Chapter Fifty-Eight

After a trip to the venue during which no one spoke, Natalie jumped out of the van the second it stopped moving. She didn’t want to spend another second seething at the back of Darcy’s head.

Natalie was livid with Darcy but if she was honest with herself—which she absolutely was not at the moment—she was more hurt by finding out, again, that there was no space for her on the team. They didn’t need her any more than the U.S. team needed her. She was an afterthought, unnecessary on the ice, in the commentary studio, or even in that fucking meeting.

She and Darcy had gone from happily planning a trip together to fighting in the matter of a few short hours. She couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.

She shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her coat and tromped through the snow to the location for their biathlon lesson. When she first heard about the segment, she wasn’t sure she wanted to shoot anything. She hated guns but now that her day had turned into a complete nightmare, she didn’t mind the idea of shooting something. It might help with the seething anger she felt toward everyone from Hank and Raquel to Darcy.

Why did they bring her into that meeting if all they were going to do was make her feel like shit? They could’ve had the meeting with Darcy by herself if they weren’t going to offer her the job with Darcy. Why bring her in at all?

A chill slipped down her spine. Oh fuck. Did they invite her to the meeting? Or did she assume she was supposed to go with Darcy because they thought of themselves as a package deal?

The setup for the day was near the shooting range at the biathlon event. Natalie met two of the athletes, Jesse and Kira, when she arrived.

“Wasn’t enough for you to do one sport?”

Kira smiled. “Too slow to beat the folks who do the straight skiing. But I’m a good shot so that helps me here.”

Jesse adjusted his knit hat. “I grew up shooting targets with my mom when I was a kid and I had so much energy she made me get outside and burn it off. Biathlon seemed like the perfect thing.”

Darcy arrived with one of the producers to explain what they were doing for the segment. “We don’t think people want to see us try to ski again so we are going to have you teach us how to hit the targets.”

“Or not look too stupid when we miss badly,” Natalie added with a smile to Jesse and Kira.

The producer, a short, square woman named Iris, interrupted them. “Raquel doesn’t want them to show you how to do anything before we start filming.”

Natalie shook her head. “Great. She wants to get every second of us looking terrible on film. With any luck she’ll make a whole blooper reel.”

Jesse and Kira shared a nervous look.

Darcy reassured them. “Don’t worry, she would never make you two look silly. That’s our whole entire job.”

The athletes laughed and took Iris’s direction about the segment. A few minutes later, the camera operator signaled she was ready for them to start.

They explained the sport and asked the athletes to show them how to shoot at the targets. Jesse showed them how to shoot lying on the ground and Kira showed them the standing approach.

They each nailed all their targets with no problem.

“Well, that looks fairly straightforward,” Natalie said. “Which clearly means we’ll make a mess of it.”

Darcy took one of the rifles and lined up the targets. “Those things are tiny. I can hardly see them!”

Natalie laughed. “So was your point total in college,” she said.

Darcy scowled. “Know what score is easy to remember? Three to one in gold medals.”

Natalie forced herself to smile for the camera but inwardly she seethed. She lined up her shot and pulled the trigger. And ended up hitting one of Darcy’s targets.

Darcy gestured for the camera to get a close-up. “I’m so good I don’t even have to try to score!”

Jesse and Kira smiled and gave them each another lesson in shooting. Once they’d unloaded their first round, they paused.

“Okay, now I want you to get a sense of what it’s like to shoot under the conditions we deal with. So, why don’t you run to that pole over there and sprint back.”

“You’re kidding,” Natalie said.

Kira shook her head. “Nope, one of the hardest parts is trying to keep steady after you’ve been skiing hard. Your producer asked how we could mimic that without putting you both back on skis. We came up with this idea. Run over there and sprint back and then when you get here we may have you do a few other things to get your heart rate up.”

Iris gave them a look that told them not to argue. The camera operator held up her hand and then signaled for them to go. They took off at a dead sprint, Darcy in the lead until Natalie used her superior conditioning to pull ahead of Darcy’s longer strides. They looped around a pole and came rushing back, practically elbowing each other out of the way as they did.

When they returned to the shooting station, Jesse had his hand over his mouth, covering a smile. “Now, ten burpees should get you both really breathing hard.”

Darcy and Natalie glared at the camera but dropped and started doing burpees as fast as they could. At seven, Darcy swore under her breath and Natalie cracked up.

“God, I hope you got that on camera.”

By the time they both finished, they were breathing hard, and Darcy looked homicidal.

“Now you know what it feels like when we make it into a shooting station.” He handed them each a rifle. “Why don’t you try the prone position for this since it will be easier to hold steady.”

Natalie and Darcy rushed to drop to the ground. Holy shit it was hard to breath and line up the gun on the tiny little targets.

“This sport is completely wild,” Natalie said, panting. “Who on earth thought it was a good idea?”

Kira laughed. “It was a military thing at first and the shooting just stuck.”

Both Darcy and Natalie tried for the targets and failed spectacularly.

“Last shot,” Natalie said, turning to look at Darcy. “It all comes down to this, LaCroix. Kind of like my last-minute goal in the gold medal game, eh?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Look, glory days, why don’t you concentrate on how I’m about to kick your ass today.” She paused and took her final shot. She hit the target, placing the pressure squarely on Natalie to match her skill.

Natalie took a deep breath and steadied herself. The last thing she needed on this disaster of a day was to lose to Darcy on camera. She found the final target, squeezed the trigger, and waited.

Kira thrust her hands toward the sky. “Nailed it!”

Natalie jumped up, leaving her rifle on the ground. She was happy to be done with it and even happier not to have lost to Darcy. “Looks like we’ll have to call it a tie, LaCroix. Thank you to our excellent tutors. Good luck in your races, we’ll be pulling for you.”

Darcy smiled for the camera. “And we’ll see you again for our final segment of the Olympics. We have something special in store for all of you, so we hope you’ll tune in.”

They said goodbye to Jesse and Kira and did a few more shots without them to make sure their segment had everything they needed. By the time they were done, they both trudged back to the van, exhausted.

Natalie had almost forgotten about the disastrous meeting earlier in the day. Her anger had cooled a bit after so much running around and goofing off in the segment.

But when they got back to the van there was a message waiting for them.

Darcy rubbed a hand over her cold cheeks and showed Natalie her messages. “Raquel asked me to come back to the office for the afternoon.”

Natalie’s heart sank. “Of course. You have to be ready for your big break.” She sneered. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine in the hotel all afternoon. I won’t get in your way.”

“Nat, you know that’s not what I was saying.”

Natalie climbed into the van and slammed the door. Sure, she was being childish but she was pissed. Left off the team, again. Expendable. Not worth fighting for. All these thoughts swirled into a dangerous tornado in her head.

She put her earbuds in and stared out the window all the way back to the offices. When Darcy hopped out, Natalie found a shuttle to take her back to the hotel without bothering to stop at her desk.

She didn’t want to be anywhere she wasn’t welcome.