Chapter 18 #2
When she stands, I push the chair off my chest and take in a large gulp of air. Savvy pauses at the ropes, meeting my gaze over her shoulder one last time, and for a brief moment, I’m looking at Savannah, not Savvy Skye. The hint of a smile, almost remorseful, tugs at her lips.
“Let’s go, Skye!” Chelsea’s voice echoes down the ramp.
I shake my head, pleading with her to stay, because that’s what Brooks Taylor would do.
And that’s who I’m supposed to be right now, not John Brooks.
Savvy takes the final step out of the ring and jumps down from the apron.
She walks backwards up the ramp to a chorus of boos, watching the officials surround the ring to check on me, but I shoo them away.
I don’t need their help. I pull myself up using the ropes and watch as Chelsea grabs hold of Savvy’s wrist and lifts her hand into the air.
That wasn’t part of the plan—at least not the one I was prepared for.
Was I aware that Colin was going to win with some assistance?
Yes. Was I aware this was setting up for a new storyline that included me and the impending corporate faction?
Also yes. I never would’ve imagined they’d pit Savannah against me, but I should’ve known.
I’m sure the idea spawned in Amos’s head the moment he found out we were dating.
Honestly, I could’ve accepted it if someone had warned me…
Come to think of it, why didn’t she warn me?
I push through the curtain and immediately scan gorilla, but she’s nowhere to be seen.
The least she could’ve done is wait for me here and look me in the face as I came back from getting my ass handed to me by none other than her.
I had no idea what was coming—or who—just that someone would come out about thirty-five minutes into the match and lay me out.
I was supposed to be ready for anything—chair, ladder, table, brass knuckles, whatever they had up their sleeve.
Amos waves to me from the corner, offering a thumbs-up when I finally look at him.
At least someone is fucking happy. I shake my head and walk past him even though he beckons me his way, and truthfully, I’m just as shocked as he is.
I can’t remember the last time, if ever, that I’ve walked right by him after a match like this.
Amos wanting to talk for a second after a Wrestlefest match is normal, but he doesn’t want to know what I think about this.
Not right now, anyway. Not before I’ve cooled off.
Every eye in my path avoids my glare, only stopping to look once I’ve passed them, matching the whispers of “Did you see what happened?” and “I thought they were together.” The only people who don’t avoid me are Wolf and Brody.
They’re perched by a pile of black equipment boxes, talking in hushed tones that become even quieter when they see me, stopping completely once I reach them.
“Hey, man. Good match,” Wolf says, and I scoff in return.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where my girlfriend is, would you? She wasn’t in gorilla,” I say, rolling my eyes when they share a look. “What?”
“We were just discussing if you knew that was coming or not, and from your demeanor, I’m guessing not,” Brody says. “Why didn’t she tell you?”
I scrub a rough hand down my face before letting my fingers card through my hair. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“Well, have you told her about—”
“No.” My jaw clenches so tight it could turn carbon into a fucking diamond. “And I don’t plan to.”
Brody scoffs, shaking his head. “That’s a bad idea, Brooks.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m missing something here?” Wolf asks, his eyes flickering between the two of us.
“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Brody says, planting a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll tell you when you’re older.”
“Assholes.” Wolf rolls his eyes, earning an amused chuckle from our friend. I can’t trust Wolf with the truth about the bet. He’d tell Savannah and not even mean to. It would just slip out, and that isn’t a mess I want to clean up.
“Have you seen her or not?” I ask.
“Sorry, man. We were all watching back in catering, and she snuck off about twenty-five minutes in. Haven’t seen her since. I just assumed she was waiting for you in gorilla.”
“What about Rae?” I ask Brody.
“Rae and Jo already left,” he says, shoulders lifting in a small shrug.
Breathing out in frustration, I turn on my heel to head for the locker room.
If she wasn’t in gorilla and she’s not with our friends…
she must have left for the hotel already.
There’s probably a text waiting on my phone.
I need to get my head checked by Doc first, and then I can change and worry about why my girlfriend didn’t tell me this was coming.
I turn the last corner and see her standing outside Doc’s office.
She’s braced against the wall, arms crossed, and her eyes lift from the floor when she hears my footsteps.
