Page 42 of Her Hat Trick Daddies
“Does she know about the video?” I ask, realizing too late I’ve stepped right into it.
Leighton freezes. Her face goes pale, her eyes wide. “What video?”
Andy groans and slaps a hand over his face. David shoots me a look sharp enough to draw blood, then turns to her with a sigh.
“Our night together… it was recorded. Somehow. It ended up on an amateur porn site.”
Her mouth parts, but no sound comes out.
“It’s grainy,” Andy rushes to add. “You can barely make anything out. We only recognized it because, well, we knew it was us.”
“The sex,” Leighton stammers. “The sex we had isonline?”
I jump in. “But it’s not gaining traction. It’s already dropped in the rankings.”
I crouch to check the drawer under the mic setup, where our publicist keeps the team’s iPad. It’s still there. I open a private browser window and pull up the site, relieved that it takes me longer than before to find the clip. It’s no longer on the front page.
Progress. Small, but I’ll take it.
But Leighton’s not focused on that. She’s pressing a trembling hand to her throat, her voice just above a whisper. “You think a lower rank makes it better?”
“Well, when it moves further down, that means fewer people are into it. And they’re not looking for it,” David explains.
But her eyes stay fixed on mine. “Knowing my bare everything is floating around the internet for anyone to stumble across? Fuck, that’s bad. And a big fucking deal.”
“But we’re all masked,” I add, trying to keep my voice calm. “We’re anonymous. No names. No faces. No one’s recognized it, and it’s been up for a week.
She still shakes her head, visibly rattled. “I don’t know…”
David lays a hand on her back, gently rubbing up and down in slow strokes. “We don’t know for sure if it’ll disappear,” he admits, “but Shane’s right. It’s already dropped off the front page. That’s a good sign. Either way, we’ll come up with a plan. Something to get it taken down.”
“But if someone does find it… if Ted Cosgrove sees it…” Her voice falters, and she looks up at us. “We could all lose our jobs. Or worse. If a site likeTMZgets hold of it—” She clamps a hand around the back of her neck, rubbing it. “God, this is a nightmare.”
“There’s no reason to think it’ll get that far,” Andy says gently, stepping in on her other side. He peels her clammy hand away and holds it between his. “Take a breath, darlin’. You’re shaking.”
David grabs one of the foldable chairs against the wall and gestures for her to sit. “Come on. Please, just sit for a second.”
She does, the metal legs squeaking softly as she settles into it. But it doesn’t help. Her whole body is tense, and she’s now fidgeting with her necklace, a solitaire aquamarine pendant.
“How’d you figure it all out? Us…” Andy asks, clearly hoping to shift her focus.
“Well, I’d been meeting with David a few times since I started this role, but it didn’t click right away,” she says, her voice a little steadier now. “I mean, I remember that night, and all of you, very clearly. But there wasn’t anything that tied it together at first.”
She hesitates, then adds, “And it’s not like I came here looking for answers. I just took the job, made the move. That was it.”
“I didn’t recognize any of you until the first scrimmage of the season,” she continues. “David was scratching his wrist, and I saw the hockey stick tattoo inside his glove. Shane, you were standing next to him, with the right stance and build to be Wolf. And Andy was right there on the bench.”
She exhales deeply. “I couldn’t be completely sure, but everything lined up. And once it started making sense, I made it my mission to talk to each of you.”
“But, it turned out to be more than just talking, right?” I ask, nodding toward David.
He smacks me on the back of the head.
Andy gives me a look. “Seriously, man?”
“I don’t mean any disrespect by it, seriously. I’m just following the facts,” I say calmly.
Leighton’s cheeks turn pink, but she lifts her chin anyway. “I’m not denying it. Any more than I’m denying that Andy and I had a moment in the locker room yesterday.”
