How much less alone he’d be, instantly, just because there was another person in the room who wanted to eat dinner and talk about boring, day-to-day things with him.
That seemed dangerous, because he could so easily tell himself he was in love with Eliot just because Eliot made him feel good. But then, wasn’t that what love was?
If it wasn’t, this was definitely enough. Whatever they had, whatever was going on right now, it was exactly what Danny had always wanted. By some miracle, everything had worked out.
It was almost the exact second he finished that thought that Eliot turned to get his phone out of his coat in response to it beeping.
“That’s Ben’s notification tone,” he explained, “he never texts me outside of work hours, so this must be-”
Eliot paused, going pale as he looked down at the notification. He chewed on his lip for a moment, staring down at the phone in silence.
After a few seconds, he pushed the remainder of his meal away and stood. “I have to make a phone call. This text says there’s an emergency, and Ben isn’t the kind of man who gets dramatic for no reason. I’ll be back in a second.”
“Okay,” Danny said, a knot of worry forming in his gut. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was just a work emergency, or a news emergency that Eliot needed to report on, or any other thing that wouldn’t actually be Eliot’s problem.
But that seemed like it’d be too easy.
Chapter Twenty-One
Heart racing, Eliot went out to Danny’s yard to make his phone call. If this was something sensitive, something that had happened to Ben, he didn’t want to broadcast it, even to Danny.
He liked Danny—he more than liked Danny—but he had loyalty to Ben as well, and he wasn’t about to break that. Until he knew what was going on, privacy was the best option.
Thankfully, Danny’s nearest neighbor was too far away to hear him having a phone conversation at normal voice levels.
His stomach tightened as he dialed Ben’s number. He’d never texted Eliot after hours before. Sometimes, he responded to emails when he really should have been sleeping, but he’d never made anything seem this urgent in the entire time Eliot had been working for Cocky.
“Eliot?” Ben answered the phone on the second ring.
“It’s me,” Eliot confirmed. “I got your message.”
“Where are you?” he asked, sounding worried. That was… not good. Ben had never sounded worried before, either.
“I’m, uh. I’m at a friend’s place.”
“Danny Harper?”
Eliot frowned. How the hell had Ben known about Danny? He didn’t seem like the kind of man who cared about celebrity dating gossip.
“Yes.” Eliot wet his lips. “Why?”
Ben breathed a heavy sigh into the phone. “I’m about to ask you a question, and I need you to be honest with me, or I can’t help you. Do you understand?”
Eliot swallowed.
He thought back to the conversation he’d had with Meg, to the uncomfortable feeling he’d had about his slip. He thought he’d gotten away with it, but if Ben was asking…
“Okay,” he agreed. “Yes, I understand.”
“Did you take money from Danny Harper in exchange for pretending to be in a relationship with him?” Ben asked.
Eliot’s head spun. He felt sick to his stomach, and had to stumble over to Danny’s outdoor setting to sit down. How did Ben know? How did anyone know?
Meg couldn’t have found all that out so quickly, could she? Even if she suspected something was off after their conversation, she wouldn’t have facts yet. He and Danny were the only people who knew about it, and Danny would never have told.
“I…” Eliot began, his voice breaking. “Yes, but…”
“I don’t want to hear an excuse and as far as I’m concerned you can do whatever you want in your spare time,” Ben interrupted. “But you should know that the story’s just broken on the web. It’s already all over the place.”
“Meg?” Eliot asked quietly. He didn’t want to believe that she’d do him any harm, but the timing…
“What? You mean Meg Webber? No, no. I know she does dating stories, but she wouldn’t have dropped you in it like this.”
Eliot breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t solve the larger problem, but at least someone he thought was kind of his friend hadn’t betrayed him.
“Then I don’t understand… I mean, she didn’t know, but I think she suspected… where the hell did this come from?”
“Article says an inside source. I’m guessing not you or Danny, so someone else must know. I’ll email you the link.”
Eliot’s stomach went cold again as he realized who did know.
“Walter,” he said out loud. “Uh, Danny’s—the team’s manager. He knew, he was the one who paid me, and it was his idea. But he has nothing to gain from this, unless...”
Eliot paused. He was already suspicious. There’d been something off about Walter from the beginning, and now this. His preliminary research into the team’s finances had thrown up a few red flags, but…
That would also explain why Walter had been weird with him after the hockey game. Maybe he’d suspected then that something was up. Maybe...
“I can actually hear the cogs turning in your head,” Ben said. His tone had gone back to approval.
That was good. The last thing Eliot wanted was to lose Ben’s respect over this. He hoped the other man would understand, see that he’d put himself in this position for sensible reasons.
“I have a huge story for you,” Eliot responded. “One big enough to make up for this, I think.”
All Eliot could do was hope that Ben’s investigative instincts—his curiosity—would kick in hard enough to distract him from the fact that Eliot had made a huge mistake.
He’d never expected anyone to find out, and it had never really felt like a lie. From the first time he’d met Danny, he’d been drawn to him. Getting the bonus perk of not having to worry about how he was going to cover his bills had been just that—a bonus.
