by Shawn Keys
“Here she goes,” MK warned.
The attempt ended almost identically to the first. This time Cindy showed a little more emotion. Whatever she had changed hadn’t worked. She was more animated this time as she whispered with her coach, who was totally silent as she puzzled over what to suggest.
Julie was already lining up.
Gordon had vanished.
MK whispered, “I’m going to talk to Carla. I kind of know what she’s going through. Are you OK, Cadence?”
“Yeah. I got this.”
“If you don’t, you have me,” Daniel said with a quirky grin, curling an arm around her shoulder.
She slipped her own around his back, bumping her hip up against his. It was the only acknowledgement she gave; her eyes remained glued to the apparatus.
Once again, Daniel could have told her what was going to happen. Cindy was showing all the signs of productive determination. She was still a danger. Julie was self-destructing.
Ten seconds later, Julie missed her mark. Once again, she knocked the bar off without even getting close.
There was no coach waiting to console her. When Julie glanced over and saw MK with her head bent together with Carla’s, her anger flared again. Then she saw the two laughing. No doubt a sign that MK was bringing Carla out of the loss and into the grand idea that what she had accomplished was really something good.
Julie didn’t wait around for see anyone else jump. The bronze medal was hers, but it was clearly like ash in her mouth. She stomped away from the event site and toward the locker room.
“One more,” Cadence said, squeezing Daniel tightly.
“Much harder and I’m going to pop,” he chuckled.
“If I don’t hold on to you, I’m going to start chewing my nails. I’m not doing that on international television.”
Cindy started off.
This time, Daniel was sure Cadence held her breath right alongside him.
She missed.
Neither of them heard the rattling of the bar coming down. They turned to face each other and renewed their hug. There was still a line they didn’t cross, but right then Daniel didn’t care much if anyone read too much into the way they clung to each other. She’d won gold. She’d proved herself in a way that no-one would be able to deny. She was an international champion. The best in the whole damned region.
He whispered into her ear, “I’m so proud of you!”
“Thank you so much!” Cadence replied into his. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
Daniel didn’t object. He wasn’t sure she was right, but he read another sentiment behind the first. It didn’t matter if she could be here without him. What really mattered was that she didn’t want to be.
That was all he needed to hear.
Chapter 10
Cadence leaned her head against the locker next to her own. Straddling the bench wasn’t the most comfortable position, but it worked for now. She let the murmur of the women’s changing room fill her ears.
“There’s the conquering hero,” MK’s voice filtered out of the noise.
Cadence rolled her neck to look in her friend’s direction. “Thanks for not contributing to my head exploding from an expanding ego. I watched you stand on the podium yesterday, remember?”
“Yeah, but you get to hear our national anthem play.”
“It is going to be epic,” Cadence grinned. “Is Carla doing alright?”
“Yeah. Think she was pretty much done kicking herself. Got the impression that she was more annoyed at finishing behind Julie than anything. Until now, she’s been the number two.”
“Her technique is still better. Julie did it using pure stubbornness.” She let out a dark chuckle. “Could almost admire that if she wasn’t being such a snot about the whole thing.”
“What did you call me?”
Cadence groaned. Should have checked over my shoulder before I said that. Both she and MK swiveled around to see Julie entering their section of lockers. Her hair was slick from her recent shower, though she was already dressed in a black, leather jacket, violet leather pants that looked painted on and high leather boots with silver metal accents. It was a sexy, rocker-chick look and Cadence would have approved if the sour twist on Julie’s face didn’t ruin the effect. Right now, she didn’t have the bad-ass attitude that would blend well with the rebellious attire. She was pouting like an entitled brat.
Cadence decided it was best to at least try and repair the damage from her careless comment. “Sorry, Julie. I wish you would realize what a great accomplishment bronze is. Think about what this means to Portesara. We just took first, third and fourth place in an event. No reason we couldn’t all go to dinner to celebrate.”
“We’re not friends!” Julie snapped back. She took a couple angry steps forward.
