Center Stage - Chapter 35

The stands were full of energy, with flags everywhere from multiple nations, although Japan more than any others. They actually had a swimmer in the finals, but she was low ranked and had barely gotten through the semifinals. Her countrymen, though, were riled up cheering for her.

The Americans were cheering too, as we had two swimmers in the race, but Kat had beaten the other girl’s time in the semis and beaten her at team trials, so she was the favorite to bring home gold. I was nervous for her though. I’d only been able to talk to her briefly the night before, and she was exhausted.

She’d done amazing in the games so far, getting gold in every race, although the hundred-meter mixed relay had been close and she’d had to swim for her life to make up for the slower performance of the person doing the butterfly. She’d managed the fastest split of her career so far, getting the gold. But just barely.

And she’d complained about a slight pain in her left shoulder after that. I knew she was going to try and put it out of her mind and push through because what else could she do, but I worried it would affect her in this race, which was already in her head.

Worse, she was facing a tough and fresh opponent from Sweden. For whatever reason, they’d scheduled the distance races much later than the sprints, and this was her first race of the games. She was also the reigning gold medalist, having won this race four years ago.

I could read Kat’s body language as well as anyone, and everything said she was tired. Her shoulder dropped, and she kind of hung her head as she got up on the block.

She went through her pre-race routine, shaking out her arms, almost slapping the opposite shoulder with each, trying to loosen up her tight movements.

They called out, and each girl took her place, in their ready stance. As the buzzer sounded, Kat got off a good dive. I could recognize it was a little off, but only because I’d seen her do it so many times at this point, and it didn’t hurt her time.

The races started okay for Kat, as she kept neck in neck with the Swede and a girl from Japan, who were all leading the race. Coming up to the fifty-meter mark, she slowed for a second, the other two girls making the turn right ahead of her, putting her a little behind them.

I think her competitors knew she was tired and were pushing her hard, the speed much faster than Kat normally did on the first lap for this length of race. I wasn’t familiar with the Swede, who was definitely the one setting the pace, but I worried that Kat was falling into a trap instead of swimming her own race. They kept pushing, with Kat struggling to catch up to the other two.

Finally, at the hundred and fifty-meter mark, she surged, closing the gap just as the Japanese swimmer began to fade, dropping a full body length in under ten meters as she clearly ran out. The other American started to pick up ground, but unless Kat and the Swede slowed down, no one was catching them.

She was fighting hard and neck-in-neck starting the last length of the pool. She couldn’t hold it, though. Between her shoulder, her fatigue, and the pace the Swedish swimmer was putting, she started to fade. I could see her pushing hard, and she kept from falling behind too far, but the other girl started to pull ahead as they got to the last twenty-five meters.

As they got to the last few meters, just a few and spans from the wall, Kat threw everything she had in her, I think hoping to surprise the defending gold medalist, and it looked, for a second, like she might as she closed the gap that had formed. Their hands hit almost at the same time. I, and everyone else in the stadium, looked up at the scoreboard, trying to see who won. It was like the race at the trials, where Kat had pulled it out in almost as close.

This time, it wasn’t to be, as the scores flashed up on the screen, showing the Swede defended her gold medal, beating Kat by three-tenths of a second and giving Kat her first silver medal.

Kat was looking up at the board, her expression was one of resignation more than disappointment. She had given everything, and it showed in the way she carried herself out of the pool. As she reached the edge, the gold medalist extended a hand. Kat took it, and they shared a respectful handshake. I knew how competitive she was and knew it stung, but she didn’t have anything to be upset about. She’d dominated women’s swimming this year.

She made her way over to her personal coach, who put her arm around Kat and leaned close, talking to her, probably offering words of encouragement and telling her how good she did.

As she made her way toward the locker room, I hurried out of the stands, weaving through the crowd to make it to where Kat would come out of the locker room, Jean and Mana following. Everyone else was still watching, and I think they knew I wanted a minute with just me and Kat.

I knew I would be there before she came out, but I didn’t want to have a chance for her to come out and I wasn’t there to support her.

I stopped and leaned against a wall to wait when a kid came running up to me. Jean started to intercept, but I waved her off. The kid couldn’t be older than nine, and seemed unlikely to be out to get me.

“Charlie! Can I get an autograph?” one called out, holding up a pen and paper.

I forced a smile, taking the items. “Sure thing.”

I think he wanted more than that, but I wasn’t really at my best, looking more at the entrance to the locker rooms than at the kid. I think Mana saw my want to be left alone because he took the kid and guided him off, but in that friendly way only he could manage.

I actually loved seeing my fans and knew I’d feel bad about that later, but couldn’t get it in me to worry about it now.

After what felt like an eternity, Kat emerged, her damp hair pulled back, a towel around her neck. She looked exhausted but calm.

I stepped forward as soon as I saw her, wrapping her in a hug. “Kat, I’m so sorry. You were amazing out there, you gave it everything you had.”

She hugged me back, her voice muffled against my chest. “It’s okay. Really. I’m happy with the silver.”

I pulled back, searching her face. “You sure? I know how much you wanted the gold.”

Kat shrugged, “Of course I wanted it. But considering my shoulder, the exhaustion... I did good. It wasn’t a personal best, but I still medaled. That’s what matters.”

I cupped her cheek with one hand and said, “You’re incredible, you know that? Most people would be devastated, but you’re just rolling with it.”

She shrugged and hugged me again, resting the side of her face against my chest.

“On the bright side, you’re done. We can now spend the next week watching the games and hanging out with our friends.”

