Chapter 9
Wolf Bennett hasn’t moved, and while the rest of the crowd is busy giving Grady Chandler a piece of their mind, I can’t take my eyes off the man in the ring.
There’s a building ache in my chest, a twinge of anxiety, because I truly can’t tell if this is all for show or not.
I’ve tried to remind myself it’s fake. He’s fine.
If not, there’d be some kind of actual medical staff out here…
right? Not just referees. But the longer he lies there—flat on his back, eyes closed—I can’t help but worry.
Something might be wrong. At least I know he’s breathing.
I can see his chest rise and fall. After a few more breaths, he begins to stir, using the ropes to sit up.
Bennett leans against the lower turnbuckle in the corner.
Grady stands with a smug look on his face. On the oversized screen that hangs above him, I watch as he lifts his hand in the air and turns his thumb down before slowly dragging it along the front of his neck.
“Oh, shit,” I hear Sophia whisper.
Grady disappears into the back, and the crowd around us packs in tight, trying to get a piece of Wolf Bennett before he does the same.
I notice Bennett wince when he puts weight on his left foot, the same one attacked with a chair over and over again. The pain on his face is gone in a flash when he steps through the ropes and walks down the stairs, meeting the crowd at the barricade.
Some people reach out their hands toward him.
Most have their phones ready to capture a glimpse of “The Gladiator.” Others hand over a Sharpie, asking him to sign something.
The entire time, he wears a smile that never slips.
Okay, so maybe he is only faking it. Keep up with…
What’s that word again? Kayfabe, or something?
“You ready to go?” my best friend asks, pulling my attention away from the circus nearby. Isaac has already started the trek with Liam through the crowd toward the exit. “Are you coming back with us or—”
“Sloane,” I swear I hear his voice, but that can’t be right.
He was on the other side of the ring. I glance over my shoulder, and my breath catches when I come face-to-face with him.
He seems to glow beneath the arena lights, sculpted muscles coated in a thin layer of perspiration.
When the hell did he get so close? His hands grip the barricade, and his left knee presses against it, alleviating some of the pressure from his foot.
Wait, is he hurt? But I swear, a minute ago he was fine. This shit is supposed to be fake. Or is this part of the act? I cannot keep up.
“You’re sticking around, right?” Bennett asks, forcing my gaze back up to his.
“Y-Yeah, I’ll be in the back,” I say, and he nods once before returning to the crowd.
“I thought you weren’t dating,” Sophia says, gently nudging my side with her elbow. I roll my eyes, urging her out of the crowd.
The backstage of a professional wrestling event is basically its own city, one that you can easily get lost in if you don’t know where you’re going.
There is a large directory with arrows pointing in various directions and other arrows taped up in different places for directions on the go, but the whole thing makes my head spin.
How does anyone find anything around here?
Organized chaos was how Raelynn described it earlier when she walked us through the halls. “You get used to it after a while, but the easiest way to make sense of it is to remember everything centers around gorilla.”
“Gorilla?” I asked. What kind of name is that?
“The brains behind the operation,” Isaac answered.
“That’s a good way to put it,” Rae said, catching on to my confusion.
“During the show, you’ll find all the producers and writers in there.
Amos and his kids, too—they all work at the company.
Gorilla is where the magic behind the scenes happens while we’re making magic in the ring.
” We followed Rae down the hallway and through double doors to a room with tables full of food, water, energy drinks, and anything else you could ever ask for.
“But this is my favorite…catering.” Rae was a good tour guide, stepping in when Bennett wasn’t available, but the only thing her tour taught me was that trying to corner Amos was going to be a lot harder than I anticipated.
Now, I scan the directory looking for the arrow that will point us toward gorilla. The longer I stare at it, the more everything starts to blur together. I’m about to ask Sophia if she remembers where to go, but I’m cut off by a shrill voice down the hall.
“Oh, Brooks!” A petite woman dressed in skin-tight leather pants and a leopard-print crop top skips toward him.
Well, as much as one can skip in those stilettos.
Twirling a piece of dirty blonde hair around her finger, she giggles at something he says.
Brooks remains stoic and unfazed by her presence, standing on the opposite side of the hall.
Who in the hell is this woman trying to flirt with him? Doesn’t she know who his wife is?
