The Fall (The Tortured Hearts #3)

1. Savannah

ONE

SAVANNAH

This can’t be happening. Really. This has to be a joke.

Max squeezes my hand, and I force a smile onto my face.

“I’m so excited for you,” I say, but unfortunately, it doesn’t sound sincere at all.

Coach Tati has decided that it’s time to retire. Or semi-retire, as she’s calling it. Her daughter just had a baby, and she wants to watch the baby while her daughter works. I get it. Tati has dedicated most of her life to ice dance. I’m sure she’s tired and ready for a break.

If it were anybody else, I’d be happy for her, but Coach Tati has been with me for almost ten years now and through two different partner changes.

She and I, we’re a team. We were supposed to be a team at the Winter Olympics, and she’s giving up on me only two years before we get another chance to make that happen.

This ruins everything.

The feeling of my future going down the drain overwhelms me.

“You’re not excited, Savannah. You can drop the fake smile,” Coach Tati tells me. She can always tell when I’m bullshitting her and has no problem calling me out on it. This is one reason we work so well together. Sometimes, I think she knows me better than I know myself.

Occasionally, I can get a little over the top. My dreams of going to the Olympics for ice dance have consumed my life. I’m dedicated. I’m determined. I believe that it will happen. Or at least I did until this news was dropped on me.

I sigh. “I am excited for you, Coach. I’m just… surprised, I guess.”

“I understand. It’s not a decision I made lightly, and I’m not going away completely.

I’m still going to supervise, but I’m going to hire a few more coaches to take most of the work off my shoulders.

I won’t be part of your day-to-day practices, but I’m still a call or an email away.

You and Maxim are a wonderful pair. Together, you can make it happen. I believe that with my whole heart.”

Max squeezes my hand again, and I look over to my partner. We’ve been skating together for four years now, and he’s the best partner I’ve ever had. We really work well together. I trust him completely.

I look back at my coach. “I’m going to miss you yelling at us every morning.”

She laughs. “Don’t worry. I’ve hired a new coach for you, and I have no doubt he’ll be doing just as much yelling.”

My stomach sinks. She’s already picked out a new coach? That means she’s been interviewing. She’d known for a while now she’d be leaving and didn’t mention a thing. That somehow makes it even worse.

“Who is it?” I ask.

She looks down at the time on her phone. “He’ll be here in about thirty minutes to meet with you. I don’t want to tell you who it is yet because I want you to keep an open mind.”

I scoff.

“Yes, I’m talking about you, Savannah. You know if I tell you his name, you’ll start looking him up online and coming up with an opinion before you’ve even met him.”

She’s… not wrong. But what else am I supposed to do?

This unknown man is literally about to have my hopes and dreams in his hands.

What if he’s terrible? What if we don’t get along?

I’d have to leave Tati’s organization altogether, which I don’t want to do.

I love all the coaches, choreographers, and PTs.

Having this support system was one of the main reasons I left Nebraska to come to Colorado ten years ago.

“I wouldn’t do that,” I lie.

Max laughs next to me. “Yeah, you would.”

“Shut up. You’d be right there next to me, looking over my shoulder. Don’t lie.”

He smirks and shrugs a shoulder. I’ll take that as an agreement.

“If you’re worried about me searching for him online, that must mean I’ll find something bad.”

Coach Tati shakes her head at us. “You’re impossible. Trust me, this will be a good thing. You two go warm up, and I’ll come get you when it’s time to make the introductions.”

“Ok,” I say, my shoulders sagging in defeat.

I was hoping by the end of this conversation, she’d tell me this was just a joke and that she was staying.

Unfortunately, I can tell by the look in her eyes that she’s serious.

She’s leaving us. She’s leaving me. After everything we’ve been through together.

All the practices, the injuries, the wins, the losses.

She’s always been there, and now she won’t be.

I don’t know how to process this information.

Max tugs my arm, and we make our way toward the ice. We had already done our off-ice warm-up and stretching before Coach called us into a private room to talk, so we’re ready to get on the ice now. We remove our skate guards and step onto the ice.

Max skates off ahead of me, doing his normal laps around the rink.

I follow behind a little slower, easing my muscles into it.

It’s early morning, so everyone on the ice is here to practice.

We rarely have the ice to ourselves, but at least when it’s this early, we don’t have to worry about dodging people who can barely skate.

Once I pick up speed, I add in my twizzles.

Max comes up next to me, copying my movements as we move into backward crossovers with extensions.

With ice dance, we have to be very in sync with each other and our movements.

There’s been a few weeks off after the last season ended, so we’re working on getting back into the swing of things.

“Who do you think it’s going to be?” Max asks before he spins away from me.

I skate to catch up with him. “I don’t know, but I feel like Coach is being super cryptic about it, which makes me think it’s someone we know.”

“You think it’s someone we don’t like?” he asks.

“I have no clue. I hope she wouldn’t do that to us.”

