Fake Game (The System #3)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

TWENTY-EIGHT

JACKSON

I ’ve never been a violent person.

But right now, it’s a struggle to keep myself in check as I look at the way Deer’s arm is still marred with dots of red where that asshole’s fingers gripped her.

The door to our suite beeps open, and Lee comes running in. Her stride doesn’t break as she beelines for the armchair Deer is curled up in.

Reading her best friend, Deer unfurls her body and holds her arms out so Lee can crush her in a hug. Although, considering they’re both five foot, crush is a bit of a stretch.

“Are you okay? They wouldn’t let me come over, safety and all that blah blah.” Lee grasps her jaw with both hands and starts looking her over.

“It’s fine, I—”

Lee gasps, holding out Deer’s right arm. “Fine? That is not fine.”

My fists clench and I have to look away before my blood begins to boil again. I’ve barely got it simmering beneath the surface.

“I bruise easily.”

“Nolan never should’ve let it get that far. He’s going to get an earful from me.” Lee stalks past me, and Aleks shoots up to grab her by the waist.

“Not so fast.” He lifts her up and promptly plops her onto the couch between him and me.

“Your team followed protocol.” Parker looks up from the floor where he is playing Kill Strike on his phone. “But I already spoke to the company; they’re sending over some extra people for tomorrow. We’re also going to give Deer one of our personal detail for the meet and greet.”

“We should’ve done that earlier,” I mutter.

I’m kicking myself. The boys and I don’t need the same security attention as the girls do. We know how people get at these events when it comes to them, and we let our guard down.

I let her down.

“Coulda, woulda, shoulda.” Deer stands up and crosses in front of us, propping her hands on her hips. “What’s done is done. Let’s move on, please.”

Lee opens her mouth to protest, but Aleks squeezes her knee.

“Fine, for now.” She slumps back against the couch.

“Thank you.” Deer curtsies. “Now, I’m drained. I’m going back to try to get some sleep before doing this all again tomorrow morning.”

“But the room service hasn’t arrived yet,” Parker chimes in.

“Just have it sent over. I’m across the hall.” She picks up her phone and gives us all a twinkle of her fingers.

My body follows her automatically, standing up to trail behind her.

“Jackson.” Aleks’ voice is blunt.

I look at our leader, but he just raises his brows and shifts his eyes from me to the couch and back again.

Fine.

I’ll stay until the food arrives, then I’ll head over.

I slump back down on the couch, and Lee nudges my knee with her own. “ Curse ?”

“Sure,” I sigh, pulling out my phone and loading Gods League: Titan’s Curse , the mobile version of the acclaimed game.

“I’m not joining,” Parker defends.

“We didn’t ask you.” Aleks flicks his bottle cap at the blond and downs the last of his water before getting his own phone out.

We start playing a few rounds, and honestly, considering it’s a 4v4 version of Gods League, it would be better if we had a fourth team member to collude with rather than some random who could be halfway around the world.

I bet I could have convinced Deer.

I haven’t seen her play before, but after everything she told me about her family, she must have a dummy account.

Fuck.

Now, I’m thinking of her again. Her and all the secrets she’s been letting me in on…all the trust she’s been giving me.

But what is that trust worth if I can’t do anything to protect her?

“By the way, what happened to the guy? Was he banned?” Lee breaks me out of my spiral.

“What guy?”

“The creep from her signing line.”

The doorbell rings and Parker stretches up. “I dealt with him; he won’t be back.”

“Still the Covingtons’ golden child, aren’t you?”

“You bet, baby,” he winks before heading to the door and letting room service in.

One of the security team accompanies the hotel employee, and I can see it makes them all nervous with the way their hands shake lifting the silver cloches onto our table.

“Tower down,” Lee nudges me.

“Copy. Coming up mid.”

When the round ends, we all click off to grab our food—although Parker has already popped a bottle of champagne and is sipping on a glass as he waits for us.

“Want any?” He tips his glass a fraction as we gather around the table.

“Sure!” Lee plops down next to him and holds out a glass for him to fill.

I don’t bother sitting down.

“I’m just going to bring Deer her food.”

“Already sent it over, mate.”

