Chapter Twenty-Four
Jackson
I put away the bed and tidied up the apartment, and made sure everything on her list was ready to go before joining her in the bath. I tried to sneak in to the shower with her, but she was waiting for me, sitting naked on the counter when I walked in the room.
“It’s your turn for something a little more tender, Lover.” She slid off the counter and put her arms around my neck. “You are the kind of man a woman should fall in love with, and I aim to make sure you don’t notice any of them.”
I laughed and held her tiny waist in my hands. “I can’t imagine what more I can do than pick up and leave my home, and put my future on hold that will convince you that all I want is to be here with you.”
“Oh, I know that’s what you want now. I just want to give you lots of reminders that I’m not just some wild creature that you can blow in and out of her life without losing something in the process. Starting with a little TLC before you and I make Gamercon history and rock the entire geek world with your genius and my creativity.”
She washed every inch of me so tenderly I thought we were about to make love. I was finally the one who had to remind her of our schedule and hurry her through her own routine so we could eat and get out the door. While she dressed and gulped down the shake I’d made her, I fed Stiles, who was my shadow until the food hit his bowl, and then he promptly forgot me. She checked her phone again before we left. The locker was still locked tight, and had been throughout the night.
I got another kiss for keeping her costume safe, and teased her about how little she cared about her home, since I’d stolen the monitor from her front door. She told Stiles to keep the place safe, and I assumed the faint ear twitch she got in response was as close to an affirmative as she could get from a feline. We raced to the car, and she drove, after pointing out to me that she was by far the more aggressive driver and we had no time to spare getting to the convention center.
On the way, I checked her phone again. The locker was dark, but there was an edge of light I didn’t remember from before. I didn’t say anything, trying not to alarm C.J., but I forgot the volume had been turned all the way up. The motion and light had activated the monitor so when the door was forced open, the sound was a near deafening crash in the car. C.J. jumped and I put a hand over her mouth before she could exclaim, turning the volume down to a tolerable level before a woman’s face came into view. As soon as her face was recorded, I demanded to know what she thought she was doing. With a gasp, the door slammed shut and the monitor went silent again.
We squealed into a parking spot near the employee entrance and C.J. tossed me the keys to lock up as she ran full out toward the dressing area. I followed as quickly as I could, and caught up with her just as she was opening the locker, which had obviously been jimmied with a tool of some kind. The grey paint was scratched through and the edge of the door itself was caved in right at the lock, as though a pry bar had been wedged in the crack between the door and the frame and pushed out.
I showed C.J. the video, and then I showed it to the security team that had joined us to check out the near theft. It was Ray, the guard who C.J. knew, who found the spray paint and thread cutting tool shoved behind a dressing rack full of soldier uniforms for one of the upcoming shows for the day.
“I suppose I should be glad she wasn’t trying to steal it,” I heard her say as Ray and a man in a suit spoke with C.J. off to one side of the lockers. I gave her phone back to her, and showed Ray and another guard where the monitor was, explaining how we’d caught the video.
They finally let us pull the costume out and check it, and her tears of relief when she saw that we’d stopped the vandal from completing her goal only made me angrier. Even more when C.J. told me that she knew the girl, that they all did, and they were looking for her, but had no idea what kind of disciplinary action was to go with her crime. The community was so close knit, they’d never had anyone force them to act against them before.
C.J. and I waited for Shelby to arrive so we could dress her for the competition, but I could see the color had seeped out of her day, and no amount of good press, maybe not even a win, was going to improve her mood now. Her biggest debut was ruined by another cosplay artist.
“No one ever takes Lacey seriously,” she sniffed as I sat with my arm around her shoulder. “All she ever cares about is being sexy, getting noticed for her boob job. She has no chance of ever winning a competition, even if she had ruined the War Angel.” I rubbed her shoulder and tried to think of something that would make everything better.
“What in the all-fired hell is going in here today?” Shelby called out from far down the corridor. “Bitches better stay out of my way.” C.J. sniffed and giggled a little, under her breath. Hearing Shelby chewing out whatever poor stranger had the misfortune of being between her and her friend, took a little of the sting out of the attempted vandalism.
C.J. wiped her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. I tried to calm down too. I knew there was no good in letting what didn’t happen ruin the whole competition for her, but I wanted to rail against the judges, the other attendees, anyone who hadn’t taken her seriously enough to protect her legacy.
“It’s okay Jackson, you can dial it back now,” C.J. whispered to me as she bumped her shoulder into me. “I can feel your anger rising off you like heat waves.” I dropped my arm from her and shook myself.
“Sorry. Not trying to make anything worse. I’m just so mad. I literally pulled that monitor off your door at the last second. It was just supposed to make you feel better, not stop an actual freaking crime.” I rubbed my hands. “So, who is this bitch, anyway?”
