Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (19 page)

“I trust you’ve
watched the news this morning?”

I turned to look
at my older brother and it was obvious he was keeping his eyes anywhere but on
me; or even in my general direction for that matter. Then it struck me that he
hadn’t even glanced at me when I got into his car. Sadness mixed into my
already enormous sea of emotions that were all pretty much negative.

“I have,” I
responded. I wanted to get the conversation over with, but I couldn’t gather up
the courage to do it. So I waited him out instead.

There was a bit
more silence, but it was broken as soon as he merged onto the expressway, which
was already starting to get heavily congested with rush hour traffic.

“So you know all
about ‘Mind Lash’ then? Or, should I say, your little game?”

“
My
little game?” I looked at him in
shock. Was he really accusing me of being at the helm of this mess? I would
have expected questions, sure. I would have even accepted some sort of lecture;
the kind of thing
he
might confuse
for a motivational speech. But an accusation of my involvement in all of this,
even my knowledge of it, was more than I could handle. “What the hell Ben–”

“Ali,” he cut in,
voice stern as ever. I clamped my mouth shut in spite of myself. “You can’t
pretend you don’t see the resemblance. There’s just no way!”

“I never said
that!” I cried out. Every emotion I had from the moment I woke up until now was
boiling over. I was quickly reaching a breaking point. A big brother was
someone to rely on, not someone else to have to give an explanation to. And
Benjamin had always been
everything
for me so why was he turning on me now? “Fucking game,” I muttered. I was done
trying to stay at least somewhat rational through all this.

“Exactly,” he
responded. I turned to look at him, cheeks burning and mind confused. “Those are
the right words. ‘
Fucking game
’
couldn’t be more accurate. The thing is, Ali, that
fucking game
has your likeness all over it. And it’s not even some
small enough resemblance one could chalk up to a crazy coincidence. That Via
Mace character is pretty much a damn replica of you for crying out loud!”

“Really? A
replica
?” By that point I was unsure why
I was being snippy with him or why I sounded so skeptical of his statement. I
had seen the Via Mace character with my own eyes, both on TV and on the bus ad,
so it wasn’t like he was making a stretch. She
was
a replica of me.

“Yes, a replica!
Don’t act like you don’t see it. Don’t try to pretend like I’m exaggerating
here. Ali, she even has that dimple in her right cheek! She has the
one
dimple on the same side as you and
in the same exact spot. That, right there, is not something that can just be
shrugged off. If her portrait-like resemblance of you isn’t convincing enough,
then the dimple is.”

I stayed quiet. I
was frozen, eyes wide, mind racing. Why could I not remember seeing the dimple?
That was something I couldn’t imagine ignoring, not even for all the bountiful
shots of the big, bouncing breasts. For the most part, even the body was
modeled after me. The only difference was Via Mace’s breasts were larger than
mine– not that I had small breasts. I had quite a full chest, one that had
gotten me a lot of undesired attention, but Via’s were even larger. I had no
doubt that was intentional to capitalize on the character’s sexiness and
appeal. The target demographic of the game couldn’t get enough of it.

“Ali,” Benjamin
finally said, pulling me out of my own thoughts and breaking the prolonged
silence. “How could this have happened?”

“I don’t know,” I
muttered. I was starting to feel weak.
 

“You don’t know,”
he muttered. It was a skeptical thought out loud. “This is bad news, Ali. This
is really bad news for you.”

“It is,” I
responded, “But how?”

“How?” Finally,
Benjamin turned to look at me. I wasn’t sure what the look in his eyes meant,
but whatever it was it made him turn right back to staring at the road. He
really didn’t want to look at me. I couldn’t blame him. If I had been exposed
to a sexualized character that looked like a splitting image of Benjamin, I
wouldn’t want to see him either. It would be awkward, to say the least. I
shifted in my seat. This whole ordeal was uncomfortable for the both of us.

 
“It’s like that Via Mace character was modeled
after you. It truly seems that way and you must know other people are going to
see her and notice it. You have to know people you work with will find out
about this, including people in positions of power. You should be concerned.
Just think of how this conversation would go if you
were
you talking to one of your superiors.”

I shifted
uncomfortably again. I found myself wishing I had brought some sort of blanket
with me. That thought made me feel like a child for the second time that
morning. The whole situation was absurd, but I couldn’t help how I felt.

“This is not good
for you at all,” Benjamin went on. “It’s not just how she looks that’s a
problem, you know. Think of what she does and consider the entire premise of
the game. Via is a corporate spy. She goes out and steals information from
major corporations. Think of how that would look to your co-workers and
superiors. You work at a major corporation, Ali. You’re even competing for the
position as the CEO’s assistant and you’re more than qualified for it. Now stop
to think about the game, the character, and how it all weaves in to your real life.”

