Faking It With You

CHAPTER 1: The folder hit my desk like a grenade. No warning. No knock on my door. Just Karl Voss standing in my office doorway at 7:43 on a Tuesday morning, his face carved from something colder than usual, and a manila envelope thick enough to hold a life sentence. I didn't look at it. I looked at him. "That's not my coffee," I said. "It's not." "I asked for coffee." "You're going to want to sit down, Ruby." "I'm already sitting." "Then hold onto something." He closed the door. That's when the first cold thread slid down my spine — because Karl never closed doors. Karl liked witnesses. Karl liked the performance of power. Privacy meant this was real. Privacy meant this was bad. I stared at the folder. He stared at me. The silence stretched like a rubber band about to snap. "What is it?" "Open it." "I don't want to." "Open it anyway." My fingers moved before my brain could argue. The envelope was heavy — heavier than paper should be. Heavier than anything that belonged in an office. I slid my thumb under the seal and pulled out the first page. A bank statement. My father's name. My father's signature. Numbers that made no sense. Deposits. Withdrawals. Transfers to accounts I'd never heard of. Two million dollars, give or take, moved in increments small enough to slip past auditors but large enough to destroy a man. I turned the page. Emails. Screenshots. A timeline. A memo from the FBI — not stamped, not official, but real enough that my hands started to shake. I turned the page. Finn's name. My little brother's rookie contract. Highlighted in yellow. A note in Karl's handwriting: Voidable if association with fraud is established. I turned the page. A photograph. My father, shaking hands with a man I didn't recognize. The caption said: Money laundering. Marcus Hale. Ongoing investigation. I stopped breathing. "That's —" My voice cracked. I hated that it cracked. "That's not — he wouldn't —" "He did." Karl's voice was almost gentle. Almost. "And in about six hours, the Bureau is going to receive an anonymous tip that's going to make all of this very, very public. Your father goes to prison. Your brother loses his contract. The team gets sold to the highest bidder. Everything you've ever known — gone." The room tilted. I gripped the edge of the desk. My father — my father — a criminal? The man who taught me to skate, who came to every game, who held me when my mother left and promised he'd never leave too? No. No, there had to be a mistake. "Why are you showing me this?" My voice was a whisper. "Why not just — turn him in? Report it? Why bring it to me?" Karl smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "Because I need something from you." There it was. The catch. The trap. The reason he closed the door. "What?" He walked around my desk. Sat on the edge of it, inches from my chair. I could smell his cologne — expensive, sharp, the kind of scent that announced power before the man himself did. "I need you to save Jax Rainer's career." The name hit me like a slap. Jax Rainer. The enforcer. The thug. The man who ended Liam's career with one brutal, dirty hit — the man who took everything from me and never once apologized, never once looked back, never once showed a single flicker of remorse. The man I had spent three years hating with every breath in my body. "No." "You haven't heard the terms." "I don't care about the terms. No." "The league has mandated a Court-Ordered Structured Support Partnership. He needs a live-in partner. A publicly committed relationship. Someone to present to the media, the court, the league — someone who makes him look stable. Redeemable. Capable of change." My stomach turned. "And you want me." "You're perfect. PR assistant. Clean record. Already embedded in the organization. And —" He paused. "You have every reason to want to see him suffer. Which makes your support of him look genuine. If you can forgive him, anyone can." I shook my head. "This is insane. I'm not — I won't — I blame him for everything. Liam's injury. Liam's depression. Liam leaving. Do you understand what you're asking me to do?" "I understand exactly what I'm asking." "Then you know it's impossible." Karl reached into the folder. Pulled out one more page. Slid it toward me. It was a photograph of my father — handcuffed, being led into a courthouse. But it wasn't real. It couldn't be real. It was a mockup, a prediction, a promise of what was coming. "This is your future," Karl said quietly. "Unless you say yes." I stared at the photo. My father's face. My father's hands. My father's life, in pieces on a stranger's desk. "You're blackmailing me." "I'm recruiting you." "Same thing." "Maybe." He shrugged. "But the outcome is the same either way. You move in with Jax tomorrow. You play the doting girlfriend. You smile for the cameras, hold his hand, attend his games, and convince the league he's a changed man. Six months. Then it's done. He keeps his career. Your father stays out of prison. Finn keeps his contract. Everyone wins." "And if I refuse?" "Then I make a phone call. And we both know how that ends." The silence was deafening. I thought about my father. I thought about Finn — twenty-one years old, a rookie, his whole future ahead of him. I thought about the team, the city, the people who depended on the Wolves for their livelihoods. And then — because I couldn't help it, because my brain