Chapter 52: Surveillance
You know, I don’t mean to go against the grain. I don’t mean to not listen when my significant other says something. Trust me on this, I have heard everything that Finn has had to say about the entire situation regarding The Romani. The only problem is I differ in my opinion of how to handle it. He wants to sit back and handle it himself, to work with Dickie to slowly eradicate the threat and push them away. The problem is, I know that isn’t going to work.
The gypsies are insane. That’s just how they are. They don’t give a shit how many men get sent to the hospital, they don’t care what happens to their compounds or their cars or anything else that they own. If they have a goal in mind and they feel slighted they will move heaven and earth and break everything that they can to prove a point. You can’t deal with people like that, you can’t go to war with people like that.
But, because I understood them I knew that I would be able to use that experience and do everything that I needed to perhaps put it into this. Maybe I’m wrong and maybe I’m just naive. But I lived that life, I lived with them, hell I was in a relationship with Jace, I went with him everywhere. I saw how they did business. I shared a bed with him. I know how he thinks.
I took a deep breath staring at myself in the mirror as I questioned what I was about to do. Finn told me not to do it, and while he knows better than to tell me not to do something or to do something he also knows I generally respect his opinion and respect what he has to say. But, what if he’s wrong?
I grabbed my gym bag, getting ready to go out and go down the street to the little place that I found. An amazing little gem that no one really knew about. A place where I can work on my strength and cardio conditioning without prying eyes on me. See, something that everyone needs to realize is that I am not a member of Wolfslair. I would never join that gym and I would never go there to work out. At least not if I had a choice. But, this time I wasn’t going there. I wasn’t going to the gym and I wasn’t going to go and work out. I knew that we were still being watched. I knew that Jase had centuries posted downstairs watching all the different exits from the building that Finn and I called Home.
Hi threw my bag over my shoulder and moved out through our lounge room, Finn sat on one of the couches a pen in his hand as he went over some paperwork. But then I noticed it, a small flicker as he looked up and watched me walk past. Wearing my overpriced Lulu lemon workout gear. Normally I’d have a little bit of a smile and a thrill when I knew that he was checking me out, this time however I was trying to act as natural as possible and hope that he wouldn’t pick up on the strange energy that was coming from me..
”Going to that little hole in the wall?” I turned looking over my shoulder, giving him a small nod and a smile. He chuckled and put down one of the contracts before getting to his feet, he moved around going to the fridge before popping it open and pulling out my protein shaker, handing it to me with a small smile. ”You almost forgot this…”
I reached out and took it from him, there was a small pang of guilt in my lower stomach as well as nervous energy that replaced my confidence. Did he know? Was he wondering why I would forget something that I always took out of the fridge? Something that was almost, an automatic thing for me to do. ”Thanks.” I got on my tiptoes giving Finn a kiss on the cheek and a smile.
He clearly had other things on his mind, not even questioning how I could forget something so simple. He moved back to the leather couch sitting down picking up his pen and looking back over the contracts. I slipped out going to the elevator and headed downstairs. As I moved through the lobby and out onto the street I looked straight across, giving a small smirk filled with arrogance at the gypsy soldiers standing right across from our front door. They locked eyes with me, they knew damn well who I was and what I was about. The woman that was with them had a small smirk on her face but behind those eyes, I could see pain that I knew only too well. The pain of having to be stuck inside that community. The pain of having all of your freedoms taken away from you while simultaneously being told, that you were precious and loved.
I was not like her anymore.
I ground my teeth together my hand tightening around my backpack and I went to step out onto the street until a voice stopped me ”Kaaayyyllla!” I snapped out of it, pulling my foot back onto the curb turning and looking over at my smiling blonde best friend. Kallie Reznik. And before I could get out any words asking exactly what the fuck she thought she was doing, well, she let it all out anyway. ”I was hoping I could catch you. With everything going on at Wolfslair, I really don’t want to be there. It’s like, totally tensionville.”
”And?”
I stood there waiting for the next part that I’m sure she was missing. I knew what the question was going to be, I knew exactly what she was thinking. I just wanted to hear her say it. ”Can I…work out at the gym you go to?….PLEEEEASE?” I took a deep breath looking over at Kallie, she had a certain desperation in her eyes. So I smiled and not as slowly. I straight away started walking down the street towards the gym, Kallie talking the entire time.
However, nothing she was saying was registering. All I could think was that I had been stopped again. I suppose Jase would have to wait. As we got to the gym, we both went inside and I stuffed my bag into one of the lockers. We went out onto the floor and started with some light cardio. As we jogged next to each other I couldn’t help but ask ”So….what’s happening at Wolfslair that makes you so uncomfortable?”