“My real life,” I
muttered. Was it my ‘real life’ in that moment? It sure didn’t feel like it. It
seemed impossible.

“Ali, really, how
is this possible?”

“Benjamin, really,
I don’t know.”

The rest of the car
ride went on in silence, neither of us broke it until I got out of the car in
front of the office building where I worked.

“You’ll have to
figure it out,” Benjamin said instead of a goodbye.

I looked at him,
lost and confused, before closing the door and turning to face the building.
The building looked even more monumental and intimidating than on the day of my
interview to get the job. Taking a deep breath, I started heading toward the
lobby doors of the office building without failing to notice I was recognized
by at least half a dozen people on the street.

I tried my best to
keep my gaze down so I didn’t have to make eye contact with anyone. Going in to
work was enough of a challenge already without having to confront strangers
beforehand. What I didn’t expect was to find a group of three IT guys waiting
at my desk to take pictures of me and compare them to the infamous Via Mace.

Instantly, they
were all giggling and exchanging glances between one another between overt
glances at me. I wanted to shout at them and smack their phones away, but my
presence alone had already caused enough of a scene. Fearing they would start
to make suggestive comments and make the situation even worse, I shooed them
away with a wave of my hands and an angry expression.
 
They smirked but gave in right away, turning
on their heels and walking down the hallway. The giggles filled the air as they
walked away and compared pictures with one another.

My feeling of
distress amplified the moment my eyes landed on the tall figure in front of me.
It was none other than the CEO of the company himself. Of all days for him to
be loitering in the hall near my office door, he had to choose today. I had to
figure it was no accident. The CEO had probably seen the news just like everybody
else and, like Benjamin, decided it was imperative to have ‘a little chat’ with
me about it.

Perhaps he would
ask for some sort of explanation. I knew this all didn’t reflect well on me,
even if I had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was a huge problem, but I
had no meaningful words to offer on the situation. I was just as stunned by the
emergence of the character as everyone else who knew me. But how believable was
that, really? I’m sure a lot of people thought I had something to do with it.

In that moment I
realized how true my brother’s words were. I had only stepped into the office
five minutes ago and I was already feeling the negative effects of Via Mace’s
virtual existence—which I now figured might as well have been an
actual
flesh and blood existence for all
the trouble she was causing me.

Without a word,
the CEO stepped into my office. I got the hint, stepping in after him and
closing the door right away so we could keep the conversation private. I tried
desperately to ignore the look on his face. There was only one word I would use
to describe his expression—disgust. I could already feel the lump forming in my
throat.

 
“Via Mace,” he said, eyes boring into mine. I
didn’t know how to respond to that statement so I stayed quiet. There was so
much weight behind those three syllables. “We can’t have this commotion in the
office, Ali. It doesn’t bode well for us in any way, shape, or form. You need
to go home.”

It took less time for
my front door to slam shut behind me than for the tears to stream down my
reddened cheeks. Everything had come to a head so quickly. I wasn’t even given
a chance to defend myself or try to clear my name before being kicked back
home. I wanted to find relief in the fact that I didn’t actually
lose
my job, but being forced to take
time off was nothing small. It was the principle of it all that really choked
me up.

It was all so
unfair and I felt powerless to do anything about it. I turned on the television
and sure enough, the trailer for Mind Lash took up one of the commercial break
slots. I clenched my teeth.

“It won’t stay
like this,” I mumbled under my breath, angrily muting the television and
reaching for my laptop.
  

Impatiently, I
waited for my computer to boot up, but as soon as it did I opened up my browser
and typed in the name of the game into the search bar. Unsurprisingly, the
search turned up millions of hits, the top of which were news articles from
within the past few hours all abuzz with figures, images, and links to the
official trailer and gameplay clips.

“Not helpful,” I
muttered in annoyance, tapping my finger lightly on the space bar as I thought
of ways to narrow down my search. The person responsible for all this had to be
the creator of the game and I figured that should be easy enough to find. After
all, someone whose game was met with such immense scandal and success even
prior to release was unlikely to remain anonymous.

After another
quick search I came up with the name Hayden Dunn, listed as the game’s creator.
He was the lead of an exhaustive team that made his vision come to life, only
to invade mine and seemingly ruin it.

