The second time it happened was at the arena right before RAW aired. It was a few weeks after the first incident, and as Seth drove into the parking lot by himself in his rented SUV, he took a deep breath and put on a brave face.
He and Sasha had fought over something stupid—yet again. He didn't even know why it had escalated that bad, as he tried to recount the memory of how their fight started two nights ago.
They were at the hotel bar with a bunch of other Superstars after one of the live shows—Roman, Dean, Bayley, Finn, Titus, and Dana. It was a particularly crowded Friday night, more crowded than usual, with a business conference happening nearby—which meant that the hotel was fully booked and the bar was packed with suppliers, participants, and entrepreneurs.
"Sash, come and help me with the beer," Seth had asked her. They were all cramped in a corner booth, with Seth and Sasha across each other at the open-ended side, giving them the easiest access in and out.
"Fine," she stood and accompanied him, squeezing through the crowd towards the bar.
Despite the number of customers, Seth easily caught the bartender's attention, who hastily took down their order before moving on to the next. Sasha waited beside him when an attractive businessman from the conference approached.
"Hey," he greeted. He had dark hair, with a mix of Asian features, and he had the cutest dimples. Sasha nearly giggled when she saw them peek out when he gave her a boyish grin.
"Hi," she greeted back.
"Sorry, my friends and I couldn't help but notice you. So I decided to come over and introduce myself. My name's Sam," he stuck out his hand.
"Sasha," she replied, shaking his hand twice.
"Seth, by the way," Seth suddenly interrupted from behind her, sticking his hand out and giving Sam a firm handshake.
"Oh," Sam was slightly taken aback by Seth's grip, but smiled politely and continued to make conversation. "You guys here for the conference?"
"No actually," Sasha replied. "We just came from a live show. We work for the WWE."
"Woah," Sam's eyes widened. "That explains a lot," he eyed Seth quickly. "Not really up to date with the storylines, but my sister is a huge fan!"
Sasha giggled, while Seth openly rolled his eyes and scoffed, causing her to elbow him hard on the ribs. "You mind if I take a picture with you to show her?"
"Not at all!" Sasha beamed, watching as he took out his phone to take a selfie of them. Sasha smiled brightly and held up a peace sign, while Seth didn't bother to join the photo.
"Awesome," Sam grinned. "It was really cool to meet you," he flushed a little. "Uh, by any chance, can I get your number?"
Before Seth could protest, Sasha nodded and accepted Sam's phone, dialing her number. "Here. Text me, yeah?"
"Most definitely," Sam grinned again, before heading back to his table.
"What the hell was that?" Seth cocked an eyebrow, handing her four bottles of beer to hold.
"What the hell was what?"
"That," Seth nodded towards Sam before leading the way back to their booth.
"Uh, making friends with a cute guy I met at a bar?"
Reaching their table, Seth nearly slammed the beer bottles in front of Titus and Bayley.
"You can't just fucking trust people like that."
"Seth, we've talked about this a million times. You don't have to watch my back 24/7."
"No, Sash. You don't get it. Someone has to—especially with you being this naive."
"Excuse me?" Sasha glared at him.
Their table watched them silently, and Bayley could have sworn she saw steam coming out of Sasha's ears.
"Want me to remind everyone here about your stupid little stunt in Chile?" Seth crossed his arms and challenged her.
"Shut up! Why do you always have to bring that up?!" she yelled. "That was one time, and in case you forgot, I came out of it just fine."
"If you think getting drugged by a stranger and waiting for you to pass out so he could take you home counts as fine, then you're more delusional than I thought."
"I didn't get drugged!" Sasha banged her hand on the table, causing everyone to jump. "Nothing happened!"
Seth stopped and looked at everyone—they were all staring at them, especially Dean who had the entire bowl of nachos to himself, munching them like it was popcorn.
His features softened, as he tried to reach for her elbow gently. "I'm just trying to look out for you, Sash."
"Yeah, well I don't need you to!" she pushed his hand away.
"Fine!" Seth slammed his fist. "Be my fucking guest!" And with that, he stomped out of the bar and headed up to his room, forgetting that he and Sasha had planned to watch the Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix later that evening.
Seth closed his eyes at the memory, making his way to the back of the SUV to grab his bags. It took him a while to admit, but he knew it was all his fault. He had felt jealous, he snapped, he embarrassed her, and he walked out on her and their friends. You'd think at 32, he'd be a little bit more mature about keeping his emotions in check. But sometimes, his reckless side still got the better of him.
He was determined to get her to talk to him and forgive him today. He had tried calling multiple times over the weekend, but his calls went straight to voicemail, which meant she wasn't ready.
As if it was his luck, he spotted her by the crowd of fans right outside the arena's main gates signing autographs. The crowd screamed even louder when he approached them, causing Sasha to look up.
"Oh. Hey," she smiled awkwardly, trying to hide the tension in the air. She didn't want any of the fans to sense that.
"Hey," Seth smiled back, signing a few autographs and greeting fans as well. And just like that, the hair on his arms stood, with goosebumps beginning to form all over his body. "What the fuck," Seth muttered to himself, furrowing his brows, before casually looking around.