Her narrowed gaze travels over the line of blood on the side of my face and each red mark that litters my body before meeting mine.
Her hands ball into fists in the crooks of her arms, like she’s trying to keep herself from reaching out to me.
She doesn’t know how I’m going to react, and because of that, she keeps her distance.
“What in the hell was that?” I ask, not meaning to sound so harsh, but the longer my search for her went on, the more irritated I became.
On the flip side, the longer it went on, the more I thought about why I was so irritated in the first place.
If she had been honest with me, if she had told me this was happening, I wouldn’t have cared.
It was the element of surprise, doing it without warning, that pissed me off.
Savannah’s only response is silence. She rolls her lips together and looks away.
“You didn’t even try to tell me, Sav. You just…did it. Just like that.”
She sighs, rubbing her face. “I couldn’t tell you, John.”
“You couldn’t?” I practically spit the words. “Savannah, I’m your boyfriend! A little warning that you’re going to turn on me would have been nice. And not just turn on me, you attacked me with a chair and then sat on me in said chair.”
“And as my boyfriend, who is also in this industry, you know the rules. You know that if they tell me not to say something, I can’t.”
“There are certain times that doesn’t fucking matter, Savannah.”
Savannah exhales. “It’s just business, Brooks.”
Brooks? I scoff. She doesn’t call me Brooks outside of the ring. “Just business?”
“Yes!” Savannah yells. “I wanted to tell you. I did. But Amos made it clear. No one was supposed to know. No one, but especially not you.” She shakes her head. “They wanted you to be surprised. They wanted it to be realistic. You knew this was coming, Brooks. You knew everything—”
“Except who it was!”
Savannah pushes off the wall, stepping closer to me, but doesn’t close the distance. “I did what I had to do, and it was just business. I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”
My hands clench at my sides. Even though I know she’s right, I need a few more minutes to cool off. I don’t want to say something that will make things worse.
“I’ll go,” she says. “I’ll let you get dressed, cool off a little, and we can talk more later…
I wanted to check on you before I left.” Finally, she closes the distance between us, kissing my cheek, and I relish in the feeling of her lips on my burning skin.
When she pulls away, her fingers glide over my skin, pushing away the hair from my forehead to examine the cut before her gaze meets mine briefly.
The whole interaction lasts less than ten seconds, and it leaves me wanting more when she steps away.
One final question pops into my head, and I have to ask before she’s gone. Savannah looks over her shoulder when I call out to her. “Did you always know?”
“They told me yesterday, but Tim said it was always part of their plan.” She shrugs, a soft smile gracing her lips before she leaves.
I slam my palm into the concrete wall at my side and immediately regret it as a sharp pain shoots up my arm. “Fuck!”
“That looked like it hurt,” a voice says from behind me.
A humorless chuckle passes through me as I try to rub out the pain in my wrist. You’ve got to be kidding me. This is the last fucking thing I need.
“That’s gotta sting, huh?” he continues.
“What do you want, Drake?” I ask between clenched teeth.
“You and I have a debt to settle, or did you forget?”
I kick off my shoes, leaving them by the door, when I walk into our room over an hour later.
The air smells like vanilla and coconut with a hint of warm wood.
It’s thick and humid, even out here in the living space, from the hot shower she must have taken when she got back.
I find her in bed with a book in her right hand.
Her left toys with the end of the damp braid hanging over her shoulder.
I drop my bag on the oversized armchair in the corner and sit on the edge of the bed.
Warm, chocolate eyes lift from the page, and when we make eye contact, the book closes instantly.
“I’m sorry,” I say quickly, and she looks taken aback.
“I shouldn’t…I know how this works, Sav, probably better than most. But in that moment…
being in the middle of that ring, being on the receiving end of your attack, I forgot, and I took it out on you.
” I cautiously reach out to her, and a wave of relief washes over me when she doesn’t pull away.
“I’m sorry,” I say, pressing a long kiss to the warm skin of her hand.
“You are the most important thing to me, Savannah. You and you alone. Fuck the belt. Fuck the titles, the notoriety…Fuck it all. If I don’t have you, then it doesn’t mean anything. ”
“John, you don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do. I love you, Savannah. I know we haven’t been together that long, but I don’t know how else to describe it.”
“You love me?”