Chapter Fifteen

Holiath

Vince

“Hey there, buddy.”

Rafe about jumped out of his skin at the sound of my voice. He’d just been minding his own business, making himself a coffee in the tiny kitchenette near his office, but when I’d seen Dan show up at work I’d immediately headed over here, knowing that meant Rafe would be in too.

“Damn it.” He reached for the paper towels, and I realised he’d tipped his mug over and spilled coffee all over the counter.

“Shit, sorry.” I hurried over. “I’ll get it.”

“It’s fine.” He glanced at me while he mopped up the spill, hunching his shoulders a little awkwardly. “Uh, what’s up?”

We’d only hung out once, with Dan, so he probably wasn’t all that comfortable around me yet. I knew he was quiet and kept to himself, but I already liked him. He was funny in a low-key, dry way, and he seemed like he could hold his own against Dan, which was saying something. My buddy was a force to be reckoned with.

“Just wanted to see how you’re doing,” I said with perhaps a touch too much cheerfulness. I was already reaching for the pot to pour him more coffee, and I saw Rafe’s pale green eyes narrow with a hint of suspicion.

“Let me make you a fresh cup,” I said brightly, and his eyes narrowed even more. Maybe I was laying it on a little thick.

“It feels like you want something.”

I managed a carefree shrug, hesitating before I let out a light laugh and finally said, “Well, now that you mention it…”

He huffed in amusement and crossed his arms, leaning his hip against the counter. “Yeah?”

I cautiously peered over my shoulder at the doorway to make sure Taylor or Holt weren’t in the hall, then cleared my throat and said, “I was just wondering if you do all the… security cam stuff.”

“What do you mean?” he asked curiously. With a hint of apprehension.

“Like, can you access the footage and stuff?” I pulled open the fridge and gave him a big smile. “Creamer?”

“Yeah…” he said slowly, narrowing his eyes at me again.

My pulse leaped. “Yes to the access or yes to the creamer?”

“Yes to the creamer,” he said flatly. “Why do you want to access the security cam footage, Vince?”

“I’m just asking if you can,” I said brightly, pouring a splash of creamer into his coffee.

He pulled open a drawer and grabbed a spoon to stir it. “I mean, yes. I can. But so can the security guys upstairs.”

Shit. I was going to have to butter Yuri and Serge up after this too.

“Ah. Interesting.” I nodded thoughtfully, which made Rafe snort.

“What did you do?”

My palms began to sweat a little, even though I’d come up with what I thought was a pretty believable—and mostly false—reason for wanting Rafe to delete last night’s security cam footage.

Except I hadn’t found out if he could actually do that yet.

Glancing over my shoulder again, I shuffled closer and lowered my voice. “Okay look, man, can you delete some footage? You’d be doing me a huge favour.”

Rafe tensed a little, dropping the spoon in the sink. “Why?”

“I…” I glanced back a third time. “I may have fucked up. Nothing too bad, but… not something I want Holt to find out. And if he ever happens to watch last night’s security footage of the arena…”

“What did you do in the arena?” Rafe asked in alarm.

Dropping my voice to a hiss, I told him, “I may have brought a guy down here last night after everyone was gone. And we may have… fucked in the ring.”

Rafe spluttered. “What the fuck, Vince?”

“He was a holiath!” I said quickly. I’d got the story all figured out. This was going to work.

“What the fuck is a holiath?”

“It’s what the…” I waved a hand. “Groupies call themselves. We don’t call them that, obviously. But he was… yeah, he was just into the whole wrestling thing. Asked me to fuck him in the ring. So I did.”

“Jesus Christ,” Rafe muttered, shaking his head as he picked up his mug.

“Come on, man,” I said, a little pleadingly. “Don’t act like you and Dan haven’t done stuff in your office.”

Rafe’s cheeks flushed a dark purple as he glared at me. “That’s not the route to go down when you’re trying to butter me up. Especially if I’m going to have to sit there watching footage of you boning some dude in the arena.”

