Chapter 7 #2
Doc pressed his lips together and shook his head.
He knew she wasn’t. She’d said as much. But he still couldn’t imagine Ember living in Killeen, Texas.
She would stick out like a sore thumb. Not because of the color of her skin, but because once she got out from under her parents’ control, she was going to shine brighter than she’d ever gotten the chance to before.
“I think about Sierra every damn day. I wonder where she is and if she’s okay,” Grover said. “I worry that she’s been killed and I’ll never get the chance to really get to know her. I have regrets, Doc, and I don’t want you to experience that.”
Doc really looked at his friend. The team had known Grover was interested in the contractor, but none of them had realized just how deep that interest ran. “Have you told Trigger about the letter you got from her?”
“No. But, depending on what it says, I’m planning on it.
She’s in trouble,” Grover said in a low tone.
“And more than other contractors disappearing and the unanswered emails, I feel it in my gut. But I can’t just run off to Afghanistan and start looking under rocks.
We need a reason to go over there. It’s wrong, but…
part of me can’t help but hope Shahzada does something stupid, just so we get deployed and I can try to find her.
Hell, maybe she married a local and is living a quiet life devoid of modern conveniences like the internet.
But then again, maybe she’s been a captive of Shahzada all this time.
Or maybe she’s dead. I need to know one way or another, Doc. ”
Doc reached up and clapped his friend on the back. He couldn’t find the right words to comfort him, but he didn’t need them. Grover knew he cared.
He turned and looked Doc in the eye. “If what you’ve told us about Ember’s parents is true, about how intense and controlling they are, and how nasty some of her followers can be, she’s gonna need all the support she can get,” Grover said.
Doc nodded. “I peeked at her IG account after we sat down, and her damn social media manager posted a picture of her sitting on the side of the pool with her head down, looking miserable, with a caption that said, ‘That didn’t go as I’d planned.
’ Who does that? And of course that opened the floodgates for the nasty comments. God, I really hate people, Grover.”
“I know,” he agreed readily. “I’m sure Gillian, Kinley, Aspen, Riley, and Devyn would have her back though.”
Doc couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, that was subtle. Not.”
“Just sayin’, man. Ember could use some friends who’ll stand by her no matter if she gets first place or last. Who like her because of who she is, not what she can do for them. And the women in our circle…that’s who they are.”
“She needs unconditional support more than anyone I’ve ever met,” Doc said. “I don’t know how she’s gone this long without it.”
An announcer came over the loudspeaker, introducing the beginning of the event, ending Doc and Grover’s conversation.
Doc scanned the field before focusing back on Ember at the back of the pack.
He remembered her explaining their placement for starting the run was determined by the points they’d earned in the other events.
She was definitely starting with a significant handicap.
He knew this was her best event, and luckily she shot right-handed, but her shoulder still had to hurt and it would have an effect on her run.
“Come on, Em, you can do this,” he muttered.
Then the competitors were off.
Doc kept his eyes on Ember. She fidgeted as other women sprinted toward the shooting station. She had to wait until it was her turn, which had to be nerve-wracking.
When it was finally her turn, she took off for the shooting platform quickly.
She looked good, strong. Doc narrowed his eyes as she lined up her first shots.
She had to hit five targets, “reloading” after each shot.
She’d shoot as many times as necessary to hit the targets, but obviously if she kept missing, it would take longer before she could continue.
It seemed to Doc that she hit her shots very quickly.
“That’s it. Keep going,” he said.
She looked strong on the first eight hundred meter run as she circled the course, making her way back to the shooting platform.
He knew from talking to her that in this competition, whoever crossed the finish line first was the winner.
Ember was pretty far back in the pack still, but they all had a ways to go.
It looked like she missed a few shots on the second round of shooting. “Steady, Em. Concentrate on your own target, block everyone else out.”
She was passing people pretty regularly, but there were still quite a few competitors ahead of her. It was obvious she wasn’t going to be able to catch up to the leaders, but Doc couldn’t help but be proud of her regardless.
On the last round of shooting, Ember hit all five of her targets without missing once.
“Damn, she’s good. No wonder she outshot you,” Grover commented.
Doc didn’t even mind the ribbing. Ember was an excellent shot.