Kallie blinked a few times trying to process whether or not she should tell me. I knew that look, I’d seen it before. ”We-well…. The whole thing with Miles has made the place unbearable. Aiden and the others aren’t really talking to him and Miles is working out with a lot of the younger guys, you can tell that they all kind of want to go with each other and I can’t deal with that level of negativity, Kayla.”
I raised my eyebrow and stuttered a little, surprised at the news of everyone rebelling against Miles's decision but still letting him train there. ”Wait.. you’re tired of negativity yet you come and work out with me of all people?”
Kallie chuckled ”Oh stop it…you’re not that bad….besides maybe you can do something about the whole…Miles thing..”
I grounded, this is something I didn’t want to talk about. Something that I was letting Finn handle by himself. Mainly because if I got involved I would try and ring Miles's scrawny little neck and then beat the shit out of Carter just for good measure. But he was handling it his own way. Also, I thought. I shook my head and took a deep breath turning off the treadmill. I stepped off and grabbed the towel lightly padding myself down before grabbing my protein shake that he had so, amazingly reminded me to take drinking it down before looking back at Kallie. ”I get that it’s a huge thing to you. I do. But this is between Finn and Miles. The rest of us are going to just have to deal with it. And push out urges down.”
”Couldn’t you do something to maybe relax Finn a little?”
I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. ”Kallie… if I weaponize mine and Finn’s sex life he might stop doing certain things that I enjoy. So no, I’m not going to do that…”
She gave a small nod and looked down her fingers fumbling together before she took a deep breath ”Uh so like, what kind of things? Because Aidan does this thing with his tongue and his fingers and I-“
”No!” I put my finger up. I wasn’t about to listen to this kind of bullshit. She nodded slowly getting it through her head that I definitely did not want to hear about anything sexual to do with her or her dumb arse husband. The two of us went about our workout, my mind now fixated on the two problems ahead of me. Finn and his ongoing war with Miles and the constant Romani thread that was hanging over our heads.
Queenslayer.
She was angry. Furious. In fact, she was so deep into those feelings that there was no clear way to start her promo off. Kayla said, her eyes blazing forward as her hands class together in front of her. Her eyes, which were normally a bright and emerald green were now deeper and darker. Her long black hair free flowing down her shoulders and back was tied into a high ponytail and her makeup while still impeccably done took on a much more sinister tone, smoky eyeshadow replaced lines of eyeliner and lipstick.
”I am sure so many of you now believe that our downfall is imminent. The unbeatable team has been dispatched. Our championship rain, one that was record-breaking and trendsetting is now broken and done. And before I get to the people who did it and the reasons behind it let me just say that I see so many of you celebrating our loss. And why wouldn’t you? It’s something that is so very wrong with our society as a whole, isn’t it? People rise up and become so good at something and dominate the world that all you little jealous arseholes decide that you want to watch us fall. And we did, we fell. We lost those mixed tag team championships and all of you sat there applauding because you wanted to see it happen.”
“All because Finn and I did something that none of you could ever hope to do. We may those mixed tag team championships matter. We made them relevant. We made them a prize that people wanted to try and claim. We took them from an afterthought, a pair of championships that was sitting on a team that everyone called the future, yet when push came to shove and they ended up against the team of real stars they failed and they ended up leaving. They disappeared, and we took those championships forward.”
“We made them matter…”
“They were a pair of titles that were stuffed away in the middle of the show, never being looked at as anything more than filler. We took them to the main event. We took them into matches against people like Alexandra Raven and Luna Palsino. We made damn sure that every single match that the mixed tag team championships were involved in actually mattered and was featured prominently on the show.”
Her nostrils flare and with a quick movement her legs extend up and she kicks the chair backward, normally Kayla might be dressed in something that accentuates her body. Something that will give herself a little ego boost. This time it’s no frills, no pretty white dresses, She is wearing black jeans and a black midriff top with a leather jacket over the top. Her hands ball into fists as she tilts her head staring directly at the camera. Almost as if she’s ready to fight right now instead of having to wait till the show.
”You people seem to think that this is over? Over? The truth is I have just begun. Finn has just begun. We are still the world champions. He is still the Sin City Wrestling World heavyweight champion and I am still the Sin City Wrestling World Bombshell Champion and you have won nothing you haven’t stopped anything. All you’ve done is piss off both off. Now, I’m sure there are some people who believe I’m gonna stand here and make excuses. I’m going to point out the fact that Miles decided to rear his stupid bucktooth head out of the backstage area and distract Finn. Because he knew Damo what he was doing.”
