Chapter 56: I can smell her
Colorado was taking some getting used to.
It was beautiful — the mountains, the snow, even the people. After spending so much time living in New York, I’d forgotten what it was like to walk down the street, make eye contact with someone and not think I was about to get stabbed. But since arriving in Colorado, my mood had changed. For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t think I was being watched. I didn’t feel the eyes of the Romani on me when I stepped out of my home and went anywhere.
It might have been naive thinking for me. For all I know, they still are watching me. Maybe they’ve just become much more subtle in their attempts at surveillance. But then again again, Finn and myself getting out of New York gave them less of a reason to be looking at us. It gave Jace less of a reason to care. Out of sight, out of mind.
Even though I know damn well he was still thinking about me. And let’s be honest here, every man I’ve been with still thinks about me.
I stepped into our home. Our new home. Not Finn‘s home that I was living in. It was our home. One that we both chose and one that we both wanted. A place that we could call our own. A place that felt right. I took a deep breath, moving through the front door and the foyer, turning and putting my bags on the kitchen bench. I put my keys down onto the black marble and turned, raising an eyebrow as Finn looked up at me from the sectional. I saw a small glimmer of happiness in his eyes as his upper lip twisted into a boyish grin. I felt my heart flutter. Yes. Flutter.
He still gives me butterflies in my stomach. He still makes my heartbeat faster with a simple grin and movement of his body toward mine. Not that I would admit it.
I slid my heavy coat off, throwing it across the back of a chair, before sitting down next to Finn. I leaned over, putting my head on his shoulder and inviting myself into his embrace. He instinctively wrapped an arm around my shoulders and we just sat there for a moment. I felt any worries I had because of the day just melt from me entirely. I took a deep breath before I noticed…something. A strange aroma. One that I had smelt before. One that was familiar, but not not entirely welcome.
I sat up, looking around before turning into Finn. He raised an eyebrow and in that moment, he realised I knew something. Before he could say anything, I felt like it was my duty to ask. ”Why was that bitch here?”
Finn shook his head, he chuckled under his breath and flippantly threw his hand in the air before taking a deep breath and leaning forward ”She was just trying to stir the pot. You know how Aaron is. She thinks she’s the centre of the universe and wanted to come and see why we moved…. but how did you know she’d been here?” He seemed genuinely surprised. Oh ye of little faith in my abilities.
”I can smell that perfume she wears a mile off. I believe it’s the “desperate skank” collection from some “Hoes of Hollywood.” Finn tried to hide a laugh. It came out as a small chuckle before he regained his composure and tried to play the serious man. I shook my head and folded my arms over my chest. I needed to know why she was here. ”I’m serious, why was she here Finn?”
He groaned and sat forward even further before getting to his feet and moving toward the windows. He placed his hand on the wall, his other hand drifting down to his hip as he sighed and then ran his hand across the back of his head. ”She was just trying to start shit. Coming here to tell me that the move isn’t going to stop you from trying to go and talk to Jace and his Romani brothers…”
”That ratchet bitch…”
My nostrils flared as I tried to keep my anger inside. My hands clasped into fist as my fingernails dug into my palm. Finn turned, looking at me with a mixture of concern and fear. But it wasn’t fear of Aaron, it was fear born of his protective nature. The protective nature he had for me. ”I told her to get out. I made it abundantly clear that whatever happens between you and me, there is nothing that concerns her.”
I growled, my nostrils flaring even more as I could feel the heat radiating through my body and out of my eyes, ”I should bloody well hope so.”
I could tell that Finn felt my anger. That he could see it bubbling up from the pits of my stomach and raising up through the rest of my body. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, reaching out and grabbing my elbows and sliding his hands down my forearms to unfold them and grab my hands. ”You have nothing to worry about when it comes to Aaron and her empty threats. That’s all they are empty threats. She’s clearly trying to get in my head, and therefore, in your head.” It annoyed me that he was right. I looked away and took a deep breath before nodding slowly.
