My nerves were finally coming to life. I’d never made it this far before. I held my breath. This could be it. Final victory. Or we’d be blown up, our game lives gone, and we’d have to start the mission over. Again.
I might actually beat the game this time. Not Lily. She didn’t have enough experience points. She needed to level up and tackle her final mission.
“If I do this, Lily, you’re the only one of us left.”
“I’m right behind you in points. It’s not the same without Jamie. And it won’t be without you.”
That was assuming my screen went black like Jamie’s had and Lily would have to play without the two of us. She’d just have to use game-generated playing partners until she finished her final mission.
“I gave you my phone number so you have it and you can call me. I’ll find Jamie.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’ve got a few favors I can call in.”
“In the United States?”
A reasonable question since I lived and worked in Germany.
“Yes. Among other places.”
“You’re scary sometimes. You know that?”
Coming from Lily, I wasn’t sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment. She was a one-woman wrecking ball in the game. And her on-screen partner, Darius, was even crazier.
“Yes. I do know that.”
Nothing stopped me when I had a goal, and right now I wanted to win. However, winning this game had a downside. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Kass. He was tall, dark, and handsome, of course. But he was also insanely brave, funny, and a real pain in the ass. He made me laugh and scared the hell out of me at the same time. He was arrogant and unpredictable. He was sex and danger and protection all rolled into one.
He wasn’t real. I knew it, but scheisse, he was the one for me. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted any flesh-and-blood human male. Pathetic but true. Jamie and Lily understood. In fact, Lily had once discussed purposely losing the game so we wouldn’t have to give up our make-believe alien men.
I watched on-screen as Kass timed our cloaked ship’s movement perfectly and dived directly beneath the wing of a Dark Fleet shuttle, their smallest, most heavily armored transport. The cloaking technology worked, and they never noticed us.
“Nice flying,” I said to Kass but also pushed the button on my on-screen phrases I’d programmed in to tell him.
His deep, sexy voice rumbled through my headset in reply to the chat post. “Anything for you, love.” He had about a hundred different phrases, and every single one of them made me shiver.
His accent was thick but unrecognizable, like they’d taken ancient Greek, ancient Turkish, and a little French and put them in a blender. I loved the sound of his voice.
I homed in on my screen again. The Dark Fleet shuttle I had taken control of flew through space with erratic and unpredictable movements. Lily had made sure its communications were out so they couldn’t warn their armada that I was about to steer it into the landing bay of their queen’s massive warship and blow them all to hell.
“Be careful, Mia. We’re close.” Kass’s soft warning pulled me into the game.
“There are so many of them.” I’d never been this deep behind enemy lines on this mission before. Those fifteen seconds Lily and I had gained made all the difference. We were surrounded by what had to be at least half of Queen Raya’s fleet… and her ship sitting like a giant target in the middle.
“Thirty seconds.” Kass’s alert was automatic, and I responded aloud, even though he was a computer-generated alien and wouldn’t hear me.
“On it, gorgeous.”
“Get ’em, Mia!” Lily’s excited shout made me grind my teeth, but I didn’t chastise her for the volume. She was very much on my side.
“Setting self-destruct timer.” My fingers flew over my controls as I programmed the enemy shuttle’s death throes, hoping it would explode after it flew deep inside the queen’s command ship. The bombs would tear through every Dark Fleet ship in the area. At least, that was the idea.
I scanned my nav grid to ensure the Starfighter teams were all safely out of range of the blast. I knew how to fly this ship if I had to. Just as Kass knew how to hack enemy systems. But he was better at the flying, and I was a lot better at the hacking.
I waited, finger on the activation command for the shuttle’s self-destruct sequence, when Kass flew our ship directly beneath the launch bay doors of the queen’s warship. He held us there as I directed the enemy shuttle up over our heads and into the bay area.
The moment it cleared the doors, I activated the timer and autopilot. It would keep flying forward and land inside.