This time, I spin away from him, but he catches up to me with a smile on his face.

“How are you so calm about this?” I ask.

“I dunno. I trust Coach Tati, I guess. She knows we want to go to the Olympics. I don’t think she’d hook us up with someone she doesn’t think will help us.” He circles around me before adding, “And you’re still my partner. I’m not worried about anything as long as you’re by my side.”

I smile at him. Max has become one of my best friends.

We’re together almost all day, every day, so it’s hard not to become friends after all that time.

Our schedules are brutal. We’re exhausted most days, and it’s nice to be able to be myself around him.

He doesn’t care if I’m short with him or in a mood.

He’s fine if we sit in silence most of the time.

I couldn’t ask for a better partner, and I know he’s right.

As long as we’re together, we’ll be fine.

We’re going to the Olympics together. We have to.

Once we’re warmed, I glance over to see Coach Tati waving for us to come over. My heart races when I see who’s next to her. The one man I never expected or wanted to see at this rink.

“Is that…?” Max starts to ask as he trails off.

“I think so?”

“He’s not…”

“No. No way.”

It can’t be him. He can’t be our coach. Tati wouldn’t do that to me.

“Come on, Sav. Let’s get this over with.” Max grabs my hand and skates me toward the exit, where Coach Tati is standing with him.

“Maxim, Savannah, I want you to meet your new coach.”

Logan Sokolov.

She doesn’t even have to say his name. I know who he is. Everyone knows who he is. He’s a two-time Olympic gold medalist and an amazing skater. He’s also a world-class jerk.

I know this because he is the sole reason I fractured my ankle before a championship competition three years ago that stopped us from going to the Olympics last time.

We had to withdraw from the competition because I was in so much pain, and he didn’t even care.

He had to have seen me fall. Everyone else saw it.

But he said nothing. Just skated off with his partner like nothing had happened. Like he didn’t cause it.

“This is Logan Sokolov,” Tati says after I’ve already gone through every reason in my head that he absolutely cannot be our coach.

Logan’s icy blue eyes meet mine, and I think I might actually snarl at him. He narrows his gaze but says nothing.

Max squeezes my hand in an attempt to calm me down. After all these years, he still doesn’t understand that I’m not touchy- feely like he is. I actually don’t like to be touched most of the time, but I let him do it because I know he needs it.

“Logan. I’m Max.”

Logan breaks his stare away from me and nods at Max. “Nice to meet you, Max.”

“And this is Savannah,” Max says on my behalf since I’m still in shock, and anything that comes out of my mouth right now will not be friendly.

Logan’s eyes come back to me. “Savannah,” he says, like he’s tasting my name in his mouth. I don’t like him saying my name. I don’t like him being in my rink. And I sure as hell don’t like him being my new coach.

Coach Tati clears her throat. “Why don’t we all go sit down and get to know each other?”

Tati and Logan go first, while Max and I follow them down the hallway.

“Hey,” Max whispers. “Don’t freak out. We’ll figure this out.”

“He can’t be our coach, Max. He can’t.”

He stops walking and pulls me into his chest for a hug. “We’ve got this, Sav. Don’t worry, ok? This will only make us stronger.”

“What if he ruins our chances for the Olympics again?” I mumble into his chest, trying really hard not to cry.

Going to the Olympics has always been my dream. Winning a medal would be great, but I’d be happy with just competing. I was so close in the last Olympics. So. Damn. Close. Until Logan Sokolov ruined everything.

“He can’t do that if he’s our coach. It would only look bad for him. Plus, he’s been to the Olympics and won multiple times. Who better to coach us?”

“Tati has also been to the Olympics and won,” I counter.

“Well, Coach Tati isn’t an option. Remember, she’s not leaving us for good. She’ll be overseeing Logan, so if we have any issues, we can go to her.”

I pull back slightly so I can look up at him. “I don’t know how you can be so positive all the time.”

He chuckles and leans down to kiss my forehead. “Because I know we have what it takes. It doesn’t matter who is coaching us. We’re winners, and we’re going to win.”

His words help me relax a little. “You’re right.”

“Now, keep your head up and let’s go into this knowing that we’re going to come out on top.”

I nod. He releases me from the embrace and ushers me into the room where Coach Tati and Logan are sitting at a small table talking.

Max and I take our seats across from them, and I notice Logan’s eyes focus on Max’s hand resting on my leg before he looks back to Coach Tati. He’s judging us already.

Tati is talking about our current training schedule, going over when we meet with which coaches and a bunch of other things that I zone out on because I’m too focused on the man across from me.

He hasn’t said much, but I can see his jaw clench several times throughout the conversation.

His knee bounces incessantly, and he runs his hand through his dark hair several times.

He’s uncomfortable, and I hope it’s because he can feel me glaring at him.

Fine then. If he’s going to be our coach, I’m not going to make it easy on him.