On the Ropes 2: Insidious Obsession

by Michelle Cary

  “You haven’t eaten at all today?”

  She ventured to open her eyes a slit and shook her head.

  “What did you have for dinner last night?”

  “Nothing.”

  His face screwed immediately into a frown. “When did you last eat?”

  She took a moment to think. “Lunch yesterday.”

  He pursed his lips, causing his frown to deepen. “Take her to the infirmary.”

  PANIC SHOT THROUGH Cole, and he grabbed Dr. Martin’s arm. “Doc?”

  The doctor patted his hand. “No worries. I don’t believe it’s anything serious.”

  Cole turned his attention down the hall and watched the medics disappear around the corner with her. “Are you sure? She looks so pale.”

  “Positive.” Dr. Martin smiled. “She’s exhausted, but I doubt it’s much worse than that. I’m going to administer an IV and make sure she’d hydrated. I need you to go to catering and bring some food over to the infirmary. Once she’s well hydrated and nourished, you can take her back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.”

  Relief flooded through him, and he gave the doctor a nod. “Got it. I’ll be there shortly.”

  He turned back to Logan, Lexi, and Jason. “So who is going to tell Mark about this?”

  Lexi rolled her eyes. “After what happened last night, the poor guy will have a freaking stroke.”

  “Regardless,” Cole replied, “he needs to know. Amber won’t be able to wrestle tonight, which means our entire segment needs to be rewritten or replaced. Better to tell him now while there is still time to change the program.”

  He exchanged looks with Logan and Jason, who both turned to stare at Lexi. Her eyes widened, and she took a full step back. “Oh no.”

  “Come on, Lexi, please,” Cole nearly whined. After everything that happened last night, Cole knew he wasn’t high on Mark’s list of favorite people. The task of dumping more bad news in Mark’s lap should definitely come from someone he liked and respected. Someone he wouldn’t hurt.

  “Why me?” she protested.

  “Because Mark won’t punch you for screwing up his show,” Jason replied.

  “Chickenshit,” Lexi snapped.

  “Bok bok, baby,” Jason shot back.

  Cole glared at Jason. Didn’t he realize that he wasn’t helping the situation any with his name-calling? Putting on his best puppy-dog face, Cole turned back to Lexi. “I’ll be forever grateful.”

  She sighed and narrowed her eyes at Logan. “I can’t believe you’re with them on this. Just throw me to the wolf to save your own hides. Real nice.” She folded her arms over her chest.

  Logan’s lips tipped up to reveal a hint of a smile. His hand snaked out and caught Lexi by the hip; then he pulled her to him. Cole swore he could damn near feel the instant heat sizzle between them. “I promise.” He nibbled against the spot behind her ear. “If you do this for us, I will absolutely make it worth your while.”

  Chapter Seven

  Cole sat in the back of the SUV, his arm around Amber as the driver headed for the hotel. An hour of IV fluids and a good meal, and the paleness she’d carried was gone. He wanted to beat her ass for not taking better care of herself, but now wasn’t the time for reprimands. Instead, he tucked her a little closer to him and thanked God she wasn’t truly sick.

  Watching her crumple into a pile inside the ring. Seeing her limp in Logan’s arms. Sitting next to her while Dr. Martin assessed her condition and administered an IV. Those images would haunt him for days.

  Somehow, in just a few short weeks, he’d come to care for her in a way he hadn’t cared for anyone in quite some time. Her sensitive and quiet nature attracted the side of him that needed grounding, while her drive to succeed matched his own.

  The driver pulled up to the front of the hotel and parked. Cole exited first and helped Amber out of the vehicle. Taking it slow, he guided her through the lobby to the elevators. He wanted to take her to his room, but he shared space with Jason. It made more sense for them to use her room since she had it all to herself.