Something about
the search threw me into gear. The tears had stopped along with the feeling of hopelessness.
I wasn’t going to just sit back and allow this to go on. Even in just the span
of one morning I had come to the conclusion that this couldn’t go on. Enough
was enough. I had to find out everything there was to know about Hayden Dunn
and get to the bottom of this. I was going to put a stop to all of this before
it actually did ruin my life.

Typing his name
into the search bar produced a short interview clip from a gaming news website.
I looked at it carefully and was pleased to notice it had been uploaded less
than two hours ago. It was about Mind Lash and Via Mace so it was definitely a
good starting point. I clicked on it with a nervous sigh.

“Here with us we
have the mastermind behind a game that is taking the world by storm, in both
good and bad ways, Mr. Hayden Dunn. Congratulations by the way! Mind Lash is
really hitting it big before it’s even out of the gates.” The reporter was
friendly and easy going, but it was clear that she was smitten by him.

Hayden chuckled
and rubbed his hand behind his head. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to play it
cool or modest but either way, it bothered me. There was a lot about him that
bothered me—the way he confidently sat in the chair, his handsome smirk, and
his light blue eyes nestled under dark eyebrows. He was a handsome bastard and
he knew it. That only fueled the fire for me to hate him even more.

 
“Thanks,” he responded casually.

“So how does it
feel, Mr. Dunn?”

“Oh, please, call
me Hayden.” He paused briefly and pursed his lips. “I’m elated but at the same
time I’m lost.”

“Lost?”

“Yes. I’m lost in
a wonderland.” He laughed as he lightly scratched his sharp jaw line and five
o’clock shadow. “It’s all so fantastic, but there is just no way my mind is
catching up and taking it as reality.”

“So is this
literally a dream come true for you?”

“If it is
really
true then, yes. It is totally and
completely a dream come true.”

“That’s really
something, just like your game! Tell us a little something about it or its
lovely heroine that isn’t already out on all the circuits.”

This was the first
time Hayden looked directly at the camera and I couldn’t figure out for the
life of me if those baby-blue eyes were honest or not. The only thing I
could
figure out was that looking into
his eyes, even
through
the screen of my laptop, was
pissing me off more with every passing second. I wanted to meet him in person
and really stare him down.

 
“Now,” Hayden finally replied. He turned back
to look at the woman interviewing him and went on, “I love what everyone is
already saying about the game, it’s flattering really, but I can’t give much
away before the release!”

The woman made a
noise of disappointment, but quickly followed it with a chuckle and nod of her
head. “I understand and I’m sure our viewers do too. I’m sure you had a careful
hand in selecting what clips have been released to the public already?”

“Oh, definitely.
I’m not one to take a backseat, ever. I don’t take things lightly and I’m
passionate about what I do. So I handpicked every one of those clips. I really
wanted to give a good glimpse into the game, give people out there an idea of
what Via Mace is all about, but not really ruin any of the great elements or
surprises in the game.”

“Sounds like you
were curating the perfect exhibit,” the interviewer chimed. Hayden chuckled and
gave shrug of his broad shoulders. “Well, now, you mentioned you’re passionate
about what you do. Tell us more on that. Have you always worked in the gaming
realm?”

“No, actually,”
Hayden responded quickly. The interviewer seemed briefly thrown for a loop by
his answer. “I used to work for a rather large and well known company. It was
my first great job but, unfortunately, I lost it a few years back. After that I
went through a rather arduous bout of unemployment, but I suppose I owe my
success in large part to that. That was the catalyst that really made me decide
to turn my life around. From then on I was going to follow my passion.”

The interviewer
ended the segment shortly after that with some generic closing words. I felt
gypped. I wanted to know more about the first job he had lost and why. Somehow
it felt important but, then again, I was in a mode where
everything
about this man seemed important to know.

“Surely there’s
something else out there,” I muttered as I clicked around and entered different
searches until an interview, about a year old, turned up. It was a panel style
interview rather than Hayden Dunn in the spotlight by himself, but he was there
and that was what mattered to me. He looked pretty much the same only he had a
bit more scruff on his face.

“We’re here with
the main creative team of Twin Groove, an interesting interactive game with a
minimalistic approach. We’re going to have a quick interview with the team
followed by a short one or two question segment with each member.”

I skipped ahead
until I saw Hayden’s isolated face against a solid royal blue background, just
the background to make his eyes pop. “As the newest member, we’re curious to
know, how did you get on the team?”

“It was a stroke
of luck, I suppose. I ran into an old friend of mine who works in print. I had
been down on my luck, particularly in the employment department, for quite some
time. I’ve always been a creator and was known in my circle of friends as the gaming
nerd. Well, turns out that kind of passion can pay off.”

