by Lane Hart
Pulling open the door, I’m met by one of the stern looking officials. “They’re ready for you,” he says.
“But I just need one minute-”
“You’re up now,” he holds up a palm and interrupts. “We’re broadcasting live with only a five minute delay. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hailey
After I walk into the huge arena, I try to figure out if I should look for the Havoc team and say hello or ignore them. As soon as I see my brother, my feet are movin’ toward him regardless of my plan.
“Hailey? What are you doin’ here?” Linc asks when he sees me.
With an angry index finger, I poke my younger brother in the chest, right in the middle of his red griffin, Havoc logo. “You don’t get a say in who I date or don’t date!” I tell him.
“Um, okay?” he says, takin’ a step back. “But what does that have to do with why you’re…wait. You’re here for Mace?!?” he exclaims.
“Yes! He loves me. He-he sold his car to come to New York last weekend. I kept tryin’ to push him away, but I can’t do it anymore! So you better get used to the idea of us bein’ together,” I yell at him.
“Sorry, Hailey. I didn’t know,” he says softly. “Are you sure, though? I mean, I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m sure,” I tell him, and hold up my left hand with the white gold wedding band.
“What the fuck!” he exclaims, grabbin’ my hand to pull it to his face for a closer look. “You got married? When? Do Mom and Dad know?”
“Last night, and no, not yet,” I say as I pull my hand back.
“Hales?” Senn says when he walks up behind us. “What are you doing here?”
Leavin’ Linc with his mouth still hangin’ open in shock, I turn around to face Senn when I tell him the truth. “You know I told you that there was someone else?” I start.
“Mace?” he asks, not soundin’ very surprised.
“Yeah,” I answer, and then Linc grabs my hand and holds it up for Senn.
“I’ll be damned,” the big man mutters with a grin when he sees the weddin’ band.
The lights dim, indicatin’ the intros are about to start.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Linc says to me, so I head for my seat a few rows back, shakin’ with nervousness. I know there’s a lot on the line with this fight, but I just hope Mason doesn’t get hurt.
The first notes of “Magic Stick” start up over the sound system, and then the spotlight is on the tunnel where Mason steps out to the crowd’s screams and cheers. He’s wearin’ nothin’ but the tight, black spandex shorts, no hoodie, just the snug material over his perfect ass and…well-endowed cup area. His hands, covered by blue gloves, are in the air as he dances to the song about a magical cock and makes his way to the cage. The sound of women hootin’ and hollerin’ grows the more he moves his amazin’, tan, sculpted body. Those sluts have no idea he’s my husband now.
Cleared by the referee to enter the cage, Mason runs inside and continues to dance provocatively until the song ends. The whole time his face looks more serious than it should for his flirty behavior.
Mason’s competitor comes out next, to a slower country song. He’s even wearin’ a cowboy hat. This is Matt Howell’s second fight for the IFC. They’ve already signed him after his last win, and are now pittin’ him against Mason to see what both guys can do. God I hope Mason wins.
After both men are in the cage and ready, the ref gives them the final rules and tells them to touch gloves. When the fight starts, I barely resist coverin’ my face with my hands so I don’t have to watch. Needin’ to know what’s happenin’, I hold my breath as I watch the two men circle each other. A few missed fists and kicks later, Mason finally lands a right fist to the cowboy’s stomach. When he doubles over, Mason swings at his face, landin’ a haymaker that puts the other guy flat on his ass. Pouncin’ on him, Mason lands a few more fists before the ref gets in between the two fighters and stops the fight.
Oh my God! He not only won, but he did it in a matter of seconds. Shocked but relieved at the quick win when Mason’s arm is raised, I’m still on my feet and cheerin’ when the ring girl, wearin’ nothin’ but a skimpy bikini, walks up to him in the center of the cage. The slutty bitch actually throws her arms around him. I wait for him to pull away, but instead, Mason suddenly picks her up. She wraps her legs around his waist right before he slams her against the cage wall and kisses her for all he’s worth. She is definitely into it too, threadin’ her fingers through his hair while his head moves down her neck. Wow. It seems like the kiss might never end but finally he pulls away, only to throw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and leave the arena.