“If you can’t see the bright side for yourself, think about Carla,” MK pointed out with a brisk bite to her own tone. “You’ll be standing on the podium scowling while she’s in the stands wishing she could be in your place. What do you call that?”
“Delusion!” Julie sniped back. “What about her being a loser who is happy about being a loser picking up the scraps from your table means I should be the same?”
“Hey!” This time, it was Julie’s turn to be caught off-guard. Carla had strolled up, though her arrival was far less of a surprise for Cadence. She had a view of Carla approaching, dressed in a breezy yellow sundress well suited to an afternoon stroll in the sunshine. Her bright smile, reflecting how she was embracing her excellent performance, was tainted as she absorbed the confrontation.
“What is this?” Julie gestured at her outfit. “Why are you even here?”
“We’re going to see the boardwalk. We have a couple hours before Cadence’s medal ceremony.”
“Cadence’s medal ceremony?” Julie objected.
“What else do you want us to call it? You don’t value your part in it, from the sound of it!” MK interjected.
Julie flared, “No wonder she has a leg up on me. My teammate is consorting with the enemy while she’s playing games with us!”
“Games?” Cadence had to ask.
“Don’t pretend that you’re ignorant. You started as late as you could to mess with our minds. Overconfident. Making it seem like you’d for sure make it over the jumps we all found challenging. Cindy’s the best vaulter in the region and you started later than her!”
Cadence leaned forward in her seat, showing pride in what she had done. She saw no reason not to feel good about it. “After today, I’m the best vaulter in the region. Looks like I did it right.” She shook her head. “But you’re wrong about playing games. I was following my coach’s advice. Conserving my strength. You jump at the first height you know you can make.”
Carla jumped in, “Gordon told us the exact same thing.” She scowled at Julie. “Get over it. I didn’t see you starting at 3.4 meter minimum.”
“She’s toying with us!” Julie complained, refusing to acknowledge the point. “I’m sick of you playing innocent!”
“I am not innocent!” Cadence had to laugh, secretly recalling the spanking she had been giving Evelyn the night before they left while Evelyn herself was busy taking Daniel’s shaft into her throat. That had been naughty enough; but penetrating the other woman’s ass with her thumb to get her to scream around Daniel’s cock had to be over the line into truly wicked.
Her smile must have leaked past her control. Julie took it as being mocked. Her anger flared even brighter. “Do you think this is a joke? Do you think I’m a joke?”
“I think you don’t know how good you have it!” Cadence answered in genuine annoyance. “Do you know how many women would dream of being where you are? I’m no different than you, you know.”
“Hah!”
“It’s true. Do you really think I’m so arrogant to think that I’m going to walk from gold to gold to gold? I’m going to try. I’m going to push as hard as I can to make that come true!” Cadence insisted.
“But I’ve seen amazing women who can jump a lot higher than I can right now. I’ve watched their tapes. I’m trying to learn from them in probably the same way you are. Maybe I’ll get there. Maybe I’ll only get close.” She huffed, then shook her head, seeing Julie as nothing but a disappointment. “But when I’m at the Olympics and if I get a bronze, I’m going to remember this. I’m going to remember how pathetic it looks to treat that honor as anything less than a great moment.”
MK growled beside her, “Not that I expect anything less than gold from you, Cadence. But if you do get a bronze? Oh yeah, you’ll accept it with ten times the grace as this one here.”
Something in Julie snapped. Her face twisted with rage, but she had nothing left to say. Nothing left to rant about that the trio standing around her hadn’t already dismissed.
Exploding forward, she lashed out with a kick that jammed the tip of her shiny, silver-toed boot into the side of Cadence’s knee. The instant spasm of pain made Cadence jerk enough that she lurched right off the bench and collapsed to the ground, pulling her knee to her chest. She tried to scream but all the muscles responsible refused to cooperate, leaving her gasping soundlessly.