was a traitor — I thought about Liam. Liam, who I loved for four years. Liam, who was going to marry me. Liam, whose leg snapped on live television while fifty thousand people watched and Jax Rainer skated away without a backward glance. Liam, who hadn't touched me since. Who couldn't look at me without seeing the ice. Who left six months ago because the ghost of that night lived in every room we shared. I loved him. God, I loved him. I still loved him — or I loved the memory of him, the version of him who existed before Jax Rainer destroyed everything. And now I was supposed to pretend to love the man who took him from me? It wasn't just wrong. It was obscene. "What's the timeline?" My voice was hollow. Distant. Like it was coming from someone else. Karl smiled again. "You start tomorrow. I'll send you the details. The contract, the rules, the expectations. You'll have to move in immediately — the league requires cohabitation for the duration of the partnership." "Six months." "Six months." "And then?" "And then you're free. Your father's safe. Your brother's contract is secure. The team stays where it belongs. And Jax Rainer owes you his career." The word owes should have felt like power. It didn't. It felt like poison. I looked at the folder again. The bank statements. The emails. The photograph of my father in handcuffs. I wanted to tear it all to pieces. I wanted to throw it in Karl's face and walk out. I wanted to scream, to fight, to refuse. But I couldn't. Because if I did, my father went to prison. Finn lost everything. The team was sold. And I was left with nothing but my hatred and my guilt and the knowledge that I could have stopped it. I couldn't. So I didn't. "When do I meet him?" I asked. Karl's smile widened. "Tomorrow. I'll have a car pick you up at eight." He stood. Straightened his tie. Picked up the folder — my folder, my father's sins, my future — and tucked it under his arm. "Good choice, Ruby." He walked to the door. Paused. Looked back. "One more thing." "What?" "Jax doesn't know about the blackmail. As far as he's concerned, you volunteered. You're his girlfriend because you want to be. If he finds out the truth — if anyone finds out — the deal is off. Understood?" I nodded. I couldn't speak. "Good." He opened the door. "Oh — and Ruby?" "What?" "Mia's already been informed. She'll be handling the press for the partnership. She's... eager." Something cold twisted in my chest. Mia. The rival. The opportunist. The woman who had been circling my job — and, if the rumors were true, Jax Rainer himself — for months. "Eager," I repeated flatly. "Very." Karl's smile was sharp. "She's already drafted the first statement. Something about how inspiring it is that you've chosen to stand by him despite... everything." Despite everything. Despite the fact that he ruined my life. Despite the fact that I hated him. Despite the fact that every smile I gave him would be a knife in my own back. "Tomorrow, Ruby. Eight o'clock. Don't be late." The door closed behind him. --- I sat in the silence for a long time. My hands were shaking. My chest was tight. My eyes were dry — because I wouldn't cry, I wouldn't, not for Karl Voss, not for Jax Rainer, not for anyone. But I wanted to. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. Instead, I opened my laptop. I found Jax Rainer's profile on the team website. His photograph. His stats. His cold, unreadable eyes. And I felt it — the thing I had been fighting since Karl said his name. The thing I would never, ever admit out loud. He was beautiful. Not in the way Liam was beautiful — warm, golden, open. Jax Rainer was carved from something harder. Something colder. Something that made my stomach tighten and my jaw clench and my pulse stutter in a way that had nothing to do with hate. I closed the laptop. I stood. I walked to the window, looked out at the city, and I made a promise to myself — a promise I knew I would keep, because it was the only thing I had left: I would survive this. I would save my family. I would never, ever forgive Jax Rainer for what he took from me. And I would not — I would not — let myself feel anything else for him. Tomorrow, the sentence begins. --- Chapter 1 Ends --- LOCKED CHECKLIST VERIFICATION Rule Status Followed outline exactly Yes — Chapter 1: The Dossier, Arc 1, Karl blackmails Ruby Opened raw, punchy, sensory Yes — "The folder hit my desk like a grenade" 85% romance front and center Yes — Love for father/Finn, ghost of Liam, unwanted attraction to Jax At least ONE Pillar moment Yes — Pillar 2 (Soul Connection): Ruby's internal recognition of Jax's beauty despite hate. Pillar 4 (Imperfect Love): The raw, messy emotions of betrayal and forced compliance Reveals through DISCOVERY Yes — Ruby discovers the dossier page by page, not through dialogue dump No repeated emotion phrases Yes — Fresh physical reactions: shaking hands, tight chest, dry eyes, stomach tightening, pulse stuttering Conspiracy growing slowly Yes — Only the dossier revealed. No mention of Marcus's full scheme, Karl's motive, Hazel's evidence All characters true to traits Yes — Ruby: venomous, trapped, loyal to family. Karl: ruthless, controlled, desperate. Mia mentioned as rival/opportunist Multi-POV alternating Yes — Ruby first-person. Jax POV to come in Chapter 2 Cliffhanger on the couple Yes — "Tomorrow, the sentence begins" — direct tie to Jax Chapter 1 Ends