Page 131 of The Beast's Heart

In the ring, Chevalier is on Beast’s chest, punching his face over and over. He’s got some color. Belle tries to dash around me, but I block him.

“Let me through, Geoff!”

Men in security suits are rushing down the aisle behind us.

“You’re not going to ruin this,” I tell Belle.

He pulls back his arm and punches me square in the face.

54

ADAM

Being in The Garden is like being inside a giant tire with LED screens in the centre suspended above the stage. I’ve performed in front of audiences of over 19,000 here before. Now I’m performing in front of an audience of about 15, including the crew.

Despite everything, I thought that when I set foot on the stage the same old buzz would fill me, that a wave of nostalgia would wipe everything from my mind and I’d get swept up in our storyline. But I feel nothing. Nothing except a vague sense of deja vu—that feeling you get when you’re stuck in a dream you’ve had before and you thought you resolved.

I move through the choreography on autopilot. It’s a good thing we rehearsed so much because I’m seriously off my game. I’m thinking of Belle and his father and worrying about how the surgery went.

I throw Todd off me and grab him into a headlock, punching his guts. He breaks free and clocks me in the jaw. I fall back, playing the drama as he hits me again in the temple. I can hardly see out of my right eye due to the color I just gave myself, but I see a blur of tan and brown at the edge of the ring.

Todd kicks me to the mat and is about to bodyslam when suddenly, there’s a blonde man in a rumpled tweet suit standing between us.

Jonathan?I push myself up, blinking in case Todd hit me too hard and knocked something loose.

“Alan, I’m getting reports that this is The Beast’sboyfriend,” Rod is saying. I look to their table. Was this planned?

Geoff is clutching his nose, hand dripping blood.

Not planned.

Todd glances to the ref and holds up his hands to show Jonathan he means him no harm. Jonathan spins and drops to his knees over me. His hands are on my face, gentle and searching for the source of the blood.

“What are you doing here?” I hiss.

“What areyoudoing here?” he shoots back. “It’sdangerous.”

I grab his hand to stop its searching. “It’s just color. Remember, I told you?”

The ref falls to his knees beside us. “Whatever the fuck is happening here, management wants you to play this up. We’ve got thousands on stream. It’s the biggest match since the pandemic started and you’re not going to fuck this up.”

“I’m sorry,” Jonathan says. “I should have gotten here sooner.”

The commentators are now saying how we’re having a very intense discussion with the ref, which is their way of saying we need to speed things along.

I turn to the ref. “Here’s the story. The Beast was tamed, but he’s out here tonight fighting for love. Feed them that line. Chev is going to do a heel turn. It will be good for his career. He’s out to prove himself by defeating The Beast, but The Beast doesn’t want to fight. He only wants to protect the man he loves.”

The ref nods and then dashes off to speak to Todd. I clutch Jonathan’s hands. “Todd’s a professional. He’s not going to hurtyou. But he might throw you around a little. Just trust what he says, okay? You’re the most dangerous person in this ring right now.”

“Me?”

“Because you’re untrained.”

I don’t wait for his response. I stand and dramatically push Jonathan behind me, shielding him.

“This has never happened before in the history of wrestling,” Rod is saying. “What you’re seeing today is truly unprecedented.”

“They say we’re living in unprecedented times, Rod, but this is really something.”

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