He wouldn’t have changed anything if Danny had just asked him out in the first place.
None of that was going to matter in the court of public opinion, though. Not unless Eliot could expose an even bigger villain.
“I’m listening,” Ben said.
“I think Walter is embezzling funds. I think he’s stealing from the team as a whole and the individual players. It would explain, well… everything. I think.”
“Do you have any proof?”
Eliot chewed on his lip. “I started doing some digging after I spoke to some of the team’s supporters and investors. Something seemed off. I must have stumbled across something incriminating...”
“Because if you didn’t, then why did Walter make his move now?” Ben finished for him. “Right, of course.”
He sounded excited, which was both unusual and almost certainly a good sign. “Right, he must know I’d found something and he was trying to discredit me before I had a chance to figure out what it was and go public. This is huge, right? I mean, I don’t know anything about sport, but there’s a lot of money involved…”
“A lot of money,” Ben agreed. “And a lot of public scrutiny. People love to analyze a sports scandal to death, and this… if you’re right, this would be huge.”
“I need your help,” Eliot said. “You’re the one with the investigative background, and I’m the guy who does beard wax reviews. I don’t know the things you know or how to put the pieces together or anything like that. Please.”
“You’re underestimating yourself,” Ben said kindly. “But I will help you. You’re right, this is a huge story. And besides, they’re coming after one of my hand-picked reporters. This is personal.”
“Hand-picked?” Eliot asked.
“You’re one of mine,” Ben said. “Perks of being a senior editor, we get to do the hiring. I picked you.”
“Oh.” Eliot blushed, surprised. He’d thought he’d been one of a ba
tch of bulk-hires, the kind of person who you put in a chair to see how they went—Cocky had been a young magazine at the time, but growing fast, and in need of the manpower to produce enough content.
He had no idea Ben had gotten the final say.
“And for the record, your job is safe as long as the decision is in my hands. This was a mistake, and I think you know that. But I also think we all make mistakes. I wouldn’t want the internet knowing about some of the dumb crap I’ve pulled over the course of my career.”
The tension in Eliot’s shoulders loosened. Ben was on his side. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
He liked the idea of Ben as a slightly younger man, going out and chasing a story without worrying too much about his methods or the consequences. He knew that he’d been responsible for cracking open some big political stuff when he’d been just a few years older than Eliot was now, and that was the kind of thing that didn’t happen, especially not then, without pulling some really stupid stunts.
Eliot would have liked to hear about them, but now wasn’t the time. Right now, they needed to put this story together and have it out as soon as possible.
Right now, he had to tell Danny what had happened.
“Anytime. So… I hate to interrupt your evening, but we need to get to work on this as soon as possible.”
“Right, of course,” Eliot said. “I need to explain to Danny what’s happened, though, so…”
“Two hours, then. I’ll be in my office. Bring coffee.”
“Thank you.” Despite himself, Eliot smiled. Ben had his back. That was all he could ask for, considering the circumstances.
“Don’t freak out about this, okay? We’ll figure it out.”
Eliot believed that. If this had to happen, then he had the best possible person on his side to help him work his way back out of it. This was all going to be okay, as long as he had Ben’s help.
Now all he had to do was convince Danny that was true. Even though it hadn’t been his slip-up with Meg that had caused this, Eliot still felt guilty about it. If he hadn’t gone poking around the team’s finances, Walter wouldn’t have been moved to act.
Danny and his teammates would have suffered, though. He just had to keep reminding himself of that. The greater good was in exposing Walter.
He just hoped Danny saw it that way.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The moment Eliot said, “you might want to sit down for this,” Danny knew something had gone really, really wrong. He sat heavily on the couch at Eliot's urging, the worried knot in his stomach growing. The look on Eliot's face said everything he needed to know about what was coming next.
“I'm so sorry,” Eliot began. “I was doing some digging into why your team is suddenly broke, and... well, I don't know this for sure, but I think Walter's been stealing money from you and from the team.”
Danny blinked at him. “What? No. Nuh-uh. No way.”
That couldn't be right. Walter had been on Danny's side the entire time. He'd taken care of him when he'd needed it most.
“Well, no one else knew that you and I had an arrangement,” Eliot said. “And that story's just broken with an inside source. There's no way it was anyone but Walter. I'm sorry, Danny. I know you look up to him.”
“I... people know about us?” Danny asked. “Way to bury the goddamn lede,” he snapped.
That wasn't fair. He shouldn't have been snapping at Eliot—this wasn't Eliot's fault, whatever else was going on.
Eliot looked down at his lap. “I was trying to ease you into it. I'm sorry, Danny. This is all my fault.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Danny said softly, reaching out to take Eliot’s hand. “This is okay. We can come clean and say that yeah, I was afraid of a real relationship and I needed someone to come to stuff with me, but then… stuff happened, it’s not fake anymore, it’s actually kind of a beautiful story.”