I moved forward, his hands slid from mine and up my arms wrapping around me. I let myself melt into his arms again and into his chest. Feeling his heartbeat against my ear as I calmed down. He was the only person who was capable of doing this ”It’s infuriating that it worked. I just wish I could break her in half. But, I know that you know her better than anyone. And if you say she’s just trying to fuck with us, then I guess she’s just trying to fuck with us.”
Finn took a deep breath and smiled. He ran a hand through my long black hair and that warm feeling returned. That feeling that so many others have always told me about but I never truly recognised could happen to me. This was Home. My Home. And I wasn’t about to let any bitch from his past fuck that up.
Crusty old bitch
A sharp inhale, closed eyes that slowly open to reveal a jade colour that is framed by a dark eyeliner. An exhale followed by a small chuckle. This is Kayla Richards.
”Well, it’s a new year. But, I’m sorry to disappoint you all. It’s not going to be a new Me. After all, why mess with perfection right? I ended 2024 just like I began the year. With being dominant. You see, this is what happens when we have a fatal misunderstanding with the kind of person you’re dealing with. Victoria thought she was dealing with someone who was overrated. Someone that she would be able to walk all over. Just because she was able to win in a mixed tag team match with her much more talented cousin against myself and Finn when we got screwed over by that idiot Miles Kasey…”
“She really thought that because of that match, she was going to be able to step up to me and pose a challenge. And I’ll be honest, she was better than most. But considering some of the competition in this company, it’s not really a glowing endorsement for me to say she was a little bit better than some of the others that I’ve wiped the floor with over these last two and a bit years.”
“Victoria thinks of herself as some kind of queen. And when she got in the ring with me, she realised that she’s nothing but a peasant. She gets to walk around with her little crown and say that she means something in this business, but the truth is in a world where I exist, she’s never going to be anything more than second best, at best. Now, I don’t mean to be a bitch — it just kind of happens that way — but people like Victoria still have the talent and the drive to become something. They just need to pull their heads out of their asses.”
“And I get it, I do. There is a certain amount of jealousy with all the women back there in the locker room who think they can beat me and would like to hope that they are as good as me or better. The only problem is, there’s very few people on this planet who are on the same level as me let alone better than me. When someone has been better than me, it means they were better than me on that night, and that if I face them again again after that they really find out who the superior professional wrestler is.”
Kayla can’t help the chuckle, looking over at the Bombshells World Championship and the Mixed Tag Team Championship. She can feel the pride and arrogance rising up from his stomach through her chest.
”This run that I’ve been on…since I came into this company, it should be looked at as some kind of legend by now. Three Internet Championships, two Mixed Tag Team Championships, including one of them being a record breaking reign in both days and defences. And of course the World Championship. 277 days and six defences. And I’m about to become third on the longest single championship reign list.”
“Not that you would know it considering this company would rather use Aleesha Jones to promote the next SuperCard. Because let’s ignore someone who is setting records and destroying everyone in her path for someone who came back and was able to beat Bella Madison. Whoopie fucking do.”
Kayla can’t help but chuckle. She is clearly angry and ready to snap on someone. And it seems like that someone is Mercedes Vargus.
”Someone has to pay for that level of disrespect. And unfortunately, that person is going to be Mercedes Vargas. Do you think I’m happy about this match, Mercedes? I mean really. I want you to look in the mirror, I want you to have a look at every single line and wrinkle on your face. I want you to look at the saggy flaps of skin on your arms, I want you to remember what it feels like when you wake up in the morning and all of your joints are screaming at you to go back to bed. All of those feelings and how you look; now, I want you to realise that your best days are behind you and you are being fed to someone who is your superior.”
