Post by Creed on Apr 11, 2016 7:06:58 GMT -5
Camron Creed sat alone on the grassy bank, his legs pulled up close to his chest and his arms resting on his knees. He tried to look calm as he sat alone, watching the cars pass him by; the truth was that depression was rolling over him in waves and he was struggling not to fall into a complete and utter panic. Nothing was going right and he knew it. Never had he dreamed that he would lose his debut match in such humiliating fashion. His phone, which was held tightly in his right hand, displayed the disappointing result of Trauma 189. Brenna Gordon's hand raised in victory. Creed unable to even get back inside the ring to do anything about it.
A few feet from where Creed was sat a vehicle smouldered in the hot midday sun. Crudely and quickly pulled onto the hard shoulder, one wheel bumped up the curb and the passengers door still ajar from where Creed had clambered across the cab and thrown himself over the crash barrier to the unforgiving ground. Smoke poured from under the hood as the engine ticked loudly from the metals as they contracted and cooled.
Creed shook his head in disgust as he watched the last three thousand dollars of his PCW signing bonus slowly dying before him and his chest started to hitch as he struggled for breath. This was the straw that had broken the camels back and Camron wondered if he could take any more.
Time passed in a daze. Creed wasn't sure if he had sat there for a hour or for three, his chest either heaving uncontrollably or settling to an almost deadly stillness, is eyes vacant and glazed as they stared into the distance where he could see Brenna Gordon pinning the shoulders of Kent Paris to the mat. Far away, the sound of a car's horn filled the air, but all Camron heard was the chime of a ring bell. The vacant stare hardened and Creed murmured “Brenna Damn Gordon.”
Again the horn sounded, this time closer. Creed blinked, his eyelids so dry they felt like sandpaper scraping across his eyes. He blinked again and turned his head, finally registering the car that had pulled in just behind his own as the driver carefully climbed out struggling to avoid the speeding cars that passed nearby.
“Hey Stud, you okay?” The suited man called from the bank as he awkwardly stepped over the metal barrier, his cliche mirrored sunglasses catching the midday sun and reflecting it into Creed's face. Camron sat silently as the man climbed the hill toward him, his hand made Italian leather shoes slipping on the grass and almost spilling him to the ground. “Dammit Cam.” Laz cursed as he brushed at his knee to check if the skid had stained it. It had. “Couldn't you have just walked down to the car?”
This man, of course, was Joey Lazarus. Camron's manager and the closest thing he had to a friend within the business. He came up close on Creed and sat cautiously beside him. He nodded his head toward the puke green car and flashed his shit eater smile. “Well, looks like the Camron Cruiser has had it, huh?” He laughed, Laz always laughed at his own jokes; Usually hard enough to not realize that nobody else was.
“Five thousand Dollars.” Creed's voice was monotone, merely stating facts without emotion. “Five hundred to you; your cut. Another five to pay you back for the flight home. Six Fifty on rent for a shit-hole apartment. Three One Fifty on that piece of crap. That left me with two hundred for food and travel for the month. I needed that win, Laz. I needed it to make it all worthwhile. The bed that smells of mold. The leaky roof. The busted heaters. The crusty carpets. I needed that win.”
“Ah shit.” Laz moaned and shook his head. “Listen, don’t worry. You can have the money back Cam, I'm not worried about that stuff.”
Creed shook his head but didn't look to Laz. “We had a deal. A contract. You might not need the money, but I told you already; I pay my debts.”
“You're too hard headed for your own good, you know that?”
“I – I just cant owe you any more that I already do Joey.”
“Sure you can; we're friends!” Joey grinned and wrapped an arm around Creed's shoulders, patting him affectionately.
“You'll understand one day, I'm sure.” Creed nodded his head down the hill toward the car. “Keys still in the ignition?”
“Yeah, why?”
