Chapter 17 #2
Not here? A few different responses run through my mind, but I choose not to voice my displeasure. He’s right, this isn’t the time or place. Every person whose opinion matters in this business stands less than ten feet away, and the last thing Bennett needs is his girlfriend causing a scene.
He reaches for my lower back, but I walk ahead, just out of his grasp, through the crowd to the exit.
My annoyance only grows with each step. He wasn’t supposed to do anything physical tonight.
However, not only was he attacked, but he used his left foot—you know, the one that’s connected to his previously injured leg, the one he’s supposed to be resting right now—to kick Grady in the face.
I walk through the black curtain, stepping into the backstage hallway, but before I can restart the conversation, someone interrupts us.
“You know, I’m starting to think you’re still mad at me or something,” Grady says, strutting down the hallway with none other than Harper tucked into his side.
She clings to him like a life raft with his arm draped casually over her shoulders.
“And I have to admit, I wasn’t sure Harper should join me back on the road because I thought you might still be hung up on her.
I mean, it’s been, what, two years, and you still haven’t moved on? ”
Bennett scoffs beside me. This time, when his hand drops to my lower back, I don’t pull away, and his fingers move to my side and grip my waist.
The movement catches Harper’s attention.
Her gaze moves from my side to my face and back before she takes a step forward.
“I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.
I’m Harper,” she says, extending her left hand.
The first thing I notice is the lack of a ring on a very specific finger. That’s interesting.
“Sloane,” I say with a tight smile.
“Isn’t that a boy’s name?” Harper snorts and withdraws her hand, crossing her arms.
“Isn’t Harper?”
Bennett clears his throat to hide a soft chuckle, giving my side a gentle squeeze. “Sloane is my girlfriend.”
Harper’s eyes dart up to his face, eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know you were dating.”
“It’s not really any of your business, Harp.”
“What company do you work for, Sloane?” Grady asks, wrapping his arm around Harper’s shoulders again. “Obviously not EWE, but I’ve never heard of you.”
“That’s because I’m not a wrestler. Bennett and I met through a friend.” Not a total lie, but close enough to the truth to count. Sophia is the reason we met, and she’s my best friend…so, not a total lie.
“Wolf Bennett dating a layman.” Grady’s eyes travel down the length of my figure at an agonizing pace, taking in every inch, before doing the same on the way back up until his gaze meets mine. His lips roll, tongue poking out to wet them. “How long have you been together?”
“Not long enough,” Harper says, the corner of her mouth quirking upward. “She hasn’t started looking somewhere else yet.”
“You’d better keep a close eye on this one, Wolf,” Grady says.
As if he knows what’s coming next, Bennett’s body tenses against mine, and without thinking, I step a little farther in front of him. Grady smirks, glancing down at me once more before he meets Ben’s heated stare.
“Come on, let’s go,” I say, but it’s like he doesn’t hear me. “Bennett.” Finally, his gaze falls to mine, and it softens.
“Yeah, better go before she sees what she’s missing, too. I’d hate to take another one from you, but when the time comes, I’ll be happy to step in and do my part…and fulfill all of her needs.”
It happens in a blur. Bennett steps around me, landing one single punch that sends Grady stumbling backward. Before I can try to stop what comes next, two men have already stepped in: Brooks and Brody.
Thank fuck.
Despite his murderous gaze, Bennett doesn’t fight when Brody pushes him back.
Brooks stands in the middle, hands on his hips, gaze narrowed as he surveys the scene.
I’m surprised to see Harper fretting over the man who openly admitted he’d cheat on her, given the chance.
Did she not hear what he said, or does she know he only said it to get under Bennett’s skin?
Or maybe she doesn’t care. She has to care… doesn’t she?
Grady chuckles, pinching his nose. “Brooks, I should’ve known you’d be lurking around here. Have to make sure all of your pets are taken care of, right? Wouldn’t want Amos to think your dog is the problem.”
Is he serious? Your dog? Who says that?
“Get the fuck out of here, Grady,” Brooks says, voice low and dangerous. “Before I let him beat your ass.”
“Relax, hero. I don’t need you to play security. I can handle myself.”