“And I’m not going to stand here and lie, that does piss me off. But not for the reasons you think. You see losing championships happens. Losing matches happens. Sometimes some things are just out of your control and it is your job as the champion to overcome them and we as a team should have overcome Miles and his bullshit distraction. So yeah, I’m pissed off. But I’m pissed off at myself and Finn for not realizing something like this was going to happen. I’m pissed off that myself and Finn went to bat for that stupid little prick and he has turned around and done everything he could to cost us everything. That’s what I’m pissed off about.”
“Eddie and Victoria were just The beneficiaries of Miles and his stupidity.”
“Now, Eddie, I’m sure you’re going to watch this promo or you’re going to get the TLDR of it from your cousin when she inevitably ends up throwing a tantrum over the mean mean things I’m about to say about her but I wanted to say something nice to you. You see Edward, you do come from a great wrestling family much like your cousin, and you should be a contender for Finn’s world championship. so I’m gonna congratulate you, congratulations on becoming one-half of the mixed tag team champions. But, when I’m done with your little bitch of a cousin you might have to look for another partner, so start going through your emails or your mobile phone contacts or whatever it is you have with the long ass list of your family members in it and get ready to pull another Lyon out of the fucking hat because I’m about to kill your goddamn cousin”
There is a growl in Kayla‘s voice, her eyes stay piercing as they stay forward. This isn’t The Kayla who seems to become complacent over the last few months, no this is The Kayla Richards who exploded onto the scene a few years ago. This is the Kayla that everyone should be fucking terrified of.
”Now, Victoria. I’m sure that you’re riding high after all of your recent success. I’m damn certain that your ego is probably flying through the goddamn roof right now even higher than it normally was. I mean, I wasn’t sure how it could get bigger than it already is considering that you won the queen for a day you’ve been walking around with this whole regal air of arrogance about you that none of us have quite been able to understand considering you’re still not in the top five bombshells that we have in this fucking company. But it’s fine. I’m willing to allow you certain concessions now that you can say you have a win over me.”
“And yes it is a win. You see you may not have pinned me or made me submit. It may have been your cousin getting the win in that tag match but the truth is that it counts. And I’m not gonna sit here and take that away from you. I could, I could point out that I still haven’t been Por submitted in over a year but I’m not going to instead. I’m going to tell you that you beat me.”
“Yes… you Victoria Lyons have a win over Kayla Richards congratulations”
“That is where all the happiness and ego-stroking stops. See, now I have to point out something else to you Victoria and it’s going to pop that little arrogant bubble that you’ve got around yourself. You see if you look back over my history and not just in this company in every company I have ever been in if I end up losing to someone I come back and I destroy their entire fucking life”
“Take Stacy Jones, for instance, a woman who had a cup of coffee in this company. I lost to her once. Do you know what happened after that? I broke her arm took her world championship and destroyed her father‘s headstone. Jessica seers another name many people might be familiar with, she beat me once. So I broke the last gift that her father ever gave her, beat the living hell out of her, and then I broke her husband‘s arm. Then you look back at everyone in this company, look at women who have beaten me. I beat them back and where are they now? Where are they now? I want you to think about that, I want you to think about the fact that most of the women who have beaten me are no longer in the company because I came back, and kicked the crap out of them so bad that they decided they didn’t want to be here anymore.”
“And now… you’re next”
Kayla chuckles as she says the words with an almost unsettling amount of glee and happiness.
”I can take a loss. I can. I lose I go back I learn something I come back stronger. It’s all part of this cycle of professional wrestling. The only problem is unlike everyone else who seems to just get over these things and move on in their lives I don’t. You look at women like Harper Mason or Mercedes Vargas and they end up losing and they come back the next week and it’s like another day at the office. It hasn’t affected them. The problem Victoria is that I can handle a loss. It does affect me.”
“It gets right inside the pit of my stomach and it starts rotting me from the inside out. I look at myself in the mirror and I can’t stand what I see and for someone like me who is an egomaniac and who is a narcissist do you realize what that does to me? It makes that little line I have in front of me disappear. That little line where I go from simply being a narcissist to being a self-hating narcissist and when I have that amount of pain and anger inside me all I wanna do is unleash it and now that I’ve been booked in a match against you on one I can. And that means that I’m gonna break you, Victoria. This isn’t going to be a simple case of us having a match to figure out who the better woman is.”
“That ship has sailed…”
“No, the ship that we're on right now is heading straight to a revolution. The kind of revolution that they used to throw parties in the 1700s where Royal families would get destroyed. And that’s what this is. I’m going to drag you down to that ring and I’m going to treat it like the gallows. And when that bell tolls and you’re looking up at the lights you’re going to know what it’s like to have the guillotine blade hanging over your neck and when I pull the trigger it’s going to drop. And when all is said and done you’re going to realize that the greatest thing you have in your career is also the worst thing you have in your career, a win over me. Because now, it’s time for me to get my pride back and that means you are getting destroyed and buried.”