Camron finally turned his head toward his manager and gave a sympathetic smile. “I'm really sorry about this and everything else Joey.” Before Joey had the chance to inquire what he meant, Creed had jumped to his feet and was sprinting down the hill toward the car. Joey tried to climb to his but stumbled and fell. By the time he regained his composure Creed was slamming the drivers side door to Laz's black Mercedes SLK and starting the engine. Joey scrambled and rushed toward the car but it was too late, Creed pulled quickly out into the flow of traffic forcing a car to swerve before tearing off down the highway.
The last look Creed gave was to the quickly shrinking reflection of Joey Lazarus in the rear view mirror as he danced and silently shouted on the bank of the Highway.
Creed pulled up close to the large iron gates of a huge house and waited as they started to automatically open. He drove on and parked outside the house, his heart aching in his chest and his skin crawling. He took a moment to breathe deeply before climbing quickly out of the drivers seat and hurrying up the steps to the front door as it swung slowly open. A beautiful woman stood in the door way. She smiled as Creed neared her and placed a finger over her lips silently shushing the visitor. In her other hand she held a phone close to her face. As he drew closer, Creed could hear the voice coming from it.
“..and then he just fucking drove off and left me here! I thought he was playing around and would turn round at the intersection to come get me, but that was over forty minutes ago!”
“That’s awful. But I'm sure he had a good reason.” She smiled at Creed before stepping aside and ushering him into the house.
“Good reason?!” Joey was raving over the phone, a fact that made the woman smile “My damn phone was in the car! I had to walk to the nearest gas station to call you. Listen Jackie, how long are you gonna be? I have meetings to get to!”
“Sorry, something has just come up. Don't worry, I'll send a car for you soon.” Jackie hung up the phone, ending the call and cutting Joey off mid-rant. She flashed a hungry look at Creed before grabbing him and kissing him in a desperate, urgent manner. Creed resisted for a moment before hungrily kissing her back, pulling her close to him.
Creed rolled off and fell onto his back, the white cotton sheets in disarray around their naked bodies. Jackie's chest was heaving heavily and she giggled to herself in satisfaction. Creed looked away toward the wall on the far side of the room, the expression on his face one of disgust.
“That was amazing.” Jackie purred as she rolled onto her side and dragged her fingernails across the sweaty chest of Camron Creed. Her shuddered at her touch, a sensation Jackie attributed to his own satisfaction. She bit her lip and grinned before leaning in close and whispering “I feel the same way.”
“I doubt that” Creed muttered as he closed his eyes and willed himself not to scream in frustration at his actions. He hated what he had become. Jacqueline was a beautiful woman but the very thought of her turned his stomach. Today was the first time he had came to her willingly, to fulfill his own needs; desperate to feel something other that despair as his life came apart at the seams. Before this, every encounter had been at her insistence and he had submitted reluctantly.
Jackie climbed out of bed and walked across the room to a small bar, unashamed of her nakedness or the act of infidelity they had just committed. She looked back over her shoulder to him and smiled. “Drink?”
“Er..” Creed shook his head, instantly nervous. “No. No I – er.... No. Thank you.”
Jackie laughed as Creed fell over his words like a nervous bird; his inability to articulate himself, or carry himself with any real confidence was a million miles from the cocksure attitude he carried with him to the ring and that filled her with a deep level of perverse joy. “Go on. One wont hurt.”
“I cant, I'm.. I'm...” Creed took a deep breath as she lifted the crystal decanter of Whiskey and gently shook it in the sunlight. His body now wanted it as desperately as it had wanted her an hour ago, but he knew that giving into that urge would make him equally as repulsed. “I cant.”
“Spoil sport.” Jackie sighed as she filled a single glass. “If you're worried about that troublesome Doctor, you really needn’t be. I assure you, that has been taken care of.”
“No I..” Creed was hesitant in his reply and found it a struggle to meet Jackie's gaze, knowing that if he did all the fight would go out of him. “I'm just.. I'm trying to be better.”