“Yeah, I saw that. You really held your own on the ground over there.” Brooks cracks a smile. He looks over his shoulder at Bennett, then back at Grady. “But, hey, I’m willing to test the theory if you are.”
“Let’s go,” Harper says, tugging on Grady’s arm. “They’re not worth our time. You can take care of this in the ring on Sunday.”
“You’re right. We’ll see how that foot holds up against a ladder, Wolf.”
“What’s going on out here?” A hoarse voice comes out of the curtain behind us.
Noah Callahan stands with a raised brow, looking around the group.
“You know what, I don’t want to know, but you have five seconds before Amos walks through this curtain, and I advise you to break it up. Save it for the ring.”
Grady scoffs, mumbling something under his breath. He urges Harper to walk forward, but not without one final glare at Bennett.
Noah sighs when they’re gone. “Look, I get you two have some unresolved shit because of Harper—” He puts his hand up when Bennett tries to interrupt.
“No. I don’t—I don’t care. This is not the place for your personal feelings, Wolf.
This is your job, and right now, that means working with him.
If you can’t do that, I will take you both off the show.
Leave it at the door, do you understand? ”
“Yes,” Bennett says, mouth drawn in a thin line.
“Good. Now, as your boss, I should fine you, but as your friend, I’m going to tell you to get out of here before Amos comes out, and I have to tell him you just punched the shit out of Grady. Unprovoked.”
“It wasn’t unprovoked,” I say, but it goes unheard. The only man who looks my way is Brooks, and he shakes his head. “Brooks, tell him it wasn’t unprovoked.”
“It doesn’t matter, Sloane,” he says. “Wolf threw the first punch. That’s all Amos is going to care about.”
“Typical Grady,” Brody mumbles, earning a hard look from Brooks. “What? Tell me I’m wrong.”
“That’s not the point. We all know Grady is an asshole, but that doesn’t change the fact that we can’t go around punching each other…outside of the ring.”
Nice save, Brooks.
“Come on, let’s go. Savannah and Rae have a table at the restaurant.”
“You guys go ahead, I’m not hungry,” Bennett says.
“We haven’t eaten since lunch, Bennett. We need to eat,” I say, and for the first time since the altercation, his eyes meet mine.
His gaze is hard, like it was inside gorilla, and while I had completely forgotten about my annoyance for his lack of consideration for his own well-being, I think I may have reignited his.
He doesn’t say anything; instead, he stalks down the hallway toward the exit without a word.
“I thought he wasn’t supposed to be fighting,” I say to Noah, completely ignoring the looks both Brooks and Brody give me. “You guys sent him home last week because you didn’t want to risk a reinjury before the show on Sunday. Yet, you have him go out there tonight and do just that.”
“Sloane—”
“No, it’s okay, Brooks,” Noah says, and smiles down at me. “You’re his new girlfriend, right?” How does he know that? “Sloane, it was his idea. If you have a problem with what happened on the show tonight, take it up with your boyfriend.”
Winston sits in the driver’s seat, magazine in hand, when I open the bus door. He glances down over the rim of his glasses and smiles. “He’s been waiting for you.”
“I was talking to someone,” I say, closing the door behind me, and notice the door into the main area of the bus is already closed.
“No apology needed,” Winston says. He’s gripping the door handle to the back of the bus, but doesn’t open it. “I should warn you, he seems to be a bit off.”
“Did he say if he wants to meet Brooks and the others for dinner still?”
“Said it’s your call.”
My call? He’s the one in a bad mood, not me. He should be the one to make that decision. “We should go. I think the company will be good for him.”
Winston smiles. “I think you’re right.”
Bennett is the first thing I see when the door opens. Stretched out along the couch, left leg elevated with an ice pack underneath. His gaze blinks away from the television on the wall in front of him, then back.
Well, we’re off to a great start.
“I’ll let you know when we’re there,” Winston says, closing the door behind me.
“Is it bothering you?” I ask, motioning toward his foot.
“No,” he says, eyes still focused on the television. On the screen is a show about superheroes who, as it turns out, aren’t really heroes at all. That’s all I could tell you about it from the few episodes I’ve watched with Gabe.
