Swim Again (11 page)

“You’re a certified celeb now,” I said to Kaz.  “You were missing the sunglasses.”

“Not my thing at all, but it’s better than thousands of questions,” Kaz said.  “Take note.  Meet with everyone in town beforehand, so if something like this happens, your fans still won’t be excited to see you.  Now they all say, ‘Oh, that’s just Kaz.  Nothing new.’ ”

“Those glasses are new.  And they don’t really cover anything.”

“Whatever.”

We went to the gym first, on a whim.  Greene had to be there.  We caught her about to do some squats.  A few other people were scattered throughout the facility, focused on listening to their music and getting a workout in.

“Hey Greene,” I said and introduced her to Kaz.  She was excited, and snuck in a selfie with him.  She didn’t need to ask about the glasses; she asked if he was alright.  The fight night news had preceded him.

A few minutes into their chat, Kaz said, “Hey, Greene.  We’re working on figuring some things out and thought you could help us.”

“Anything I could do to help,” she said.  “Actually, this is so bizarre that you’re here.  I was hoping to run into you, Kaz.  But it’s a good thing you’re asking because I didn’t want to come up to you sounding crazy.” 

“There’s this one guy,” Kaz said.

“Charles Harlow.”

“How did you know?” I asked.

“We were there,” she said.  “My friend knew him.  She works for Mr. Reed too.”

“Do you know if anyone else found out about the fight?” I asked.  “Beyond Staden.”

“All of his fans know,” Greene said, “It’s posted on the fan site.”

“That’s embarrassing,” Kaz said.

“Why?” Greene said.  “You let him know what’s up.  And a lot of girls on Team Brayden jumped onto Team Kaz.  Then there’s the Team Kazden, which is overflowing now.”

“Right,” Kaz said, not sure if he wanted to know that info.

“Don’t worry; it means Team Brayden and Team Kaz.  Not you two together.”

“Good.”

“So back to your friend,” I said.  “Does she know Charles on a personal level?”

“She said he’s a jerk and Brayden’s dad, their boss, likes him.  He’s not Mr. Reed’s assistant but Sandy saw him several times with Mr. Reed.  They joke around and Charles gets a lot of the good opportunities.  Sandy tried to find out why because she wants a position similar to his.  She thought that Brayden was Charles’ friend, and he isn’t.  And when Mrs. Reed comes into the office, she doesn’t speak to Charles, but always asks how Sandy is doing.”

“Interesting,” Kaz said.  “So he’s not a family friend either.  He probably made Mrs. Reed mad.”

“She has her favorites remember?” I said. 

“She does?” Greene said.

“Please don’t post that on the site,” I said.

“I won’t, and on top of that, I have a little info of my own,” Greene said.  “You won’t find this on any site because barely anyone was in here.  The attendant at the front was half way sleep.  I was trying to get an early morning workout one day.”

“This has to do with Mark and Dakota?” I asked.

“Exactly,” she said.  “They were minding their business when Charles comes in.  Mark kept an eye out on him.  Well, Charles knew what he was doing.  He was flirting with Mark’s wife in front of Mark.  Why would he do that?  He’s insane, asking for a beat down.”

“Did Mark do anything?” I said.

“Yeah.  He started talking to Charles too.  It was so weird.  I thought Mark would have jumped him.”

“So they’re friends too,” Kaz said and sighed.  “This is…”

“No, Mark wasn’t his friend,” Greene said.  “Dakota introduced him.  That was maybe a week before your birthday.”

“Did they talk about Kaz or Brayden?” I said.

“Yeah, both,” Greene said.  “Just general stuff about them training both of y’all.  But the funny part was Dakota got annoyed whenever Kaz was mentioned.  I guess because you two are competing against each other.  That’s all basically. 

“Mark wouldn’t want to hurt you though Kaz, unless he was trying to teach you a lesson,” Greene continued.  “He loves winning way too much.  But Dakota, I didn’t care for her.  She’s an amazing coach and all, but she just rubs me the wrong way.”

“Thanks,” Kaz said.  “All this information is very helpful.”

“No problem!” Greene said and smiled.

“Greene, I’m going to give you my number,” I said.  “If you hear anything else, please call me or text.”

Greene gasped.

“What?” I said.

“This is just too impossible,” Greene said.  “I’m going to wake up tomorrow and think this wasn’t true.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“I’m getting your number,” she said.

“Oh, a direct line to Kaz.  But you already had it.  We switched numbers in class.”