I’m not sure how long I stand frozen in shock before the hurt and anger hit me. We haven’t even been married for twenty-four hours and it’s like he’s forgotten all about me after winnin’ a big, fat IFC contract. I had no idea how painful it would be to see him with someone else. He could’ve at least waited until he told me he couldn’t be monogamous before doin’…that in front of me. It’s just another brutal body shot to see him with the petite and beautiful ring girl because she’s everything I’m not.
…
Mace
I won.
I still can’t believe I fucking won and that it was so damn easy. The ink has already dried on the contract Mr. Warren had ready for me. Not a word in it says I have to remain single, only that I shouldn’t do anything in public to damage my reputation.
Grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler in the dressing room, I’m tossing it back as I head for the door to find Hailey when it explodes open. In the blink of an eye, Senn and Linc are both on me. Instead of congratulating me, I’m thrown against the brick wall so hard I grunt from the force of air leaving my lungs. The open water in my hand sails through the air spraying all over the fucking place.
“What the hell?” I ask as I try to take a step forward only to be slammed against the wall again by Senn.
Linc gets in my face, or actually my neck since I’m taller than him. “If my wife wouldn’t divorce me for it, I would kick your fuckin’ ass, you stupid piece of shit!”
Senn slams his forearm over my throat. “Good thing I’m not married to your sister,” he says just as the door flies open again and Claire storms in.
“Get off him!” she yells. Damn, saved by my sister. “If anyone gets to kick my brother’s ass, I really think it should be me.”
Wait, what?
“Before anyone kicks my ass, can you at least tell me why?” I ask, rubbing my neck when Senn lowers his arm, letting off the pressure.
“Like you don’t know,” Linc says, crossing his arms over his chest as his face turns even redder in anger.
“I don’t!” I exclaim, throwing up my arms.
“How about your little stunt out there just crushed Hailey,” my sister says, mimicking Linc’s pissed off pose.
“Your wife just saw you makin’ out with another woman!” Linc yells at me, motioning toward the arena. Okay, so Hailey must have told them we got married last night.
“Just hold on. I know it looked bad, but it was all a setup,” I tell them. “For the contract,” I add when the three of them continue to stare murderously at me.
“Like Hailey will ever believe that shit,” Linc snaps. “She’s gone.”
Oh God. Pushing off the wall, I grab my duffle bag from the floor and start digging through it, looking for my phone. I need to find her to try to explain. And of course, my battery is dead because I didn’t charge it last night while we were otherwise occupied.
Fuck!
“Where’s she going?” I turn around and ask them as I slip on my shoes and grab my wallet. Not that it has much in it. Yet.
“Who the fuck knows!” Linc yells. “I tried to find her afterwards, but she was gone. She won’t answer her fuckin’ phone either.”
“If I had to guess, I would bet that she’s on her way to the airport,” Cla
ire offers, stepping into Linc’s side to try to calm him down.
Not waiting another second, I leave them standing in the dressing room and head for the front of the hotel. Flagging down a cab, I tell the driver to get me to the airport as fast as possible. He looks at me a little strange since all I have on are the spandex shorts, athletic shoes, and a wallet in my hand. Doesn’t matter. I didn’t have time to get dressed.
Airport security thankfully doesn’t stop me from entering the building with my lack of clothing, so I go straight to where I’m almost certain I’ll unfortunately find Hailey - the first women’s bathroom I come to.
“Hailey!” I yell into the opening, but get no response. When a woman about Hailey’s age comes out, I stop her. “Is there a tall, beautiful blonde in there?”
The stranger’s eyes look me up and down as if trying to figure out if I’m a homeless bum or what. “Not that I noticed,” she says. “Unless she’s the one who’s sick.”
Fuck.
