Page 51 of Death Drop

“Yes,” I said, even though it wasn’t a question. After years facing my mother’s demands and barrages of criticism, I knew how to keep all emotion from my face and my voice. “We were training at the same arena in Boston.”

I didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned that Nancy didn’t continue prodding that particular subject just yet. She leaned her chin onto her hand. “Unfortunately, it seems the switch to pairs didn’t work out all that well for you. You ultimately placed too low in the Finals competition to earn a spot at the National Championships. Did you consider returning to singles?”

I kept my tone even. “It crossed my mind, but in the end that didn’t work out.”

Nancy raised her eyebrows. “I’m surprised by that, especially considering the intense competitive spirit you just remarked on yourself. At what point during that period did you strike up a closer relationship with Miss Garcia?”

My stomach sank with the recognition of where she was heading with the convergence of questions, but I kept my annoyance under wraps. “It wasn’t until after the Finals competition. Seeing her performances made me want to get to know her better.”

“Would you say your early interest in her might have been somewhat… distracting when it came to your own performance at Finals?”

There it was. She was trying to insinuate that my failures wereLou’sfault.

How fucking dare anyone blame the woman I adored for my screw-ups.

“Not at all,” I forced myself to say smoothly. “If anything, she motivated me to do my best. But it was a gamble switching to pairs so late in training, and that gamble didn’t pay off. I can only blame myself for the loss.”

As the words fell from my mouth and my frustration with the interview simmered inside me, it struck me for the first time how true that was. I didn’t hold the slightest bit of resentment toward Jasper or any of the other skaters who’d advanced ahead of me, not anymore.

Ihadmade my own choices about how to handle my career—and my personal life too. Maybe I’d started with less than other people, but I’d probably had more than some. Could I really say that my overbearing mom had been a bigger burden than Jasper’s frigid asshole of a dad?

I’d carved out a spot for myself in the professional figure skating world, and I’d arrived ages ago. At this point, it really didn’t matter where I’d started, did it? I had to own the decisions I’d made and the paths I’d taken rather than finding excuses for the ones that hadn’t worked out.

Nancy wasn’t finished speculating yet. She tapped her chin with her finger. “You could have staged a comeback at Nationals with your solo routines. Is it fair to say that your budding relationship with Ms. Garcia diverted some of your attention then?”

I couldn’t completely rein in my temper, a little heat creeping into my voice. “No, I wouldn’t say that’s fair at all. The fact of the matter is, I wasn’t able to compete in Nationals mainly because of an injury that had nothing at all to do with Lou.” Okay, that was a lie, but I’dwantedto save her life, so fuck anyone who’d claim it was somehow her fault. “Lou has always supported my skating and encouraged me to be even better than I already am.”

“Even when you were competing against each other?” Nancy asked with a light laugh that made me want to punch her carefully painted face.

I drew myself up straighter in my chair. “Yes. Even then. If anything,Itried to distracther, but she was too professional to let me get under her skin. And since I’ve come around to realizing that I’m better off beside her than against her, she’s pushed me to up my game and encouraged me to focus on areas of my performance I’d neglected before. I’m absolutely a stronger skater because of our time together.”

Nancy hesitated, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of the vehemence in my voice. Then she wet her lips as if she had a particularly juicy question to come. I braced myself.

“That’s wonderful to hear,” she said. “But it’s recently come out that your relationship with Miss Garcia is rather… unconventional. It seems she’s wanted more than what you two had together.”

I barely held back a snort. “If anyone had a right to be bothered by that situation, it was Jasper, not me. He and Lou were together before I even met her, and I always knew that. But something sparked between me and Lou too, and Jasper’s man enough to want her to be as happy as possible more than he wants to keep her all to himself. Like they’ve already said in their public statements, both he and I are totally comfortable with the arrangement we have.”

I wasn’t going to mention there were two other men in the mix. If the media was going to find out about Niko’s or Rafael’s more intimate roles in Lou’s life, it wouldn’t be from me. They were making enough fuss over just a threesome.

Nancy nodded in a way that felt condescending. “Yes, I’ve heard that. It’s just a little hard to believe—as I’m sure many of our viewers will agree—that such an unusual twist to your personal life wouldn’t have some impact on your career.”

I flexed my hands to keep them from balling into fists. This woman really didn’t know how to lay a subject to rest, did she?

Well, if she needed a target other than plain old me, I could give her one.

The idea that’d just struck me sent a jolt that was both exhilaration and apprehension through my chest. For a second, my tongue turned to lead in my mouth. If I said something, if I burned that bridge so publicly—

Then what? It’d simply make it that much harder for me to go back to what I knew was an unhealthy dynamic anyway.

Lou had found the courage to speak up about what she’d endured in front of the world. And the world already had a pretty big inkling what I’d gone through. Why shouldn’t I confirm it?

I fixed the host with my firmest stare. “Look, I get that the video that got out startled a lot of people. But what you all really should be worried about is catching the prick who broke into our apartment to record it. As far as my ability to skate goes, there’s only one person who’s ever interfered with that, and it’s not Luna Garcia.”

Nancy’s eyes lit up with eagerness. “Care to say a little more about that, Mr. Wolfe?”

“I do.” I jerked my gaze toward the cameras. “The only person who’s made it harder for me to give my all on the ice is my mother. But I got tired of her beating me down and trying to control my career, and I recently cut off all ties with her. So you can expect bigger and better things from me when the next competitive circuit kicks off.”

With the last announcement, a rush of relief flooded my veins. It was out in the open—I couldn’t have made the separation between me and Mom more definitive.

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