“Better?” she laughed and pointed a glass toward a photograph of her husband. “That's your competition in this room. Believe me, in comparison, you're the best.”
Creed blushed and turned quickly away, unable to look at the photo of his manager without being filled with guilt all over again. He was silent for several moments as Jackie moved back across the room, his flesh crawling more with every step she took toward him. She climbed onto the end of the bed, the glass held expertly in her hand as she crawled up its length. Creed stammered and tried to keep the conversation going to distract her “How? How did you make that go away? How did you make him change his mind?”
“The Doctor?” Jackie laughed happily as she moves over Creeds legs, pulling the sheets just so to expose his body. “Well, I work for the Board. You know what that is, right?” Jackie kisses Camron's stomach and smiles. “The Board of Wrestling Ethics and Safe Practise’s. An independent organization that, on the surface, is pushing for global reform of the wrestling industry; A world wide change to the attitude on steroids and other drugs within the ring, and a healthcare revolution so that broken down old wrestlers get the second chance they need to improve their health and well being...” Jackie smiles and crawls a little higher up Creed's body “At least, that's what the PR department states. All that good will affords certain... benefits. Benefits I am willing to share with my friends.”
“Still” Creed squirms, visually uncomfortable below Jackie’s' body. “that doesn't explain how you got him to change him mind. He was dead set on red stamping me and then... nothing.”
“Dr. Bass had, shall we say, a checkered past of his own.” Jackie sits herself down on Creed and takes a drink of the amber liquid in her glass. “Everyone has their secrets Mr. Creed and in my business, being able to find them and effectively use them to your advantage is an essential skill to posses.”
Jackie leans in close and presses her lips against Camron's before almost forcing her tongue into his mouth. At the taste of her mouth a surge of desperation washes through Creed and he leans into the kiss. Jackie pulls away and smiles down at him, holding the glass aloft “Are you sure you don’t want a drink, Mr. Creed? Or perhaps that reaction wasn't for the drink but for..” She left the words unspoken, but grinding herself against him made the message clear. Creed's entire body twitched and he urgently lifted her off, swung his feet out of the bed and sat up hanging his head low.
“And what if he changes his mind again?” Creed desperately wanted to think about something else, anything else; even the complete and utter destruction of his career.. anything to avoid the temptation she had forced upon him.
“He wont.” Jackie sighed as she lay back, perching an elbow on a pillow to hold her upper body aloft. She took another drink before swishing the liquid around in the glass, enjoying the way the sunlight danced on it's surface. “I now have an entire dossier on Dr. Bass and his past indiscretions. Believe me, he will be very agreeable from now on.”
“I'd like to see this dossier” Creed thought back to his meeting with Dr. Bass and how light he had felt leaving that room after relieving himself of so many burdens.
“Sure.” Jackie shrugged. “Its in the draw over there. Help yourself.”
Creed crossed the room. He was aware that Jackie's eyes were locked on him as he went and not for the first time he felt oddly violated in her presence. He pulled open the draw and lifted the inch thick dossier from inside.
“You know” Jackie went on as Creed turned the first page “I could probably do some more digging, if you'd like. Turn something up on Miss Gordon.”
Creed shot an angry glance in Jacqueline’s direction and flipped the file closed once again. “What do you mean, exactly?”
“Well, you face her again this week..” Jackie shrugged a shoulder and smiled teasingly. “Perhaps I can help you with that. Make her more... agreeable.”
“I do not need your help to defeat Brenna Gordon.” Creed stomped his way across the room and grabbed his jeans up off of the floor.
“I didn't say that you need my help, merely that I can offer it. It's just that, I saw her little promo and well...” Jackie flashed that smile again and took a sip from her glass “She seems rather, confident, wouldn't you say?”
