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Quentin glanced over his shoulder at a red light. “I’m looking forward to a time when I’m never getting shot at again, but it’s not your fucking fault. Did things work out in Austin?”
My stomach knotted all over again. “About as well as we really could have hoped. I don’t think Rafael’s old gang will hassle us anymore, at least.”
My mother, well… Who knew what hell she’d rain down on us next?
As the adrenaline seeped away, the idea I’d had before swam up through my scattered thoughts. I studied it, turning it over in my head as my confidence grew.
That… That wouldn’t solve all our problems. Not even our most immediate problems. But it was one piece of the puzzle that I’d like to put to rest if I could.
When we got back to the apartment, all my body wanted to do was drop dead on my mattress. I forced myself to stay up, cuddling with my men and sipping tea, until Rafael walked through the door.
He dipped his head to me. “It’s all handled. We’ll need to do a little damage control with the arena management because of the security guard and the girls they scared, but we might be able to keep our names out of the situation.”
Niko’s head came up. “I’ll start talking to them right away. Get ahead of the situation.”
As he grabbed his phone and headed into his bedroom for quiet, I got up and grasped Rafael’s arm. He let me pull him into my own room. When I turned to face him, his expression was solemn but curious.
“What’s the matter, Lou? You don’t look like you’re hauling me in here to jump my bones.”
An exhausted laugh tumbled out of me. “I think I’m too wiped to do that even if I was in the mood. Nothing’s the matter. I’ve just—I’ve been thinking.”
Rafael furrowed his brow. “About stopping training? You know that—”
I held up my hand. “No. I think that ship has sailed. We’re on this course, no matter what comes. But I’m looking ahead to after things are more settled, and where that course might end up takingyoutoo.”
The furrows deepened. “What are you talking about?”
I drew myself as tall and straight as I could. “You know I’ve never wanted my mother’s throne, Rafael. But someone needs to be the Deadly Rose. And I think you would make a much better heir than I ever have.”
Rafael blinked at me, shock blanking his expression. “Qué?Lou, you can’t really mean—”
The fact that the possibility had never even occurred to him only strengthened my resolve. “Of course I can,” I interrupted. “It makes way more sense than me taking over. You’ve seen the problems with my mom’s approach—and how it’s gotten even worse. You want to make things better. You’re a good leader. You know how to take command but also be fair, and you haven’t lost your compassion, even if you know how to hide it.”
He still looked bewildered. “I don’t know. I never would have asked for anything like this.”
I gave him a soft smile. “I know you wouldn’t have. But honestly, if I get control over the Deadly Rose empire, I’d hand it over to you in a heartbeat. If you’re willing to take it. You should think about it.”
I knew I would be thinking about it a lot… while I tried to see a way to wrench that power away from my mother before she destroyed us all.
EIGHTEEN
Niko
“Please consider givingus a call back, Mr. Okabe,” the reporter said as she wrapped up the voicemail she’d left me. “There’s already a lot of speculation about how the recent shooting at the Sports Garden arena might be related to your attack and Ms. Garcia’s family connections.”
Beep!
Wincing, I set my phone down. In the past two days, the calls had been pouring in from both news stations and skating officials, and I hadn’t had anything useful to tell any of them. The memory of cringing behind a bench, my heart racing faster than a bullet train at the thought of the actual bullets being fired, left my stomach knotted. And I wasn’t going to admit to any of them that the incident was not only related to Lou but directly targeting her.
The worst wasn’t even the nosy reporters. I could fend them off without any trouble—I’d been doing that ever since I stepped into the spotlight in my teens. But I’d generally kept on the good side of the professionals in our sport, even if they might have muttered about me behind my back from time to time.
The president of the Japan Skating Federation himself had left me a message this morning. His stern words lingered in my memory.You still represent Japan even if you’re coaching Americans. You should take more care in who you associate with. Think of what all these rumors are doing to our sport’s reputation!
That was the message I’d been getting over and over again from the skating world: my trainees were damaging the public’s view of figure skating. The growing scandal was giving the wrong impression about what we stood for. Soon reporters would be eyeing all participants with more suspicious eyes.
And so on and so on.
What could I tell them? Yes, Lou had brought a lot of commotion with her, but it wasn’t her fault. She was doing her best to put the horrors she’d experienced behind her and separate herself from that part of her life. Should she have been cut off from the sport she loved because of how other people were targeting her?
