Desire Me If You Can [Novel] - Chapter 27

So, in the end, was Dane the ultimate victor?
Just as everyone thought that, someone suddenly remembered something they had forgotten.
“Wait a minute, who actually won the competition?”
The atmosphere shifted abruptly. This wasn’t something they could just let slide.
“Dane, obviously. Miller cheated.”
“Cheated? How?”
“Dunno, but there’s no way Dane would lose to that bastard, so he must have done something sneaky.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Miller. He’s a psychopath, an Extreme Alpha.”
Having arbitrarily decided among themselves, they turned their attention to Dane.
“Right? What kind of accident happened up there?”
“There’s no way that bastard could beat you! He must’ve used some cowardly trick, no doubt about it!”
“Tell us everything, Dane. We believe in you.”
“Yeah, there’s no way you lost to a guy like Miller. You’re Dane Striker, for crying out loud!”
They spoke in unison, all in agreement. Dane flicked his gaze aside, his expression less than enthusiastic. Grayson Miller was still standing in the same spot, as if watching to see what he’d say.
Наа.
Dane sighed and spoke without hesitation.
“I lost.”
“See, I knew it-what?”
“What? What did you just say? You lost?”
Ezra, who’d nodded as if it were obvious, suddenly jolted in shock, eyes wide. DeAndre, also stunned, repeated the same question several times. Dane rubbed the back of his head and said wearily,
“You all saw it, I came back late. That guy won, just like you witnessed. Nothing’s gonna change that.”
“B-But, but, he cheated, didn’t he?”
Another teammate asked hurriedly, so flustered he stumbled over his words. Beside him, others chimed in to back him up.
“That’s right, there’s no way you would have lost if it was a fair fight. You’re the ace of our station!”
“Be honest, Dane Striker. Did he threaten you? That’s it, isn’t it?”
“There’s no way Dane would be swayed by threats, unless it was money!”
“What, did he pay you? How much? Hey, I’ll give you more! Just tell us the truth!”
“I’ll chip in too! Our pride’s on the line here, we can’t just let this go!”
“Me too, me too!”
Everyone was fired up, their eyes gleaming with determination as they awaited Dane’s words. It looked like they’d empty their pockets and hand over every last cent the moment he spoke. At best, it’d probably amount to about 423 dollars and 82 cents.
Of course, Dane couldn’t give them the answer they were hoping for.
“Let me say it again, I get where you’re coming from, but this is reality. I lost. Grayson Miller won.”
Those who had clung to the last shred of hope were stunned into silence. Their grand plan to knock that smug bastard down a peg had just crumbled. Dane repeated himself once more.
“I was late. That guy got here first. So Grayson Miller won.”
Dane pointed at himself, then at Miller. As their gazes followed his finger, Grayson, standing there, flashed a wide grin and waved his hand, as if saying, “I won!”
Naturally, none of them smiled back.
It was then that the female staff members, who’d been watching up until that point, finally started speaking up.
“Too bad, Dane. Still, for you to lose, you must’ve slipped up somewhere.”
“At least you don’t seem too hurt, so that’s a relief. In the end, it’s all about luck.”
A few words of consolation for Dane followed, but suddenly Valentina shouted,
“Grayson is buying drinks, who wants to go?”
It was almost closing time. The perfectly timed suggestion divided the group cleanly in half. The women cheered and waved their hands excitedly, while the men glared at Grayson, their faces contorted.
“We can’t lose like this.”
Wilkins, gritting his teeth, called out to the male staff.
“Drinks are on me. Let’s drink till we puke, got it?”
“Yeah!”
The men shouted back, refusing to be outdone. When Dane raised a hand as if he had something to say, Wilkins immediately put on a stern expression.
“No. I don’t care if you use the cat excuse, there’s no getting out of this tonight, so just accept it. We all know you’d just go home and drink beer anyway.”
“It’s not an excuse, my cat is actually waiting…”
“Don’t make me laugh. I know full well that cat eats just fine without you.”
“Yeah, and you even got two days of paid leave. There’s no way you’re getting out of this.”
Ezra chimed in from the side. Dane immediately furrowed his brows in displeasure, but he had no choice but to lower his hand. And just like that, as soon as work ended, they banded together and headed to the
bar.
With his colleagues forming a scrum around him to prevent any escape, Dane couldn’t even think about bolting and was dragged to the bar with no way out. However, Wilkins had to endure a harsh scolding from the chief first.
Bang!
At the sound of the desk being slammed hard, Wilkins flinched despite his large frame. The chief, breathing heavily, glared at him with ferocious eyes.
“Why the hell are you doing things I didn’t even tell you to do? What, you don’t have enough work? Are you bored? Then you should have gone to the school down the street and volunteered!”
“I’m sorry, Chief.”
Wilkins bowed his head and apologized in a voice that sounded pitifully small for his size. But he wasn’t entirely without an excuse.
“But Chief, it was a last resort on my part. Ever since that guy showed up, the team’s morale has been a
mess. We needed to put him in his place, just once.”
“And did you succeed? Did you put him in his place?!”
Wilkins shrank back at the bellowed question, muttering a feeble “No” in response. The chief, as if suffocating from frustration, yanked at his tie to loosen it and pounded his chest.
“Did I tell you to leave him alone or not? Why are you stirring up trouble and giving me a headache?! Did you think I told you not to mess with him just for fun? Huh?”
“… But we can’t just let him do whatever he wants. You’ve seen it too, Chief. The team’s been going crazy since he arrived.”
“This is really giving me such a headache. It’s just a year, one year! You couldn’t hold it together for that long and caused this mess? You and your team are all the same! Don’t you have any fear?”
“Of course, I’m afraid of Miller, but…”
“Miller’s the second problem! It’s Grayson-that’s the real issue! That guy right there!”
As if driven mad with frustration, the chief shouted wildly.
Wilkins, flustered, could only blink and stare at him.
Wasn’t Grayson just some chaotic, promiscuous slacker?
Sure, Extreme Alphas were said to be psychopaths, but he hadn’t exactly shown that side of himself.
Seeing the confusion plainly written on the team leader’s face, the chief, still breathing heavily, spoke in a
slightly calmer voice.
“Do you know what he did during his interview?”
“…No, I don’t.”
“Of course you don’t, I never told you.”
Wilkins was taken aback by the chief’s self-assured response. The chief, seeing his subordinate’s
dumbfounded expression, continued in his still gruff voice,
“All I asked Miller were pretty standard questions. Why he wanted to be a firefighter, what he wanted to
do if he became one, if he had any previous work experience, things like that.”
As the chief said, those were basic questions typically asked in an interview. Wilkins waited in confusion
and the chief went on.
“But do you know what Miller said in response?”
“I don’t, since you haven’t told me yet.”
Learning from earlier, Wilkins quickly added. Seemingly displeased with the reply, the chief shot him a
glare before continuing.
“His answers were perfect. Not a single flaw to pick at.”
“…And?”
Still not understanding, Wilkins prompted him. Suddenly, the chief placed both hands on the desk, leaned
forward, and locked eyes with him.
“That’s the problem. He recited the answers perfectly. Word for word, like the video.”
“Video? …Ah!”
As realization belatedly hit Wilkins and he let out a gasp, the chief nodded and straightened up again.
“Yes, that video we made. The training video we uploaded to the website.”