“And yes, this is going to be me talking about your age and how you are now over the hill and way past your prime. And before you decide to go on some rant about how everyone says that about you, I just want to point out that we all use what we’ve given. Every single person who brings that up, while it might be a tired and old hat by now, they’re not wrong. And I’m not wrong. You are way past your prime and you are way past the point of being a threat to anyone who is of any substance in this division. You will occasionally pop up and shoot a small glimpse of the woman that you were. Just a tiny little spark of the Mercedes Vargas that was once a world champion and was going around to all of these different companies and beating their biggest stars.”
“Hell, I’ve talked about it before. I remember being in a company when I was just starting out and I watched you and my older sister beat the hell out of each other. My older sister was my idol at the time, and even though there’s only three years between us, she seems so, so much older than me and so much more mature and she was facing you. Someone who even at that point was a legend in this business,and she beat you. Just like I’ve beaten you.”
“Thing is Mercedes, when I sit here and say that you’re old and you are past your prime, I’m not saying it out of a place of hatred or malice or anger. I’ve watched so many people in this company and in this business stay well beyond their time. Kiera and Roxi come to mind, Even my friend Crystal. She should hang up the boots too. And you. You need to walk away. You’re embarrassing yourself. And the most horrible part about all of this is I sit here and think about my future and your future in this business is that you could very well beat me and that would be a problem.”
Kayla‘s eyes burn with anger and frustration. She puts her hands straight down on the edge of the table she’s standing in front of and leans forward
”That would be a problem, because I’m better than you. Now, that isn’t a large revelation to anyone who has working eyes under working brain but let me just say it again so it sinks into your Alzheimer’s stricken mind. I am better than you. I’m better than you now, I would’ve been better than you 15 years ago when you were in your prime. I am just better. I am built different. And the problem arises when you think you can actually beat me. And the ramifications and fallout of what would happen if you were somehow able to flute a painful over me are too terrifying to verbalise, but I’m going to try.”
“See, you think beating me is a way to shock the world or clawback some of your former glory. For you to show all of us young whippersnappers that you are still a danger in this division and you could still be a world champion. And that kind of horrible, selfish and backward thinking is what holds the Bombshells Division back. You seem to think this is some great comeback tour, where you can pop in and beat someone like me and have everyone applaud and cry because the great Mercedes Vargas still has it. Hell, I can hear those idiotic fans now. Chanting those stupid words.”
“You still got it.”
“Like that is supposed to be some weird term of endearment. A battlecry for all of those fans of yours that have watched you for the better part of three decades throw your old bones around this ring. It makes them feel better about themselves, Mercedes. They see someone like you and they see you get back some of your form of glory by beating someone like me and it makes them all believe that it’s not too late for them to actually accomplish something in their lives. But there’s the problem: if you beat me, that gives false hope to every other woman in that locker room. And I just can’t have that.”
Kayla throws her arms in the air and takes a step back, folding her arms over her chest.
”If you somehow beat me, it would be the death of my legacy and my legitimacy. I would watch all the goodwill that I have been able to earn for myself through all of the amazing things I’ve done get pissed away all because I allowed someone like you to get the better of me. I’m not going to let that happen. It would be the death of the Bombshells division. Or at least the Bombshells division that we know. This amazing fertile ground where we have some women coming up and stepping up to become the best. All of that would disappear all for one fleeting moment of form of glory so Mercedes Vargas can feel better about herself as she enters the Twilight of her life and career.”
“No records to show for it, no family or happiness to fall back on. Just a career that some people will remember with a smile and others will roll their eyes at. And a career that is starting to wind down and die with a whimper instead of going out with a bang like it should have a few years ago. I can’t let you beat me Mercedes, so when I give him the ring with you, you are getting the pissed off Kayla Richards that everyone fears. You are getting the Kayla Richards that has ended careers and made people run for the hills. You are being punished for the sins of others and I hope you’re ready, because when you’re laying on your back and staring up at those lights and your career flashes before your eyes you’re going to come to one stark realisation. I was right and you should have retired when you had the chance.”