“No,” I blurted immediately, panic streaking through me. “No, you wouldn’t watch. I wouldn’t make you watch that, bro. But… does that mean you’ll do it?” I asked hopefully.

“I haven’t agreed to it,” he said quickly, casting his own wary glance at the doorway. “If Holt realises…”

“How often does he watch the security footage back?” I asked nervously.

Rafe made a face. “I mean, never, as far as I know.”

My shoulders sagged in relief. “So he won’t find out. It’s not like anything else happened in the arena yesterday that would make him want to watch it.”

“Just you fucking someone in the ring,” Rafe deadpanned.

“Yep. Uh-huh. Just some random guy.” I nodded emphatically. “Which is why I’m a little worried. It was kind of a security risk.”

“I mean, yeah. It was a big security risk.”

“So will you help me out?” I pleaded. “I’ll owe you. Big time. And it’ll score you points with Dan if you help out his best buddy…” I trailed off leadingly.

Rafe snorted. “I don’t need to score more points with Dan.”

“Okay, well, I’ll still owe you. Whatever you need, man. You like roller derby?” I asked eagerly. “I’m in a league. I can get you tickets to my next bout.”

“I’m good,” Rafe said dryly, then sighed and glanced at the door again before lowering his voice. “You do owe me. Come on.”

My scalp tingled with relief as I hastily followed him out of the kitchenette and down the corridor to his office.

“Hey, did Dan tell you about the dick hole sheet?” I asked brightly, just to make some conversation as he opened the door and walked inside.

Rafe froze and slowly turned to stare at me. “The what?”

“Never mind,” I said quickly, following him in. “Uh, nice office.”

I fidgeted anxiously as he sat down behind his desk and had a sip of coffee, seeming to take a fucking age to set his cup down and finally turn toward his monitor.

“Remember, I’ll delete the footage,” I rushed out, my belly squirming with nerves. “You don’t need to watch it. I’ll find the, uh… moment of entry and stuff.”

Rafe’s nose wrinkled. “Dude.”

“I meant when we walk into the arena. I know roughly when it was, so…”

“I mean, I’m not going to argue.” He clicked several times, falling silent while I stood there vibrating with restless tension.

I just wanted the footage gone. I needed the footage gone. Not just so there was no chance of Holt watching it and firing me, but… because I knew Crossbody would never want anyone to see it. He’d been vulnerable. Stripped raw. Crying out in pleasure and pleading with me.

My belly swooped, so I quickly asked, “Ready?”

Rafe huffed. “Hold on.”

He typed something, clicked some more, then finally sat back and gestured at his monitor. “Okay, it’s on yesterday’s recording.”

I lunged around his desk, resisting the urge to just kick his chair away and send him spinning across the room. “You didn’t look, right?”

He snorted and rose from his seat. “Did I intentionally find the footage of you having sex? No, Vince. Surprisingly, I did not.”

“Great. Awesome.” I was already sitting in his chair and scooting it closer to the desk. “Okay, go over there.”

Rafe sighed in exasperation but walked across the room to the small sofa in the corner and sat, drumming his fingers on the armrest. “Do you know how to cut the section of footage you want to delete so you don’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, of course I do,” I said absently, even though I didn’t.

I scrolled forward to around 6 p.m. and stared intently at the screen, inching the timeline along in tiny increments as I watched the dark and empty arena until the spotlights over the ring suddenly flashed on, making me wince.

My heart thudded hard when I saw myself walk out of the side door, Crossbody just behind me.

Instead of just deleting the footage, I found myself scrolling forward a little more and stopping when I saw myself getting in Crossbody’s face, snarling angrily at him. He snarled something right back. I couldn’t remember exactly what he’d said at that moment.

“Have you found it yet?” Rafe asked from across the room, sounding bored.

