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Chris Jericho lay wide awake in his hotel room bed, knowing that after finding Lita crying back at the arena - and after every horrifying detail she'd given him, that he wouldn't be getting a wink of sleep that night.
In fact, he felt as though he might never sleep again...
The blond man's head was still spinning, his mind reeling from the confessions the redhead had given him. He was in shock - numb... And on top of that, he felt downright sick to his stomach. He was enraged to the point of very nearly trashing his room to bits after the high-flying diva had left to go back to her own room - not only her room, at that. Yet another of her confessions - the one that didn't have Chris entertaining thoughts of violence - was that she had a boyfriend, and although she'd explained why they'd kept the relationship a secret, she didn't have to - he knew.
Jericho lay on his back, blue eyes wide open and staring at the shadows on the ceiling above him. He thought about the horrifying experience Lita had told him about, his hands clenching into fists in the process.
"He's blackmailing me, Chris..." the redhead said, more tears running down her cheeks. Oddly, it actually felt good to be getting all of this off her chest. "He's been forcing me to go to him nights and...and...do things with him..."
"Oh, my God..." Jericho breathed, horror consuming him. It tore through his entire being, into his very soul. The sick son of a bitch had found out about Lita's relationship with Edge - whom the redhead had just admitted to being her boyfriend of the last seven months. That in itself had been surprising enough, but when she'd told him about the other man, and what the bastard was subjecting her to...
"I'll kill him!" Chris cried, his handsome features taking on all of the fury he felt. The blood pounded away in his veins, and he felt as though his head might actually explode from anger so fierce and intense.
"Chris, I...I'm scared!" Lita cried, sinking against him on the hotel bed. "I can't tell Edge about this - it...it would kill him! You're the first - the only person who knows about this..." She sobbed uncontrollably.
The blond man wrapped his arms around her, rocking the terrified redhead back and forth as she clung tightly to him. He wanted to tell her it was all right, but it obviously wasn't. He wanted to say it would be all right, but again, he didn't know that it would be, so he didn't say that, either. God, he felt so helpless. And he hated that feeling.
Damn it... He should be able to help her. He should be able to do something. For the time being, he continued to hold her, gently whispering "Shh..."
God... Chris felt his eyes tearing up at the thought of what Lita had been through over the last month. The sick son of a bitch was forcing her into sex at least a couple of times per week - that was rape! The redhead had brokenly told him that the asshole had threatened to go to the Hardy Boyz and tell them all about her relationship with Edge if she failed to comply with his wishes. Naturally, since Edge, along with his younger brother, Christian, and Matt and Jeff Hardy hated each other, that would cause major problems. The redhead was terrified of the mere prospect of having to 'choose' between her boyfriend and her two best friends.
But that wasn't all - the bastard had also threatened to go out to the ring with a microphone during RAW and expose Lita and Edge.
Chris bolted upright in the bed, a snarl of fury escaping him as these thoughts continued to plague his mind. He turned around and punched his pillow, imagining it was the face of the man tormenting the redheaded diva. He battered that pillow to the point that it ended up on the floor.
Jericho leapt off the bed in the darkness and kicked the pillow, which, amazingly, he was able to detect in the dark.
"Fucking son of a bitch!" he yelled. "I'll rip him from limb to fucking limb!"
Now standing directly over the nightstand, Jericho flung both arms out forcefully, knocking a whole slew of items to the floor. He let out a growl of frustration as he did it again, and there was a medium-sized crash as the bedside lamp was knocked to the floor.
"Oh, God! God damn it!"
Chris sank to his knees on the floor, his anger completely spent for the moment. Now, he began to bitterly cry, Lita still on his mind. She was so sweet, small and vulnerable...
Then, the image of the man's face came into his head, and the fury began to return. He vowed he would someday get this guy - make him pay dearly - maybe even with his life.
Yes, Chris thought, if it's the last thing I do - Test is going to pay...