Page 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

THEODORE

“ I am not sitting down there with you.”

While I’m not much of a planner, this wasn’t how I envisioned our zoo trip. I thought we’d walk around, see some animals, maybe have lunch. Aurora could soak in the sunshine and feel a bit lighter.

Then she found out there were pigs at the petting zoo. She bolted to it, dragged me through the fence, and found a piglet who loves her as much as she loves it. Now she’s sitting in the dirt with the piglet in her arms, stroking the top of his head.

“Theodore,” she whines, drawing out the last syllable of my name. Those big green eyes are looking up at me, and I know I’m going to break and do whatever the fuck she wants. “ Look at him.” She holds the pig up, making me look at his dorky face. He has beady dark eyes and a clueless expression.

“It’s a pig, Roo.”

She rolls her eyes like I don’t understand anything. “Pigs are my favorite animal.”

I raise an eyebrow. I didn’t know what about her. “Yeah?”

She nods. “When I retire, I want to buy a farm in Vermont. ”

“I don’t think I can picture you on a farm.” I try to imagine her sitting in the grass somewhere, wearing overalls and surrounded by pigs and goats, maybe some ducks and a cow. “Why are you already thinking about retirement anyway? You’re young.”

“Wrestling isn’t forever.”

That hits hard. It’s something I hate to think about. Bodies break down after doing this for so long. I’ve done my best to wrestle a style that’ll make sure I can keep doing this for the next twenty years, but freak accidents happen in the ring all the time.

A life without wrestling isn’t one I want to think about. Wrestling is the first thing I’ve ever been sure of. The second thing is sitting in the dirt in front of me, holding a piglet as if it’s her blood child. Kind of cute. Slipping my phone from my pocket, I snap a photo of her while she’s baby-talking to the pig.

Then I give in and sit down next to her, wrinkling my nose when I think about how much dirt is going to be on my pants when I stand up. Looking over at me, Aurora smiles and lays her head on my shoulder. Okay, so sitting in the dirt was worth it.

Reaching over, I stroke the top of the piglet’s head. His hair is rough and wiry, but he seems to be so happy in Aurora’s arms. “What’s his name?”

“I can’t keep the pig, Theo.”

She sounds heartbroken over that fact. If it was logical, I’d buy her the damn pig. Strike whatever deal needed to be made. Life doesn’t work like that. Maybe I’ll buy her a stuffed one in the gift shop. Just to see those eyes light up the way they do when she looks at the pig.

“Obviously,” I roll my eyes. “But if you had to pick a name for him, what would you name him?”

She tilts her head as she thinks about it, looking down at the animal in her arms. Aurora’s brow creases as she thinks. She’s taking this seriously. “Piggie Smalls.”

Laughter erupts from my chest before I can contain it. I can’t remember the last time that I laughed as much as I am right now, throwing my head back with amusement. That’s good . When I look back at her, Aurora’s eyes are locked on me, a smile reflected on those soft pink lips.

The way my heart jumps in my chest feels like a betrayal of who I am. “Are you fucking serious?”

“One hundred percent. His name would be Piggie Smalls.” Aurora leans down and presses a kiss to the top of his head.

The softness in her eyes is beautiful. I don’t tell her that. Instead, I scoff. “You know, I’m offended that you’d rather kiss a pig than me.”

Aurora lowers Piggie Smalls, leans over, and allows her lips to brush against my stubble jaw. There’s my jumping heart again as such a simple kiss feels like a shock of electricity. I want to capture her lips with my own. Taste her again because I miss the taste of her. I only kissed her once, and I’ve been needing that high ever since.

“There,” she says softly as she pulls away. “You know, you’re making it really hard for me to keep saying that I hate you.”

“Oh, I’m not making it hard for you at all, baby doll. I’m making it just about impossible for you to ever say you hate me again.”

Everything has changed.

I spend the rest of the weekend with her. Our phones are on silent, only picking them up to reply to Juliette because she’s just as worried as Aurora is.

When Tuesday rolls around her, I drive her to the arena myself after dropping Rumour off at my apartment. The damn cat is attached to Aurora, completely forgetting about me unless I bribe her with food .

Aurora has an oversized hoodie on, keeping the hood pulled up over her head so nobody can see her. She quickly flashes her ID to security as we slip backstage.

