“Have fun,” Kendra said before waving and heading away from the girl.
Kendra wasn’t the center of the OCR universe. There were plenty of other strong competitors, men and women. Her absence wasn’t going to ruin anyone’s day.
She continued through the masses, getting more recognition and approving looks before the crowd began to grow sparser. She hadn’t spotted Graham, but she wasn’t going to text him until she was done with pulling out of the race. Some things were best presented without options.
What was she even worried about?
Graham would understand. He’d made it clear she should do what was best for her even if it required him to go find a new way to make a living. He was the kind of man who didn’t worry about things he couldn’t change.
The crowd thinned a little more as she passed by the main sportsplex building. Kendra tried not to glare at it, now suspecting some sort of secret lab inside.
She scoffed. Letting her imagination run wild wouldn’t help. They obviously didn’t have a lab in the middle of a major sporting event, even if they had some people in security looking for hybrids.
The evil Ouroboros jerks were messing with the wrong Vestal. She wasn’t sure how she could help CJ after this, but she didn’t like bullies and would do everything he thought might help her, including using her show if necessary.
It didn’t matter if the hybrids were superhuman. They were the underdogs against organizations like the Horatius Group and Ouroboros. They were victims, robbed of their freedom.
Kendra drifted away from the crowd lost in thought. The more she thought about it, the more she concluded taking some time off from the channel might be a good thing. Having a hunky hybrid as an excuse made it easy to justify.
“Oof,” she let out after crashing into a large man.
Kendra blinked and stepped back, waving her hands in front of her. Her cheeks heated. She’d been relying too much on her instincts. “Sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
The man in front of her was a good size, though not as big as CJ. His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses. He frowned for a second, but it quickly changed into a smile, though there was something cold about it.
“Miss Champion,” the man said, sounding slightly amused.
Kendra cringed. She’d not just run into anyone. She’d run into a fan.
What was the weird smile about? Was he angry that the Roving Champion was such an airhead she couldn’t avoid bumping into someone?
“I’m really sorry,” she replied. “I wasn’t paying attention. I know that’s no excuse, but… are you all right? I didn’t make you spill something, did I?”
“I’m fine. Even better now that I’ve run into you.” He inclined his head toward the building. “Can I talk to you in there for a moment? I was actually hoping to find you at some point.”
“You were?” Kendra asked, trying not to frown. It wouldn’t be the first fan who thought all he needed to do to get a date from her was find her.
“My company’s here looking for sponsorship opportunities.” The man chuckled. “And I think it means something that the Roving Champion herself ran right into me. Call it fate, or at least a marketing opportunity.”
“Oh.” Kendra chuckled. “This might be a bad time to talk to me.” She sighed and gestured to her leg. “I think I pulled something in training. I was making my way to registration to resign. I’m going to have to take a couple of weeks, maybe even months before I can compete again.”
He shook his head. “That’s not a problem. We’re looking for a long-term relationship, and we understand this kind of thing comes with the sport.”
“I really don’t have a lot of time right now.” Kendra gestured in the vague direction of the registration desks on the other side of the course. Obstacles and the thick crowd hid them from view. Her sense of hurry resurfaced. It was one thing when she was wandering along, another to have impromptu business meetings. “I need to pull out before things begin. It makes things run less smoothly when they’re expecting people, and then they find out the athlete can’t run at the last minute.”
“I understand all that, but it’ll just take a couple of minutes, and then you can be on your way.” He extended his hand. “Michael.”
Kendra gave his hand a firm shake, wondering if she should blow him off. Burning bridges when so many things were up in the air wasn’t the best idea.
“Well, you already know who I am,” she said. “I suppose it’s not going to kill me to spend a few minutes talking.”
“Exactly.” Michael headed toward the door. “This is a great opportunity. It’ll allow me to make a much better case than an email.”
Kendra hesitated for a moment before following him. CJ’s warnings lingered in the back of her mind, but she’d passed by the building several times and saw normal staffers moving in and out despite her earlier paranoia. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be some bad guy headquarters unless the entire event was controlled by Ouroboros, and if that were the case, they wouldn’t have had to sneak equipment onto the obstacles at night.
Whatever happened with CJ, she still needed a career in the future. Graham said her current sponsors were soft, and so lining up new, more thoughtful ones wasn’t a bad idea until she was sure she was done being the Roving Champion. Besides, if this ended up a trap, all she needed to do was kick him in the balls and scream her head off and wait as hundreds of people and two hybrids rushed to her aid. This wasn’t some nighttime sneak attack where the bad guys could do whatever they wanted without people noticing.
Kendra jogged after Michael. He opened the