Eliot shook his head. “There’s more. I skimmed the article after I hung up with Ben… there’s stuff about your injury in there, too. If one thing is true…”
Danny’s heart sank again. If they admitted to one part, they might as well be admitting to the rest.
“Let me read it,” Danny held his hand out for Eliot’s phone, where he assumed Eliot had read it. “Please?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Eliot handed the phone over. “Walter is really the only person who has all the information in this article. I know you’d rather it wasn’t true.”
Danny pursed his lips as he read, a sick feeling building in his stomach with every line. Words like revelations and lies stood out as though they were in huge neon letters, injury might as well have been on a forty-foot billboard right outside his house.
He handed Eliot’s phone back to him without finishing. His head was spinning, but Eliot was right—Walter was the only one who knew.
Danny still couldn’t believe he’d do this. Walter had been good to him.
“I want in,” Danny said. “You’re investigating this, right? I want to help. I need to know.”
Eliot nodded. “Of course. You’d be a huge help, you know what’s right and what’s not better than anyone, and you have access to your own financial records. I would love for you to help with this.”
Danny breathed a sigh of relief. This was good. This way, he’d find out the truth.
Maybe the truth wouldn’t be as bad as it looked right now. Maybe he wouldn’t want to crawl into a hole and never come back out once he knew what was really going on.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “So, uh, where do we start?”
“I’m actually going to head to the office. Ben said he’d meet me there. I’m sorry to cut our evening short, but if you wanted to come…”
“I’m in,” Danny said, not wanting to be separated from Eliot right now. He sprang up from the couch, eager to get started.
That turned out to be a terrible idea.
Pain shot up his leg, radiating from his knee as he heard a sickening crunch. His head spun with the intensity of the pain, and before he could stop himself, he was falling.
He hit the ground with a thud, his jeans catching against the edge of the coffee table as he fell. Tears stung at his eyes, and he gritted his teeth to stop himself from sobbing.
The shock was the worst thing. He hadn’t expected the pain, and he definitely hadn’t expected the fall. He’d known his knee was getting worse—it was stiffer in the morning, more swollen when he went to bed—but this seemed sudden. It hadn’t given out on him before.
Of course it had only been a matter of time. And since this was the worst possible moment for it to have happened, that was when it had happened.
That was just Danny’s luck.
He was tempted to think that his day couldn’t get any worse, but he knew that was just asking for trouble. It could always get worse.
This was bad enough that he didn’t want to tempt fate.
Eliot rushed to his side, crouching beside him. “How do I help?” he asked.
“Umm.” Danny struggled to think. The pain was making his head throb, which made it much harder to figure out what to do next than it should have been.
“I need a minute,” he said. “And painkillers. And a glass of water. Please.”
Eliot nodded and disappeared, leaving Danny alone again. He hated that. He wanted to hold Eliot’s hand and have him whisper that it was okay, that everything was going to be fine, that Danny was loved and cared for and that it didn’t matter that he was broken.
That was the thing, really. Danny was afraid of Eliot realizing that he wasn’t okay, that he’d probably never be completely okay again. He was afraid that the moment it really sunk in, Eliot would leave.
He was afraid that he was only one more stumble, one more fall, one more drive he couldn’t make away from Eliot seeing how damaged he was and not wanting to deal with that.
At twenty-six, Danny wouldn’t have had time for a boyfriend who couldn’t keep up with him.
Eliot was d
ifferent, sure, but that didn’t mean he’d never get tired of having to prop Danny up.
It was only a handful of seconds before Eliot was back, pill bottle and glass in hand. He set both on the coffee table and helped Danny to sit on the floor, grabbing a cushion from the couch to shove under his knee for support.
Even in his loose-fitting jeans, Danny could see how much his knee had swollen up. The whole area felt hot and sore, and he knew that if he tried to put any weight on it he’d collapse all over again.
Why did Eliot have to see him like this? Knowing he was injured was one thing, seeing him falter a little was okay, but this? This was proof that he wasn’t okay. That he’d never be his old self again.
Who the hell would want a washed-up hockey player who couldn’t even stand reliably?
As Danny took the offered painkillers and downed them with a few careful sips of water, he felt Eliot’s fingers tangling in his hair. Petting and stroking. Soothing.
No one had ever done that for him before. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the contact and taking deep breaths to calm down.
Eliot wasn’t running away. That didn’t mean he’d stay forever, or that this incident hadn’t changed his mind about Danny, but at least he wasn’t running away.
“Take all the time you need,” Eliot said softly. “I’m gonna text Ben and tell him I’ll be a little late. I feel like I should be getting you medical attention.”
“You can’t,” Danny said. “I can’t… the final is at the end of the week. If anyone finds out that I really am injured… this is my last chance to come out of a season with the Cup. I have to play. Please.”
Eliot sighed, still combing his fingers through Danny’s hair. “I don’t like this. I’ve never seen someone go so pale so quickly.”
“I’ll be fine,” Danny assured him.
He had to be fine. His options were to be fine, or lose his last chance to make something of his career.
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