CHAPTER 1

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Somewhere near the Mexico-Texas border:

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"Find her!" A tall, dark man yelled, holding his broken nose. "And don't come back until you do!"

He went back into his car, grimacing in pain. The other two guys ran after the woman who broke his nose.

It was supposed to be an easy job. Drive to a deserted place in the woods, and kill the girl. She already had a gunshot wound in her left arm, it wasn't lethal but it made her weak. So they didn't expect that she would put up a fight, let alone get away.

She just suddenly stepped on the breaks and slammed his face in the steering wheel, breaking his nose, and then jumped out of the moving vehicle, when all the while they thought she was unconscious.

"That bitch!" He said, looking at his face in the mirror. "I'm gonna kill her."

The other two guys still haven't found her. They've walked around for miles but there was not even a sign of her.

"Oh man, I think we lost her!" Nicky, the blond younger guy said nervously. "What are we gonna tell Joey?"

"fuck if I know." Charlie, the bald one said. "We are so dead!"

They didn't realize they were already getting out of the woods, until they saw the lights from a diner across the street.

"Come on, man. She could be in there." Charlie said

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Meanwhile…

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"No, you don't understand. I'm stuck here!" Randy said on the phone, "My bus broke down, and I need you to come here now…Tomorrow morning? Are you kidding me? I have to be in Mexico tomorrow morning!"

He was getting frustrated. It took him about half an hour to get the call through, but they said they can't come until tomorrow morning because everyone else was already out. His bus driver couldn't fix it by himself as they didn't have the equipment.

"Fine, whatever." He said. There was no use getting angry. "Just send them over as soon as you can. Thanks."

"Sorry, boss." His bus driver said, scratching his head.

"Yeah…well, nothing we can do now." He sighed. "Let's go get something to eat, I'm hungry."

They went in the diner to grab some dinner. As they were eating, a couple of men in black suits came in the diner. Everyone was noticeably alarmed and a little nervous because the men entered toting their guns.

They seem to be looking for something or someone, scanning the place. The older one, a bald guy, approached the counter and talked to the waitress. Randy can't help but listen in on the conversation, since he was sitting just a stool away.

"Did you see a woman come around here, dark hair, about this tall?" He said, putting his hand up at his head's level.

"No, sir." The waitress said, in her thick Texan accent. "Ain't no one like that come around here."

Randy glanced at the two men. He doesn't know what it was exactly, but he got a feeling they weren't cops. Charlie noticed him, and didn't like how he was looking at them, so he approached him in an attempt to intimidate him. It failed right off the bat.

"I noticed you looking at me and my partner over there." Charlie said, "You got a problem with us?"

"I don't know." Randy said, standing up. "Should I?"

Randy towered head and shoulder above him, and suddenly it was Charlie who was intimidated. Randy looked menacing, like his on-screen heel persona. And like every other time he puts the character on, he was very effective.

"Nah…not at all…" Charlie stuttered. "Y-you didn't happen to see a woman, dark haired, this…"

"Didn't she answer you already?" Randy said, not letting him finish what he was saying.

"Right…" Charlie said, backing off and ushering Nicky with him. "We're leaving now…"

Randy sat back down and went back to eating after the two had gotten out of the diner. The two thugs scurried out of there, and started walking back to where Joey's car was. Nicky was making fun of how Charlie backed off.

"Didn't you see the size of that man?" Charlie said, "He could take us!"

"Yeah, but you got a gun, dude." Nicky bantered.

"He looks like the Terminator, alright?" Charlie said, "He looked like he could take a shot and still beat us up!"

"Whatever…wuss." Nicky said, under his breath.

Joey absolutely lost his shit when they back without the woman. But then he was too much in pain so he couldn't do anything but be pissed. He told the two to get in the car and continue looking for the girl.

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Back at the diner, Randy and his bus driver finished eating, and after paying for their meal, they went back to his bus. The rain had already started to pour down heavily then so, Randy decided to just stay there and wait for the mechanic, while his driver went to get him a rental car.

He was going to take a hot shower before going to bed because he felt sticky. He had already stripped down to his underwear, and was about to step in the shower when he heard a rattling noise coming from one of the bunk beds.

He moved towards it slowly. There was only one bunk with the curtain down, so he was sure that was the one. He poised himself on the ready, and then he pulled the curtain open in one swift move.

"What the fuck!" He exclaimed upon seeing who was there.

It was the woman. She was bleeding and weakened, yet still managed to grab her gun and point it at him until she realized he wasn't one of the men that were after her.

"Don't panic…" She said, breathing heavily as she put the gun down again.

"You point a gun at me and you tell me not to panic?" Randy yelled. "Who the f**k are you and how the hell did you get inside my bus?"

"Ease up with the tone and cursing! You're two feet away from me. I can hear you loud and clear." She said, coolly. "It was raining, I'm bleeding, I had to take cover, and the door was open."

"It was open?" Randy asked, trying to remember if he had to use a key to get in. "Wait, there were two men with guns looking for a woman back out there…were they after you?"

"Yeah…" She got out the bunk, still with her gun in her hand as she struggled to keep her balance. "Don't worry, I'm leaving now…" She put the safety back on the gun, before putting it on her back. "Oh, if anybody comes looking for me, keep yourself out of trouble and don't tell them you saw me."

She had barely walked past him when she suddenly lost her balance. Good thing Randy caught her before she hit the floor, and helped her to a chair.

He realized she had lost a lot of blood from the wound in her arm then, and that her black sweater was soaked in her own blood mixed with the rain.

He held her upright until her dizziness passed. "You're losing a lot of blood…I have to take you to the hospital…"

"No…" She said, weakly.

