“Xene, she saved my job.”
“Then prove she made the right choice. Do your job well.”
Can’t I do that and be friendly with her? Xene would say no. But she wasn’t here. I had to do things my way.
“Okay. I hear you. And we should talk to Muth about Darya?”
“Yes. Use the administration to put pressure on anyone you think could be a local threat.”
I checked my watch. Hopefully he’d still be in the building so I could meet with him. We talked a minute longer, and I thanked her before hanging up. Outside, Veena’s feet were on her desk, and her laptop in her lap.
“I’m going to talk to Muth,” I said.
She glanced up. “What about?”
I braced myself. “Darya.”
“Nic, don’t. She’ll hate me more if she thinks you ran to Muth about her. That door thing was an accident.”
She was cradling her arm. When she saw me glance at it, she let it go.
“She might be the one threatening you,” I said.
“I don’t think she’d do that. Look, Darya’s not the friendliest human, but she’s here, doing all this work, training hard . . . she doesn’t want to get kicked out for something stupid.”
Xene’s words floated in my head. She does not get to make all the decisions. Do your job and keep her safe. “We need to check out every angle, and if a student’s involved, have a paper trail with the administration. I have to tell him.”
She leaned her chair back and exhaled. “Okay.”
“Where’s she from again?” Bella something.
“Belarus.”
I did some quick Googling. “If you need to leave, text me so I can tell the team.”
I re-entered my office to videocall Brown and check my plan. He kept sniffing and wiping his nose with a tissue.
“Go ahead and talk to Muth.” He was congested, too. “I’ll do some digging around about this girl. What was her name again?
“Darya Yakavenka. She’s from Belarus. That’s in Eastern Europe between Russia and Poland.”
“I know where Belarus is, Green.” He wrote himself a note. More to himself than me, he added, “This school is something else. Kids from all over.”
“Tell me about it. Black Diamond’s in her room. She’ll text if she needs to leave.”
“I’ll let Ice know.”
I paused before disconnecting. “You all right, Chief?”
“I have a cold.”
Guilt wiggled around inside me. Brown was sick, and Cooley and Kovitch’s teams had to be freezing their balls off outside, especially at night. The school, on the other hand, was toasty warm, and I was hydrated and well fed again.
“I hope you feel better, sir.”
“Me, too, Green. Me, too.”
I braced myself to talk to Muth. I could do this without calling him names. Maybe.
I tapped on the outer door of Newman’s office and went in when he answered. The dean of students wore a spiffy navy scarf and jacket combo today.
“I’d like to speak with Dr. Muth, please,” I said.
He pushed away his keyboard, straightening it a little on his desk as he did. “I’m sorry. He’s left the office for the day. May I help you?”
Muth said Newman knew the score about Veena and the threats. If I told him what happened, he could tell his boss, and I wouldn’t have to deal with the man himself. Perfect.
“Sure, thanks.”
He gestured to a chair. “Have a seat, please.”
I did, and folding his arms on his desk, he gave me his full attention with a smile. A nice change of pace.
“You know why I’m here at VMA, right?” I asked.
His forehead creased. “I do. These students are already under a lot of pressure. I feel awful that Veena has this to deal with, too.”
I agreed. “And I’ve just found out that one of the other students is causing problems for her.”
His forehead furrowed even more. “Who? And what kind of problems?”
I told him about the smack talk earlier and about what happened in the locker room.
Newman’s groomed eyebrows shot up. “She hit her intentionally?”
“I can’t be sure. But I think she heard Veena’s voice through the door before she popped it into her.”
“Was Veena injured?”
“She blocked it with her arm, and it left a bruise.”
He scribbled away on a notepad while I talked.
“Trust me,” I said, “she doesn’t want me to be here right now reporting Darya, but I thought the administration should know.”
He nodded. “You were right to come and tell us. Like most schools, we have no tolerance for bullying, and we absolutely want to know about these kinds of situations. I’ll type up a note and speak with Dr. Muth when he returns. Thank you so much for letting us know; we’ll handle this.”
I stood and shook his hand. Now that was the kind of response I was looking for. Muth could take some lessons from his dean.
Newman walked me out. Close up, he smelled citrusy and looked like maybe he shaved at lunch with an electric razor. His jacket looked expensive. I hadn’t been here long, but he wasn’t the typical Colorado ski bum working to pay for his season pass.
Maybe Newman was gunning for Muth’s job. If so, he had my vote.
After breakfast the next morning, Veena and I walked to history class with Ali and Gage. Today, Gage’s shaggy black hair was falling into his eyes, and he wore a sweatshirt, joggers, and flip-flops.
He smiled when he saw me. “How’s it going, Nic? Feeling better now?”
Flushing at the reminder of how badly I’d screwed up my first day on the job, I held up a full water bottle. “Yeah. A lot.”
“Live and learn, right?”
“With Nic, it’s live and let die,” Ali loud-whispered. Her blond dreads were tied up in a piece of purple cloth. “She’s Bond. Nicole Bond.”
She put her hands together in the shape of a handgun. Veena elbowed her with a worried look at me, but I just rolled my eyes. Ali thumped me on the back.
“I got pissed at a party the first weekend I got here. The next day I was hung-over and had altitude sickness. Won’t