“So you weren’t
working in the industry prior to that—right place, right time sort of moment?”

“Not at all. Don’t
get me wrong, my old job was great and I did like it, but it didn’t compare to
this. Working in the video game industry is everything to me. It’s what I love
so it doesn’t even feel like work.”

I paused the video
as it faded into the next team member’s face. At that point in time he worked
for a company called Innovate Tomorrow. I wondered if he would still be listed
on their website. I found the link to it and clicked on to the homepage, my
eyes skimming over the content until I located a navigation bar.

“Our team,” I read
aloud before clicking on it, but Hayden’s photo was nowhere to be found. That
meant he had broken away from them at most a year ago, despite the fact that he
was the new member of the team.

“That doesn’t make
you look too good,” I smirked with slight satisfaction. Somehow the thought of
Hayden Dunn being a slime ball who was too invested in his own greedy ambition
to discern right from wrong made me feel like he could fall from grace. But
that smirk quickly turned upside down when I realized that was who I would be
dealing with if I did in fact get a hold of him.

I went to the home
page for Mind Lash, but there was nothing more than a photo of Via Mace, a
counter, and a link for a pre-order form. I let out a heavy sigh. There had to
be some sort of current website for Hayden Dunn but I was quickly realizing that
that he kept a lot of things about himself and his company secret. It seemed
impossible for someone who worked with computers and game consoles not to have
a web page but, for some reason, a domain for him didn’t come up.

I had no clue of
his current company and no way to contact him. I took a deep breath before
standing up and walking to my kitchen for a glass of water. I leaned against
the cool metal door of my refrigerator, sipping slowly and staring out my
window. There had to be some way to find contact information on him. People
were getting him for interviews and statements. I was sure he wouldn’t close
off the opportunity for some kind of business partnership either. So why could
I not seem to locate any of this elusive information?

I figured there
was some piece of the puzzle I was missing. I drew in a deep breath as I
resisted the urge to call my brother and bounce ideas off of him. I set my
glass of water down on the kitchen counter and walked back to the living room
where I plopped back down on the couch with my laptop.

Clicking my tongue
and lightly tapping my finger on the space bar went on for a couple minutes
before I decided to check out the Twin Groove home page. That was where I found
a link to a fan-run forum.

“Bingo,” I
whispered excitedly.

There
was
no way fans of that game wouldn’t look into the people
who had created it and I was right. One of the threads was devoted entirely to
the main creative team. The facts listed under Hayden were pretty basic and
were far fewer than that of the other team members, but I made note of them
anyway.

Painstakingly, I
read through the posts and was thrilled to find they had picked back up a few
hours ago with a new link– it was a link to another forum dedicated to the
upcoming Mind Lash game. One of the top posts on the Mind Lash forum was titled
“All About Hayden Dunn.”

I didn’t really
find anything new on there. He seemed to be low profile, until I reached the
most recent post. It was a link to an article from a gaming web magazine. The link
redirected to a brief interview with and a small blip on the man of the hour.
The interview was only three questions, all of which were basic.

It was the blip
that caught my attention more than anything. At the closing of it there was a
statement that made me feel the way I had earlier– helpless as my world came
crashing down around me. It turned out there was no way I could just call in to
get an appointment with him. His popularity was practically soaring at this
point. That explained why I had been hard pressed to find any contact
information for him. I figured he was on one of those exclusive lists someone
only had access to as a reporter or someone else in the industry. I wasn’t
either of those. How could I confront him if it was impossible to even get a
meeting with him?

I closed my laptop
with a snap and set it aside, proceeding to bury my face in my hands. It wasn’t
a time to cry, but the strong feelings swirling in me were undeniable. My
stress levels were at an all-time high so there was only one thing to do—I
could write a song. Just like the old days back in college.

 
My job wasn’t what I loved, but what I loved
was something that always helped me get through difficult times. It relieved my
stress and lifted my spirits so if there ever was a time to call upon that
passion, it was now. Unfortunately, as soon as I started writing I realized
that I couldn’t focus.

I walked to my
living room window and placed my palms open, flat on the sill as I stuck my
head outside to draw in a deep breath. The streets were quieter now that it was
the middle of the workday. I enjoyed the quiet times and the way the fog still
hung on the streets around me. There was definitely a calming effect and even
if it wasn’t enough to really get my head on straight, it was enough for me to
find it in myself to move forward and try doing something else. Nothing good
would come of continuing to look up information on Mind Lash, Via Mace, or
Hayden Dunn.