“Her name is Lacey. She’s not all bad, but she wants to be seen and become famous so bad. She hates that I already had a successful career as a fashion model, because that’s what she wants to be, you know? She’s a cosplayer, hoping to be ‘discovered’ and become a famous model or actress.”
“She has a hate on for you because you’re already famous, and you’re better at this game than she is, too.”
“I don’t know about that…” her voice trailed off.
“Yeah, you do,” I argued. “You know, for a tough as nails hard-ass, you sure are soft-hearted. You could’ve demanded she be voted off the island, forever. I think they would’ve given it to you.”
“Maybe. I just want them to take our hard work seriously enough that they protect it when we aren’t able to.”
“I can imagine that if they’d got a bill from you they’d be making sure that happened.” I tilted her face up and kissed her. She tried to smile, but it was wan and tired. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and her nose was still pink from her crying jag.
She threw her arms around my waist and buried her face in my shirt. Shelby and the gofers watched anxiously by the costume on its rack, worry on their faces as the seconds ticked by. I pulled her away from me so I could look down into her face, anxiety and resignation all wrapped up in one little, adorable ball of angst. I led her to the makeup counter, with its Hollywood lit mirror and tall stool, and she sat, wiping away the remaining moisture from her face.
I took Shelby aside as C.J. started brushing out her hair to pull back under the wig she’d be wearing, and Shelby and I talked about how she looked, and what makeup to use. I wanted the judges to see her as she was now, not cold and aloof as she’d been wearing the character, but burning so hot that it felt like frostbite to touch her, frustrated and tired of an eternity of disappointment in the people around her.
Shelby listened and nodded. “You’ll have to sell her on it before she goes out there, but I have the easy job. The woman is gorgeous, all I have to do is accentuate it for the distance from the stage to the audience.”
C.J. was tucking the last few stray hairs into the tight bun she wore under her wigs, and watching us in the mirror.
“Hey there, pretty girl,” Shelby smiled at C.J.’s reflection. “I’m going to do your makeup a little differently, and Jackson had an idea for your character, that might help you feel better. You can still win this, you know.” She applied a light foundation, and got out an air-gun to apply colors while I watched, amazed at the transformation.
In a few minutes, Shelby had created a fiery goddess from a tear-stained girl. I slow-clapped as C.J. turned to face me and Shelby affixed the black and blue wig and styled it up and away from the wings, with soft, curling tendrils that famed her face. The hairstyle brought back some of the innocence that I had come to understand was a part of C.J., even if she didn’t realize it herself. She was filled with perpetual wonderment. Every experience was all or nothing for her, from choosing dinner to choosing me.
Now she looked imposing and stern, sad and majestic, from the extra inches her heels gave her, to the heavy eye makeup Shelby had added to make her eyes look larger than real life. I held up the bodice and helped her get her arms in, then grabbed her boots for her while Shelby adjusted the brace system and retightened the laces at the back.
She slid a foot into each boot, and I zipped them up, running my hands over the soft skin of her thighs as I locked the zippers in place. Her thighs were so close and tempting, I gave in to my urge and leaned in closer, nibbling on the tender skin between the top of the thigh high boot, and the hem of her shorts, until she squealed and flicked me on the top of the head.
“Ow!” I laughed and rocked back on my heels. She rolled her eyes, but I could see the flush deepen in her cheeks. “Later, then,” I added, making her blush deeper and giggle. I smacked her on the ass for good luck, and Shelby and I backed away as a stage manager hurried her out to the backstage waiting area. I crossed my fingers.
“She didn’t check her wings,” Shelby sighed.
“They’ll work, I looked them over myself while you put C.J. through that airbrush torture of yours.”
She laughed and grabbed my arm. “We have to go watch, I can’t wait back here.” We used our all-access passes to sneak up to the side of the stage where we could watch without being seen. I didn’t see the girl who had forced C.J.’s locker open, and part of me was disappointed. I had a few things I would’ve liked to say to her. I watched as costume players from every game and science fiction franchise I could imagine strutted across the stage. Suddenly, I was worried for C.J., not because her costume wasn’t good enough, but because it wasn’t a well-known character.
“How many points are awarded based on the fan votes from yesterday?” I asked Shelby in a whisper.
“Not sure, but they’ll explain the whole system as they award them.”
I nodded and folded my arms to stop clenching and unclenching my fists by my sides. I was ten times more nervous than C.J. looked. She didn’t even glance back as her turn to strut the stage arrived. Shoulders back, whip uncurled, she stalked across the wooden platform, her boots flashing and flaring like flames dancing up the sides of her legs.
The cheers from the audience were almost deafening, as she cracked the whip and charged the judges table, and I crossed my fingers as she skidded to a stop, cracked the whip one last time, and flipped the switch on the wings. I could feel the grin spread across my face until my cheeks hurt, but the roar from the full auditorium was dialed to a twenty as the wings spread out at her shoulders and she glared out over the audience.
