Page 9 of Twice the Rivalry

“But do we answer, or do we make them sweat?” Copper mused aloud.

“They won’t be able to call me back. The only person who can do that is Xena, and she won’t give away how to get in touch with us,” Glitch said confidently. “So they’ll have to sweat until we call.” And she was perfectly fine with that. Hell, if they weren’t in a time crunch, she would have let them sweat for a few days, thinking they were on their way.

She had half a mind to do a deep dive into Code and see what skeletons she could dig up, but she refused to stoop to his level.

Finally, after five full minutes, Simba gave her the go ahead to call the Dragons MC. The call only rang twice before it clicked on, and they heard Savage say, “I hear you have a problem with one of our brothers.” His tone was calm, but there was no missing the irritation underneath, or the tightly controlled anger he was trying to hide.

“It would seem,” Simba began in a tone like cold, hard steel, “that we do. Considering that your so-called hacker not only endangered our own hacker but our entire team as well, because he let his emotions get the better of him.”

“Bullshit,” Code’s voice snapped furiously through the line. “She nuked my goddamn system and completely fucked us over.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what she did,” Simba snapped back, that cold steel gaining a sharp edge.

“How about we all calm down?” Savage suggested tightly. “I want to know what the hell is going on, since no one has explained it to me. I know something happened to the system here, but otherwise I’ve been busy dealing with my Old Lady.”

“Is Xena there?” Glitch asked before Simba could reply.

“I’m here, but they aren’t all that happy about it,” Karissa announced grimly.

“This is club business and you’re not a brother,” another voice griped, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“She’s part of our team,” Jag replied coolly, “and this affects her.”

“How does this affect her?” Razor demanded, annoyance clear in his tone.

“How about you all shut the hell up and let Glitch explain?” Karissa snapped. “God, and they say women don’t listen.”

Glitch smirked. “They don’t think with the right brain enough, babes,” she drawled. “It means they’re a little slow on the uptake most of the time.”

“Fucking hell, just get to the goddamn point,” Savage snapped.

“It seems that in retaliation for shutting down his system, Code decided it would be a good idea to put my information on a dating site,” Glitch said tightly. “Now, I know you’re all trying to use those tiny brains of yours to figure out why that’s a problem, so I’ll explain it to you. The issue is he used my legal name, which he should have no fucking access to unless he was searching shit he shouldn’t. He posted my picture, and he gave my location. A location that was secure until that moment. Because, in case you forgot, or missed it when we were there, we are a former mercenary team. Our entire livelihood relies on security and anonymity. We have enemies, and that means anything with our legal names or pictures will set off alerts to those people and let them know who and where we are. I’m sure you’re finally starting to see the problem, but let me drive it home a little more. You currently have one of our teammates in your clubhouse. What do you think is going to happen if they figure out who she is, and where she is? So, because you don’t like to admit that a woman could be a better hacker than you, and you wanted to take out your revenge on me when you were pissed at me for making a point, you went too far. You not only put us and our team in danger, you put one of your own brother’s Old Ladies in danger. I hope you’re happy, asshole, because you’re about to realize how big of a mistake you’ve made.”

Silence echoed, and Glitch sat back, jittery with impatience.

Finally, after another full moment, Code’s voice filled the line. “I’m sorry,” he said, tone infused with shock, guilt, and surprisingly, sincerity. “You’re right, I wasn’t thinking. I was only thinking about how pissed I was at you for shutting me down. It was a reaction, and I should have fucking known better.”

“You’re right, you should have,” Taz returned angrily.

Savage interrupted, “Alright, it’s clear you have a right to be pissed, so what do you want us to do? How can we fix this?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Simba said grimly. “Because you’re about to have a guest while we handle a job, to make sure she’s not able to be found if shit goes south until we can get back and handle it.”

Silence on the other end. Well, other than Karissa’s delighted laughter.

Glitch grinned and said in a fake sad voice, “Well, that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. A girl would think that you weren’t excited to have me. Especially considering how valuable I am to have around. And, you know, just plain fun.”

“I’m locking up all the fucking guns,” Savaged vowed darkly. “Fine, how soon will you be here?”

As Simba and Savage worked out the details, Glitch glanced at her screen and saw a message pop up.

Code: I’m sorry

Simple and to the point, and her gut said that he meant it, but the question was, would she forgive him? She might, but she was going to happily let him suffer for a little longer. They’d be in close quarters for a while, and she would take every opportunity to remind him of the fact that she was better than him.

And if she had to play dirty to make it happen, well, so be it.

CHAPTERSIX

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