The cheering in the stands rose to a roar when the first woman crossed the finish line. Then the second. And the third. Leila crossed the finish line in tenth place, and Ember wasn’t too far behind her at fifteenth.
Doc was proud as could be. Yeah, it wasn’t the finish he knew she wanted, but she’d literally passed ten people in this last event.
Ten people who’d had head starts on her.
He kept his eyes on her as she smiled and waved at the crowd.
Then she headed for Leila and his heart almost burst with pride as she engulfed her teammate in a heartfelt hug.
Her smile for her friend was big and it was obvious she was happy for her.
Doc lost sight of Ember as she disappeared into a crowd of participants and coaches along the side of the track.
“You gonna go down and meet her?” Grover asked.
Doc shook his head. “Not yet. After the medal ceremony.”
“You think she’ll stay for it?”
“Oh, yeah. She might be disappointed in where she finished, but she’ll be genuinely happy for the others.”
“Doesn’t sound like a spoiled diva to me,” Grover said.
“She’s not,” Doc told him.
“I was kidding,” Grover said with a roll of his eyes. “I think that was made perfectly clear last night.”
The medal ceremony was moving, and Doc couldn’t shake the disappointment he felt on Ember’s behalf. Every time he caught a glimpse of her, though, she was smiling and being supportive of the other athletes.
As things wound down and people began to leave the venue, Doc made his way toward where he’d last seen Ember. With his security credentials, he was allowed onto the field without any grief. He saw her standing with her parents ahead of him, and made his way over.
As he got close, he could hear her mother berating Ember—and so could everyone else who was standing close by.
“I don’t know what the hell happened today, but that was disgraceful. Pathetic! You were almost last in swimming! If you hadn’t been, you’d have started today in tenth place. And I added up the times in the run—you would’ve placed third if you hadn’t fucked up so bad in the pool!”
“Seriously, Ember, you’ve disappointed everyone,” her dad threw in with a shake of his head.
Doc had heard enough.
He walked up behind Ember and put his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him, careful not to jostle her left arm, which he knew had to be sore as hell. “You were amazing,” he told her after kissing her temple gently.
“Excuse me!” her mom blustered. “You don’t have the right to be touching my daughter!”
Ember turned in his arms, and he could see the pain in her eyes. But she smiled up at him. It was a fake smile, but Doc wasn’t surprised she was hiding her feelings. There were too many people around.
“Hi. Thanks.”
“You ready to go?” he asked.
“She’s not going back to the dorm,” her father said. “She’s coming to the hotel with us so we can discuss how the hell we can salvage this entire fiasco. We need to figure out what to say on IG to spin this in our favor.”
“Sorry, Dad,” Ember said. “I’m going with Craig.”
“No, you aren’t,” her mom insisted.
“Yes, Mom. I am. I love you, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I need to decompress tonight. I’m sorry I disappointed you. I’ll come over to the hotel tomorrow and we can talk.”
“Not good enough, young lady! Besides, I’m not sure what you need to decompress from. We need to figure out what went wrong so we can fix it for the next Olympics. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”
“Us?” Ember said. “I didn’t see you out on that course tonight.”
Both her parents stared at her for a moment, speechless, before her mom’s eyes narrowed. “Wrong. We’ve given up our entire lives for you. For this moment. And you blew it!”
“I didn’t ask you to do any of it,” Ember told them. She spoke calmly, but Doc could feel her trembling in his embrace, and he tightened his arm around her in support.
She went on. “Again, I’m sorry I let you down.
Both of you. And all my coaches. And those who helped me train.
But I did the best I could, and the fact that you can’t be happy that I’m even here, that I was competing in the freaking Olympics, says more about you than me.
I’ll come by the hotel tomorrow and we can talk once we’re all feeling less emotional. ”
“So you’re going to celebrate your failure by having sex with him?” her mom spat out. “He’s white!”
Doc stiffened.
“I’m twenty-five years old, Mom. Who I have sex with isn’t your concern. More importantly, I can’t believe you’re pulling the race card. If I want to have sex with a white guy, a Black guy, or a purple two-headed alien, I will. I’m an adult—and it’s about time you started treating me like one.”
“When you start acting like one, we will,” her dad interjected.