was probably true, but I didn’t know why Elliot and Nigel didn’t just own their friendship.

“That means it’s not an exploit,” Nigel said.

I had to hear this. I stopped in the kitchen doorway in time to see Fallyn huff with exasperation.

“Of course you’re taking each other’s side, you’re fucking.” She sat across from them at the table in the breakfast nook. King was at her feet, looking happy to be around people.

Nigel shook his head. “Go ask Elliot. He’ll agree with us.”

“Which is my point,” Fallyn said.

I could see it.

Landon furrowed his brow. “That’s the opposite of your point.”

I didn’t have a stake in this conversation, but I was tempted to pick a side just to see where things went. If I had time, I might consider it.

“No.” Fallyn could hold her own anyway, without my help. “My point is, one—fucking someone is a bad reason to take their side, and two—it makes the game overpowered.”

Fucking someone?

“You called it a hack,” Nigel said.

I was curious what they were talking about.

“I called it an exploit. It’s there so you can hit a secret handshake combination of buttons, get all your health and stats back, regardless of the situation, and walk through an otherwise difficult game. That’s an exploit whether or not it’s built-in. Especially if you’re telling people you’re badass because you beat the game on its highest level.”

Nigel shrugged. “But you did. The game says those are the rules for winning, and you won.”

Ah. They were talking about the latestNinja Manifestogame. I moved further into the room to grab their attention. “I think you’re missing the real point.”

Three pairs of curious gazes looked at me. “What’s that?” Landon asked.

“Why the fuck are you playing a DM game?” Why take a side when I could make my own? “Did you get bored with originality?”

The way Nigel rolled his eyes, I thought they might fall out of his head. “No one asked you.” He wadded up a paper napkin and tossed it. It bounced off my arm and landed on the floor.

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