  He took her key card, unlocked her door, and guided her inside. Fifteen minutes later she lay tucked beneath the covers with her eyes closed. Cole stretched out on the spare bed and watched as she slept. She had the facial structure of a model, with a pert little nose and seriously kissable bow-tie lips. He noted how her eyelids moved, telling him she was indeed deep asleep. Behind those closed eyelids were the most beautiful blue eyes he’d ever seen. The color of the sky on a clear, sunny day, they held so much emotion and so much pain. Oh, how he wanted to be the one to take her pain away and restore happiness in those eyes. Feeling just a bit tired himself, he slid down the bed, rolled onto his side, and continued watching her sleep until his eyelids grew heavy.

  * * * *

  The chirping of his cell phone pulled Cole from his slumber. He grabbed at the phone and scrambled to silence the ring before it woke Amber. “Hello?” he whispered.

  “Hey, how’s Amber?” Logan asked.

  Not wanting to wake her, Cole pushed off the bed, walked to the sliding door, and stepped out onto the balcony. “She’s sleeping.”

  “Good.”

  He turned to look through the door at her. “I know I need to be heading back to the area for the show, but I really don’t want to leave her.”

  “You don’t have to,” Logan replied.

  “What do you mean I don’t have to? We have a match tonight.”

  “That’s why I’m calling,” Logan said. “Creative spent all afternoon brainstorming, and they rewrote the show for tonight. You’ve been written out so you can stay with Amber.”

  “Go on,” Cole prompted, even as relief washed through him.

  “Well, you know how sometimes real life is stranger than fiction?”

  “Yeah.” Cole nodded despite knowing Logan couldn’t see him.

  “They decided to use what really happened as an excuse for your absence. Josh and Matt will lay out the situation to the fans and explain that Amber isn’t here because she was injured by Sean, and you’re not here because you hurt yourself protecting her.”

  He couldn’t believe his ears. Not only had management and the writers given him the opportunity to stay with Amber, but they’d also managed to endear him to the fans. Though he didn’t wonder what repercussions would come from their decision. “Doesn’t that put us in a sympathetic light to the fans, though?”

  “Creative weighed that fact and decided it was worth the risk. In their words giving us a redeeming quality will deepen our characters and strengthen our message.”

  Cole grinned. “Interesting concept. So I’m injured, huh?”

  “Yeah. You injured your hand. So you’ll have to tape it for the next few weeks to help sell the story.”

  “I can do that.”

  “I figured you could. As for tonight’s match, they’re going to turn it into a six-man mixed tag match.”

  “Lexi is going to take my place?” Cole couldn’t quite believe his ears.

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Oh I am definitely going to watch tonight.” He turned back to check on Amber and froze.

  Instead of sleeping peacefully she now appeared unsettled, twisting, turning on the bed, her arms held out as if she were trying to fight off something.

  “Uh, Logan, I gotta go.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?” Logan asked, his voice filled with concern.

  “Something’s up with Amber. I need to tend to her.”

  “Go. We’ll check on you after the show tonight.” Logan clicked off, and Cole pushed through the door. He tossed his phone on the bed as he raced to her side.

  “Amber, baby, wake up.”

  She whimpered and raised a hand as if to protect her face. “Please don’t,” she mumbled, her words nearly incoherent.

  “Amber.” He shook her a little harder. “Wake up.”

  She screamed as her eyes flew open, and she scrambled up the bed in an attempt to get
away. From what, he wasn’t sure. Her panicked gaze landed on him. He waited as recognition slowly registered in her eyes. “Cole?” She raked a hand through her hair, and as if trying to orient herself, she quickly glanced around the room. “I-I’m in a hotel room.” She turned her attention back to him. “I was sick earlier.” Her words sounded more akin to a question than a statement.

  “Yeah, baby. We’re in Charlotte. Conflict is tonight.“ She still looked frightened, so he didn’t dare try to move yet. “You’re suffering from exhaustion.”

  He knew the moment when coherent thought returned to her as the look in her eyes instantly changed and that sweet yet distant persona reappeared. “Thank you for staying with me, but I think I’ll be fine now. I wouldn’t want you missing your match tonight because of me.”

