Page 40 of Heartbreaker
“Don’t lock yourself away in your head. Don’t shut me out. Talk to me, Sweetheart. What’s going on?” John reaches for me, trying to caress my face, but I push him away.
“John, I—I can’t—”
“I want this, Savannah.” His words stop me. “I want you. I want us.” He sighs, skating a hand over his head. “Fuck, I know it doesn’t make sense, but you can’t deny there is something here…Every time we try to stay away from each other, something pulls us back in. Pulls me back in.”
“I don’t even know you. Not really. I—”
“Tell me you don’t feel something.” His burning stare bores into me, and he takes my face in his hands. “Tell me that, and I will walk out that door. We’ll never have to discuss it again.”
“You know I can’t do that.” As much as I’d like to deny it, I can’t. My shoulders fall, and despite my answer, I take a small step back. “But that doesn’t mean anything, John. That doesn’t…That doesn’t mean we can be together. I can’t do this. I made a promise to myself and—”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about yourrule.”
“If there is one person I would break that rule for…it’s you. But I—I can’t. I have to make a name for myself in this industry. In EWE. Without you. I have to prove myself, and I don’t want it to be because of you. I want to do it on my own. I have to.”
“I know.” John sighs, scrubbing a hand down his face before he leans in to kiss my forehead. “I know, and when you’re ready to break that rule…”
I can only smile at him.
He squeezes my hand before he drops it, turning to leave. Everything in me screams not to let him go, not to let him walk away. I shove the voice aside, putting a wall up between us.
Just before he steps outside, I say, “Don’t wait for me, Brooks Taylor.”
John looks over his shoulder, and a smile spreads across his full lips. “Don’t tempt me, Skye.”
It’s not unusual to hear my name tossed around backstage, but it is when someone calls me by my first name. No one in EWE calls meJohn, except one person, and even though this voice sounds similar to hers, it’s not the same. Which means it can only be…
“John!” Laine Williams calls again, and I glance over my shoulder to see the entire Williams family huddled together. All heads turn my way before the twins begin waving wildly. They still look like the high school seniors I met last year, except this time it’s a little easier to tell them apart because Blake has longer curls that frame his face. I excuse myself from a conversation with Tim Cass, head of Creative, and greet each member of the family with a handshake, except Laine. She refuses, pulling me in for a hug.
This is the first time I’ve seen the Williams family since I left their ranch last January. I received an invitation to the New Year’s gathering this year from not only Wolf but Brody and Nash, too, but I politely declined. Savannah and I have kept our distance since that night in the barn (a night I’ve thought about on more than one occasion), and I know myself well enough to know that if I had gone, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands to myself. Crew had eyed me suspiciously when I’d walked into breakfast that next morning, and it was only after I’d seen the dark bruise peeking out from underneath Savannah’s sweater’s collar, lightly coated with makeup, that I realized he had probably put two and two together. But if he knew (or thought he knew), he never said anything. Not even tonight when I ran into the whole family backstage following Savannah’s loss to Raelynn.
Savvy Skyehas been the women’s champion for the last four months, following her win at Last Stand, the premiere live event in September. Throughout her title run, she has defended her title at least once a week, something I haven’t seen a champion do in a long time, maybe ever—and it was somethingshewanted to do. Not a story that Amos or Tim Cass threw together, not one match per month at a premiere event. Every week, she defended her title against one of the other women, including Raelynn’s character,Rae Rose, who became her biggest opponent. The whole thing was Savannah’s idea, from what I heard, and the fans ate it up, firmly cementing her as one of the top women’s wrestlers in the company.
The feud between Savvy Skye, “Queen of the Ring,” andRae Rose, “Queen of Roses,” began two months ago and is my favorite of her title reign. There is something special about working with your best friend in the ring that allows you to put on some of your best matches. And tonight, the outcome had been kept secret. I’m not sure if the girls even knew who was going to walk out as champion because the winner slot had been left blank on the call sheet, but in the end,Raesuccessfully pinnedSavvy, earningRaeher second women’s title.
“Some match you had out there,” Savannah’s father, Wes, says.
That’s one way to put it. I’m not particularly happy with the storyline I’ve been involved in the last two months, but I remind myself that sometimes we all get handed the short end of the stick, even me. I was thrown in the middle of a storyline between Chelsea and Theo Rafferty. Chelsea recruited me to be her lackey, for lack of a better term, when she “realized” her brother was planning to “undermine her” and “take over” her position in the company, just below their father. It was a classic case of sibling rivalry gone too far, and tonight I was pitted against “The Lunatic”Grady Chandler, the wrestler Theo had chosen to stand in for him. The timing of tonight’s match seemed rather fitting, considering tonight is Battle of Champions, the first of two premiere events this month.
Whichever wrestler won allowed their sponsoring Rafferty to keep their position, and the loser was banned from the company. It was stupid, but the crowd had been eating it up for weeks. And tonight, it all came to a head when I madeGradytap out. Both Rafferty children were ringside for the match, and upon my win, Chelsea jumped into the ring to raise my hand and kiss my cheek, leaving a large red imprint of her lips on my skin. Walking backstage, I could already see the wheels turning behind Amos’s eyes, and I knew I wasn’t going to like where this was headed…
“You and Chelsea close, or is all that for show?” Wes asks. I notice the way Crew’s stare narrows slightly at the mention of her name.
“No, sir,” I say, glancing briefly at the oldest Williams sibling. “Just part of the story.” Crew bites down on the corner of his lip and shakes his head, looking down the hallway. “Y’all waiting on Savannah?”
“Yes, she had to go to the trainer,” Laine says. “Her shoulder was bothering her.”
“I was wondering about that.”
Savannah took a hard hit during her match, going headfirst into the ring post, and the landing didn’t look right. She came out of the corner, favoring her shoulder, but let Raelynn continue to work it anyway and finished the match. Pain etched her features as soon as the bell rang, and she clutched her arm as she rolled out of the ring. I watched on the monitor as she pushed medical staff away, but it was written across her face—something wasn’t right.
“You saw the match?”
Before I can answer, Savannah’s voice echoes from down the hallway. “Mamá, what are you guys doing? I told you to—Oh.” She stops mid-step, meeting my stare. “Brooks, hi.”
I sigh at the name choice.
“We were just catching up since you didn’t invite him back to the ranch this year,” Laine says.
