Chapter three

Vince grinned broadly at this display and watched with amusement the way Amy stared at the huge wrestler, her stunned eyes following him as he left the room.

"You okay honey?"

"I'm fine," she said quietly, her eyes still on the door. "Who is he?"

"I told you, he's one of my finest wrestlers, Mark Calloway," Vince replied, smirking.

"Yeah, I know, but...I don't know, he seems familiar somehow," she said, frowning slightly.

Vince's smirk turned into a grin. "Maybe you've seen him on TV before?"

"Yeah, maybe," Amy replied, shaking her head and shrugging.

Vince eyed the bags on the floor. "You seem to have an awful lot of luggage for someone on a short visit."

She blushed and bit her lip. "Well, actually...when I lost my job, I sort of lost my apartment too," she admitted, obviously reluctant. "But I'm not here to try and get anything out of you! I've already seen a job advertised at a store downtown, so I can..." she quickly added, worried that he might think she was begging for money or something.

"Honey, I never thought you were! You're not the type," he cut in, smiling at her. "As for that job you've seen, forget it. It wouldn't be any good anyhow, not unless you want to be on your own most of the year. We'll all be travelling around the country, and that being the case I've got an offer for you," he said, watching her reaction carefully.

"What offer? Oh, Vince, please don't offer me any money..."

"No, no. I wondered if you'd like to work for me? Since you have no job and now I find you have no apartment, it would be perfect."

"What sort of job? You're not just making one up are you?"

"As if I would!" he said, trying to look offended, because that was exactly what he had done. "The wardrobe mistress needs a new assistant and, as I recall, you were pretty good with a needle. You'd have to travel everywhere with us, of course, but the pay is more than generous, plus we'd foot the bill for all hotel rooms. What do you think?"

"It sounds good, but...I don't know. Where would I live?"

"Well, like I said, most of the time you'd be living in hotels, but you could rent a nice place anywhere you liked, maybe even buy somewhere eventually, you'd be able to afford it. It goes without saying that whenever we rent a house you'll be staying with us. Come on, say yes. I'm not gonna let you say no anyhow, so you may as well accept your fate!" he told her, grinning at her.

Amy thought about it for all of two seconds before smiling. "Okay, thank you. What would my job entail?"

"Oh you know, wardrobe type stuff. Repairing outfits, making new ones, taking measurements, all of that sort of stuff. Nothing too difficult and anything you can't do straight off, Tammy will teach you. She's the wardrobe mistress, you'll like her, she's only a couple of years older than you."

Amy frowned. "Take measurements? Of the wrestlers?"

"Well, yeah, that would be the general idea. Don't panic, none of them bite and when they find out you're my goddaughter, none of them will bark at you either! Now then, tell me about this job you lost," he said, changing the subject abruptly and looking a little stern.

"It wasn't my fault," she said slowly, wondering how to tell him.

"So you said. So why'd you get fired?"

"The Manager didn't like me," she said, thinking of the repulsive man she had been working for.

"That's not a very good reason for firing someone. If it was I'd have lost half my wrestlers by now. Tell me the rest," Vince said, knowing she was hiding something and determined to get it out of her. "Why didn't he like you?"

"Because I wouldn't do what he wanted," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Vince frowned. "And what, exactly, did he want?"

"Me."

Vince instantly sat up straight, his jaw clenching. "What did he do to you, honey?"

"Nothing, really. He...he tried touching me and he kept getting me to work late. I couldn't afford to lose the job so I had to do the overtime, but he kept trying to put his hands on me. So I...I hit him and pushed him away and then he got angry, but I didn't give him the chance to touch me, I ran out."

"Go on," Vince urged.

"When I went into work the next day he called me into his office and told me that if I didn't let him do...stuff...to me he would fire me. I didn't let him, so he fired me. He made it so I didn't get a reference and he followed me around for a couple of weeks afterwards..."

"He followed you? Has he stopped?"

Amy shook her head. "I don't know. I kept getting letters, but then I had a choice between paying the rent for one last month or using the money for a plane ticket. The ticket won out. So I couldn't pay my rent and I lost the apartment and came here with the last money I had. I haven't seen him, so I guess he doesn't know where I am."

"You got letters? Threatening letters?" At her nod he scowled. "Did you tell the police?"

"What for? They're hardly going to believe me over him, he's a respectable businessman, or so people think. Only the people who work for him know how much of a psycho he can be."

"What about the letters? Where are they?"

"I burnt them. Well, all except one..."

"Where is it?"

"In my bag."

"Let me see it," he told her, watching as she reluctantly got it and handed it over to him.

The man who had written it wasn't very subtle, but he was serious, and Vince thought she might have a big problem if he was as tenacious as he sounded. He hadn't made any attempt to disguise his own handwriting and he had even signed it, obviously he wanted Amy to know who it came from. Tony Castrogiovanni, the name read. The contents of the letter made Vince want to get hold of the man and rip his head off.

"Were all the other letters like this?" he asked her, appalled that she had been forced to read such filthy threats. He didn't bother mentioning that the police could have easily arrested the man, simply because he had signed the letters.

She nodded, looking miserable. "Some were worse. They mostly said what he was going to do to me when he got hold of me. I had to replace a couple of windows when someone threw stones through them, and I guess it was him that was doing it, he did know where I lived."

Vince looked at her downbent head and felt a rush of sympathy for her. She had had enough evil in her life, she didn't need to be subjected to any more. "Well, fine, you're safe here. And if this scumbag comes within fifty feet of you I'll have him torn apart! Tell me what he looks like so I can circulate a description, though, just to be on the safe side."

Amy's mouth turned down with distaste. "He was big...just over six feet I guess and he did body building, but he was overweight too, so he didn't look all that muscular, just large. He was strong though. He had dark hair, thinning on top, quite darkly tanned skin."