  If she thought for one second that he was going to let her crawl back into her shell and hide after what just happened, she was sorely mistaken. Whatever she was hiding was causing her unnecessary pain, and it needed to stop. If he could just convince her to trust him, maybe he could help. “Everything has already been handled. You don’t have to worry about anything. Now, how about you tell me what’s got you so spooked?”

  Her gaze shifted from him to the covers. “It was nothing. Just a bad dream.”

  He reached out, only to pause when she flinched in response. His stomach twisted at the thought that she might be afraid of him. Other than beating Sean within an inch of his life, he hadn’t given her any reason to fear him. Slowly he moved forward and curled a finger beneath her chin, forcing her to look at him. “That was more than just a bad dream, baby. Did I do something to cause your nightmare?” Please say no!

  Her eyes widened in horror, and she grabbed his hand and her fingers curled around his wrist. “God no. You’ve been nothing but wonderful.”

  “Then who or what caused your nightmare?”

  She pulled back. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  He’d never been known for his patience, and right now what was left was running thin. Damn it, why couldn’t she see that he wanted to help? Knowing she didn’t trust him enough to share hurt him more than he expected. “Amber—”

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, Cole.”

  “It does to me. Especially when it’s obviously caused you to have nightmares. Tell me what it is that’s haunting you. I care about you, baby, and I want to help.”

  “You can’t do anything,” she yelled. “So why make me talk about it?”

  His heart ached with the realization that she didn’t trust him with whatever was causing her so much pain. Despite everything he’d done to prove himself to her over the past couple of weeks, he hadn’t broken down that invisible wall she’d erected.

  He couldn’t force her to confide in him, but he also didn’t have to stay and watch her suffer. He stood, walked over to the other bed, and picked up his phone. With every second that passed, his frustration and heartache grew. It pained him to know she didn’t trust him enough to confide in him. Worse was the knowledge that if he stayed by her side, he’d be forced to watch her torture herself. He couldn’t help her if she didn’t want it, so there wasn’t any point in staying.

  “Cole?” she whispered as tears welled in her eyes.

  He turned his gaze away and tried not to look at her. Seeing her cry would only make things worse. Then he stomped into his boots, pulled her key card from his pocket, and tossed it on the bed.

  “Please don’t go,” she begged.

  The pain she’d inflicted on him grew, as did his irritation. “You don’t want me to go, but you don’t want my help either. What in the hell do you want from me, Amber?”

  “I—” She shook her head and broke down on a sob.

  “I care about you, baby. I hoped I’d proven that fact by now. I understand that we haven’t known each other very long and that it’s hard for you to confide in anyone, but I’d hoped you would realize that you could trust me. Obviously I was wrong. I can’t simply stand by and watch you destroy yourself like this. If I can’t help, then I think it’s best if I just go.”

  “No please!” she cried.

  “Then tell me,” he pleaded as frustration poured from him. “Who hurt you? Who caused you so much pain that you feel it in your dreams?”

  “My father, okay?” she screamed, then sucked in a ragged breath as her body shook. “It was my father.”

  Chapter Eight

  Saying the words out loud for the first time in her life felt as if someone ripped a hole in her heart. Amber pulled her knees against her chest and sobbed as fifteen years of anguish poured from her like water through a broken dam.

  She felt the bed dip, then Cole’s big arms wrap around her. He pulled her against him. In desperate need of his strength, she went willingly and buried her face in his chest. Old wounds, long buried and ignored, surfaced, and she continued to weep.

  He didn’t utter cliché phrases trying to tell her everything would be all right. He didn’t speak at all. Instead, he simply held her, absorbing her pain.

  For what seemed like hours, they sat in silence as she grieved for her brother and mother and a childhood robbed from her. After a while, her tears slowed, and she sniffled. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper.

  “For what?”

  “For not abandoning me when I needed you most.”

  “Never.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, then turned his face to rest his cheek against her hair. “What did he do?”