“I know, but I deleted it,” Greene said.  “And back then sure, you were Mauri, the swimmer.  But now, you’re Mauri, the girl who got to date Brayden and Kaz.  So like you were saying, the direct line and if you don’t mind pushing Brayden my way…”

“I don’t think you want that,” I said.

“I can deal with him.”

“Well—” I said.

“Thank you so much Greene,” Kaz said.  “We’ll definitely have to get together later, go out to eat or bowling, after this whole thing is over.”

“Wow!  Thanks.”

We said goodbye to and discussed the situation in the car.

“A week sounds too fast for Mark to meet Charles then want to hurt you,” I said.  “And Mark shows no signs of hostility in practice.  I don’t understand why he could be the suspect.  Dakota, on the other hand…”

“Mauri, remember I said Dakota visited me,” Kaz said.

“Yeah.”

“It wasn’t that long ago.  It was before my birthday.”

“Told you I didn’t trust her.”

Dakota and Brayden continued to show up at our practices with Mark.  I watched to see how they were acting, and it seemed clear that they were focused on winning.  It didn’t seem like either Dakota, Brayden, or Mark wanted to hurt Kaz. 

Vincent showed up to a couple without Abby, and that was awkward, but I was checking him out too.  He commented on how Kaz was improving and was happy for him.  I got the feeling he said that to be nice.  He
really
wanted for Brayden to sweep all of his categories.  Brayden shared three with Kaz.  When we were younger, Vincent was a little bit strict, but still nice.  You could tell he was very passionate about winning and how Brayden was doing.

I thought about taking the opportunity to ask Vincent about Harlow, but knew I’d just get some random gibberish.  If he was conspiring with Harlow, there was no way he’d let me know.  And if he wasn’t, there was nothing he could say that would make me believe him.  Then if Dakota or Mark were the culprits, that would notify them to be careful.  I had to stay quiet.  We needed more evidence.

Dakota and Brayden began to back down on their intimidation schemes with every practice.  It was like they wanted to be friends again.

Kaz and I caught Brayden in the parking lot after Dakota and Mark were gone one day.  “Hey, Brayden,” Kaz said. 

“I didn’t do it,” Brayden said.  “I know that’s what you were going to ask.  Charles worked for my dad.”

“Worked?” I said.

“He got fired,” Brayden said.  “The guy was some marketer’s assistant, and he’s in jail now.”

“He knew Dakota,” Kaz said.

“What?” Brayden said.  “I can’t see her doing that.”

“How bad did she want to win?” I said.

“We never discussed picking a fight with you,” Brayden said.  “Our goal was to be annoying, yeah, but now I’m tired of that.  I just want to get faster, and I’ll beat you in the end.”

“When did you tell her that?” I asked.

“After Kaz’s birthday.  I was upset that whoever was doing this was taking my chance to beat you away.  She said it was unfortunate—”

“See,” I said.  “That sounds like a person who’d set this up.”

“No, Mauri,” Brayden said.  “She likes Kaz too much to hurt him like that.  She still thinks she has a chance with him.”

“Thanks Brayden,” Kaz said.

“Sure,” Brayden said. “We were friends once.  All of this competition, and I was jealous of you, and everything got in the way.  And Mauri, I was mean and selfish.  I’m sorry Mauri.  You didn’t deserve that.  So what I’m also trying to say is, I’ll tell y’all anything I know, and I’ll help you find whoever is behind this.”

“Thanks,” Kaz said.

I nodded.

“I’ll see y’all around,” Brayden said.

“You mean tomorrow?” I said.

“We may be returning to our home gym,” Brayden said.

It was Kaz’s idea to go shopping.  As we got out the car, I kept glancing around, looking for one of the random, tall guys that I had a feeling was following us.  A few days after our talk with Brayden it was like I kept seeing these guys when I went to different places.  The first assault on Kaz was by some tall guy.  Who knew if Brayden or Dakota sent them after “patching things up” with Kaz? 

I had experienced the sweet side of Brayden, but sometimes he just snapped back.  I let Kaz know all of this, and he wasn’t worried.  He only kissed me and held me and said everything was going to be alright.

Kaz chuckled.  “Haven’t been here in a while?”

“No, Kaz.  I don’t feel right.  It’s not safe.”

“I’m not going to stay imprisoned in my own home, Mauri.  We’re in a public place.”

I sighed.  “The enemy could progress.  Attack in a public place.”

“Keep an eye out for Brayden then.”  He chuckled.  “Let’s try and get our heads off of the drama and have some fun.”