Sasha noticed the change in his demeanor, as she nudged him. "You okay in there?"
Noticing that the fans were watching and listening to them intently, Seth put up a front. "Yeah, just a bit woozy from my drive, I guess. You want to head inside? I think the production crew is supposed to make a few announcements before the show starts."
"Yeah, sure," Sasha shrugged before thanking the fans and waving goodbye. Seth followed her closely, looking back to see if anyone had seemed suspicious from the crowd.
Once inside the arena, Seth let out a deep breath. The goosebumps were still there. "What happened?" Sasha asked him, raising a brow.
"Nothing. I just got that weird feeling again," he shook his head, trying to get himself to calm down.
"Too much caffeine, maybe? You're probably hallucinating."
Ouch. So she was still being cold to him. Seth sighed and took a step towards her. "Look, Sash. I'm sorry about last Friday."
Sasha's face was stoic as she stared hard at a spot on the ground, avoiding Seth's apologetic gaze.
"I was being an idiot," he continued. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."
She didn't say anything, so he kept going. "I only mean well. You know that. And I hate that my emotions get the better of me in situations like that but trust me, I only want what's best for you. I don't want to see you getting hurt."
She was silent for a while, before she finally looked up at him and spoke. "You know, I hate fighting with you."
"Trust me, I hate it a lot more than you do."
Finally, she gave him a small smile before gently shoving his shoulder. "Stop being an idiot then."
Seth chuckled and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. "I'm going to try."
She punched his gut playfully, causing the two of them to laugh. "So we're good?" he asked.
"Yeah, idiot. We're good," Sasha rolled her eyes.
Later after the show, Sasha made her way back to the Women's Locker Room to grab her bags, when she noticed a group of security, more than ten of them, surrounding the area. "What's going on?" she asked the nearest one.
"Someone broke into the arena and stole some things. We're still trying to review the CCTV. All we know is that it was a crazy fan who seemed dead set on targeting just the Women's Locker Room. No other rooms were broken into."
"Oh my god, my stuff are in there!" Sasha exclaimed, making a beeline for it. Inside, Alexa, Mickey, Alicia and Dana were already checking their stuff if anything was stolen. Upon reaching her area, her heart dropped. Her entire sports bag and the gear hanging from her locker were missing. The sports bag had contained her MacBook, iPad, wallet, some toiletries, and a few of her clothes for the week. Blood drained from her face as the reality of the situation had sunk in.
"Oh my god," she felt her knees go weak.
"Sasha!" Bayley entered the scene as well. "I just heard what happened. Oh god," she hugged the shorter woman. "Are you okay?"
"Did you check your stuff?" Sasha pouted. "Mine got stolen. Everything! My bag, my laptop, my iPad—everything!" she fought back the tears.
"Shit," Bayley rushed to her locker and found that none of hers had been touched. Even Alexa, Mickey, Alicia and Dana found it odd that their bags, though it contained valuables and gadgets, were intact as well.
"What?!" Sasha exclaimed, checking her locker again. "So it was only my locker that was targeted?"
"Sash, you might want to call your banks right now and have your credit cards cancelled," Alexa suggested. "And is your iPhone with you? Maybe you can use the Find iPhone app to track the location of your MacBook and Tablet."
"That's a good idea," Bayley nodded. Sasha quickly took out her phone from her pocket and opened the app. Her heart dropped when she found that both gadgets were offline, which meant that the thief had already shut them down.
Choking back the tears, she made the next move to call her banks and have her credit cards cancelled. Security continued surveying the area and reviewing the CCTV, but all they found was a blurry footage of a skinny man in black sweatpants and a hoodie; his face covered with a ninja mask. They couldn't figure out how he entered backstage without any of the security noticing, and how he managed to break in and out in less than five minutes, considering the area was packed with both WWE security and staff.
"We've already prepared an incident report, and we'll update you on the investigation," the chief of security assured Sasha. "In the meantime, we've already given management a heads up. We'll be adding even more security, and we'll be stationing them along the corridors, to prevent this from happening again."
"Thanks, Joe," Sasha attempted a smile. "I appreciate it."
Walking with Bayley to catering, they found Seth, freshly showered from his match, already waiting for them. "Hey," he walked over and gave Sasha a hug. "Heard the news from Renee."
She wrapped an arm around his waist, as they began walking towards the parking lot. "Already managed to cancel my credit cards, and I had to remotely wipe out both gadgets. Nothing I can do about it now."
Seth nodded, wrapping his arm around Sasha's shoulders and giving her an assuring squeeze. There was really nothing else they could do, except try and make her feel better. Bayley had suggested wine and movie night in Sasha's room, inviting Finn to join in. But as the evening played on, Seth couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling that tonight's incident might somehow be related to the two previous ones. Was someone after Sasha? Or was he just being overly paranoid?
A/N: A little long but I hope you guys are enjoying this read so far! Let me know your thoughts. Thinking of turning this darker in the next few chapters. Yay or nay?