Read Online Her Perfect Game by Shannyn Schroeder - Free Book Online Page A

lulled him into a comfort zone. It was kind of like being at work. He zoned out, thinking about Kraven. Tim still hadn’t found how the guy had gotten in to change the code, but the altered code had been discovered and changed back.
    Tim put someone else on blocking Kraven’s account so he could focus on the security aspects. Jonah exhibited extreme restraint by not finding out who Kraven really was and paying him a visit in person. Attacking Charlie had been bad enough, but this asshole had done it in Jonah’s game.
    Thinking about the game brought him back to thinking about Charlie. He needed to tell her he was Win, but he didn’t know how. Things were strange between them. He shouldn’t have slept with her without coming clean, but all he could think about was getting her naked again. If he told her his online identity, that option would be out the window.
    To get images of a naked Charlie out of his mind, he strolled the room to watch the hackers work and see how they approached the challenge. In addition to finding a way past firewalls, they were expected to leave a nugget, their own personal calling card as proof they were there. An hour in, a guy jumped up and said, “What the fuck?”
    Other hackers barely looked up from their screens. This group was focused. Both Jonah and Carl went to see what the problem was.
    â€œI’m almost halfway through, and I backtracked to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Someone deleted my trail.”
    â€œEverybody freeze.” A few more keystrokes clicked.
    â€œHands up. Now!” Carl’s bellow broke them from their concentration. “The rules clearly state that you can’t interfere with another player’s action. Doing so qualifies for immediate dismissal.”
    Jonah watched the room while Carl talked. He hoped it wasn’t Charlie who had cheated. He quickly dismissed the idea. Charlie was always honorable. She wouldn’t cheat.
    Carl studied each player. “Anyone want to come clean?”
    â€œHell, no, they won’t. Why would they? I’m ahead of everyone. They take me out, they can win.”
    â€œTake a seat.” Carl pointed and Jonah followed. In a low voice, he said, “We didn’t plan for this. How do you want to handle it? We figured the threat would be enough.”
    â€œGive me a minute. I’ll get in and see if I can figure out who did it.” Jonah walked to the front of the room where Carl had his laptop set up. Jonah felt all eyes on him. He was glad he wouldn’t have to figure out the path to take since Carl had it all outlined. Jonah logged on and began reading code. On the first three sites, the same players marked their path. Charlie was one of them. He held back his smile. He wasn’t supposed to have favorites.
    He jumped ahead a few sites. Poison, the hacker who was pissed off, disappeared at the seventh site. When Jonah went further ahead, he could see Poison logged on the eleventh site. It was possible that Poison got sidetracked and took the wrong path, but not likely. The guy was good.
    Jonah eased back out and looked for the changes that might reveal the cheater. The hackers were getting restless, and they began popping open cans of energy drinks. From the corner of his eye, he saw Charlie stand and walk over to Carl. Then she left.
    He knew she wasn’t guilty. Plus, she hadn’t taken her stuff. He needed to ignore her. Carl came over a minute later and slid a piece of paper next to the keyboard. MAVERICK.
    Jonah looked at Carl, who shrugged. Following a lead, even if it was unsubstantiated, had to be better than following each of the more than twenty players in the room. Jonah looked at Maverick’s progress. Sure enough, he had been on Poison’s heels through the eighth site. Then there was a lapse of fifteen minutes before he appeared on the ninth site.
    After looking at the code and checking out Maverick’s patterns, Jonah saw it. The