AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, I mean, more intimate details about me. Or about us?”
Confusion wrinkles his forehead. “What do you mean? Like what?”
“The day after…everything…I received a text from your burner phone.”
His forehead slashes into a scowl. “They took my burner after I talked to Remy and confronted the head producer.”
“You confronted the producer?”
“Fuck yes, I did. When Remy told me what happened. What they were saying about you…I know it sounds weak as fuck, Molly, and I didn’t understand how bad it was, but I tried to fix what I could.”
I nod slowly. Everyone had told me the show never mentioned me again. I’d always wondered if they were only saying it to make me feel better. “At least that was something,” I mutter. “Thanks.”
“After I came home,” he closes his eyes briefly, “I found a text from you on the burner phone but everything else, all of our prior messages, had been wiped clean. So I didn’t know what you were responding to.” His mouth turns down. “I figured it wasn’t anything good.”
That sounds awfully convenient. “Really?”
He nods. “What’d the text say?”
I close my eyes, concentrating on the memory I’ve tried hard to bury. “Something about how virgins are only fun for a little while and you couldn’t be interested in me for long. Signed Kiki.” I finish her name in a snotty singsong tone. “I was hurt you’d…tell someone that about me.”
Griff slow-blinks like he’s staring at a crash at the racetrack. “What. The. Fuck,” he breathes out. “Molly, I never said…I would never talk about you like that to anyone. Ever. And definitely not with some woman I barely know.”
“Well, how else would she know something like that?”
He presses his lips tight like he’s afraid I might not like his answer. “I’m sure she guessed. Or the show did. And then they just ran with it.”
They had made a big deal about my age and that I still hadn’t graduated from high school at the time. “Okay, but how’d Kiki know about your burner phone? Did you let her use it or something?”
“Of course not. If I was going to let anyone borrow it, it would’ve been Venom. But I wouldn’t even loan it to him to call his wife, because I was worried he’d turn me in.” He takes a breath. “I doubt it was even Kiki who sent the text.”
Apparently, he didn’t watch many of Kiki’s private chats on the show. “Are you defending her?”
“What? No.” Frustration roughens his voice. “Molly, I barely spoke to her or any of the girls.”
Does he think I’m an idiot? “You were all stuck in a house together.”
“It’s a big house,” he insists. “I trained and did whatever else the show wanted us to do. The ring girls were off doing their own thing in another part of the house. Or they were lounging around the pool and hot tub. I didn’t go out there much.” He scowls. “Saw too many of the guys get drunk and piss in the pool to ever want to swim in it.”
“Eww, that’s gross.”
He hums a sound of agreement. “I was there with one goal—to win fights. I learned and trained. That’s it. The rest was noise to me.”
I stare at him, trying to sense any hint that he’s lying. But Griff’s never been a liar.
“You have more in common with her,” I say quietly.
He frowns. “Who?”
“That woman.” I wave my hands in the air, refusing to utter her stupid name again. “She’s your age. She wanted to run her own business the way you do…”
“Congratulations, you know more about her than I do.” He scowls and rests his hand on my leg again. “Molly, I know I’m not perfect. I wish I’d done a few things differently. But I don’t want anyone else. Never have. Not for one second. You were always the only woman on my mind.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Griff
Hours later, after leaving things unfinished with Molly, I’m downstairs on the couch in the basement, watching an old boxing match with the volume down low.
