“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…”
“Alotof 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 batch 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.