“Very.” Creed's tone was short and gruff. He pulled his pants on and fastened them about the waist. “She is confident, eager and riding the wave of momentum... But she is also inexperienced, rash and indiscreet and that is where my advantage lies. I could shoot a promo on her, sure, tell her I was impressed by her ability to weather the storm, to shake free of the bonds of gender stereotype and get up from impacts that have left many men unable too. I could explain that I have mastery of many more moves like them, each more devastating than the last, but then she would know where my head is going into this battle as I now know where hers is.”
“I admire your confidence... But surely when n opportunity arises you are experienced enough to take it?” Jackie leaned over and grabbed Camron's shirt before he was able to pick it up and the two of them tugged it, Creed ready to leave, Jackie trying to entice him to stay. “I could easily be the deciding factor in this match. Miss Gordon is clearly plagued by some dark presence, a little bit of prying into the darkness and I'm sure I would be able to turn up something advantageous.”
“Let me make this clear” Creed fixed his eyes on hers, stern and sure of himself for the first time since they fell naked beside one another. “I do not need, nor do I require your help. I will succeed or fail under my own volition and, win or lose, I will shake Brenna's hand and congratulate her for being the toughest woman I have ever met; and if you do get involved, you ought to turn that considerable influence against me, because I will not be responsible for my actions.”
“Fine” Jackie's mouth becomes a tight white line of frustration as she stares fixedly at Creed. “But don't say I didn't try to help when she kicks your ass again.”
The tension in the room is suddenly cut by the sound of a door slamming at the front of the house. A brief moment of fear flashes across Jacqueline’s face betraying her while the breath catches in Camron's throat. Joey's frustrated voice can be heard echoing up the stairs to the bedroom where the door sits slightly ajar.
“Jackie! What is my Car doing back here? Is Camron here?” Jackie’s eyes drift away from the door back to Creed as he frantically pulls his shirt on over his head. She smiles playfully and mouths 'should I?' before turning back to the door.
“Camron? No, I... Oh, wait..” She looks back to Creed again and smiles. “I did see him. He dropped the car off a little while ago. Apologized profusely. Apparently there was something he just had to do.”
“Damn it.” Joey's voice seemed closer now and Creed knew what that meant. He hurried to the window and threw one leg outside. Jackie pulled a light dressing gown over herself and walked calmly to the bedroom door to intercept her husband. Unseen, Creed lent back into the room and grabbed the file before disappearing out of the window. “I really wanted to talk to him. Poor kid Just doesn't seem himself.”
A few feet from where Creed was sat a vehicle smouldered in the hot midday sun. Crudely and quickly pulled onto the hard shoulder, one wheel bumped up the curb and the passengers door still ajar from where Creed had clambered across the cab and thrown himself over the crash barrier to the unforgiving ground. Smoke poured from under the hood as the engine ticked loudly from the metals as they contracted and cooled.
Creed shook his head in disgust as he watched the last three thousand dollars of his PCW signing bonus slowly dying before him and his chest started to hitch as he struggled for breath. This was the straw that had broken the camels back and Camron wondered if he could take any more.
Time passed in a daze. Creed wasn't sure if he had sat there for a hour or for three, his chest either heaving uncontrollably or settling to an almost deadly stillness, is eyes vacant and glazed as they stared into the distance where he could see Brenna Gordon pinning the shoulders of Kent Paris to the mat. Far away, the sound of a car's horn filled the air, but all Camron heard was the chime of a ring bell. The vacant stare hardened and Creed murmured “Brenna Damn Gordon.”
Again the horn sounded, this time closer. Creed blinked, his eyelids so dry they felt like sandpaper scraping across his eyes. He blinked again and turned his head, finally registering the car that had pulled in just behind his own as the driver carefully climbed out struggling to avoid the speeding cars that passed nearby.
“Hey Stud, you okay?” The suited man called from the bank as he awkwardly stepped over the metal barrier, his cliche mirrored sunglasses catching the midday sun and reflecting it into Creed's face. Camron sat silently as the man climbed the hill toward him, his hand made Italian leather shoes slipping on the grass and almost spilling him to the ground. “Dammit Cam.” Laz cursed as he brushed at his knee to check if the skid had stained it. It had. “Couldn't you have just walked down to the car?”