Brooks tries to move forward, skirting past her. “If you’ll excuse me, Harper, I have to—”
“Oh, c’mon, Brooks.” Her voice is a low purr as she blocks his path. “Didn’t you miss having me around? I’m sure it was dull without me. You didn’t have anyone to keep you on your toes!”
“Quite the opposite, actually.”
“We both know I’m much better company than Sav—”
“Enough,” Brooks snaps. His face remains as stoic as before, but even from here I can see there’s something a little more dangerous in his eyes. It doesn’t seem to faze her in the slightest; a smile splits across her face. “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.”
“That’s cute, Brooksy. But when you get bored—and you will get bored—give me a call.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and turns on her heel, brushing past him to walk back the way she came.
Brooks sighs, rolling his eyes and walking in the opposite direction. Something tells me this isn’t the first time he’s had to deal with this kind of display from Harper.
She wears a devilish smirk as she strides down the hall, walking right past us without so much as a second glance.
“I always knew she was a bitch,” Sophia whispers, staring after her.
“Who is that?” I ask.
“Harper Valentine, Wolf’s ex-wife.”
That’s his ex-wife? I knew she was a wrestler—he’d told me as much the night we first met—but Harper is the opposite of what I had imagined. I thought he’d be with someone more like Savannah or Raelynn. Someone more on his level—down-to-earth, humble.
“You’re joking, right?” I scoff. “Her?”
Sophia shakes her head. “They were together for a while, then finally got married, and rumor has it he found her in bed with Grady a few months later.” My stomach sinks.
She cheated on him? And only a few months after they got married?
Well, he certainly left that part out. Then again, I probably would, too.
“At least that’s what the dirt sheets say. ”
Dirt sheet? What is a dirt sheet?
The question must be written across my face because Sophia laughs and says, “They’re basically the gossip blogs of the wrestling world.”
“Didn’t one of them claim EWE is actually a shell company for the Rafferty’s personal problems?” Issac chuckles.
“Yes.” Sophia rolls her eyes. “They can be very entertaining, but absolutely absurd.”
“Hey, look at it this way. If you and Wolf work out, you could always get a job at one of them,” Isaac says, earning an eye roll from his wife.
“Sloane, there you are!” Raelynn waves from down the hall with a wide smile, still dressed in the same athleisure outfit she had on earlier.
That seems to be the norm around here, unless you’re slated to be on the program, like Savannah.
She’s been dressed up in a lightweight knit tank tucked into her jeans with a black leather jacket and heeled boots since I saw her briefly this afternoon.
She even wore it to the ring for her confrontation with Blair Logan.
How can she stand to walk around in heels all day, not to mention go out to the ring in them?
Depending on the type of heel, I swapped mine for flats or Converse by the time I head home most days. “I had a feeling I’d find you here.”
“We were on our way to gorilla,” I say.
“But we got lost!” Liam giggles, and I glare down at him playfully, earning another small fit of giggles.
He’s surprised me with his ability to keep his composure around so many people he looks up to.
Not once did he lose his cool. Okay, maybe once, and only a little bit, when he first met Brooks Taylor and Savvy Skye.
This ten-year-old is better behaved than most of the adults in the audience—or Beacon Hill baristas, for that matter.
“We didn’t get lost. I was looking at the directory but got distracted when…Harper. Harper, right?” I glance at Sophia, and she nods. “Harper started flirting with Brooks.”
“Of course, she did. Better him than her going anywhere near Wolf, I guess.”
That’s an interesting take. I wonder if her best friend would feel the same way. Savannah doesn’t strike me as the type to be okay with someone flirting with her husband.
Rae sighs, before her lips pull upward. “How about I help you find gorilla?”
She guides us through the labyrinth, parting from us to find Brody once the heart of backstage is in sight.
By the time we reach gorilla, Bennett is stepping through the black curtain.
He laughs when one of the crew members says something, but his smile slips into a grimace when he puts weight on his left foot.
“You’d better head to Doc,” the man says, noticing it, too.
“Nah, I’m alright.” Bennett waves him off. Noticing our approach, he says goodnight, straightens his shoulders, and forces weight down on the foot. “Hey, there. You guys enjoy the show?”