“What?”

“I already had them bring it to her.” Parker glances up at me mid-pour with a frown. “What? You wanted it to get cold while you finished playing?”

I clench my jaw and take a seat, grabbing my utensils and ripping into my steak.

No, I didn’t want that. What I wanted was an excuse to go over there to see her, to make sure she’s doing okay because I know that she was putting on a brave face earlier. She always does that, always tries to make sure she is keeping the peace and causing minimal interference. She’s small enough as it is; I don’t get why she always insists on making herself smaller to not disturb those around her.

It's a fucking pity because, when she shines, she’s the brightest person in the room, but everything going on lately has put a damper on her light. She might be out there throwing around her smiles, but I caught the way she was picking at the skin around her ring finger with her thumb nail in between greeting fans.

My steak turns to poison in my stomach as I imagine her alone in her room, slowly spiraling with no one to ground her.

Fuck this, I can’t wait.

I push away from the table and pocket my phone, abandoning my food as I stalk to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Air.”

“Whe—” Aleks’ voice cuts off as I slam the door behind me.

The six bodyguards in the hallway flick their eyes to me, but I just grunt and head across the hall and to the left, knocking on Deer’s door.

My foot taps on the carpet as I wait.

What’s taking so long?

Is she having a panic attack? Did she pass out?

I knock again, louder this time.

“Oh my Gods, I’m coming. Seriously,” she shouts.

My tapping stops and I hear some disgruntled muttering as the deadbolt clicks free and the door swings open.

Deer’s eyes pop wide, and I drink her in. She’s wearing a lacy pink camisole set, one that does nothing to hide the swell of her breasts. My dick twitches in response, but I rip my eyes away as I nudge past her and enter her hotel room.

“Yeah, sure. Come on in.” The deadbolt clicks back into place, and she trails after me. “Do you ever wait to be invited inside?”

“No.”

My eyes land on the plate of pasta she ordered. It looks hardly touched.

“You didn’t eat.”

She lets out a huff, squeezing past me. “I’m not that hungry.”

I follow close behind as she shuffles through the suite to the bathroom, turning on the sink.

“You interrupted my nighttime routine.” She uses her knuckles to remove those bright blue contacts. “And don’t make that face.”

“Looks uncomfortable.”

She snorts, tossing her hair up in a messy bun. “Don’t worry, I’ve had a lot of practice.”

“Well, I do worry. About you.”

Deer’s hands freeze for a moment before she resumes lathering a white foam and massaging it onto her face. A silence stretches out between us, just the sound of running water filling the space. She lets down her hair and grabs some lotion, smoothing it over her hands. A deep brown sugar scent fills the air, that very same one I always smell around her.

I lean flat against the doorframe as she dips past me, her skin grazing mine as she goes to crawl onto her mattress.

“Do you plan to keep watch over me all night, Batman?”

“Maybe.” I move to sit on the edge of her bed.

She runs her tongue across her top teeth, staring at me under her lashes before letting out yet another sigh. “Fine.” She lifts the comforter and wiggles down, getting herself all situated on the side farthest from me, with her back turned.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine. It’s not the first time something like this has happened.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier for you.”

“No. It doesn’t.” She lifts her head and looks at me over her shoulder. “But I can’t let it stop me, either.”

“You’re pretty strong, you know that?”

She smiles. “Pretty? Yes. Strong? Not the first word that comes to most people’s minds when they think of me.”

“I beg to differ.” My hand itches to reach out and touch her. “Will you be okay tomorrow?”

She turns her entire body to face me. “Honestly? I want to cancel the whole damn thing and just hole up in my room.”

“You could camp out in our green room; it’s right by the stage the cosplay competition is on.”

She frowns. “How do you—”

“I looked it up. Wanted to make sure you had somewhere safe nearby to decompress if you needed it.”

She lets out a short laugh and props herself up on one of her elbows, her other arm coming out to tap the space on the bed next to her. “You’re making me uncomfortable looking at you over there like that. Come lie down.”

It’s the same arm with the marks, although they’ve calmed down a fair bit—just a faint pink now.

Deer catches where I’m glaring and quickly shoves the arm back under the comforter. “My offer expires in five seconds. Either you move your butt over here, or you can leave.”

