And Brown wasn’t kidding. Every time I thought about sneaking away for a workout or a lesson with Connor over the next two weeks, new files arrived.
Studying all those international criminals fascinated me at first, but after a while, they blurred together. The man I fought could have been almost any of them. I even had to look at blonds, redheads, and blue-eyed guys, because he could have colored his hair and worn contacts. At least I was pretty sure he wasn’t female.
Veena, on the other hand, spent every minute not in class, the dining hall, or bed in the halfpipe.
“She’s gonna kill herself,” Ali muttered one afternoon as Veena marched out to the slopes, Sona under her arm, Nate beside her. My principal was on a mission, but I couldn’t help noticing her hunched shoulders, bent back, and a slight limp from what sounded like a gnarly fall the afternoon before. Ali was right. We couldn’t leave for Switzerland too soon as far as Veena was concerned.
“How are you feeling about the Games?” I asked. Veena insisted Ali was better than her tenth place in the world ranking, that she had a shot at making the podium and medaling.
She made a noise. “Strung out, but I always am before big events. I get there, loosen up, and get my groove on.” She did a little spin move.
I nodded. The waiting—waiting for Laax, waiting for Veena to nail the double V, waiting for the kidnappers to make another move—stressed me out, too.
While Veena trained, I sat at my table at the clubhouse, listening and looking at files, my back to a wall so no one could see. When I thought I might be close with a few dialects, I had Veena listen. She’d heard the kidnappers, too, but between her panic and the muffling effect of the laundry cart and dirty towel pile she was stuffed into, she was even less sure than I was. The task felt hopeless.
While I worked, I watched for the mystery man to reappear in the clubhouse. Not that I really thought he would. Still, who the hell was he, and why wasn’t Brown worried about him?
And there was Connor. Thanks to the extra work, dinner with him never happened. He seemed unfazed, texting me most nights to check in anyway. Why couldn’t he be annoyed or drift away like a normal guy would?
Could it be because his interest in me—or Veena—wasn’t normal?
Seventeen
The excruciating wait was almost over: tomorrow we’d fly from Denver to Zurich.
Veena and I spent the afternoon packing. Given that this was the big show, Muth and Newman had planned a special pep talk for that night.
When we arrived at the darkened Summit Room after dinner, music pumped, and red, yellow, blue, green, and black streamers festooned the place—Olympic colors. A giant white cake decorated with the Olympic flag covered a table. The plates, cups, and napkins matched the streamers. A disco ball hung from the ceiling tiles, and a few colored strobe lights zoomed through the room. The school had outdone itself.
A gyrating girl that I recognized from American History handed everyone plastic glow-in-the-dark Olympic torches on the way in. Kids swung them around, creating light trails. Ali and Veena stood open-mouthed at the door and then whooped with excitement. Gage slid by them and into the darkness, his hips already moving to the music.
“Haven’t you ever had a school dance before?” I asked the girls.
“This is Vail Mountain Academy.” Veena’s eyes shone with excitement. “We ski and ride and study. We don’t dance.”
“Looks like you do tonight.”
“Damn right!” Ali stuck her torch into her bra so it lit up her face from below and shimmied onto the dance floor. Veena followed, bouncing up and down to the music.
I started to follow her, but someone blocked my view.
“Just the girl I was looking for,” Jake said. “You never danced with me at the Grinders show.” His gelled hair glistened in the low light, and for once, he was wearing fitted jeans instead of sweatpants. “How about now?”
I shot him an incredulous look. Did he not remember that night at all? How drunk had he been?
“Sorry, I only slow dance,” I said. A fast and furious hip-hop song was on, but right then the song ended and a pop ballad started. Slow and romantic.
Jake grinned, and I sighed. I meant to say a simple no thanks and move on, but something across the room made me pause. Darya’s dark eyes burned an angry hole into Jake’s back.
And it all clicked: Darya sitting at Jake’s table in the dining hall, Darya sneaking out after training, Darya whispering on the phone. She was hooking up with him. And seeing him with me now, the look on her face was pure jealousy.
In the seconds it took to put all that together, Jake had pulled me out on the floor and tight against his body. Gage’s eyebrows shot up, but Ali and Veena didn’t notice; they had their arms around each other, belting out the lyrics of the song. Now that we were out here, I might as well see how Darya reacted.
“So, I hear you’re Veena’s bodyguard,” Jake said. “Have you killed anyone?”
It was the fifth time someone asked me that today. I fixed him with a hard stare. “Not yet.”
“I’ll bet you know some sweet fight moves.” Jake dipped me suddenly, cracking my back, then pulled me back up. “Show me one?”
My eyes found Darya as a strobe light illuminated her face. She was even paler than usual, and tears shone in her eyes. Despite everything I thought she’d done, I felt guilty. Sixteen wasn’t that long ago; I remembered how much it hurt to watch guys I liked flirt with other girls.
“Hey, is Darya your girlfriend?” I swung him around to see her face. She hurriedly wiped her eyes, glared at him for a second and then looked away.
He shrugged. “She’s my hookup.”
“Doesn’t look like she feels the same.”
“That’s her problem.”
I