Shelby grabbed my arm, tugging at it and pointing as a few members stood, then a few more until my goddess was staring out at a full house standing ovation. C.J. took it in stride and never broke character, standing a little taller, pushing her shoulders back, and releasing the wings to their folded position. She bowed at the shoulder, like a queen or an appeased goddess, then sprinted toward us at stage right and at the last second leaped into the air.
I was close enough that as she landed she fell into my arms, laughing. I gasped and stared at her, the stupid grin wiped off my face, replaced with utter horror.
“You could’ve broken your neck,” I hissed at her as she laughed.
“Well, I saw you, and I thought, ‘Hey, he can catch me,’ and I jumped. I bet it looked awesome to the audience and judges.” She frowned at me. “You aren’t supposed to be back here anyways, so you can’t complain.”
I kissed her chastely on the lips to spare her makeup and let her drop the last couple of inches to the floor. She brushed her hands over her bodice and shorts and winked at me.
“I have never seen a reaction like that before, not even when I suspended myself above the stage,” she panted, clapping her hands quietly. “I didn’t tell you this, but I had to show a stage hand my tits to get him to lift me for that show. What a rip-off.” She frowned, then glanced at me, wide-eyed.
“I’m not even surprised that all you had to do was show him those lovely breasts of yours,” I shrugged. “I’d have done it too.”
C.J. grimaced. “Well, that and twenty bucks.”
Shelby laughed so hard she had to brace herself against a wall. “Oh, C.J., I don’t even know what to say,” she gasped, wiping her eyes. “After this morning, I needed that. Speaking of which, did they say anything about Lacy?”
C.J. shook her head. “Ray came around and mentioned that she was no longer here, like, at all. I don’t know if we’ll see her again, or if she’s gone for good.”
I sighed. “It would be nice to just know, one way or the other, so I can start planning boobytraps for any future costumes, but I guess they wanted to minimize the disruption to the competition by just not bringing her up.”
C.J. nodded and reached out for my hand. “I love that you care, truly care, and aren’t all words and hot air.”
I gripped her hand and swallowed hard. That was the closest to an “I love you” that I’d ever got from a girl, and even though I knew what she meant, it still made my chest tight.
“Oh, C.J., you’ve got him blushing!” Shelby teased, as she winked at me. “I don’t think the cowboy is used to compliments. Everyone just expects him to be a genius and take care of them. She glanced at my face and stopped grinning. “Well, shit. Jackson, I bet all the people you take care of know that you’re amazing, people can just be shitty and selfish sometimes.”
I shrugged it off, but the high of what I was certain was a sure-win for C.J. faded under their scrutiny. I waved to Ray, the only security guy I knew, and he came over and shook C.J.’s hand.
“That. Was. Awesome,” he told her as he vigorously pumped her hand up and down. “Good job, girl.”
She thanked him and delicately removed her hand from his grasp.
“Sorry. What did y’all need, aside from me taking poor C.J.’s hand off,” he laughed.
“How much longer until she gets called back out? Do I have time to get her something to eat?” I rubbed her shoulder, careful to only touch the leather, not the makeup on her skin. “Today hasn’t been the best for organization, and with everything that happened, she hasn’t had anything except a shake this morning.”
Ray started and stared at C.J. in disapproval. “We’ve had this talk before, C.J.,” he chided her. “She has maybe twenty minutes, between the last couple competitors and the judges’ decision. You don’t worry about it though. You guys wait here, and I’ll go grab her something. We have all kinds of bars and protein shakes in our breakroom, someone will have an extra.” He backed away and pointed at C.J. “You know I got you, girl. Just hang tight.” He nodded at me and I returned it, then he disappeared around a corner, and we returned to our nervous huddle.
“Thanks for thinking of food. I was afraid you guys would get mad if I asked, but my stomach is minutes away from a coup.”
Shelby held one hand and I took the other. “You are such a nerd for thinking we’d be more worried about having to go get you food than we would be about you passing out from hunger,” she scolded.
“Oh, I could go another full day without actually passing out from the hunger,” she chuckled. “Don’t ask,” she added when I raised an eyebrow at her.
Seconds ticked by like hours, and backstage in little pockets, cosplayers and their teams clustered together almost silently, nearly identical anxious looks on every face. C.J. nibbled on the organic, vegan, body-balanced protein bar Ray brought for her, and I wished for a beer or three, promising myself something high in grease and low in nutrition when it was all over.
Just as we were all at our breaking points, the MC came over the system to bring the contestants back to the stage for the awards. C.J. kissed my cheek and gave Shelby a half hug, then took her place in line. By the time she had stepped onto the stage, Shelby was glued to my side, her knuckles white with the grip she had on my hand.