Wicked Games (Hartley Grace Featherstone Mysteries Book 3) by Gemma Halliday (books for students to read TXT) 📕

I nodded as I watched his reaction. I half expected him to deny it and throw us all out.

After a long beat, he finally nodded. "Connor and I had our differences. He was…strong willed. Didn't always know what was good for his career. But, in the end, we worked well together."

"Did you?" Chase asked. "I mean, in the end?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jason asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Someone saw you and Connor arguing just before he died," Chase said.

Jason let out a bark of laughter. "That's ridiculous."

I shared a look with Sam. "So you're saying it isn't true?" I asked. "You and Connor didn't argue at Gamer Con?"

He narrowed his eyes at us. "We might have had a discussion, but I'd hardly call it an argument."

"What did you discuss?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Sorry. I don't remember."

I didn't buy that for a second. I pursed my lips together, wondering how far we could push him before he pushed back…like hard enough to cause blunt force trauma.

"Was it possibly about Tyler McGowan?" I said.

Jason's eyes shot to mine, a sharp warning in them that told me he knew exactly what I was talking about. "How do you know Tyler?"

"We go to school together," I said honestly. Even though that wasn't strictly how we'd met.

"Well, whatever he told you, it was a lie," Jason ground out.

I gave him a raised eyebrow. "'Whatever he told me?' I mean, don't you want to know what it was before you deny it?"

I could see his jaw working back and forth, anger bubbling just below the surface. And if I wasn't mistaken, a sharp undercurrent of fear mingling with it. "Look, I don't know what it is you think you know—" he started.

But Chase stepped forward, cutting him off. "We know that it was Tyler who created Athena's Quest and not Connor."

Jason's protest died on his lips.

"And," Chase forged ahead, "we know that the game was created while Connor was still under contract with Peak Games."

"And Phoebe Lyons is suing for half the profits," Sam added.

Jason muttered a string of words under his breath that were definitely not funeral appropriate. "Not here," he finally said. Then he nodded toward the exit, leading the way out the door and into a corridor outside the reception room.

Once the door was shut behind us, Chase took the lead again. "So you knew Connor didn't create Athena's Quest?"

Jason pursed his lips together but finally nodded. "Of course I knew. Look, Connor was a great player, but that was where his skills ended."

"Did Connor also tell you he promised Tyler credit but then reneged on the deal?" Chase asked.

Jason cocked his head to the side and gave a sly grin. "What deal? As far as I know there was nothing in writing. No contract, no paperwork. No proof the kid even worked on the game."

I suddenly wondered if that was by design. Had his manager cleaned up any evidence of Connor stealing the code and passing it off as his own?

"Does VizaSoft know Connor didn't make the game?" I asked.

"Of course not." Jason shook his head. "They never even questioned it."

"Because of everything Connor had created before."

Jason scoffed. "Yeah. Sure."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you mean, yeah, sure?"

He shook his head. "I mean Connor Simon was a player. End of story."

"But he made a whole series of games at Peak."

Jason scoffed. "No, he put his name on a whole series of games at Peak. Connor was the image. The star power behind the brand."

"Are you saying he didn't code any of them?" Sam clarified.

Jason shook his head. "He couldn't even code Pong. The kid could play anything—beat anyone at any game. But when it came to putting his celebrity to use, well…his face was all he was worth."

I shook my head, trying to wrap my brain around this. "Did Phoebe know?"

Jason snorted. "Honey, who do you think coded the games?"

"Phoebe," Sam said, and I could see the pieces all falling into place behind her eyes the same way they were in my head. The strong female centric games—they weren't Connor's brainchild. They'd all been Phoebe's doing.

Jason nodded. "Connor was the face, and Phoebe was the brains. With Connor's reputation in the gaming community, he could secure the kind of funding that Phoebe never would have gotten on her own."

"How did Phoebe feel about doing all the work?"

Jason shrugged. "Fine. I mean, why wouldn't she? She got her company off the ground, her games in players' hands."

"All with Connor's name on them," I pointed out.

"Trust me, she was happy to use his name."

"Until he left her behind to sign with VizaSoft," I said, getting a clearer picture of the dynamic between the former partners. "Until he found someone else to do the coding and didn't need her anymore."

Jason sucked in a breath and crossed his arms over his chest. "Look, I'm not saying I thought it was a good idea for the kid to play things out that way. I told him that this thing with Phoebe could come back to bite him if he didn't stay on her good side, you know? I mean, if it came out that Connor was a fraud…"

"He would have been ruined," I finished for him. "Especially if people found out that his latest game was coded by a freshman."

Jason frowned. "Tyler was a college freshman?"

"High school."

Jason let out a few more words one couldn't say on TV.

"Is that what you argued about at the con?" Chase asked, coming back around to our original question. "Were you afraid word would get out?"

"Heck yeah, I was! Connor said Phoebe had just served him papers saying she was suing for the