46. Cassidy
CASSIDY
“You’re ready?” I asked, rubbing Sam’s shoulders.
“Babe, you can calm down. I’ve got this,” he said, squeezing my hand, stopping my nervous jitters from transferring to him.
As he stood, he was calm as could be. Pumped up and ready to go, with a cocky grin on his face. Yeah, he was gonna be fine.
I was about to puke.
Leaning down, he brushed his lips over mine. “Go take your seat ringside. I’ll be out in a few minutes, and you can watch me kick Joe Rubin’s ass.”
I wasn’t at all ready to leave him behind, but it wasn’t like I could walk beside him and step into the ring with him.
“Alright. I’ll see you out there. Go get ‘em!”
He cringed with a laugh at my terrible turn of phrase. Yeah, I really wasn’t quite cut out for this life yet.
As I walked out of the locker room, I could hear the crowd screaming, chanting Sam’s name. They were ready for his big return, and they were out for blood. It calmed me only slightly to know that they were on his side.
But since none of them had to go home and nurse his wounds after the fight, their opinions meant a hill of beans to me.
One of the security guards pulled the door open for me, smiling as he guided me to my seat.
I was secretly grateful that Sam had arranged for someone to escort me to my seat.
The crowd was so rowdy, and I was worried about getting swallowed up whole.
“Hey!” Blake shouted, waving me over to our seats.
The whole Parker family was here, excited to see Sam’s big match. And along with the Parkers came the very loud Collins family, who were all bickering with each other. Something about a date for an upcoming wedding.
“Is he ready?” Blake asked.
“Oh, definitely,” I nodded.
“And you?”
“About to puke.”
Laughing, she linked her arm through mine. “You’ll be fine once the match starts.”
“That’s what you say every time!”
“And you haven’t puked once.”
That may be true, but it sure as hell didn’t make me feel any better at the moment.
The lights dimmed and a spotlight swung through the crowd to the opposite side of the stadium. Boos filled the air as Joe Rubin came jogging out, his arms in the air like he was a king.
“That’s him,” I growled. “I hate him already.”
“You hate him because he’s an ass.”
“And because I want to take his insides and twist them into a braid, and then yank really hard until they come unattached from his body, and he bleeds everywhere.”
Blake blinked at me slowly. “Wow. A little vicious today, are we?”
“Sorry. I’m just really worked up. I can’t decide if I want to throw up or punch someone in the face. And considering that I’ve never hit a person before, I think it would be wise to just throw up.”
The music switched to Sam’s walkout, and then he was there, jogging down the aisle as he focused solely on the ring. The determined look in his eyes had me gasping for air. God, he was so sexy when he was like this.
“He’s gonna put you down!” a woman shouted nearby.
She was nothing more than a twenty-something with blue hair, and not even a cool color blue.
The number of piercings on her face and the tattoos covering her skin said she belonged someplace like this a lot more than I did.
I looked down at my skirt that I thought was pretty daring when I left the house.
Now, I thought I looked like a wannabe boxing fan.
Yes, it cut off at mid-thigh, but it had flowers on it.
Flowers!
“God, I’m so stupid!”
“Why?” Blake shouted over the roar as her brother climbed between the ropes.
“I’m wearing flowers on my skirt!”
“So?”
“So, I don’t look like a woman who should be dating someone like Sam! Look at her! She’s got piercings and tattoos!”
“And most likely, hepatitis,” Blake laughed.
“You’re going down, Collins! Rubin’s gonna annihilate you!”
I tried to tune her out, to focus as the match got underway. I cheered when Sam got in the first hit, and when he shoved Rubin into the corner, laying out a series of body shots that had Joe dropping his elbows in pain.
But the insults kept flying out of her mouth until I could no longer take it.
“Cassidy!” Blake shouted as I marched over to the woman.
“Hey! That’s my man up there!”
The blue-haired devil turned to me with a smirk. The dark liner on her lips was the wrong shade and wrong decade for such a look.
“Joe’s gonna take him down!”
“Yeah? Well…Sam’s gonna kick his ass!”
No, I was not at all good at trash talk.
“Oh, you think so?”
“I know so. I’ve seen him fight. He’s gonna put Joe in the ground.” I frowned. “Metaphorically, of course, because he would never actually kill someone.”
“What’s wrong? Too much of a pussy?”
“No,” I narrowed my eyes at her. “But he’s not a murderer. And he doesn’t take cheap shots like your boyfriend!”
She gasped as if that was an insult. “He is not my boyfriend!”
“Oh. Brother?”
“Lover,” she smirked. “And he’s so much better in bed than your boyfriend could ever be.”
I saw Sam take down Joe out of the corner of my eye. “Yeah? Well, I hope he’s better at boxing than he is in the bedroom because he’s about to get his butt whooped.”
I wasn’t prepared for her to charge at me, or throw her body on top of mine as I tripped over my shoe and fell on my ass. She grabbed my hair and tugged hard. A vicious scream left my throat as I fought back, clawing at her eyes with my blunt nails.
As she wrenched back her head and screamed, I took my shot and rolled her, pulling at her hair the same way she was pulling mine. It was dirty and brutal, but I couldn’t stop this rage filling me. I wanted to kill her—well, maybe maim her. And I wanted her to stop saying such hateful things.
God, I really was not cut out for this life.
“You bitch! Let go of my hair!”
“You let go of my hair!” I retorted.
When we both pulled at the same time, high-pitched screams left both our mouths, and it was at that moment, with my mouth opened wide, that I noticed the stadium had gone silent.
I stopped fighting at the same time she did, and that’s when we noticed every single set of eyes directly on us.
And Sam leaning on the ropes, watching the whole thing with a smirk on his face.
“Did you ladies want to take it in the ring? Or should we finish the fight?”
Thank you for reading Rumor Has It. For more of your favorite characters, continue with If I Didn’t Have You!