  His question required an answer, but how could she explain what happened in a way that made sense? It wasn’t just one thing, but many little things that spanned years.

  “Baby? What did he do?” Cole asked again. “Did he beat you? Did he…rape you?”

  She shook her head as she thought back on how close he’d come near the end to doing both. “No, not really.”

  Cole pulled back and looked at her, a frown on his face. “What you do mean ‘not really’?”

  “He came close once, but I managed to get away.”

  “Where was your mother?”

  Sadness flooded through her yet again. She’d harbored this secret for so long, silently living with the pain. Talking about it with Cole made her feel weird, as if someone was slowly peeling away a layer of oppressive sadness she’d worn for years.

  While the process was painful, she already felt lighter and more hopeful, despite the grief still swirling inside. “She died when I was twelve. She and my little brother were killed when some jerk who had robbed a bank slammed into her car while he was trying to run from the cops.”

  “I’m sorry.” He pulled her a little tighter. “That must have been horrible.”

  “It was. I was devastated. My father had never been all that strong-willed anyway. He fell into a bottle of liquor trying to kill the grief and never climbed back out.” She slipped an arm around Cole’s biceps and settled against his shoulder. “I pretty much was on my own after that. We lived on welfare and handouts, and I spent every waking moment either working part-time jobs or studying.”

  “Not much of a life.”

  She smirked. “You’re telling me. It pretty much sucked, but I had one vice that I refused to give up. Wrestling. It was the one bright spot in my life. Then I saw Vixen wrestling legend Tara Sweet. From that point forward I knew I wanted to be a Vixen too.”

  “How did your dad feel about that?”

  She shrugged. “He didn’t care. All he cared about was drinking and porn.”

  “Porn? How do you know he watched porn?”

  “I saw him,” she replied without emotion.

  “You saw him watching porn?” Cole asked, his voice laced with shock.

  She nodded. “I caught him one night. I heard a woman’s voice and wondered if he was secretly dating someone, so I went to investigate.” She shuddered as she thought back to the day it happened. “There wasn’t a woman. Instead he was stretched out on the couch naked, a bottle of beer in one hand and his other wrapped arou
nd his…”

  She took a deep breath. “He stroked himself as he watched this woman on the screen get taken by two men.” She paused as the memory burned through her, and she fought to shake it off. “He never touched me that night. Hell, he never knew I watched as he came crying my mother’s name, but that was my first introduction to sex.”

  Cole sighed. “Wow. That’s a lot seedier than my first tryst in the back of my dad’s SUV with Laura Pasture.”

  She turned her head and gave him a small smile. “I’m not sure I want to hear about that.”

  “Jealous?”

  “Maybe,” she replied as a strange happiness flowed through her. By all accounts she shouldn’t feel this way while recounting what happened, yet it was there just below the surface, pushing through the sludge of grief and sorrow. She desperately wanted that happiness to break through, but it had been so long since she’d felt joy, Amber wasn’t sure how to make it happen.

  “Really?” He quirked a brow. “We’ll explore that revelation later.” He kissed her on the temple. “Let’s not get off track.”

  “Right.” She sighed and settled back against him. “As I grew into a woman, Dad started making comments about how much I reminded him of my mother. At first I didn’t think much of it, but the older I got, the more possessive he got. When he was really drunk, he’d pin me against a wall and say things like my body belonged to him and if I wanted to have sex, he’d teach me the right way to please a man.”

  “Okay, that’s creepy,” Cole replied as he took her hand in his.

  “You’re telling me. I’d always manage to talk my way out of him doing anything. By morning the incident would be forgotten, so I’d let the subject drop. Sometimes I wondered if he did it because he was just that messed up in the head, or if he knew I was sneaking his porn behind his back and he was trying to get even in some weird way.”

  “You snuck his porn? Have a wild streak, do we?” Cole asked with amusement in his voice.

  She glanced up at him, smiled, and pressed a kiss to his slightly bearded jaw. “Just a little.”

  “Good to know.”