Sadie smiles sadly. “I saw juvie charges.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I didn’t exactly run with the right crowd back then. I’m glad that I got out of that. Not everyone gets that lucky and walks away from their bad choices and sets a new course.”
“What allowed you to do that?”
She seems genuinely curious and bright eyed. I know that if the sports reporter had asked me any of this shit that I probably would have torn his head off. These aren’t happy memories that she’s bringing up. But with her, I don’t mind talking about it. “Guy named Frank. Retired cop. He got me when I was about to go to juvie again. And…I don’t know. The judge saw something different that time. Instead of sending me to jail, he sent me to Frank for martial arts training and anger management. He…taught me how to use my anger. Control it.”
“That would have played really well in the interview,” she says.
“I don’t think Frank would have appreciated the attention.”
“Okay, this may not be a very hard-hitting question,” she says, “but I have to know about the dogs.”
“Dogs?”
“On your Instagram,” she says. “You have a truly impressive number of dogs.”
A chill runs down my spine. “You found my Instagram?”
“Mhmm,” she swallows part of what’s left of her wine, and I refill her glass. “I was expecting more shirtless photos, if I’m really being honest.”
“I’ll have to up my game,” I say. “But they’re all my dogs.”
Sadie’s eyes go wide. “All of them?”
“Every single one. They were rescued from a dog fighting ring. And it…it didn’t feel right to choose just one. I know what it’s like to be forced to fight, and no one should be forced to, even if it’s life or death. Especially a dog that has no choice.”
She looks at me like she’s studying me. “Is that why you still fight? After the childhood you had, it doesn’t seem like something that you would want to do as a career. Didn’t you want to get away from it?”
“I wanted to get away from the violence in my life, but fighting in the ring is different. Now I get to choose how and where and when I fight. The rules are fair and defined. It’s a contest, not some desperate scrape just to survive.”
Sadie sighs, putting aside her pasta and scooting a little closer to me. “This is me me, not reporter me. I just don’t understand why someone would want to fight like that. To subject your body to all that abuse. I guess it’s just not in me.”
I pull her closer so that she’s leaning against me. I’ve already been inside her tonight, yet I’m still craving her touch. “It’s not an easy thing to explain,” I say. “I had so much anger, still have, and Frank helped me channel that into something productive. He taught me discipline and strength. It gives me something to reach for. And I’m good at it. It’s actually the only thing that I’ve ever been good at.”
“It’s definitely not the only thing that you’re good at,” Sadie says, smiling and leaning closer, leaving no doubt as to her meaning.
“Good to know.”
“Mmm.”
She seems more relaxed now. Happy, and that makes me more relaxed. I’m glad that this is so easy with her. But I need to know. “Did you see anything else on my Instagram?”
Sadie presses her lips together. “Yeah, I saw her.”
“Her,” he says. It’s not a question. And the word is loaded. “And no questions from your enquiring mind?”
“Well, a picture is worth a thousand words. And the absence of pictures is worth another few thousand.” She gives me a weak, almost pitying smile.
I press my lips to her temple. “Well I didn’t want you to have any doubts. We’re not together anymore. It’s been seven months. She was my fiancée.”
A tiny gasp. “I’m sorry.”
I chuckle. “I’m not. She left me for the drummer of Reign and Rage. He was a fan of mine, met her at one of my fights. Two months later…she left me a note with the ring.”
“Holy shit,” Sadie says. “I’m so sorry, Jon.”
“It’s in the past now. But I wanted you to know, I’m not a cheater. I wasn’t with her when we hooked up in Atlanta.”
She smiles softly. “That’s good to know.”
“Tell me about your family,” I say, changing the subject, trying to sound cheery. “Now that you know everything about me. Fair is fair. Spill all the gory details.”
“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m very boring.”
I laugh loudly enough for it to echo through the small space. “After meeting you in the way that I did, I am one-hundred percent sure that is not true.”
“No, really,” she insists. “Youngest of four siblings. They’re all married with kids and all so disgustingly successful. Something that my mother manages to remind me of on a nearly weekly basis.”
I tighten my fingers around her waist. “You’re the anchor of television news and your family doesn’t think you’re successful?”
Sadie snorts. “I come from a family of doctors. Not just doctors. Of surgeons. My parents, though they loved us, definitely fostered sibling rivalry in a way to make us compete and be better. Going into journalism was…I don’t know, my way of rebelling.”
“But you like it?” I ask.
“Yeah, I really do. But even this job, which I thought would be a dream, isn’t what I thought it was going to be. WNSV is really good at investigative journalism, even for their anchors, which is rare. But the producers won’t give me a fucking story. Everything goes to Bill. So far I’m just a pretty face.” She frames her hands around her face and smiles up at me, batting her lashes.
“They offered you my interview.”
She downs the rest of her wine and rolls her eyes. “Only because you insisted. Alan was over the moon when I told him that I’d talked you into doing it with Jerry.”
I frown. “That makes me wish that I hadn’t agreed.”
“I just need one good story. Some kind of story that will make them sit up and pay attention and know that I’m more useful as a reporter than a face on a billboard, someone that just reads headlines. An exposé or something totally groundbreaking. Something big to make them take notice.” She shakes her head. “I just haven’t been in Nashville long enough to know whether there’s someone here worth taking down.”
“Jack Singleton.” The name is out of my mouth before I can stop it. Like a reflex. And I instantly regret it. Jack isn’t someone I should be sending people after. He’s too dangerous.
But of course, Sadie’s eyes light up with interest. “Who’s that?”
“No one. I was just joking. Don’t listen to me.”
“Come on. You can tell me.”
“Sadie.” I pull her away from me so that I can look her in the eyes. “Leave it alone. I never should have said his name in front of you. He’s a dangerous man with dangerous connections. We can find you someone else—something else—that will make your boss pay attention. Just not him.”