Page 50 of Going for Gold (Sweet Cravings 3)

"You're making it really hard to be respectful." He leaned forward slightly. I could smell his cologne. I wanted to lick his skin and taste it.

I took a deep breath. All I wanted was his clothes on the floor of the train. "What if I don't want you to be respectful?"

Phones buzzing and ringing all around us both made us jump. Bryce dropped my hand and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Shit." His eyebrows lowered.

"What's wrong?"

"They found Liam."

"Is he okay?"

"No." He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. "They found his body."

"Oh my God." I put my hand over my mouth.

The train squealed as it started to come to a stop.

"I'm sorry, I have to go." He slid his phone into his pocket and stood up.

"Bryce, I'm so sorry. Did you know him?"

"What? Yeah. Kind of." He ran his hand through his hair. His face looked pale.

"Do you want to go get dinner and we can talk about it?"

"No. I'm sorry, I have to go," he repeated when the train stopped moving. He lifted out a single rose from his backpack and handed it to me. "Congratulations on your win, Alina." He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. And the next thing I knew he was pushing his way past the other athletes getting off the train. I looked out the window to see him run off the train. He stopped in the middle of the street and bent over with his hands on his knees. It looked like he was going to throw up. Maybe he still wasn't feeling well.

I tried to shove my way through the other athletes too, but I wasn't as big as Bryce. It took me a few minutes to get off the train. And Bryce was already gone.

Chapter 21

Tuesday

Bryce

I pulled my phone out as I walked toward the village square. There was a text message from Alina, asking if I had gotten sick again and if I was feeling okay. She asked if she could bring me soup. No one ever worried about me. For some reason her concern made me feel warm and fuzzy. I meant what I had said to her earlier. It was nice that someone was looking out for me, that someone actually cared. Em worried about me to a certain degree, but I was the one that took care of her, not the other way around.

I typed out a text. "Sorry about running out on you. You're right, I wasn't feeling well." I hated lying, but I couldn't pull her into the mess I was in. "As great as soup sounds, I don't think us being alone together in my room is great for my chances at gold tomorrow or yours this weekend," I added and pressed send. I didn't care if it was forward. She knew how I felt about her. And I was pretty sure I knew how she felt about me. She was staring at me earlier like she wanted me to fuck her right in the train. But she needed to focus on winning her games so she could get the money she needed to take over for her grandmother. I wasn't going to stand in the way of making her dreams come true. Thinking about the way her face lit up when she talked about the bakery made me smile. She had to win gold. She just had to.

Besides, I had my own race to worry about. I needed to focus so that I wouldn't end up like Liam. Or worse...if they did something to Em. Just the thought made me actually feel like vomiting.

After I got this meeting out of the way, I'd try to get some sleep. I wasn't favored to win. Ervan Cook from Jamaica was supposed to win all of his races, including the one against me. But no one knew how hard I had been training. I wouldn't cheat to get my gold. And I knew I didn't have to. I could do this. For Em.

Isadora was waiting for me outside the north village exit, just as instructed. Part of me expected her to show up in thigh-high leather boots and a short leather skirt, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that she had instead worn a fairly normal outfit of jean shorts and a cut off Team Brazil tank top.

"Hi, Isadora," I said. "Thanks for agreeing to help me out."

"You decide to fuck me?" she asked.

"What? No. I really need your help."

"Oh," she replied with a small smile. And for the first time, I thought her smile might actually be genuine. "What do you need for me to do?"

"We can talk about that once we get inside. But first we need to figure out how to get you through security. I was thinking I could go through with my security pass, and then I could pass it to you through the fence. They might notice that the picture..."

"Are the guards all men?" asked Isadora.

"Uh, yeah, I think so."

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