Demonic Pornstar System novel Chapter 969

Chapter 969: Fallout

"Stop talking already, you disgusting creep."

Something went over on the far end of the line. A chair, possibly a small table.

"Give me the phone."

"Dear-"

"Give me the phone."

There followed a brief physical negotiation, a great deal of wounded dignity, and a woman winning it.

"Bruh. He said that while she could hear it?" Luna muttered.

"Guild Master Grey. Viera Crane." She had been listening for some time. "I would apologize for my father, but I’ve stopped believing it accomplishes anything."

"What’s done is done."

Paper moved. "The offer on your nine was real and it stands for seventy-two hours regardless of anything said in the last two minutes. Your refusal is on record, and for whatever it’s worth to you, I’d have made the same one."

"None of that helps me right now, but thanks."

"Understood," Viera replied. "If you ever change your mind, please call my office, not his."

In a completely different register:

"Miss Aria."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"...Hang in there."

"It’s not me who needs words of support right now."

"Dear?!"

"YOU DAMNED IMBECILE, YOU FUCK-"

The line went dead.

"Boss." Doug had his glasses back on. "Two days ago I stood in that tent and made a joke about doing this. Word for word. Shopping for promising awakened trained at the expense of our competitors." His mouth twisted. "I was so pleased with myself I didn’t even take it back."

"You were right, though," Nyx said. "That’s the business. It just works better when you’re the one with the deeper pockets. We pushed our way around the smaller guilds, and now the big fish did the same to us."

Kaiden turned that over.

"So why these fourteen? I get that they’re promising and all, don’t get me wrong. But isn’t it weird that they poached so many without us being any wiser about it?"

Nyx was already back at her desk, and she had three windows open across it before he finished asking.

"Yes. Somebody picked them one at a time. Like they’re a shopping list."

"They’re spineless is what they are." Luna had her boots up on the corner of the map table and no intention of moving them.

"They were picked." Nyx dragged one window to the middle of her screen and read off it instead of turning it around. "Somebody went looking for people who’d be easy to move, and this is what came back."

"Every one of the fourteen is a blank where their fan history should be. I ran accounts, internet activity, forum comments. All three came back empty on all fourteen, and we know our fans aren’t the... quietest bunch."

"Out of the four hundred people who signed with us, they’re almost the only ones where I couldn’t tell which stream they started on."

Another window came forward. "That’s what got them looked at. Then it’s guild history. Six of them have moved houses three times or more in four years. One’s been in five, all inside the last three years."

"So Gramps found the ones who’d leave," Luna said.

"Not quite."

Nyx had stopped scrolling.

"The last filter is money."

Nobody in the room said anything, and the pump under the stairs ran on to itself for a few seconds.

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