“Just stay in the locker room, alright? I’ll go talk to Nathan. We’ll get a handle on it.” I roll her bag behind me as I open the heavy door of the locker room for her. She slips inside and immediately goes to the couch.

I want to take her in my arms and comfort her more. I spent the entire weekend holding her, being her safe haven in the middle of the storm. Seeing her still look defeated…it’s breaking parts of me I didn’t know could break.

“I’ll find Juliette and send her in too, okay?” I add.

She turns her head up to look at me and nods slowly. Walking over, I brush my lips over her forehead. Just like she did in her sleep, she leans into the touch.

“Be back,” I promise before I slip out of the room.

As I’m searching for wherever Nathan’s office is this week, I pass Micah, who’s talking to Clara. Probably about the brat that they have together. He sees me, says something to her, and follows.

“Theodore?” The thick accent makes me turn to look up at him. His blond hair is down, and he’s wearing a hoodie that’s rolled up to his forearms.

“I’m busy right now, Duvall. We can talk about our program together later.”

“This isn’t about our program. It’s about Aurora.”

My eyes narrow as I look up at him, arms crossing over my chest. He has my attention. I don’t like it. I don’t like where this is going. “Yes?” I bristle, waiting for him to say something so I can ruin his handsome face.

He looks off for a moment and says, “Austin had something to do with it. He’s been talking about it nonstop. Last week, he was saying he wants to find a way to get back at you for getting his match taken away. ”

As Micah speaks, I feel numb. I went from hurting for Aurora to feeling a white-hot numbness as I think about Austin having something to do about the situation.

“Why would he target Aurora if he wants to get back at me?”

“Maybe he has eyes and can see how gone ya are for her like everyone else. Or maybe he thinks you’ll lose some of your steam if ya lose your valet. Either way, I’d check that out if I were ya. Assuming you’re aiming to get some revenge.”

Revenge hadn’t been on my radar. I assumed it was a random hack. Some internet lowlife targeting female wrestlers, and Aurora was the easiest victim, something like that. I’ve been angry, but I haven’t had anyone to unleash that anger on.

Micah’s just given me a target.

“You’re sure he had something to do with it? Aurora said that she lost her phone at the hotel and—”

“Austin took her back to the hotel,” Micah says. He stops and curses under his breath. “She was drunk. I didn’t want her at the bar much longer, and Austin offered to take her back. I told him that she had nothing to do with his problems with ya and he said he wasn’t gonna do anything about it. Lying arsehole.”

“He could’ve taken her phone,” I say. It clicks in my head and that’s all I need. Without saying a word to Micah, I start to storm away from trying to find Nathan’s office and toward the men’s locker room.

I slam the door open, greeted by the scent of cologne and sweat. Eyes turn toward me because I haven’t set foot in the regular locker room since I won the title. I prefer my own for a reason.

My eyes seek out only one person and I find him in the corner with Jameson.

“Slater,” I say, getting his attention.

Austin looks up at me and he has the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. His too white teeth stand out against his orange skin and fuck, at least I have a target .

“Theo, what’s up, man?” he asks.

Walking over to where he stands, I shrug. “Ah, you know, not a lot.” With no more precedent, I reel back and slam my fist into his face, connecting with those too white teeth.

His head snaps back and then it snaps forward. I punch him again. I hear a snap sound. Blood covers my knuckles as it drips from the spot where he’s now missing a front tooth. I look at him, considering what just happened and decided that that isn’t enough.

As I pull back to hit him again, someone grips my arm from behind. Whipping around, I’m face to face with Hext. He’s looking at me with those blue eyes and a scowl on his scarred face.

“Enough,” he growls.

Fucking veteran trying to control the locker room. “He’s the one who hurt Aurora,” I hiss back to him. “He leaked her pictures.”

Anger flashes in his eyes as he looks past me, over at Austin who Jameson is helping to his feet. “Did you do that shit, Slater?” he asks.

“It’s just some pictures,” Austin says, speaking with a lisp because of his missing tooth. His hand is covering his mouth, trying to stop the bleeding. “I was just going to fuck her, but she kept shutting me down.”

Hext lets go of my arm and steps back. “One more wouldn’t hurt.”