Chapter 58

Afterwards, everyone parted to either rest or venture around the mansion while Tahlia cleaned up the kitchen. She had to do something to keep her mind occupied or else she would end up going back upstairs to beg Taker to forgive her. No, he didn't want anything to do with her and made it clear with how he'd been treating her lately. Sighing, she ventured outside and looked up at the clear blue sky, staring at the maze he'd had her go through and knew this was only going to torture her further.

"Left…stay to the left…"

It'd been one of his first lessons he taught her during their sparring session after she'd knocked Dennis on his backside. Flashbacks of that night flowed through her mind the further into the maze she went until the opening she'd been searching for came into view, stepping out into the sunlit patio. The hot tub…the exquisite slice of heaven and where she'd shared her first kiss with Taker…under the water. Shutting her eyes, Tahlia walked past it and sat down on one of the lounge chairs out of the sun and tried to push all thoughts of Taker out of her mind. It wasn't a surprise when she actually fell asleep out there.

"She disappeared somewhere in that maze of yours."

Coming out of the shower to find his brother sitting in his bed, eating a plate of food that had obviously been left by Tahlia for him, was not how Taker had wanted to end his morning. He had wanted to crash, not this. Sighing, he raked the towel over his hair again, wearing nothing except black pajama bottoms.

"What of it?" He demanded gruffly.

"I just thought you'd like to know." Kane said, hiding a smile as he turned his head, finishing off the biscuit. "She's a good cook."

"I know." That biscuit had looked delicious.

"She know her way around that maze? If I remember, it's dangerous."

Taker hoped she did and he glanced out the window, sighing. Just in case… he'd go find her.

Black satin and a bed had Tahlia in quite a dream…one she'd had countless times since Taker returned to the road. At first, she had nightmares of him breaking into her hotel room and strangling her to death, claiming she broke his heart. Those weren't easy to swallow at all, hence not getting much sleep lately. However, this dream was completely different. Taker had her pinned on the bed, the black satin surrounding them and both were naked, devouring each other, neither saying a word. His hair was jet black, his black beard returned and his acidic eyes glowed down at her, growling the word 'mine' before claiming her completely.

It was exquisite…up until the nightmare part of it came into play and Tahlia's eyes snapped open, bolting upright on the lounge chair caked in sweat and breathing heavily, screaming once Taker came into focus staring down at her broodingly. Rolling off the lounge chair, Tahlia groaned as soon as she hit the hard patio and placed a hand over her heart…where he'd ripped it out of her chest in the dream. Just a dream, it was just a dream, she reminded herself mentally, slowly sitting up on the patio and once again looked up at Taker, amber eyes clouded with unshed tears.

Taker had made short work of his maze, somehow not surprised to find her right in the center, just like he had taught her their very first time in here. Always to the left, everyone expected things to go right. She had been asleep in one of the lounge chairs, obviously dreaming, and he had just been watching. It became apparent her dreams had turned into nightmares and now that she was awake, he frowned. There was a wild, desperate look in those eyes and it only seemed to intensify when she seen him. Taker had to wonder just what her nightmare had been about. He bent down wordlessly to help her up, taking in how soaked in sweat she was.

"Must've been a hell of a nightmare." He murmured, feeling her trembling still.

That was an understatement. Tahlia nodded, her mouth incredibly dry and tried to slow her racing heart beat down. "Yeah…"

There was no point lying to him. Taker was very observant, but she wouldn't tell him what it consisted of. Absolutely not. Looking down at their hands still clasped together, Tahlia pulled away and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop trembling.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep out here. Everything okay?" At his nod, she took a few deeper breaths and scrubbed a hand down her face, shaking herself mentally. "What are you doing out here?"

"Kane was worried you may have gotten lost out here." It could be deadly, she knew that firsthand. "So he came to get me."

Taker was the one who had designed the maze, he knew it the best. The first time Kane had been here, it had been… pure evil on Taker's part. They hadn't been on the best of terms and he had set his brother loose in the maze, setting off the fire traps on purpose. Kane had never set foot in the maze again.

"Oh." There really wasn't anything else she could to say, nodding in understanding. "I should've asked your permission before coming out here. Sorry." The small talk was getting on her nerves as she pursed her lips tightly together, eyebrow drawing together. "Look, I know I've imposed myself on you and it's…agitated you. But I'm protective of you and I don't want anything to happen to you. That's why I've been adamant about sharing a room with you." Not to mention, she trusted him above all the others, even the Acolytes, and wanted to keep an eye on him. "That attack scared me, Taker. I've never seen you in that…state and I'll be damned if it happens again. If you don't want to share a room with me anymore, just tell me instead of brooding and acting like a bear. But I'm NOT leaving you alone, not until the Faction is finished and then you won't have to deal with me anymore or my mother henning."

"I can't deal with you." Taker hadn't meant for it to come out so bluntly and, by the way she recoiled, he knew he had hurt her feelings. "I know you're concerned, Tahlia, and I… appreciate it, but I won't share a room with you anymore, double beds or not. I refuse to be near you, be driven insane by you." Not in the way it probably sounded. All this look only, no touching, painful heartache kept rolling through his mind and heart wasn't doing him any favors, or her, if the way she acted around him was any indication. "Just… I'm no more special than the others. Treat me the same you do them." That would have to be enough.