Julie hadn’t stopped with her first physical outburst. Her fist had cocked back and snapped into MK’s cheek. The punch was fast and sharp like she had some fight training. The connection made MK stagger back and tumble over the bench.
Finally, Julie shouldered into Carla, shoving her up against the nearby lockers hard enough to rattle them. Carla’s head bounced off metal surface so hard it shook her senses.
With that, Julie shouted, “Nothing about this is over!” and stormed off.
A brief interlude of calm settled over the scene as Cadence hissed in serious pain. She kept trying to find the breath to call out, but she couldn’t force the air out of her lungs.
Carla recovered first. Her call echoed over the locker room, “Nurse! We need a nurse in here! Hurry!” Some of those nearby who had already been coming over in curiosity answered that help was on the way.
MK appeared beside Cadence. Her cheek was red but no skin had been broken. Fury burned in her eyes, but it was fading fast as she took in the ugly mark forming on the outside of Cadence’s leg. “Oh my God! Cadence, can you move it? How bad is it?”
Reflexively, Cadence responded by trying to bend her knee. A new wave of blinding pain rolled up from the joint and nearly made her pass out. Somewhere in the back of her brain, a small chant started to cycle over and over. Please don’t be broken. Please don’t be broken. Please don’t be broken… Clenching her jaw, she shook her head fiercely, managing to squeeze out a single word, “Daniel!” She took a couple more, quick breaths, then hissed out, “Get… Daniel!”
Tears flowed from the corners of her eyes as she stopped trying to talk, hoping like hell that the nurses would get there soon with something to stop the pain. It was stopping her from thinking. Stopping her from even breathing right. She had dealt with sore muscles. Dealt with strained tendons and having the breath knocked out of her when falling wrong from too high.
But this was on a different level altogether.
* * *
Daniel raced into the first-aid station, looking around for anyone who could tell him what was going on. He had been in places like this before at different levels of competition. The quality of the equipment was directly related to the importance of the games going on. At the Olympics, the medical treatment area rivaled that of tier one hospitals. This wasn’t the Olympics, and it was Havana instead of Paris or New York. Still, it was decently stocked to rapidly assess and address common, sports injuries.
He caught sight of Cadence lying in a bed with MK standing near her. He started to make a beeline for them but was intercepted by a doctor in his white lab coat.
The officious-looking man held out his arm and asked, “Are you Miss Amirault’s coach?”
Daniel was momentarily torn between hearing the doctor out and ignoring him until he could hear Cadence tell him that she was alright in her own words. The tie was broken since this man had information that might help understand the challenges Cadence was going to face in the near future. Whether the news was bad or good, it would be on him to guide her through whatever came next. This was one of those moments he had to separate the coach from the lover. “That’s me, Doc.”
“I’m Dr. Sanchez. I’ve been looking after her since she came in. We’ve x-rayed her leg and done cursory testing to assess her movement.
“What are we looking at here?”
“She is incredibly lucky. None of the bones are fractured and none of the tendons or ligaments are torn. She has muscle tissue damage.”
“How extensive?”
“Difficult to say. She is also being closed-lipped about what caused the injury.”
Daniel grimaced, unsure why Cadence would be holding back. Carla had been the same. All she had said was that Cadence needed him here. What’s the damned mystery? “I’ll see what I can get out of her.”
“Please do. Once the swelling goes down, we’ll be able to give you a better estimate. She’s at least going to need physiotherapy before she gets back to her training regimen.”
“I hear you, Doc. I’ll definitely consult with the medical professionals back home before we get into anything too intense.” Daniel couldn’t help but think about the two-and-a-half months they had until the FLGs. He immediately cut it into slices. Even if the injury was only a serious bruise and no muscle tears, they’d be lucky to have Cadence training at full speed for 2-3 weeks before the games. If she had a muscle tear, it could take the better part of a year to get her back to competition level health.
