Page 4 of Saving Stella
“Don’t be dramatic, of course you’ll fight again. Not that you’ll need to.” She waved a hand at him. “When we get our share of the money, you can open your own gym, like you keep talking about doing after you retire. And I can start my own production company, and I won’t have to keep going to those stupid auditions.”
His blood turned to ice in his veins. “You did this … for the money?”
“I did this for us, Cliff. So we don’t have to work so hard?—”
“You bitch!” His wolf came alive, roaring to life. “How could you?”
Terror—for real this time, not the acting she’d obviously done while she was being manhandled by Bonetti’s goons—crossed her face. “What—your eyes!”
Cliff reined in his inner animal. “I can’t fight, not anymore. People already suspect I lost on purpose! And even if nothing happened, I could never go back into the cage knowing what I did.” Del was as decent and upstanding as they come, and he would probably cooperate with the authorities if they opened an investigation into tonight’s fight. At the very least, Del would never work with him again, not after tonight.
Our integrity is the only thing we have, Del told him at the beginning of their working relationship. And once we lose it, it’s gone forever.
“I gave up everything.” His chest crumpled into itself, making it difficult to breathe. “But it didn’t matter … because I thought I was keeping you safe.”
“But the money?—”
“Shut up! I don’t care about the money!”
“Cliff—”
“Get the fuck out! I never want to see you again!”
Madelyn’s face crumpled as tears formed in her eyes. She opened her mouth, but Cliff let out a growl. She let out a squeak, then spun around and dashed out the door.
Shock began to make its way into his system, paralyzing his limbs. He heard a loud buzzing which he thought was just the blood rushing to his ears, but he realized it was his phone, which he had left on the dressing table.
Walking over, he saw his notifications blowing up, and the pit in his stomach turned into a cavernous trench. He didn’t need to look at his social media accounts or sports news websites to know what they were saying. Everyone—the entire world— knew he threw that match. There would be an investigation; the Federation would put the fight—and his entire career under a microscope. The LV Gaming Board, too, would be up his ass and turn over all his bank and financial records.
Even if they didn’t find him guilty, he would never get into the cage again. Hell, he could never show his face in Vegas ever again.
He was screwed.
Chapter 1
Present day…
Breathe, Stella Lennon told herself. This was not the end of the world, after all.
It was just a bad date.
And besides, was it really a date if your date brought his own date?
Her date, Tyler Keller whooped aloud, raising his fist in the air as the sportscaster on TV announced that the home team, the Las Vegas Invaders, had scored, securing victory. “Touchdown! Yes!”
“Yay!” Kimmy—his date—exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her generous cleavage up against his chest. “That was an amazing play!”
“Yeah, it was,” Stella chimed in. “Um, go team!”
When neither of them acknowledged her and instead continued their celebratory embrace, Stella decided she’d had enough. While admittedly, her painful shyness and introverted nature made it difficult to connect with other people, she was no doormat.
Standing up from the stool, she left a few bills on the bar, clutched her purse straps tight, then made her way toward the exit.
I should have known better, she scolded herself.
To her credit, this really did sound like a date.
A few weeks ago, Tyler Keller arrived at Crestholm Preparatory School where Stella worked as a music teacher. As a substitute, he was there to cover for the PE teacher, Mr. Hollis, who had to undergo emergency heart surgery. Young, athletic, and good-looking, Tyler had sent nearly all the female—and a few male—teachers’ hearts aflutter. However, for some reason, he had gravitated toward her—unassuming, mousy Stella, who didn’t have a clue how to even talk to a guy like Tyler.