This man, of course, was Joey Lazarus. Camron's manager and the closest thing he had to a friend within the business. He came up close on Creed and sat cautiously beside him. He nodded his head toward the puke green car and flashed his shit eater smile. “Well, looks like the Camron Cruiser has had it, huh?” He laughed, Laz always laughed at his own jokes; Usually hard enough to not realize that nobody else was.
“Five thousand Dollars.” Creed's voice was monotone, merely stating facts without emotion. “Five hundred to you; your cut. Another five to pay you back for the flight home. Six Fifty on rent for a shit-hole apartment. Three One Fifty on that piece of crap. That left me with two hundred for food and travel for the month. I needed that win, Laz. I needed it to make it all worthwhile. The bed that smells of mold. The leaky roof. The busted heaters. The crusty carpets. I needed that win.”
“Ah shit.” Laz moaned and shook his head. “Listen, don’t worry. You can have the money back Cam, I'm not worried about that stuff.”
Creed shook his head but didn't look to Laz. “We had a deal. A contract. You might not need the money, but I told you already; I pay my debts.”
“You're too hard headed for your own good, you know that?”
“I – I just cant owe you any more that I already do Joey.”
“Sure you can; we're friends!” Joey grinned and wrapped an arm around Creed's shoulders, patting him affectionately.
“You'll understand one day, I'm sure.” Creed nodded his head down the hill toward the car. “Keys still in the ignition?”
“Yeah, why?”
Camron finally turned his head toward his manager and gave a sympathetic smile. “I'm really sorry about this and everything else Joey.” Before Joey had the chance to inquire what he meant, Creed had jumped to his feet and was sprinting down the hill toward the car. Joey tried to climb to his but stumbled and fell. By the time he regained his composure Creed was slamming the drivers side door to Laz's black Mercedes SLK and starting the engine. Joey scrambled and rushed toward the car but it was too late, Creed pulled quickly out into the flow of traffic forcing a car to swerve before tearing off down the highway.
The last look Creed gave was to the quickly shrinking reflection of Joey Lazarus in the rear view mirror as he danced and silently shouted on the bank of the Highway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creed pulled up close to the large iron gates of a huge house and waited as they started to automatically open. He drove on and parked outside the house, his heart aching in his chest and his skin crawling. He took a moment to breathe deeply before climbing quickly out of the drivers seat and hurrying up the steps to the front door as it swung slowly open. A beautiful woman stood in the door way. She smiled as Creed neared her and placed a finger over her lips silently shushing the visitor. In her other hand she held a phone close to her face. As he drew closer, Creed could hear the voice coming from it.
“..and then he just fucking drove off and left me here! I thought he was playing around and would turn round at the intersection to come get me, but that was over forty minutes ago!”
“That’s awful. But I'm sure he had a good reason.” She smiled at Creed before stepping aside and ushering him into the house.
“Good reason?!” Joey was raving over the phone, a fact that made the woman smile “My damn phone was in the car! I had to walk to the nearest gas station to call you. Listen Jackie, how long are you gonna be? I have meetings to get to!”
“Sorry, something has just come up. Don't worry, I'll send a car for you soon.” Jackie hung up the phone, ending the call and cutting Joey off mid-rant. She flashed a hungry look at Creed before grabbing him and kissing him in a desperate, urgent manner. Creed resisted for a moment before hungrily kissing her back, pulling her close to him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creed rolled off and fell onto his back, the white cotton sheets in disarray around their naked bodies. Jackie's chest was heaving heavily and she giggled to herself in satisfaction. Creed looked away toward the wall on the far side of the room, the expression on his face one of disgust.
“That was amazing.” Jackie purred as she rolled onto her side and dragged her fingernails across the sweaty chest of Camron Creed. Her shuddered at her touch, a sensation Jackie attributed to his own satisfaction. She bit her lip and grinned before leaning in close and whispering “I feel the same way.”