“Good to hear. A responsible recovery program is going to make all the difference, especially for the first few weeks.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Daniel gave him one last nod, then decided he’d been delayed for long enough. He slipped away and raced up to Cadence’s bedside. “Are you alright?” He found her trying to rest, though she was clearly still in pain. Her leg was immobilized in a splint, held in a bent angle of about thirty degrees. She was sweating hard and her breathing wasn’t fully regular. Without really giving her a chance to answer, he rushed into the next question, “Aren’t they giving you enough for the pain?”
Cadence shook her head hard. “I’ve been fighting them on that for the last half hour! They’ve been trying to pump me full of some of that hard shit. Don’t want it.”
“A little less pain can help you heal!” Daniel said, knowing that from first-hand experience. Suffering too much kept you feeling helpless for longer.
Her fiery eyes locked on his. “Not here to be a martyr, Daniel. If they can up the dose of the normal stuff, fine. But no opioids. Nothing addictive. Neither my father nor my mother could handle that shit in their blood!” Saying even that much sucked away her breath.
“Alright. I’ll make sure.”
Simply hearing his voice put her at ease. Cadence settled into the bed’s mattress a little more completely. She nodded her thanks, not wasting her breath.
MK asked, “What did the doctor say? He kept stalling.”
“Probably wanted me to deliver the news. I know, seems strange since Cadence is the patient. But it’s a common courtesy. Letting the coach give the news.” He related what the doctor had told him, trying to phrase it with cautious optimism. He ended with a shake of his head. “I don’t understand what happened.”
“Carla didn’t say?” was MK’s immediate question.
“Said I needed to hear it from Cadence. She’s going to get Gordon to bring him here.”
MK searched Cadence’s eyes. The other woman gave her a brief, permissive nod. Armed with that, MK faced Daniel. “Julie did it.” She gestured at her own chin. “This too. And she shoved Carla, but we were just afterthoughts. She lost it. When she lashed out, it was a cheap shot. She meant to hurt Cadence. Hurt her bad.”
Daniel cursed under his breath. “Should have seen this coming. I knew she was unstabl
e.” He could hardly believe it. “This is going to cost her that medal of hers. Not to mention her place on the team!”
“No!” Once again, Cadence managed to gasp out.
“No what?” Daniel asked, confused.
“Don’t… don’t say… anything…”
Beginning to understand what she was trying to convey, Daniel couldn’t believe it. “What are you talking about? She tried to cripple you! If she had connected any more solidly, your entire career could be over!”
Cadence clutched at his arm, compelling him to give her time to answer even if she couldn’t do it quickly. Mustering her strength, she fought to say, “But… didn’t. Hurts like hell now… but I… I can get back.”
“Why, Cadence? Why do you want to protect her?”
“Don’t… give a damn… about… her!” That much wasn’t a lie. Her anger blazed out from her eyes. “You told us, Daniel. You told us what would happen…” She stumbled, hissing as the pain overwhelmed her again.
MK caught on. “Oh, fuck.” Her eyes closed in pain. “Daniel, she’s talking about the commission’s warning. Any trouble. Any further shadows on our team could hurt our chances of getting to the higher international level.”
“They aren’t going to stop us from competing over a spat.” The words sounded flat, even to himself. This wasn’t simply a spat. It was assault. One that nearly ended an athlete’s career.
MK called him on it. “Even if the IOC doesn’t cut Portesara out like cancer, the commission could do it to both our teams for failing to play nice.”
“What… they want… is… protecting… reputation!” Cadence coughed out.
That stopped Daniel in his tracks. That’s it. Damn. His rapid-fire thoughts chugged to a stop. He cycled a few deep breaths as he deliberately pushed himself into their point of view. The commission might forgive everything. They might investigate Julie’s criminal behavior and leave us alone. Then again, they might start cutting out whatever they need to stop the IOC from taking action on their own. He couldn’t even find total fault in that. If he was an international administrator watching all this chaos inside Portesara’s sports program, would he see it as symptomatic of systemic problems that the country had yet to resolve? See it as proof that the island wasn’t ready to compete on the world’s stage?