Page 217 of The Blame Game

“But why?” Dom asked. God, he should be having this conversation sober or not hungover or something. “Why did he do it?”

Shea settled on the bed beside him. “It sounds like Joe was blackmailing him too.”

Dom shook his head, then immediately regretted it. “Wait, please. Speak to me like I’m very stupid and start from the beginning because none of this is making sense. How did you end up in the middle of this?”

“Well, you have been aggressively killing brain cells for the past week,” Shea said drily.

Dom grunted and took a sip of his coffee, glaring over the rim.

Shea smiled. “Okay. So I came out of the bathroom to find some guy being a creep to Birdie. I stuck around to keep an eye out in case she needed me. Once I realized the man was Mark, I got worried. And then when Mitchell confessed, I wanted to hear the whole story.” He let out a small laugh.

“Which was?”

“Shortly after Mitchell got hired, he met Joe. He was a little bit older, kinda charming. They met at a bar, got drunk, and hooked up.”

“Tale as old as time,” Dom said drily.

“Exactly. But, of course, we know Joe is actually a paparazzo and it was a setup.”

“Right,” Dom said slowly.

“Mitchell claims he didn’t mean to leak anything at first. He thought Joe worked in finance or something and so they were having some pillow talk after sex when he let something slip that he’d overheard Kate talking about. He said Joe kept asking questions and, at the time, he thought it was just him being impressed that Mitchell worked for the team but …”

Dom grimaced. “He was pumping him for information.”

“Exactly. So Mitchell sees the article in JockGossip the next day or whatever, and feels horribly guilty. He loves the job, he likes working for Kate, etc. and he never meant to share private info.”

“So why did he keep feeding Joe info then?” Dom frowned.

“At first, Joe convinced him he wouldn’t do it again. He manipulated him into believing he had feelings for him, strung him along with lies. Honestly, it sounds like Mitchell didn’t have very good self-esteem, and Joe knew how to manipulate him. Every time he used something Mitchell told him and Mitchell rightfully got pissed, he bought him a gift, did something sweet to make up for it.”

“Fuck. That’s sad.”

“It is. But it sounds like eventually, Mitchell saw through it and confronted him. Broke it off.”

Dom frowned. “But the leaks kept happening … I mean, I know some of it was fan photos and videos that they took advantage of. But some of it had to come from Mitchell.”

“Apparently, once Mitchell tried to distance himself, Joe blackmailed him.”

Dom blinked. “With what?”

“The fact that Mark had cheated on Mitchell’s mom with an escort.”

“Audra,” Dom said grimly.

“Bingo.”

“So Mitchell was protecting himself from ending up on the gossip sites?” Dom asked a little bitterly. Because he’d been starting to feel bad for the kid but …

“No. Protecting his mother.”

“Oh.” Dom felt a sudden pang, imagining he’d been in Mitchell’s shoes. If someone had blackmailed him about his father’s sexuality? Yeah, Dom would have thrown nearly anyone under the bus to protect his mom.

“Yeah.” Shea looked conflicted. “It’s complicated, right?”

Dom nodded. “So then what?”

“Apparently after a while, when Mitchell started to waver and was tempted to confess the whole thing anyway and risk his dad’s behavior coming out anyway, Joe bought him a car. Put the title in his name and said people would never believe that he didn’t leak things voluntarily. Pointed out all of the other ‘gifts’ he’d given him and said everyone would think he did it for the money.”

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