I slap my hand over my eyes in case there are other women wandering about, and make my way into the bathroom. “Hailey? I know you’re in here.”
“Leave me alone, May-Son,” she mutters from one of the last stalls. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
“Like that’s ever stopped me before?” I ask. “Listen, Hailey, about earlier-”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“It didn’t mean anything. I have no idea what her name was.”
“And that’s a good thing?” she shrieks.
“No, what I mean is it was a setup, a publicity stunt for the IFC. That’s it.”
“Congratulations, I’m sure you got your contract.”
“I did,” I tell her, leaning against the door I’m pretty sure she’s behind.
“Good for you. Now you get to fuck lots of women. You’ve got it made.”
“I don’t want to fuck lots of women. I only want to fuck you, that’s why I married you. Please come out and stop making yourself sick,” I beg her, bracing my forehead on the door. “Just give me a chance.”
“A chance for what? To watch you cheat on me?”
“No, Hailey. I would never cheat on you! I got the contract, and the IFC knows we’re married. What you saw- what looked like a kiss- was just acting, pretending to be the player that you know I’m not.”
“You’ll regret it,” she says softly. “You’ll be miserable and hate me in a few days or-or weeks because you’re only twenty-”
“I’ll never regret the decision we made last night. I meant every word of those vows,” I tell her.
“I shouldn’t have come here. We shouldn’t-.”
I interrupt her before she says the words that might kill me to hear. “I’m so fucking glad you came, and that you were crazy enough to marry me. I just wish I could see and hold you right now. Please open the door, Hailey.”
“No.”
“We can go back to the arena. You can talk to Mr. Warren with the IFC and the girl. They’ll tell you that nothing happened. I didn’t kiss her, it just looked like it. I swear!”
“Sir, you can’t be in here!” A balding, overweight security guard comes barreling into the bathroom toward me, but I’m not concerned since I’m way bigger than he is.
“I’m pretty sure you can’t be in here either, sir,” I tell him.
“Let’s go, now!” The rent-a-cop motions toward the exit.
“Hailey, please come out and just talk to me face-to-face,” I beg.
“I’m gonna need backup,” the security man says into the walkie-talkie on his shoulder. “Send a Marshal.”
Oh shit. U.S. Marshals are no joke. They can and will arrest me for a federal offense. “Hailey, they’re making me leave, but I promise you that this is not over. I’ll wait outside for you. I’m not giving up on you,” I tell her as I finally start moving toward the exit. “I love you. I haven’t been with anyone else since we met, and I won’t be with anyone else again. Only you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hailey
My head is poundin’ like never before, and my mouth is so dry I can barely lick my lips. I’m so sleepy that I don’t even bother gettin’ up to get a glass of water. When I try to roll over, I realize I’m on my suede couch. Why am I on the couch when my bed is so much bigger and cozier?
“Hailey? You awake?”
“Mom?” I ask in a hoarse voice. “What are you doin’ here?” Blinkin’ my eyes open, I see her sittin’ in a chair in my and Elle’s livin’ room. My dad, Linc, and Claire are also here. “Am I dreamin’? What’s goin’ on?”
“You’re not dreaming,” Elle says when she comes into the room and kneels in front of me. “This is an intervention.”
“An inter-what?”
“Elle called us when she found you passed out in the bathroom floor. She said you’d been throwing up,” my mom explains.
“It’s just a stomach bug-”
“Bullshit!” Linc yells, makin’ my head hurt even worse. I’m too weak to raise my fingers to press them against my throbbin’ temple. My brother yanks off the blanket someone covered me with. “You’re nothin’ but skin and bones!”
“Linc, stop yellin’ at your sister. That’s not gonna help anything,” our dad orders.
“Hailey, we know you’re making yourself sick,” my mom says slowly like I’m a small child. “How long have you been hiding it from everyone? We-we should’ve noticed…how did I not realize… my own daughter…” Her sniffles make me cringe because it’s my fault she’s upset.