We began browsing in one of my favorite stores mixed with men’s and women’s sections, but all I wanted to do was get out of there.  I was working overtime, making sure no one appeared as though they were about to try something.  I noticed a group of guys and girls.  They seemed to follow us as we moved to different sections in the store. 

“Mauri,” Kaz said when he saw that I wasn’t paying attention to anything in the store.  He had finished his search for new items.  “Did you see something you liked?”  Knowing that I was not into it he said, “Alright, on to the next store.  Where did you get that lotion that smelled so good?”

Heading to the entrance, I glanced back to see the group also finished with the store.  “Walk faster,” I said to Kaz.

“What?”

Two steps out of the store, one of the guys said, “Hey, Kaz!  You’re from the Olympics!”

That started a five minute chat with the group, in which I was left out of as they pulled him to the side.  One of the guys rubbed me the wrong way, but I didn’t say anything, until I saw that the guy was going to approach Kaz.

I pretended to receive a phone call then jumped into the conversation.  “Excuse me for a second,” I said and pulled Kaz to the side.  The group didn’t mind, but didn’t want to leave either.  “Kaz,” I said. “What are you doing?”

“Meeting with my fans.”

“But you were just attacked,” I said in a harsh voice.  “Hanging around strangers, people you have no idea what their intentions are, isn’t wise.  Who knows if they’ll do something to you?  Whoever is trying to hurt you may come back for more.  That guy looks like he’s going to try something.”

Kaz smiled an unfriendly smile, the type he wore when he was pissed.  “Mauri, I think you need to calm down.”

“I think you need to start using your brain.  You don’t know who’s out there.  And until we find them, you need to be extra careful.”

“I’m fine, Mauri.  You can leave now.”

I hissed and found a seat on a nearby bench.  Watching Kaz go about things as normal let me know that there was no way I could get through to him.  He’d rather try to protect his image than protect himself. 

A little while later, Kaz came over to sit with me.  “I guess this means we’re not going shopping?”

“Drop me off at home,” I said.

“As you wish.  I’ll come back by myself.”

When Kaz dropped me back off at my mom’s house, she could tell something was wrong, but didn’t want to bother me.  I grabbed a drink and sat down at the bar.  My mom pretended to come in the kitchen to make some dip for the tortilla chips we had left over from the night before.  She focused on cutting the tomatoes, onions, and cilantro to put into the guacamole that she had stirred up.  She put the dip in the refrigerator, headed back to the family room, making me have to grab her attention before she returned to watch her shows.

“Mom,” I said.

Turning to me she smiled.  “I knew you wanted to say something.  What’s wrong Maureen?  Why didn’t Kaz stay?  He’s busy?”  She pulled a seat back next to me.

“Kaz has lost his mind,” I said.  “He acts like he’s invincible.  But I keep telling him whoever attacked doesn’t want to see him do well, and because they didn’t get to finish the job, they’ll attack again.”

“Kaz is going to be Kaz,” Mom said.  “Guys think they can do anything at that age and be alright.”

“But you’re not worried?  He’s making bad mistakes that could be dangerous to his life.  How does he know one of those fans doesn’t have a knife?  He doesn’t.”

Mom nodded.  “I see why you’re scared for him.”

“You’re not?”

“Honey, all of the police are looking into it,” Mom said.  “There are some bodyguards that follow him around.  They’re never that far away.”

“How do you know?”

“His father hired them.” 
So that’s who those tall guys were.
  “And Kaz’s parents taught him how to defend himself.” 

“But that won’t stop them,” I said.

“I know, but you have to understand him honey.  Kaz looks at not going out, being more safe, as giving in to whoever is causing this.  He doesn’t want to be kept down psychologically as well.”

“But that makes him more vulnerable.”

“The good thing is the attacks only came in dark places.  As far as they know, the guy acted alone.”

“But it’s not true,” I said.  “I have to prove it.  We know Charles Harlow worked for Vincent and he also knew Dakota and Mark.”

“Did you tell the police?” she asked.

“Not yet.  We—”

“Now, don’t go recklessly about this Mauri,” Mom said.  “Let the police do their job.  I don’t want to see my girl getting hurt too.”

“I won’t Mom.  It’s just…Kaz makes me so mad sometimes.  And how am I going to feel if he ends up getting hurt again because I didn’t try and say something, help him?”

“I know, honey.  You’re doing the right thing.  You’re there for him and that’s what matters.  Hopefully, this all will be over soon.”