“Almost,” I said vacantly, my pulse leaping as I watched Crossbody launch himself at me in the footage and take me down to the mat.

I wet my lips and reached for the mouse, feeling like I was doing something very, very inappropriate as I scrolled forward again, then stopped when I saw Crossbody naked and tied to the corner post, with me between his legs.

My nuts tightened as I stared at the screen. Stared at myself leaning down and sucking his cock into my mouth. Stared at the way his head tipped back, lips parted with a moan, his long legs shifting restlessly and narrow hips straining up.

Fuck. He looked…

“I thought you said you knew what time it was,” Rafe said impatiently, tapping his foot on the floor now. “I’ve got stuff to do, man.”

“Almost found it,” I croaked, then fell silent again and stared, transfixed, as the me on screen hooked Crossbody’s ankle over the middle rope, spreading him wide.

My cock was half-hard as I heard myself hoarsely ask, “Hey, is there a way for me to, like, save this footage onto a thumb drive or something?”

“Dude.”

“Okay, never mind.” I licked my dry lips and reluctantly scrolled back to the moment the spotlights came on.

Rafe had said something about splitting the footage, but I couldn’t find the tool for it. After a few seconds, I decided to just hit delete.

Which I maybe shouldn’t have done, because I was pretty sure I’d just deleted all the arena footage for the entire day. Oops.

A tiny part of me mourned the loss. Sure, it was Crossbody, but… fuck, that had been hot.

So fucking hot.

“Okay, done.” I took my time standing up to give my cock a chance to go down.

Rafe stood and strode over, immediately sitting once I’d vacated his chair. As I stepped out of the way, he huffed. “Dude, you deleted the whole day.”

“Sorry.”

“If anyone asks, I didn’t help you do this.”

“Of course not.” I gestured at his monitor. “Hey, maybe deleting the whole day of footage was the better idea, anyway. It can just be written off as the camera malfunctioning or something.”

“Pretty sure it’d look suspicious whichever way you did it, if Holt actually decided to try and watch it back,” Rafe said dryly. “But at least your secret’s safe now, huh?”

“Yeah.” I sighed in relief, reaching out to give his shoulder a brief pat. “Seriously, thank you.”

“It’s fine.” He glanced up at me with a brow raised. “So are you going to see the guy again?”

My gut twisted, because I’d probably be seeing him in about two minutes, once I got back to the backstage area. But obviously that wasn’t what Rafe meant.

“Maybe,” I said noncommittally. “Probably not.”

“I mean, if he’s a ‘holiath,’ you’ll probably at least see him in the audience, right?” Rafe shot me a tiny smile. “You’ll have to point him out to Dan.”

I tensed up a little, managing a light chuckle. “Right. You’re, uh… you’re definitely gonna tell Dan about this, aren’t you?”

He snorted. “Of course I am.”

“Great,” I said through gritted teeth, somehow keeping an easy smile on my face. “Fantastic. No big deal. It was just… some guy. Dan probably won’t even care.”

Rafe shrugged, closing down the software on his screen. “Still gonna tell him.”

I sighed in defeat. “I know. Well, anyway, thank you. So much.” I started heading for the door, my legs a little weak with relief. “Seriously, if you ever need anything…”

“No problem. Hey,” Rafe said abruptly, looking up from his monitor as I paused by the door. “Did you ever have a threesome with Gabe and Biff?”

“What?” I blinked at him. “Uh, yeah. Why?”

“Knew it,” he muttered.

“How’d you know that?” I asked in disbelief. “It was years ago.”

“Larkin told me.”

I huffed and scrubbed a hand over my face, turning for the door again. This place, seriously. Everyone was obsessed with gossip, and everyone seemed to find out absolutely everything that happened here.

Which meant I’d definitely been smart in deleting that footage. I could just see it getting out somehow if I hadn’t.

It also meant that it definitely, absolutely could not happen again.

And I meant it this time. Really.