The meet and greet began with much excitement from the lines in front of both Min and Brittany, and Gus found himself standing next to Hayden, both watching the proceedings with a cautious eye. Hayden spoke first.

“If you’re with Brittany as some sort of revenge thing against your brother, then I gotta warn you it won’t end well for you.”

Gus gave him his whole attention at that. Hayden was a little taller, but Gus had a good fifty pounds of muscle on him and was trained to fight.

“I appreciate the protectiveness, but that’s not what’s happening here.”

Hayden nodded. “Good.”

They were silent for another moment, and then Hayden spoke up again.

“No offense, but your brother’s a dick.”

“I know.”

“I’ve had to stop Min several times from going over there to punch him in the nuts.”

Gus grunted. These women.

“If it makes her feel better, Brittany poured soda all over his rig and then fried it.”

“Ouch.”

“After deleting all his save files.”

Hayden winced at that one, understanding as a gamer how devastating it was to lose those files.

“You gotta appreciate her attention to detail,” was all Hayden said.

Gus let his eyes trail back to Brittany, where she was smiling full and wide for the camera, enjoying her time with her fans. Looking beautiful and irresistible as fuck.

“There’s a lot to appreciate about her.”

He felt Hayden look at him, but ignored him, focusing instead on the guy that had just smiled for the camera with Brittany at his side… just in time to see his hand slide down to grab her ass.

Gus saw red.

Before he knew it, he was ripping the guy’s arm off her, shoving him to the side of the room, the guy’s back against a wall as Gus points a finger in his face.

“You don’t touch her like that.”

Even he heard the cold in his voice. The creep looked acceptably scared just as security approached to take him away. Gus turned his attention to the crowd gaping at him, still waiting for their turn, and turned his glare up to full power. But before he could say anything, Hayden was there, his hand clamped on his shoulder, blocking his eye contact with the crowd.

“They get it, man. Come take a walk.”

He tried to pull Gus away, and at first Gus resisted, but Hayden hissed at him, his back to the crowd.

“She’s now surrounded by security, and you’re scaring people. Besides, she can handle that shit on her own. Take a fucking walk with me.”

Gus’s eyes flew to Brittany, where she was glaring at the guy that security was hauling away. Immediately he felt himself soften, realizing what a tool he had just acted like, and let Hayden drag him out into the nearest empty hall.

Once there, Hayden let him go and Gus leaned against the wall, trying to regain whatever sanity he had had before this.

“He had his hands on her.”

“I saw.”

“Fucking grabbing her, groping her.”