“What happened tonight?”
Finally, he pauses the show and looks my way.
“Which part are you referring to? The one where you tried to start something with me in front of the most important people in the company, or the one where my ex-wife’s boyfriend openly admitted he would come after my girlfriend?
Because really, either one is bad enough. ”
I breathe out as I lean back against the kitchen counter, gripping the edge.
He has every right to be upset with me for starting this conversation in gorilla, I know that.
I should’ve waited until we were back on the bus, but when I saw Grady attack his leg before he did his own move…
I couldn’t stop myself. They didn’t send him home last week for no reason.
Was getting over on Grady this one time worth possibly blowing out his ankle for good? “I don’t want to fight with you.”
“So, don’t.”
“Bennett, you were supposed to be taking it easy. You’re not supposed to be doing anything physical right now.”
“I didn’t!” A deep breath follows his outburst. He pinches the bridge of his nose, cautiously dropping his leg from its position and setting both feet on the floor. “I didn’t,” he says, much calmer this time.
“Then what do you call that?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer.
“Look, you’ve been hurting—Yes, you have.
I see it every time you push yourself to keep going.
I saw it last Monday. I saw it when you showed up at my door on Friday.
And I saw it on Saturday night at the movie.
You’re pushing it, and it’s going to bite you in the ass. You’re going to—”
“I am fine, Sloane,” Bennett says, punctuating every word. He closes a small portion of the distance between us, leaving room for either side to make the next move. “I have been doing this for a long time, and I know my limits. I don’t need you to tell me what they are.”
“You might know them, but you don’t follow them, and it’s going to get you hurt.
I have no doubt you’d go out there and risk blowing out your ankle just to prove a point.
And if nothing happened, you’d say, ‘See, I’m fine,’ but the truth is, you’re not fine.
You just refuse to do something about it. ”
“I am doing something about it! They took me off shows for two weeks for fuck’s sake.”
“And you come back tonight and do the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to be doing!
Don’t roll your eyes, Bennett. Whose idea was it for you to take that hit tonight—yours or theirs?
Because you were only supposed to do a simple promo tonight, that’s what you said, and what do you do?
You go out there, and not only do you take a hit—to the leg—but you also do some move—”
“I have done the Honor Bound a million times—”
“And all it takes is a million and one for something to go wrong!” A sharp exhale follows my outburst. Why can’t he understand this?
“Do you want to end up blowing your leg out, where you can’t come back this time?
Because that’s what’s going to happen, and I don’t want that.
I don’t want to see you get hurt. I don’t want to see you walk away from this thing that you love because you won’t listen to your body.
I’ve seen this happen to so many athletes I’ve worked with.
Please don’t let it happen to you, too.”
Dark eyes narrow. “What athletes have you worked with? I thought you were a lifestyle writer.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Way to go, Sloane. Why don’t you go ahead and tell him what you’re really doing here while you’re at it?
“Sloane—”
“I do write lifestyle…for athletes and their wives,” I say, cringing at my confession.
“Please tell me you’re joking,” Bennett says, his words coated with venom. I wish I could. “Sloane, tell me you’re joking. Are you a fucking sports journalist?”
“Not anymore.” The lie rolls off my tongue quicker than it should, but this feels like a game of sudden death where one wrong move could bring everything I’ve been working toward to an abrupt end.
All because I let my guard down. And after my conversation with Barry last week, if I’m not careful, it won’t be a lie for much longer.
“Now, I’m just lifestyle. When I left my old job, I left sports. ”
“Don’t lie to me, Sloane.”
I take a step closer. “Sports weren’t my forte. That’s why they put me on lifestyle to begin with.” Another lie. Damn, how many is that now?
A knock at the door interrupts us, and Bennett scrubs a hand down his face, taking a step back. He turns to leave, but stops. “Not a word about this to them. Especially not Savannah. She is already suspicious enough,” he says.
“Ben—”
“Not right now, Sloane. I—I need some time to think. I want to believe you, but…” Bennett shakes his head, stuffing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “We’ll talk about it later.”