Tame: Carter Kids #3 (18 page)

I was rounding the corner of the foyer, feeling bloated and extremely satisfied, when the sound of my name being spoken caused me to halt mid-stride and Lewis to bulldoze into the back of me.

"Shh," I whispered, steadying myself with Lewis's outstretched arm.

Creeping over to the wall, I pressed my back against the concrete, and urged Lewis to do the same.

Reluctantly, he followed suit and stood with his back to the wall beside me.

"I want her off this tour!"

That was Quincy.

Holding my breath, I glanced sideways at Lewis.

The look on his face told me he'd realized who was talking, too.

The red stain of his cheeks told me he was embarrassed.

Suddenly it wasn’t queasiness filling my body.

It was rage.

"She's distracting him. Three months of her trailing around and he's down in rank. He barely won his last fight against Dupree in points. If he doesn’t win tonight, he drops down in rank to third. The woman needs to go."

"She's a problem for him alright."
Beau piped up.
"Quincy's right, T. Noah's form is all wrong. He's tense as hell. He's not giving the tour his full attention or commitment anymore. For Christ's sake, he's missed an entire week of training because of her."

"If we even suggest Teagan going home, it will cause mutiny
." Tommy sounded like he was trying to placate the other men, but I knew he was enjoying them hating on me.
"And Noah? Well, he married her, didn’t he? He's not gonna just send her away, now is he?"

"He might just do that,"
Beau piped up, voice suddenly smug.
"When he sees what I've got planned tonight, Noah might just put her on a plane and send her packing…"

"What the hell's more important?"
Quincy demanded, cutting Beau off
. "Chauffeuring his fuck buddy around the country or winning the goddamn title? Because I've got to tell you, Tommy, I didn't sign up to coach no goddamn loser."

Pushing myself off the wall, I made to lunge around the corner but Lewis quickly dragged me backwards by the back of my shirt.

"Don't," he grunted into my ear as he half dragged me in the opposite direction towards the elevators. "Do not prove them right."

"That bastard just called Noah a loser," I hissed in a low tone. "And me his fuck buddy!"

No one was going to talk about Noah like that.

Not while I had a breath in my body.

Lewis shoved me into a waiting elevator and slammed his hand on the keypad.

"What do you think confronting them would have achieved back there?" he asked calmly when the doors closed. 

"It would have made me feel better," I said hoarsely, rubbing my arm where he'd grabbed me.

"And Noah?" he countered coolly. "Did you stop to think how it could affect him – having his wife and coach going at each other?"

The elevator doors opened and we were walking.

"Your husband is twenty-one months into a heavyweight title quest," Lewis continued to say as he ushered me down the hallway towards my hotel room door. "A fall out in the camp at this late stage in the game will not bode well for him."

"But I didn't do anything to those guys –" my voice cracked and I quickly snapped my mouth shut, refusing to show any emotion.

Lewis was as bad as the others.

Lewis was with me all day every day. He knew how the guys treated me when Noah wasn’t looking and he stood back and did nothing.

Using a key fob, Lewis unlocked the door of mine and Noah's suite and held it open for me. "It doesn't matter what you did or didn't do," he told me in a regretful tone. "You're a liability to Noah – a distraction – which makes you a nuisance to those of us whose livelihoods depend on keeping him safe and in fighting form."

"Is that what I am?" My eyes were watering. Traitorous fucking tear ducts again. "A nuisance?"

Lewis's grey eyes softened but the words he spoke hurt worse than his previous. "Noah's enemies have only one way of tormenting him.
You.
Noah's opponents have one way of distracting him. Also
you
. I would be a liar if I said it wouldn't be easier for all of us if you had never resurfaced."

I knew there was something wrong the second Teagan came barreling into our bedroom. The moment she'd noticed me sitting on the bed, tying my laces, she'd rushed into the adjoining bathroom and locked the door.

Twenty minutes had passed since she barricaded herself into the bathroom, and I was running out of patience. – and time.

"Come on, babe!" Banging my fist for what felt like the hundredth time on the door, I rested my forehead against the wood. My phone was blowing up in my pocket, I knew I was running late to get the fight, but wild horses couldn’t drag me out of this room. Not while she was in there. "Let me in."

"I j-just n-need a goddamn m-minute, Noah!" I heard her scream from behind the door. "Please."

"You've had twenty of those," I informed her, all out of patience now. "So you can either open that door or I'll kick it down. Either way, I'm coming in there for you."

A few seconds passed and then the sound of lock clicking filled my ears. Opening the door inwards, Teagan greeted me with a fake as fuck smile and two huge, swollen eyes.

"What happened?" was my immediate response to her tearstained face, followed quickly by, "who the fuck upset you?"

"No one," Thorn replied, sniffling. Using the back of her hand to wipe her eyes, she stepped around me, moving through the bedroom to her closet. "I'm fine."

I watched as Teagan removed a grey, sparkly dress from a hanger in the closet. Whipping off her shirt, she quickly pulled the dress on over her head before shimmying out of her jeans.

"Okay," she announced after she'd slipped her tiny feet into a skyscraper pair of heels. Shaking out her long blonde hair, she adjusted her dress against her slender frame. "I'm ready."

"Well, I'm not," I shot back, gaping at her. Did she think I was going to just forget about her meltdown in the bathroom? "Christ, Teagan," I growled, stalking towards her. When I reached her, I gestured my hand towards the bathroom door. "What the hell was that?"

"I was just having a moment," she replied. "I'm over it now."

"Some moment, Thorn," I countered. "You all but stopped my fucking heart in my chest." I exhaled a shaky breath. "I thought something serious was wrong."

