Page 5 of Cheap Heat

Maybe if it had been anyone but him, I would’ve been relieved to see a familiar face. But it was him, so no. Just no.

“Oh sick, another ghoul.” The ghoul in the towel popped up from the couch, dropping his controller. He made his way over and held out his hand. “I’m Vince.”

“Rafe.” I shook his hand, then tucked mine back into my pocket, refusing to look at Ewen. A few of the other wrestlers started making their way over to introduce themselves.

I met Heidi the faun, known as The G.O.A.T.; Kenneth the cyclops, aka the Optometrist; and Susan the banshee, wrestler name the Silent Scream, who was the one dating the pornstar Larkin had mentioned.

I was good at remembering names, and focusing to absorb all the ones being thrown at me by the wrestlers was helping to distract me from the one person who hadn’t ‘introduced’ himself yet. The one who was just standing there with a gleeful grin on his face that made me really fucking nervous about what he was eventually going to say.

Once Gabe the incubus and Biff the gargoyle had wandered back off to the ring after introducing themselves, he finally stepped forward.

“Dan,” he drawled, holding out his free hand. “Dullahan Dan. Best fuckin’ wrassler in the west.”

Val, whose stage name was Val Kyl-More, snorted as she headed back over to the gym equipment. “You wish, cowboy.”

A muscle ticked in my jaw as I stared at his outstretched hand. It would be weird if I refused to shake his after doing the same with all the others, so I reached out and gripped it as briefly as possible, then tried to yank my hand back. But Dan held on for a few more seconds, blue eyes roaming over my tense face as he smirked at me.

“A pleasure.” He winked. Fucking winked at me.

I scowled and tore my hand out of his grip.

“Kit’s up there.” Larkin waved a hand in the vague direction of the ceiling, and I looked up to see a pair of glowing red eyes blinking down at me from the shadows between the big exposed pipes.

“Yo,” they called down.

“A few people aren’t here…” Larkin looked around. “Corey’s probably in his dressing room. Not sure where Brian is, and there’s no point trying to keep track of Frank and Beans. You’ll meet ’em later. Ready to go back to your office?”

“Yes,” I said quickly, which made Dan’s infuriating grin widen.

But before I could even turn for the doors, I heard them burst open behind me. Two loud, chattering voices bounced off the corridor walls, then something small but freakishly strong slammed into my legs, pitching me forward.

Right into Ewen’s fucking chest.

“Mmph!” My nose was smushed between his pecs. His chest hair was in my fucking mouth. I could smell clean sweat and hot skin, and heat flooded my face as a thick arm quickly banded around my waist to hold me steady.

“Woah there, cowboy.” Dan laughed as I spluttered and struggled to right myself. I pushed against his pec to shove away from him, my face boiling as some of the other wrestlers looked over.

I stumbled back and wiped my mouth with my wrist. I could taste his fucking sweat, for fuck’s sake. Dan’s head was still tucked under his arm, and he gave me a wide, toothy grin as I cleared my throat.

He was loving this. The asshole.

“If you want to go for a ride, you only need to ask, handsome.” He smirked at me. I glared right back, unsuccessfully willing the heat to fade from my cheeks.

“Who’s this?” A new, high-pitched voice had me whirling around. I was breathing faster, and my hands clenched into fists. I was on the brink of yelling at whatever fucking dickhead had run right into me. Fuck making a good first impression in my new job.

I froze when I saw the two creatures blinking up at me in unison. They were short, with mustard yellow skin, weird, lopsided mouths and they each had one big eye in the centres of their faces with two smaller ones either side. And they were only wearing tighty-whities. Their limbs were sinewy, with oversized hands and feet.

“Rafe,” Lark told them, sounding disinterested. “New guy. IT.”

“IT?” One of them perked up and eyed me again, which made me want to take a nervous step back. “Computers? Can you build us a karate robot?”

“What?” I rasped blankly.

“A robot. That does. Karate,” the other said slowly, like I was an idiot.

“Uh… I’m not all that into robotics.” I glanced at Larkin, but he was just leaning a shoulder on the wall and watching with a bored expression.

Building karate robots wasn’t part of the job description, was it?