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A flush spread over the back of his neck as he ducked his head and mumbled something indistinct. I chuckled as he fumbled to open his office door and vanished inside.
Oh yeah. He was definitely still watching me at night.
Looked like I’d been wrong all these years about Rafe Hare being straight.
Which was mighty interesting.
Chapter Eleven
GO! Goliaths Online
Dan
Tucking my head under my arm, I emerged from my dressing room and pushed through the doors to the backstage area, already grinning.
It was Thursday night, and I could tell that the crowd down in the arena was heaving. The floor always rumbled under our feet when the show was on from the cacophony of excited voices, shoes and hooves and talons traipsing up steps and the seats of plastic chairs being pushed down as people got ready to watch.
I loved it. I was a little addicted to it. It always pumped me up, got me raring to go.
“Damn, they sound extra excited tonight, huh?” Vince said with a grin when he saw me, already dressed in his seventies disco outfit—tiny silver hotpants and a matching cropped halterneck. His roller skates were slung over his shoulder, tied together by their laces.
I grinned back, wandering over to the windows that overlooked the arena and holding my head up so I could see. “They know it’s being streamed. Probably feeling cocky that they all get to watch it in person.”
Vince joined me, and we both watched the throngs of people moving around below. Lampyrs clustered together by the bar, sipping drinks. A pack of rowdy werewolves in business suits laughed and shoved each other good-naturedly. A group of fae women had already taken their seats, and I could see that several of them were sipping one of tonight’s signature cocktails—the Headless and Horny, inspired by yours truly, composed mainly of bourbon.
One of them looked up, spotted us standing at the window, and started screaming. Then her friends noticed and started screaming too. She grabbed the sign tucked between her legs and stood up to wave it at us.
“I’M A HOLIATH FOR THE GOLIATHS” it said, which made me chuckle.
I shot them my charming grin and tipped my head in salute, which made her start jumping up and down and screaming louder.
God, how could anyone not love this? It was fucking addictive.
“Hey, guys,” Susan chirped as she bounded over to join us, dressed in her wrestling outfit aside from her spiked black mask. “Isn’t this exciting? I swear it feels different tonight.”
“It does,” I agreed, tracking my gaze over the crowd again. There was a big sign behind the bar promoting the two signature cocktails of the night—mine and Vince’s, seeing as we were the main event. We had extra security to get everyone to their seats in time, and to stop anyone from swamping Holt when he came out to announce the launch of GO! Goliaths Online.
“What are you looking at?”
Crossbody’s haughty voice made me roll my eyes. He appeared on the other side of Susan, dressed only in his skimpy gold briefs, his lavender skin already oiled up and gleaming. On his back, his huge wings opened and closed languidly.
“What do you think?” Vince replied sardonically, not even glancing at him.
Crossbody’s jaw ticked. He crossed his arms and tossed back his hair, expression turning decidedly calculating as he side-eyed Vince.
“Ready for your match?” he asked airily. “No room for error when it’s being streamed to potentially thousands more people.”
Vince stiffened beside me. “Not gonna work, Crossbody.”
“What?” He tried to sound innocent, but he was smirking. “I’m just pointing out that you’re our first ever online main event. If you fuck up, we might as well call it quits now.”
“We’re not going to fuck up,” Vince gritted out. I tucked my head under my arm so I could squeeze his shoulder, silently telling him to keep a cool head. Crossbody had a talent for pissing most of us off, and he seemed to enjoy riling Vince up the most.
“Oh look, there’s Asmo!” Susan suddenly exclaimed, pointing down into the arena.
I shot her a quick smile before looking down. She was a sweetheart who hated when any of us bickered, so I knew she was trying to distract Vince and Crossbody intentionally.
Following her finger, I spotted her incubus pornstar boyfriend—her exceptionally talented pornstar boyfriend, who went by the stage name Assmo Dickus—sitting with a couple of his buddies. When he looked up and spotted us, a huge grin broke out over his face. Jumping to his feet, he waved frantically before grabbing a sign to hold up.