"Well, I have to call a doctor…somebody…I can't help you here…" Randy said.

"NO!" She said, getting her focus back. "Okay, listen to me… I can't go to the hospital. They're gonna look for me there. You and me, we're gonna do this. You're all I got right now… So you're gonna help me. I just need to close this up."

Randy thought about it for a while. Why should she help this woman? He had nothing to do with whatever trouble she was in. But then he remembered the men who were looking for her, and they didn't look like they were up to any good.

He looked at the woman again, and she doesn't look like she's a bad person.

He knows looks can be deceiving, of course, but if those morons were after her, then she must not be one of them and she really needs help.

Aside from that, there was just something kind of draws him to her. She is kind of attractive—underneath all the soot and blood.

Now's not the time to think about that, he thought to himself. There's a woman bleeding half to death in your bus, get it together.

"Okay, I'll help. What do you need?" He asked.

"You got a first aid kit? I need that." She instructed, "The bullet is already out. I just need to close the wound to stop the bleeding…Know how to stitch?"

"Not really…but I know the concept." Randy said.

She looked at him for a couple of seconds, as if thinking twice if she should let him stitch her up. "That'll do." She said, "Sterilize a few needles and get a thread…"

"Yeah…yeah…I know." He said.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"You might wanna put some clothes on first." She said.

Randy looked at himself. He totally forgot that he was only wearing his underwear underneath the towel around his waist.

He supposed it was because he was used to not wearing much in the ring anyway.

"Right! I'll go change first."

Randy did as he was instructed. While he was looking for some threads and needles, she stood up and went to the front of the bus. She pushed down the cigarette lighter ember, and went back to her seat. Randy washed his hands thoroughly and came back with the thread, needle, and some antiseptic.

"Okay, you ready? I found an antiseptic, it should help." He said, opening the bottle.

"That's good…" She said, "One more thing…after you put the antiseptic, take the lighter in the dashboard, and use it to burn the wound. It'll stop the bleeding…then you can stitch me up."

"Alright…Uh…we need to take your top off." Randy said, awkwardly.

"Right." She said, "I forgot about that…"

She tried to take off the sweater she was wearing, but it was too soaked with the rain water and her own blood, and it made it hard to take off. Randy then helped her, but she couldn't move her arm to slip out of it either. So they ended up cutting it off her.

After that he doused her wound with the antiseptic.

"Aaaarrrggghhh!" She yelled in pain. "Oh….okay, get the lighter…" She told him, breathlessly.

He went to get the lighter and came back quickly. "Are you sure you we need to do this?" He asked.

"It'll stop the bleeding." She said, "Come on, just press it on."

"Alright." He said, hesitantly. And then he pressed it down on to her skin, directly where the bullet wound is.

"Motherfucker! Aaarrrggh!" She screamed between gritted teeth and tightly shut eyes before she promptly pushed his hand away, to signal that it was long enough, because she could barely say any more words. "Shit!"

"Geez…ease up with the tone and cursing." Randy said coolly, throwing her earlier rhetoric back at her. "Shall I start stitching you up now?"

She rolled her eyes at him, but nodded in affirmation. She grabbed something to bite at as he started to stitch her wound to stop herself from screaming. The pain dissipated eventually, as it became tolerable for her. She noticed he was actually pretty good at stitching.

"You look like you know what you're doing." She said, in her muffled voice.

"Well, I've seen how it's done a lot in my profession." He said.

"You're a doctor?" She asked, "Didn't think doctors needed a tour bus."

"No." He finished stitching her then. "I'm a wrestler. Professional wrestler." He looked at her then, and just suddenly looked amused.

"Ah…" She looked at him and noticed his smirking. "What's funny?"

"That thing you're holding in your mouth." He said, "That's the towel I was just using."

"Oh! Pffffft!" She spat, as she threw the towel back at him. "Blah! Gross!"

Randy just thought it was amusing. He needed a laugh after a long night of things getting screwed.

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He let her clean herself up a bit in his shower, and let her wear one of his shirts. He also gave her some cereal to eat—which was all he had in his cupboard. He was going to get her some food from the diner where they were still parked in front of, but she said that would make people suspicious as he had just eaten in there after all. He thought she was being paranoid, but relented.

"So what's your name?" He asked her, watching her eat.

"Who wants to know?" She asked in return.

"Randy Orton." He said, handing his hand out. She just looked at him for no longer than five seconds and went back to eating.

"Come on, I helped you out, stitched you up and feed you. You could at least tell me your name."

"It's…Natasha." She said, "Romanov. Natasha Romanov."

"So you're Russian?" He asked, "You don't have an accent."

"I lived here a while." She said. And then she used a Russian accent. "But I could talk with it, if you like."

"No, that's fine. So, those men that were looking for you. What'd you do to them?" He asked. His tone sounded like he was interrogating her. "Why are they after you? Did you steal something?"

"Nope."

"Did you kill somebody?"

"No."

"Irate boyfriend, maybe?"

"Are you serious?" She said, with contempt.

"Well, you're keeping me guessing." He said, mockingly. "Just tell me already so I could stop making assumptions."

"I can't tell you." She said, seriously.

"Why not?"

"If I tell you, I'm gonna have to kill you." She said.

"Right. Very funny." He said, throwing his head back.

"Look, you don't have to believe me and I don't have to tell you anything." She stood up, "I'm leaving. Thank you for your help…"

"Hold it!" He grabbed her arm. "It's late, it's raining, and you're wounded. Stay."

She thought about it for a second. Why was this guy insisting on helping her? But then she felt weak and tired, and she could really use some proper rest. So she decided to stay.

"Fine." She said, sitting back down. "But you don't ask any more questions."

"Deal." He said.