"You're joking, right?" Tahlia could see he was deadly serious and felt as if her heart had just been ripped out of her chest. What did she honestly expect to happen? "Taker, no offense to the others, but you ARE different from them. I'm not branded with their symbol and I don't have an unconditional bond with them the way I do you." Her temper started to flare, amber eyes turning to hard gold. "So what? We're not fucking anymore, so suddenly I'm supposed to just treat you like one of the boys? We can't even be friends or at least tolerate each other long enough to get through this Faction bullshit? You think it's been easy for me? Sleeping in the same room as you without being able to touch you? You've been driving ME insane, too! But I've swallowed my pride because I know this is about survival right now. I DEAL with it because I know I need your help right now – I need you." That was very hard for her to confess, but Tahlia very rarely hid anything from this man. "It hasn't been a cakewalk for me, Taker. This has been the most excruciating 9 months of my life, but I'm coping and I'm dealing with it the best I can. But since you can't 'deal' with me or be around me, fine. I can't deal with you and be around you either!" Shoving past him, Tahlia clenched her fists tightly at her sides and finally let the tears slide down her cheeks, looking up at the sky. "That's why I didn't go to breakfast with you that morning and that's why I tried avoiding you…because I knew eventually this would happen." Meaning the fight, the blowout.

"You're the one who left me, Tahlia. You. Left. Me." He informed her, his voice lowering to a dangerous growl. "Because my son was a little bastard." He could definitely acknowledge Gunner's role in their downfall. "Among other reasons, but you left me. And then… because we're back to playing at war, YOU decided we had to start sharing a room. It doesn't work like that. It just doesn't. You say it hasn't been easy for you? Good! I don't want it to be easy for you. I want it to feel like there are shards of glass in your heart every time you fucking look at me, because that's how I feel every time I just think about you." Taker grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "And you can claim survival until you're blue in the face, but we both know it's more than that. I'd be better off bunking with the Acolytes, or Kane, over you, if it was about protection." She was a spitfire, crazy dangerous, but if the Faction ever came in numbers, with weapons, she was the third man down after the blondes. "All this is, is torture for us both and I am tired of being punished."

"And what did you do when I walked out that door? When I told you I was leaving…you didn't stop me. You didn't fight for me! For us! And I don't blame Gunner for that, Taker, I blame YOU!" She shoved him away from her as hard as she could, actually making him stumble a few feet. Her strength had grown over the past 9 months since all she ever did was workout these days. "You obviously didn't love me as much as you claimed or you would've fought me on that decision! I didn't know what else to do! We couldn't sleep in the same bed together because you were terrified of your son walking in on us! And I tolerated it – I did EVERYTHING in my power to get that boy to like me and he just DOESN'T. I got tired of failing time and time again with him…and in turn, I could see you were tired of it too. That's why I fucking left! Because I didn't know what else to do!" Tossing her hands up in the air, Tahlia blew out a deep breath and shook her head, gripping her hair tightly. "This isn't just on me. I did walk away from you and I own up to that, but you also let me. And you let your son dictate your relationship as well, which is pathetic. So, you can spin this however you want, but we were BOTH in the wrong, not just me, Calaway."

"Maybe it is pathetic, letting him be the deciding factor." He snarled, not overly amused right now. She was right; it was on them both, but honestly he had just gotten tired of going to war with his son. Women would come and go, they could be replaced. His child could not. "But you were getting to that point where every word outta your mouth was 'damn it, Gunner'." Not that it hadn't been coming, he remembered Gunner shredding her clothes. "Pathetic…" He snorted, turning away from her. "What the fuck would you know about how your child dictates just about every aspect of your life? Every decision you make, all the relationships you have… how they influence that kid? Not a thing, Tahlia, because you gave yours up."

Right there, Taker knew he had crossed a line he couldn't come back from.

The anguish she'd felt only seconds ago was replaced with barely contained rage. The hurt was gone. Did he really just say those words to her? "At least I don't pay a family to watch and raise my kid. At least I don't keep my kid a secret from the world. Gunner would've been better off being given up. I gave my daughter her best chance, her shot at a NORMAL life. I don't regret doing it either because at least she's with a family who loves and protects her the way I never could. No Taker, you ARE pathetic, not me. Because unlike you, I did the right thing with my kid." This conversation was over. Tahlia had nothing more to say to him, storming off through the maze and made her way back to the house, running as fast as she could.

"Tali…" Bradshaw saw the tears streaming down her cheeks and immediately went to hug her, but she backed away from him.

Trembling, Tahlia shook her head and pounded up the steps to the room Taker had designated as her own, slamming the door shut behind her. She ripped her shirt off, tossing it to the side and looked down at her hip, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. It had to go; Tahlia wanted nothing more to do with him as long as she lived, contemplating leaving and dealing with the Faction on her own. Maybe she should just leave the WWF and start her life completely over on the Independent circuit, knowing the money wouldn't be there, but at this point it was an option to get the hell away from Taker.

It was probably a good thing she had run off like she had because he didn't know whether to spew venom at her about her psycho ass or beat her to death. He had never felt rage like this before; it was poisoning him even as it fueled him and Taker let out a roar of anger. Within minutes, he had destroyed his little oasis in the middle of the maze, everything in pieces, destroyed beyond repair and he sank to his knees on the ground. His hands moved to cover his face as he silently cried, massive shoulders shaking. The rage had left something else in its wake, now that it was spent.

Sorrow and regret.