In training, our prospective clients were nameless, faceless people. Veena had a name, a face, and a big heart. The words I was about to say felt heavy on my tongue.
“Veena—if you want to stay, if you want to keep taking this risk, maybe we should ask Brown to find someone else to protect you. Someone with experience who really knows what they’re doing.”
She scoffed. “No way. I don’t want anyone else. You’re doing a great job, Nic.”
“If you mean because you’re still breathing, then yeah, I’ve been stellar. But this new threat is more serious. Somehow these people have eyes on you. Which means they probably know who I am, what I’m doing here, and exactly how much I’ve screwed this up already. Connor knows I’m your CPO.” And so did Gage, Ali, and who knew how many other students at VMA.
“How did he find out?”
“He heard a rumor. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Maybe I don’t belong here.”
“Don’t belong here?” Veena gripped my arm harder than I think she meant to. “Have you looked around my school, this resort, this town? Other than Gage, have you seen a single other person of color here?”
I hadn’t thought about it, but except for Gage and Brown, I’d seen very few.
“Snowboarding is like the whitest, white-on-white sport I could have picked. Don’t you think I’ve wondered if I belong? But that only made me work harder, work smarter, and want it more. I don’t only want to be the first Indian-American to medal in the Games, I want to be the best that ever rode.” She pointed at my chest, a coal fire burning in her eyes. “Don’t say you don’t belong here, Nic. Because if you don’t, then I don’t, and I won’t accept that. Got it? Don’t you give up on me, Nic. Not now.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Her expression kind of scared me.
She held up a glove for a high-five, and I whacked it with my own.
She nodded. “All right, then. I’ll train my butt off this week, and you’ll figure out how to protect me. Forget parents and bosses and threats. We’re doing this. Now let’s go back before we freeze our eggplants off.”
“Damn, Veena. You should be a motivational speaker or something.”
“All in the plan. First, stay alive long enough for the Olympics. Second, win a gold medal. Third, show Anders what he’s missing. And last but not least, change the minds of all the brown girls in the world who think they can’t ride because they’ve never seen someone who looks like them do it.”
At that, she sat again and slid down the wall of the halfpipe with a shriek of laughter. When she reached the bottom, she jumped up, ran up the other wall, and performed some kind of twisting, turning trick in the air before landing on her feet. I watched, open-mouthed, before sliding down, too.
She helped me up. “But let’s start with step one. Keep me alive, Nic. Keep me alive.” She paused a second, thinking. “And I’ll step up my puja, just in case.”
Back in her room, Veena lit some incense and turned on some music. I called Xene from my office. My voice echoed around the ceramic bathroom tiles as I played with a dry bar of soap.
“The threats are growing more serious, and I don’t know what to do.” I told her about the video.
“Escalation is expected. They are trying to scare the Venkatesans into complying. This is your first job, Nicole. Of course, you are unsure. What has your team said?”
“That I’m a disaster. Brown’s almost fired me twice, and I’m sure the rest of them laugh at me behind my back on the daily.”
“Have you asked for their help, like I suggested?”
Umm, no. “They already think I’m an idiot.”
“Then you have nothing to lose. Start there. You need their experience. You need them on your side.”
Why did I ignore her advice before? Because pride, that’s why. I was too proud. Now, I didn’t care. I’d gotten everything wrong doing it my way.
I asked Kovitch to take point with Veena so I could talk to Brown in person, which I’d only done once since the day I arrived. I could have met with him every day on my hours off, learning what I could do to improve. What the hell had I been waiting for?
I took the stairs to his room at the Eagle’s Nest Inn. I hadn’t texted to let him know I was coming. As I knocked, I realized he probably already knew from tracking me. When he answered, his coat and shoes were off.
“Sorry it’s so late, but I need to talk to you, Chief.”
“Yes, you do. Come in.” He gestured to the kitchenette. “Would you like a water? Plenty in the fridge.”
“No, thanks.” I was still full from our pizza dinner, and I always stayed extra hydrated now.
He waved to a chair at the table by the window. “Have a seat.”
He poured himself a glass of sparkling water from a can on the bar that separated the kitchen area from the living room. His suite was messier than before, with takeout containers on the coffee table, dirty dishes in the sink, and a recycle bin overflowing with paper. The clutter made him more human somehow.
I settled in, and he sat across from me. On a desk in the corner, his computer screen showed a map with two groupings of small, different colored dots. A brown and green dot hung close together, while others were some distance away and spread out from each other. Brown caught me looking.
He leaned back in his chair and circled the building with the brown and green