"Nothing's wrong, okay?" she countered in a tone that was far too bright considering less than five minutes ago she'd been crying her eyes out in the goddamn bathroom.

"Bullshit. You’re a wreck." I walked straight up to her and placed my hands on her shoulders. "I know something is wrong." I could see it in her eyes. "You're keeping something from me." I begged her with my eyes to open up and let me in. "Tell me."

"I'm just upset about all those female fans," she finally whispered. "It's hard having to watch them leer at you all the time."

"What?" Sagging in relief, I ducked my head and pressed my forehead against hers. "You little fruitcake. You know I only see you." Wiping her cheeks with my thumbs, I kissed her forehead. "You have nothing to worry about, Thorn."

She didn’t.

The girl owned me.

Heart and soul.

I didn’t want to be here tonight.

Even though I had no doubt that my husband would win, his was the main event which happened to be the last fight of the night, and the thought of sitting around watching men pummel each other into the mat caused my stomach to churn inside of me.

I had never suffered from a sensitive stomach before, but for some reason, I just couldn't bear to watch another damn fight. 

Even now, as I sat on a bench in the far corner of Noah's changing room with Lewis beside me, I felt…off kilter.

I felt wrong.

I knew that was a weird thing to say, but it was the truth.

Dozens of people at the other side of the room fawned over my husband; some reporters, others were fans begging and screaming for some prefight photographs, and all I could do was sit numbly on this shitty bench and breathe slowly.

"What's wrong with you?" Lewis grunted.

"I'm not sure," I whispered quietly. This was the first time I'd spoken to Lewis since we'd arrived at the arena. Usually I sat in the stands with Lewis and watched the other fights, but tonight I simply wasn’t feeling it.

I was still reeling over what I'd overheard Noah's team saying about me, and the reason it hurt so bad was because deep down inside, I knew that some of what they had said made sense.

Some of it had been true.

I was screwing with Noah's future; unintentionally, but I was.

He was constantly watching over his back because JD had hit the nail on the head when he decided to use me to hurt Noah. I was a weak point for my husband – Noah had said as much to me once – and I didn't like it one bit.

"Are you going to throw up again?" Lewis demanded, looking at me with an appalled expression on his face. "Because if you are then go and do it in the bathroom. I'm not paid to attend to sick women."

"No," I said wearily. I didn't want to speak to him. I didn't even want to look at him. Any of them for that matter, but I was feeling too damn bad to put up a wall. "I'm just tired."

"You look…out of sorts," he added, staring down at me.

"I feel out of sorts," I whispered, agreeing wholeheartedly with the big ape for once. "Can you just…" I paused and looked over at Noah who was still surrounded by a mob. I could tell it was going to be a long night. "Can you take me back to the hotel, Lewis?"

His brow set in a deep frown. "Don't you want to watch your husband's fight?"

I shook my head. "I just want to go." Forcing back a sudden bout of nausea and tears, I choked out, "Please take me home."

"I'll have to run it by Noah first," Lewis said and, without waiting for a response from me, he quickly got to his feet and trudged over to Noah.

"Of course you do," I muttered under my breath, even though I knew Lewis was out of earshot. "My opinion means sweet fuck to any of you guys."

"Thorn!" Instantly, Noah had barged through the crowds and was by my side. "Lewis said you want to go home?" His brown eyes were full of concern as he studied my face. Crouching down in front of me, he cupped my cheek with his bandaged hand. "Are you sick?"

I could hear the announcer calling Noah's name out over the microphone.

He was up next.

"I'm tired," I admitted, flinching when a spasm of pain panged inside of my lower belly. "I'll be fine though," I quickly amended.

"Noah!" Quincy repeated, tone furious. "You need to get out there
now
."

Reaching up, I covered his hand with mine, "Go on," I encouraged. "You have a fight…ouch!"

"Are you okay?" he asked, panicked when I grunted as a sharp pain jolted through me.

"Yes," I spluttered. "Go, Noah."

"What?" Noah shook his head as if I'd spoken a foreign language. "No goddamn way." He stared up at my face in horror. "I'm not going anywhere, Thorn."

"Noah," I said, a little firmer this time, as I clutched my stomach. "I want you to go out there and kick his ass." I wasn’t going to be responsible for Noah losing everything he'd worked so hard for. "I'll be fine."

"But you're sick," he whispered, looking at me like I was about to disappear at any moment.

"Noah, you need to get out there," Quincy roared from somewhere nearby. "You're going to get yourself disqualified, boy."

"Fuck off, Q." Noah snarled. "I'm not leaving her." He turned his attention back to me. "How the hell am I supposed to fight knowing you're in here…" His voice broke off and he looked me up and down again. A strangled noise tore from his throat. He looked truly conflicted.

"If you don’t get your ass in that ring you'll be disqualified and automatically lose your title shot," Quincy added.

"Are you deaf?" Noah roared, livid. "I said I'm not leaving her."

"I'll be fine," I added firmly. "I just need to lie down for a little bit.

"I can't…" Noah stared hard at me for long moment before saying, "I'll come home with you."

"I'll take her back to the hotel," Lewis, who was hovering nearby, interjected in calm tone. "I'll wait with her until you get back."

"Go on," I urged, seeing Noah's resolve weakening. "I swear I'll be okay."

Standing abruptly, my husband ran a hand through his hair in obvious agitation. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

I felt myself sag in relief when Noah turned around and walked out of the changing room with Quincy.

I knew he didn’t want to leave. I knew it was going against everything inside of him to walk away, but I was glad.

I didn’t want him to wreck his career over me.