“I doubt that” Creed muttered as he closed his eyes and willed himself not to scream in frustration at his actions. He hated what he had become. Jacqueline was a beautiful woman but the very thought of her turned his stomach. Today was the first time he had came to her willingly, to fulfill his own needs; desperate to feel something other that despair as his life came apart at the seams. Before this, every encounter had been at her insistence and he had submitted reluctantly.
Jackie climbed out of bed and walked across the room to a small bar, unashamed of her nakedness or the act of infidelity they had just committed. She looked back over her shoulder to him and smiled. “Drink?”
“Er..” Creed shook his head, instantly nervous. “No. No I – er.... No. Thank you.”
Jackie laughed as Creed fell over his words like a nervous bird; his inability to articulate himself, or carry himself with any real confidence was a million miles from the cocksure attitude he carried with him to the ring and that filled her with a deep level of perverse joy. “Go on. One wont hurt.”
“I cant, I'm.. I'm...” Creed took a deep breath as she lifted the crystal decanter of Whiskey and gently shook it in the sunlight. His body now wanted it as desperately as it had wanted her an hour ago, but he knew that giving into that urge would make him equally as repulsed. “I cant.”
“Spoil sport.” Jackie sighed as she filled a single glass. “If you're worried about that troublesome Doctor, you really needn’t be. I assure you, that has been taken care of.”
“No I..” Creed was hesitant in his reply and found it a struggle to meet Jackie's gaze, knowing that if he did all the fight would go out of him. “I'm just.. I'm trying to be better.”
“Better?” she laughed and pointed a glass toward a photograph of her husband. “That's your competition in this room. Believe me, in comparison, you're the best.”
Creed blushed and turned quickly away, unable to look at the photo of his manager without being filled with guilt all over again. He was silent for several moments as Jackie moved back across the room, his flesh crawling more with every step she took toward him. She climbed onto the end of the bed, the glass held expertly in her hand as she crawled up its length. Creed stammered and tried to keep the conversation going to distract her “How? How did you make that go away? How did you make him change his mind?”
“The Doctor?” Jackie laughed happily as she moves over Creeds legs, pulling the sheets just so to expose his body. “Well, I work for the Board. You know what that is, right?” Jackie kisses Camron's stomach and smiles. “The Board of Wrestling Ethics and Safe Practise’s. An independent organization that, on the surface, is pushing for global reform of the wrestling industry; A world wide change to the attitude on steroids and other drugs within the ring, and a healthcare revolution so that broken down old wrestlers get the second chance they need to improve their health and well being...” Jackie smiles and crawls a little higher up Creed's body “At least, that's what the PR department states. All that good will affords certain... benefits. Benefits I am willing to share with my friends.”
“Still” Creed squirms, visually uncomfortable below Jackie’s' body. “that doesn't explain how you got him to change him mind. He was dead set on red stamping me and then... nothing.”
“Dr. Bass had, shall we say, a checkered past of his own.” Jackie sits herself down on Creed and takes a drink of the amber liquid in her glass. “Everyone has their secrets Mr. Creed and in my business, being able to find them and effectively use them to your advantage is an essential skill to posses.”
Jackie leans in close and presses her lips against Camron's before almost forcing her tongue into his mouth. At the taste of her mouth a surge of desperation washes through Creed and he leans into the kiss. Jackie pulls away and smiles down at him, holding the glass aloft “Are you sure you don’t want a drink, Mr. Creed? Or perhaps that reaction wasn't for the drink but for..” She left the words unspoken, but grinding herself against him made the message clear. Creed's entire body twitched and he urgently lifted her off, swung his feet out of the bed and sat up hanging his head low.
“And what if he changes his mind again?” Creed desperately wanted to think about something else, anything else; even the complete and utter destruction of his career.. anything to avoid the temptation she had forced upon him.
