TJ jerked awake with a curse.

Gary shot him an apologetic look that was tinted with amusement. “Brian said he figured a way to get you more lives.”

“Yeah, but Beth doesn’t know that. For all she knows, she just killed me permanently.” Which was what bothered him the most. And dammit if he didn’t like her all the more for it. If they had met under different circumstances, he would’ve swept her off her feet. But as it was, she was stuck with him, however unintentionally it had been.

“I’m going to log back in.” TJ laid back down in the tank.

Gary’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “I wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Won’t she just shoot you again?”

TJ glanced at his watch. It was almost four in the afternoon. “She’ll need help on horde night.”

“That’s tomorrow morning. I’d wait until then to join her again.”

TJ sighed dramatically. “Fine. Any word on the stolen pods?”

Gary shook his head. “They haven’t logged in yet. As soon as they’re attached to a power source, we’ll get a GPS ping on their location. I have the police in Poky ready to close in as soon as that happens.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hold on.” TJ held up a finger. “Let’s see what they do. If Jack is as good as he says, Beth might need his help to get through the game. Has there been any new developments on whether we can change the code to shorten the game?”

Gary shook his head, again. “They’re still working on it.”

“Let me know as soon as they know.” TJ climbed out of the tank and stripped his clothes off as he went into his bathroom. He needed to think. Needed to clear his head and figure out a way out of this mess.

If Beth died, it might actually be better for him in the long run. She hadn’t knowingly authorized the implant, though he wondered if they could claim she had. Perhaps she’d forgotten authorizing it due to the anesthesia the doctors used. He’d have to ask Candace about it.

He turned on the shower and waited until the steam billowed out of the stall before stepping in.

If he was planning to kill Beth, if that really was the best way to handle things, maybe with a settlement to Beth’s mother to let it go quietly, it would be disastrous for Maverick/Jack to log back into the game. He couldn’t know.

As he let the water spray over his head, he made up his mind. Beth had to die, but it couldn’t look intentional. It had to look like the game had killed her. He’d contact Beth’s mother as soon as it happened, explain his version of events, and offer her a pittance of what her daughter’s life was actually worth.

Or … Or …

TJ could just tell Heather Anne that her daughter was in a coma. That she’d been in an accident and he was using his advanced medical technology to care for her. He could be the hero in this scenario.

But that also meant not allowing Jack to log back into the game.