“All done, smart ass.” I cap the lipstick and toss it into the front pocket of my competition backpack. “And have I made you wait at all this week?”
“No, that’s the annoying part,” Chelsea says, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “Your makeup skills are dark magic.”
“You are so doing my look in Tokyo,” Dani says.
I stop in my tracks. “If I go.”
“You’re going,” Chelsea says with a snort. “I’ve run those numbers from nationals and trials a million times. Gibby might have been an abusive asshole who deserves to have his testicles eaten by mountain lions—”
“Crows,” Dani cuts in, and she shrugs when we stare at her. “It’d be slower.”
“Crows, then,” Chelsea says. “But you, me, Dani, and Emma— our scores made the best combination for the team competition, and nothing is going to change that.”
Unless I fall, I say in my head but don’t voice it. “You’re right. I know you’re right.”
“Good, now, please, caffeine soon, before I pass out.”
We’re about halfway down the stairs when I see them: Agents Farley and Kingston in their black suits talking to Mrs. Jackson.
Agent Kingston is speaking in her soft voice. “Mrs. Jackson, we’re just trying to find out the truth. I think you can appreciate that.”
“Of course I can, and we have been more than cooperative throughout this investigation, but now isnotthe time. Forgive me if I don’t want to put them through the emotional wringer of an FBI interrogation before the most important competition of their lives.”
“What’s going on?” Dani asks, taking the last few steps in one leap.
Agent Farley turns to her. “Dani, I’m so glad to see you here.”
“Thanks,” she says, but she isn’t about to be deterred. “What’s going on?”
“We need to speak to you and your teammates again,” Agent Kingston says.
Dani takes a step back away from them, almost leaning into me and Chelsea as we reach the bottom of the steps. “But I told you. I told you everything, and you said you believed me.”
Agent Kingston flinches like Dani’s words slapped her across the face. “We do, Dani, but …”
Dani doesn’t even wait for her to finish before a sob rips out of her throat. She’s off, running out of the house toward the dock. She flashes by the glass windows overlooking the bay at full speed and then disappears from view.
Chelsea is on her heels, calling after her. “Dani! Dani, wait!”
I’m right behind her, but as I drop my bag by the door, I hear Mrs. Jackson say, “You can speak to them, butafterthe competition. You’ve done enough damage this morning.”
Passing through the door, I follow the path Dani and then Chelsea took out into the early morning haze. The dock is still damp from the night before, and there’s a slight chill in the air. I shiver despite the tracksuit I layered on top of my competition leo. They’re at the end of the dock, rolling up the legs of their pants and sitting down, letting their feet dangle into the water.
I hesitate for a second, rocking back on my heels. Do I belong here? Before the last two weeks I barely knew Dani, but …
“Don’t just stand there, Rey, get in here,” Chelsea says over her shoulder and tilts her head toward Dani’s other side.
Kicking off my sneakers and pulling my pant legs up to my knees, I sit down on the edge of the dock. The water is cool against my ankles, and Dani’s hand is warm when I take it in mine, mirroring Chelsea’s grip on her other hand.
“Apparently, my word isn’t good enough,” she manages to croak out. Her grip on my hand tightens. “I told them everything. I told them how … how he’s been doing this to me for a whole year. He’d tell me he needed more from me, that what I was giving him wasn’t good enough, but that he was rooting for me to come out on top, to prove to him that I was good enough. He’d text me just so I’d know he was watching. I just … I wanted to make this team so badly. I swear, the first time he came to my room … I thought he wanted to talk to me about my gymnastics. I didn’t even think it was weird. How stupid is that?”
“It wasn’t stupid,” Chelsea whispers. “I would have thought that too.”
“We all would have,” I add. “He was … he was in charge of everything. When we ate, trained, slept. Everything.”
Dani laughs, and it’s a hollow sound that chills me far more than the air. “Sleeping, yeah. Do you know he gave me my own room at worlds last year? I knew why and I didn’t say anything. Didn’t ask anyone to share. I just stayed there and waited like an idiot.”
“You’re not,” Chelsea and I say at the same time, and when Dani laughs at us, it sounds a little stronger than before.