"What about his eyes? His face?"

"His eyes were brown, and he didn't really have any distinguishing features at all. I guess his nose was pretty big, but otherwise he could just be any man on the street. I'm sorry, it's not much help is it?"

"Of course it is. How about the way he dresses? Anything unusual there?"

Amy nodded. "Yes! He dresses in really flashy suits. I don't mean expensive suits, but garish ones. You know? Bright colours that probably looked okay back in the eighties, but now...ugh!"

Vince chuckled. "Now that really does help. But did he only wear the suits to work? Did you ever see him outside of work?"

"Yes, I did. I saw him in a T-shirt and jeans and the T-shirt was really garish, again. He really liked bright colours, he had no taste whatsoever and he used to mix the colours." She looked at Vince and shrugged. "That's it really. He didn't have a particular accent as far as I could tell, but you know I can't tell where people are from in this country yet. Well, unless they're from the South or something."

"Yeah, I remember how useless you are at placing accents!" Vince said as he scribbled notes on the memo and put it through the fax machine. "This is all really helpful. I've sent it to security here and at our next stop, so you can relax. If he shows up they'll tear him a new asshole."

"Vince!" Amy said.

"Ah, don't Vince me! I bet your language gets a bit colourful sometimes!"

"It does not!"

"Well, now you're here with us, you'll soon learn!" He grinned at her and was pleased when a genuine smile broke through the mask she had been wearing. His own smile turned into a frown. "I'm sorry this happened to you, honey."

Amy shook her head and looked at the anger on his face. "It's okay, I got through it. I knew I'd be okay once I was with you." She looked up suddenly and put her hand over her mouth. "I don't mean that I expected anything...I don't want you to think I'm freeloading..."

"I don't think that, don't be ridiculous! And anyway, I wouldn't care if you were." Vince said, smiling and putting her at ease.

She wiped a hand over her eyes and gave a tired smile. "Thank you for the job."

"Honey, you are most welcome. Now, come on, let me give you the grand tour!" he said, giving another lightning change of subject and pulling her out of his office with him. The next few hours were spent looking around the arena and meeting people, mostly wrestlers who she found it hard to speak to, and of course the wardrobe mistress Tammy. She was a tall, blonde woman with a ready smile and laughing blue eyes. She made Amy feel warm and welcome, giving her some hope for her new job.

Before she knew it, she was sitting down with a tray of food in Vince's office, watching the start of the nights wrestling.

Watching the lighter weight wrestlers come out made her remember how she had loved watching this particular sport as a 12 year old, and she fell into it happily. After an hour she hadn't seen The Undertaker yet, but she had seen an interview with Hulk Hogan, although now they seemed to call him 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan, and she couldn't remember them calling him that when she had last seen him on TV. She giggled at his new look beard, but otherwise he looked the same as he had years ago, maybe a bit older.

The door opened and Mark walked in, catching his breath when he saw her laughing at the interview. He had thought her pretty before, but with a truly relaxed smile on her face she was stunning. Yet she seemed totally unaware of her looks, not bothering with makeup and not doing her hair up professionally, just pulling it back into a ratty ponytail. She looked up when she heard him, still smiling, and he found himself grinning back at her.

"You enjoying the wrestling, sweetheart?"

She nodded. "Very much, I forgot how much fun it could be. I thought you said The Undertaker was going to be on tonight?"

"And so he is, in about...oh..." he said, looking at the clock, "...fifteen minutes. I thought you might like to come and watch from the wings, so to speak. They have a huge monitor down there and it's pretty quiet. But you get to experience the crowd from afar, makes it that much better. How about it?"

Amy bit her lip and thought about it. What harm could it do? She wouldn't be in the middle of the crowd and he made it sound like she'd be mostly on her own. Plus she'd be able to experience some of the arena atmosphere. She nodded and stood up. "I'd like that," she said shyly, walking to the door with him.

They made an odd couple as they walked slowly down the hallways, him a hulking giant of a man, rough looking and covered in tattoos. And her, tiny compared to him and looking clean cut and innocent. But there was something about the two of them that looked right, and some people looked twice as they walked past.

Mark sat her down in a small chair by the monitor. "Okay. You'll be alright here, but I gotta go. I'll be back in a while. Enjoy the wrestling okay?"

Amy nodded and watched him leave with regret. She was starting to like him, because he treated her so nicely and because he was really the only one she had spoken to since she got here. She turned her attention to the big screen in front of her and watched as two enormous wrestlers stood in the ring and started shouting insults into a microphone. Apparently they had a problem with Vince and they were going to pay him back for something. The largest man who, to Amy's eyes, looked about 10 feet tall, stepped over the top rope and lumbered up the ramp, the crowd booing as he walked past them. She didn't think anything more of it. For about ten seconds.

"There you are!" a deep voice boomed in her ear and she felt herself plucked out of the chair and hoisted easily over a huge shoulder. "You were supposed to wait by the stage entrance! I nearly didn't find you!"

Amy was too shocked to say anything at first, her throat closing up with terror as she was carried out in front of the whole crowd and thrown from the massive shoulder over the ropes, to be caught by another man. He had short dark hair and sunglasses on top of his head. She vaguely thought he looked Hawaiian, but she was so shocked that she couldn't speak or move as he put her on her feet in front of him and then spun her around, holding her shoulders and keeping her in front of him.

"McMahon, The Rock now has something you want, so what ya gonna do about it? Ya gonna show that damn ugly white face of yours and rescue her, or act like the candy ass coward we all know that you are?" he yelled into the microphone that the other enormous man held for him.

"Yeah come on Vince, come and save her," the giant said, leering at her. "On second thoughts, don't. We got lots we can do to her!" he said, reaching out and grabbing her around the throat with one massive hand.