“Mom,” I start. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” my dad says sternly. “We’re packin’ your things and you’re comin’ home with us.”
“What?” I exclaim and sit up even though the room spins around me. “No. I don’t want to go home. My life is here.”
“Maybe you can come back once you’re well again,” he says. “But for now, you’re goin’ into a residential treatment facility back home until the doctors say you can leave.”
“You’re havin’ me committed!” I exclaim as tears race down both cheeks.
“No, this is a voluntary admission,” my mom says.
“But I’m not volunteerin’!”
“Yes, you are. It’s five against one. You’re outnumbered and that’s the end of the discussion,” my dad says before he storms out of the apartment and slams the door, makin’ me jump.
My mom sighs and sits down beside me on the couch. “He’s worried about you,” she says, rubbin’ my back. Her hand pauses when it gets to the notches of my spine. “We all are. You’re too thin and you need professional help to pull you out of this darkness.”
Darkness. I guess that’s an accurate way to describe the constant sadness and self-loathin’ after watchin’ my husband make-out with another woman just hours after we were married.
“Wh-what are you gonna do about Mason?” my mom asks, doin’ that maternal ESP thing. “You’re really married?”
“Yep, we’re really married.”
“We’ll hire an attorney to file for an annulment,” Linc says.
Claire gasps. “Linc! That’s none of your business-” she starts.
“I want an annulment,” I say despite the ache in my hollow chest. “As soon as possible.”
…
Mace
“Where’s Linc?” I ask Senn when we’re grappling at Havoc a few days after my simultaneous huge win and enormous loss.
“Dunno,” he mutters, lurching forward to try and get a takedown, but I quickly sidestep him.
“Yes, you do. My sister won’t answer her phone and their cars are home but they’re not. What’s going on?”
“Linc told me to keep my mouth shut,” Senn says as we circle each other on the mat.
“Yeah, well, I’m telling you to open your mouth.” Shooting in, I grab him around both knees and drag him down to the ground. He tries to throw me off, but I slip my arm around his neck. “Tell me or I’ll choke you out,” I warn him. He’s sil
ent for the first few seconds. Then his face turns red.
“Hailey,” it sounds like he squeaks, and I instantly let go.
“What about Hailey?” I ask.
“They’ve all gone to New York,” he says as he gasps for air.
“Why?”
“Fuck, man. I shouldn’t be the one-.”
“Tell me!” I yell, grabbing his throat again.
“She’s sick,” he says as he pushes me away.
“Sick?” I repeat.
“Yeah. Linc said she’s been throwing up. I thought she might be pregnant, but he said she wasn’t, that she’s-”
“Bulimic,” I mutter, sitting back on my knees.
“Yeah. You knew?” he asks. “Why didn’t you do anything, since you’re her husband and all?”
“How bad is it?” I ask.
“Pretty bad. They took her to the hospital up there. He said she was severely dehydrated and her kidney function was reduced or something like that. As soon as they get the referral and shit, they’re gonna admit her into Duke’s inpatient rehab or whatever.”
“So she’ll be here in a few days?”
“Yeah, in Durham.”
…
Two days later and I’m walking up the sidewalk that runs along a lake out in front of the rehab center. I came real close to going up to New York, but since I haven’t received my winnings yet and didn’t know when Hailey and her family would be coming back to North Carolina, I was afraid I would spend money I don’t have to get up there, only to miss them.
Stepping into the open lobby lined with comfy sofas and a long counter, it reminds me more of a hotel than a treatment center.
“Hi, can I help you?” a white-haired, older lady asks.
“Hey, I’m here to see my wife, Hailey Abrams,” I tell her, twisting the wedding band around on my left hand. Thankfully, Claire brought my bag with my ring in it to the airport where they detained me in a tiny room for hours because they thought I was a security threat. The receptionist flips through some papers on a clipboard. “Maybe Hailey Abrams Reed,” I add, although I’m guessing she hasn’t officially taken my name.