“He wont.” Jackie sighed as she lay back, perching an elbow on a pillow to hold her upper body aloft. She took another drink before swishing the liquid around in the glass, enjoying the way the sunlight danced on it's surface. “I now have an entire dossier on Dr. Bass and his past indiscretions. Believe me, he will be very agreeable from now on.”
“I'd like to see this dossier” Creed thought back to his meeting with Dr. Bass and how light he had felt leaving that room after relieving himself of so many burdens.
“Sure.” Jackie shrugged. “Its in the draw over there. Help yourself.”
Creed crossed the room. He was aware that Jackie's eyes were locked on him as he went and not for the first time he felt oddly violated in her presence. He pulled open the draw and lifted the inch thick dossier from inside.
“You know” Jackie went on as Creed turned the first page “I could probably do some more digging, if you'd like. Turn something up on Miss Gordon.”
Creed shot an angry glance in Jacqueline’s direction and flipped the file closed once again. “What do you mean, exactly?”
“Well, you face her again this week..” Jackie shrugged a shoulder and smiled teasingly. “Perhaps I can help you with that. Make her more... agreeable.”
“I do not need your help to defeat Brenna Gordon.” Creed stomped his way across the room and grabbed his jeans up off of the floor.
“I didn't say that you need my help, merely that I can offer it. It's just that, I saw her little promo and well...” Jackie flashed that smile again and took a sip from her glass “She seems rather, confident, wouldn't you say?”
“Very.” Creed's tone was short and gruff. He pulled his pants on and fastened them about the waist. “She is confident, eager and riding the wave of momentum... But she is also inexperienced, rash and indiscreet and that is where my advantage lies. I could shoot a promo on her, sure, tell her I was impressed by her ability to weather the storm, to shake free of the bonds of gender stereotype and get up from impacts that have left many men unable too. I could explain that I have mastery of many more moves like them, each more devastating than the last, but then she would know where my head is going into this battle as I now know where hers is.”
“I admire your confidence... But surely when n opportunity arises you are experienced enough to take it?” Jackie leaned over and grabbed Camron's shirt before he was able to pick it up and the two of them tugged it, Creed ready to leave, Jackie trying to entice him to stay. “I could easily be the deciding factor in this match. Miss Gordon is clearly plagued by some dark presence, a little bit of prying into the darkness and I'm sure I would be able to turn up something advantageous.”
“Let me make this clear” Creed fixed his eyes on hers, stern and sure of himself for the first time since they fell naked beside one another. “I do not need, nor do I require your help. I will succeed or fail under my own volition and, win or lose, I will shake Brenna's hand and congratulate her for being the toughest woman I have ever met; and if you do get involved, you ought to turn that considerable influence against me, because I will not be responsible for my actions.”
“Fine” Jackie's mouth becomes a tight white line of frustration as she stares fixedly at Creed. “But don't say I didn't try to help when she kicks your ass again.”
The tension in the room is suddenly cut by the sound of a door slamming at the front of the house. A brief moment of fear flashes across Jacqueline’s face betraying her while the breath catches in Camron's throat. Joey's frustrated voice can be heard echoing up the stairs to the bedroom where the door sits slightly ajar.
“Jackie! What is my Car doing back here? Is Camron here?” Jackie’s eyes drift away from the door back to Creed as he frantically pulls his shirt on over his head. She smiles playfully and mouths 'should I?' before turning back to the door.
“Camron? No, I... Oh, wait..” She looks back to Creed again and smiles. “I did see him. He dropped the car off a little while ago. Apologized profusely. Apparently there was something he just had to do.”
“Damn it.” Joey's voice seemed closer now and Creed knew what that meant. He hurried to the window and threw one leg outside. Jackie pulled a light dressing gown over herself and walked calmly to the bedroom door to intercept her husband. Unseen, Creed lent back into the room and grabbed the file before disappearing out of the window. “I really wanted to talk to him. Poor kid Just doesn't seem himself.”