So Jake looked at me. "Close, Ty?"
"I wasn't trying to hide it," I admitted. "You gonna let me explain yet?"
So Jake gestured, giving me the floor like he was some king or something. I grabbed my beer, taking a swig just so I wouldn't be obeying his command, then leaned back.
"Austin's convinced having a woman on tour is going to put this shit on 'easy mode,'" I said. "He tried to blame that 'dumbing down' for what happened to Casey. Casey was supposed to be his friend." And I took another sip. "Not a single thing in all of that sat well with me."
"So you saw red," Kaleb said, nodding to show it made sense to him.
"Nope." I shook my head to make the point. "No, that wasn't some uncontrollable rage. That, my friends, is what that dick deserved for getting his 'friend' killed because he's scared of a girl beating him."
Chapter 8
I was fucking seethingand trying my best to play it cool while Ty explained himself. Then again, throwing my beer against the wall didn't exactly fall into that category, but hearing Ty had gotten some shitty fine? Not suspended, not even fined for fighting at the event, but a pathetic mark on his record that would be just enough to show he'd been punished?
Yeah, I could see straight through this bullshit.
My whole life, I'd dreamed of following in my father's footsteps. If I could just make it into the PBR, I'd told myself, I'd make him proud enough to claim me. That had lasted right up until I'd made it. Then I'd met him, told him who I was, and realized my whole life was nothing more than a mistake.
His mistake, my mother's mistake, and now my mistake as well. From a stupid hookup to deciding to keep me, and even my own bad decision to ride bulls, I felt like my life was nothing more than a comedy of errors, and not the Shakespearian kind. Although meeting my father had made me sure about one thing: he thought he was untouchable. Worse, he was damned close.
So with all the eyes in this bar on me, I lifted a hand, catching the eye of a waitress. "Can I get another beer and tip whoever has to clean up my mess?"
The girl nodded and turned for the bar. Well, that said enough, but sitting only a few feet away, Ty shook his head and chuckled.
"What's going on, Jake? Pretty sure my fine didn't piss you off that bad," he said. Worse, thanks to the soft and sullen ambiance in here, most of the other guys heard.
"Stop and think about it," I said, glancing around to make it clear that wasn't just for Ty. "Back in Iowa, they chased off our bullfighters. Now we're all eating dirt. Well, what happens when someone has a bad wreck?"
"They spend time with Doc and Anthony?" Tim Moore guessed.
"Or a funeral home," Kaleb muttered, just loud enough to be heard.
I grunted, showing I agreed. It might be gallows humor, but right now, that was the best most of us had. It also put the reality of our situation in the spotlight.
But Renato spoke up before I could tell them where I'd been going with that. "The seats fill up the next night."
I pointed at the man. "That," I said. "Well, you know what prevents a wreck?"
Wes groaned, understanding immediately. "The bullfighters."
"Our beloved matadors," I agreed, using the term we normally taunted those guys with. "Yeah, they keep our asses in one piece, but breaking us makes the PBR money. What else makes money?" I asked.
There were far too many eyes looking at me blankly. Ok, maybe some of these guys had started out without a helmet to keep their brains from scrambling. Or maybe they all just had bad cases of testosterone poisoning? I wasn't sure, but it was becoming clear none of them had ever thought about this before.
So I pointed at Ty. "Drama. Watching real men act like men. Seeing us have a fit because we got bucked off, or pissed off, or anything else. A fight? That's the kind of mess that makes for damned good television - and don't think the PBR isn't watching their viewership as much as the ticket sales."
"Damn it!" Ty said. "I just wanted to make it clear..." His words trailed off.
But Kaleb couldn't let it go. "What? Make what clear, Ty?"
Well, well. I'd been slowly but surely putting all the pieces together, but Ty hadn't made sense. I'd assumed he'd been shut out when Cody took the two-for-one option. I thought that had been why they'd had a falling out, but I was starting to reconsider.
Ty knew.
He'd made it inside the guard those three constantly kept up. He had more information than anyone else, and I was starting to realize he'd rather get kicked off the tour than spill any of it. He wasn't on the outs because Cody had picked the other two. He wasn't with her because he'd fucked up - which explained what he'd meant when he'd hinted I should chase her, and be good to her.
J.D. had told me he was bi. Didn't take a lot to figure out that if he was with Cody, and Cody was with Tanner, then Tanner and J.D. were likely together as well, since Austin seemed so fucking convinced Tanner wasn't straight. How Austin knew about that was still murky. He said he'd seen a guy coming out of Tanner's room, but that was bullshit. I'd also overheard him saying Tanner had been talking to someone in Sports Medicine, and he'd heard a little too much. That made more sense, but I couldn't exactly verify it.