“Wow, no middle ground.” I kick off my shoes and climb over, lying on top of the comforter next to her with my shoulder braced against the wall.

She matches my movements, fluffing the pillow behind her back and propping herself up.

“I’m serious about the green room; you know you can always use it.”

“I know.” She begins fiddling with strands of her hair, smoothing them down rhythmically between her fingers. “But there’s stuff I wanna do. I don’t want to hide away.”

“Mm. Like what?” I reach out and calm her hand, taking it in my own. I press my thumb softly into her palm at intervals, massaging it like my mom did when I was a kid.

“Um, well.” She swallows, eyes glued to our hands. “I sorta wanted to see this artist who’s selling these retro anime art prints.”

“Really? That’s cool.”

“Yeah.”

“And? What else?”

She purses her lips together, and it’s fucking adorable.

“Come on, what else?”

“There’s this jacket I want.”

“What kind?”

She whispers something under her breath, and I don’t really hear it.

“Going to have to repeat that for me, Sparkles.”

“A Love Love Passion School varsity one.”

I let out a chuckle, and she snatches her hand back to her chest, glaring at me with the fierceness of a kitten.

“See, I knew you’d laugh.”

“Hey, no. Not making fun of you. I did spend like an hour in the car with you playing it. I respect the grind.”

She narrows her eyes like she doesn’t believe me.

“Really. In fact, I even downloaded it just to see for myself.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup, but if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I just finished the part where I picked to go to the aquarium instead of the skate park.”

“Oh my Gods. You actually downloaded it.”

“Yup.”

“And you’re doing the Kenji route, interesting. Although, I guess it makes sense that you’d go for the smart and sensible love option.”

“I feel like you’re judging me.”

“I’m not. It’s actually pretty sweet.” She risks a glance at me and pauses for a beat. “You know, if you want, we could maybe visit the booths together tomorrow? No pressure, but if you think you’d be into that I wouldn’t mind the company. I’m not totally into the idea of going alone after today.”

I have to tamp down the giant grin that threatens to spread across my face. I’d steal any chance at spending time with her. It’s not hard to make the choice to ditch everyone else just to gain an extra second in her company.

“Sure, how about after your competition? Our showcase ends at the same time.”

“Okay.” She smiles and shifts closer to me but quickly winces when her elbow squishes against my chest.

I reach over and gingerly hold her wrist, stretching her arm out. When I look at the four pink dots at her elbow, I no longer see a haze of red. Instead, it’s like a boulder crashes into the pit of my stomach.

I lean down and place a soft kiss on the first mark.

Deer sucks in a breath.

“I’m sorry.” I kiss the second mark.

“It’s not your fault,” she whispers, peering up at me through her lashes.

“Doesn’t matter.” I kiss the third mark.

“Really, it’s not something you need to take responsibility for.”

“It is.” I kiss the fourth mark.

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. You’re my responsibility, Deer.”

“Oh? And how is that?”

“Because you’re my fake girlfriend.”

She gives me a pitying smile, pulling her hand free from me. “I’m just your fake girlfriend when your family is around.”

“And what if I said I wanted you to be my fake girlfriend all the time?”

I need more than just a temporary fix. Ever since she moved out of the penthouse, the apartment has felt empty. Her presence is one that I’ve come to crave, and I don’t care what I have to do to keep her near—even if it’s taking this ruse one step further than necessary. I need an excuse to keep her close without scaring her off.

“Why?”

“It would keep the creeps off you for one. So shit like this doesn’t happen again.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. That sounds messy.”

“It got messy the moment you licked your pussy juices off my fingers.”

“Oh Gods, do you have to say it like that?” She covers her face with her hands. “Juices is so, ugh.”

“Don’t get shy on me now.” I lean forward and nip at her fingers. “Would it be that bad to spend a little extra time with me?”

Those honey-brown eyes peek back at me through the gaps.

“We’re playing a dangerous game here, Jackson.”

“Yeah, but it’s our fake game. I won’t let you get hurt.”

“Promise?”

I reach out and hold her hand in mine, kissing her fingers. “Promise.”