“I know,” she said, squeezing me. “I can’t wait.”

***

The Olympics were maybe the most fun two weeks of my life. Once she was done, Kat and I spent almost every minute together, watching a lot of diving and track and field. We cheered them on and I got to go with her to a few parties thrown by Olympians.

Then there was the final ceremony. I couldn’t have been more proud, watching Kat and the rest of the Americans marching out. The ceremony itself was a blast and they had several musical guests, which made me realize it had been a while since I’d had a chance to actually enjoy music. And then they’d done the final walk of the athletes and, near the end, the family and friends charged the field. I found Kat and picked her up in the air and kissed her. It had been magical, for both of us.

Unfortunately, our week of vacation, something neither of us had taken in years, finally came to an end and we had to head back to our real lives. Thankfully, Kat was done with her non-stop training and on summer break, so we got to spend time together still, but I had to work. Quinn had a pretty busy schedule that included some in-person interviews set up, so much so that when we landed in New York it was eight am and I had time for maybe a two-hour nap before I had to be at a local radio station for it.

Which is why I was a little annoyed when Warren said, “We need to head to the hotel bar before you head up to the room.”

“What? Why? Can I even get in there?”

We’d just gotten our keys and we were all about to split up to head to our rooms. Besides Kat, Seth and Lyla were with me to prep for the show, and Tabitha had come with Lyla. We were all tired and had been talking on the ride to the hotel from the airport about just wanting to get to bed and relax.

“Yes. You’re not going to be drinking and we already cleared it. As to why, you’ll see,” he said, smiling slyly.

I almost told him no. I was tired and didn’t want to deal with whatever game he was playing. But, Warren had never steered me wrong and had done good by me every step of the way. If he had some game he wanted to play, and he was this pleased about it, it was up to me to humor him.

“Fine, do you need all of us?”

“If you don’t mind. I mean, Kat and Tabitha can head up to the rooms if they want, but I’d like Seth and Lyla there.”

“We can all go,” Tabitha said.

She’d calmed down a lot over the last few years, but she still didn’t like being told what to do.

“We can all go. Just lead on,” I said, trying very hard to keep annoyance out of my voice.

I’d been in a lot of bars in my life, but they’d all been places where live bands played, and a lot more sleazy than this place which, except for the long bar with a lit-up wall of liquor bottles, looked more like a lounge than any of the bars I’d ever been to.

The thing that stood out the most, however, was Hal Steiner sitting at a booth, leaning back, his arms stretched across the back of the booth seats.

He didn’t get up as we joined him, instead saying, “There’s the man of the hour! Isn’t it great?”

I looked from Hal to Warren and back and asked, “Isn’t what great?”

Warren chuckled. “I haven’t told him yet. Wanted to wait until we were all together.”

“Told me what? Come on, I like a surprise as much as the next guy, but this is wearing a bit thin.”

“Charlie, my boy, you’ve done it. You’ve hit the big time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yesterday your album hit number one on the Billboard charts,” Hal announced, beaming.

“No way.”

Warren nodded, grinning from ear to ear. “It’s true. And that’s not all.”

“End of the Blues and Smallville Dreams are sitting pretty at number one and two on the singles chart,” Hal continued. “You’ve got another track in the top ten, and every other song from the album is in the top fifty. Besides that, Wild Fire Heart hit number three on the rock chart, and get this, Rust Belt Revival is number one on the country chart.”

“Country?” Lyla said, surprised. “But it’s not even a country song.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Warren explained. “It’s getting massive airplay on country stations. Skyrocketed up the chart.”

“Wow, that’s great,” I said.

It was. I’d done well with the EP, which suggested we’d do well with this album, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. I assumed it would also mean the tour would go off well.

I guess I wasn’t appropriately excited enough, because Hal frowned and said, “Charlie, do you understand what this means?”

“Um, people like our music?” I offered.

“No, my boy, it means you’re set. The kind of sales needed to hit number one on the overall chart? They’re massive.”

“But I was number one on the EP list before,” I pointed out.

“This is a whole different ballgame,” Warren said. “Number one on the overall list? That’s the big leagues.”

“It’ll take some time for all the money to start rolling in since it’s spread across various deals,” Hal said. “But we’re looking at least gold, probably platinum, considering how many tracks hit the top fifty.”

“Hold on, how did we jump so far? Last I checked, we weren’t even in the top twenty-five.”

“The Olympics is what happened,” Hal said.

“The Olympics?” It was an answer, but not one I understood.

“Do you have any idea how much free press you got at the Olympics?” Warren asked. “Every time they mentioned Kat, they mentioned you and the album. And Olympic viewers cover a huge cross section of the US population, and the world population, although I imagine you got a lot less exposure in the foreign press. But, that means it exposed you to a massive new audience that doesn’t watch reality TV.”

Hal turned to Kat, his smile widening. “Congratulations, by the way. Such a massive success.”

Hanna kind of shrugged, but I could see the glow. Even after so many people telling her she did great at the Olympics, she was still uncomfortable with the attention.

“I’d hoped they wouldn’t do that. I didn’t want to take away from Kat’s moment.”

Kat squeezed my hand. “You didn’t. I had the time of my life, and if you benefit from it too, it’s a win-win.”

“I think it was that moment you two had together at the closing ceremony,” Warren chimed in. “When friends and family ran out to join the athletes. The camera caught Charlie lifting you up and kissing you. It went viral.”

“Ohh,” I said.

I hadn’t realized cameras had caught that.

“Either way,” Hal said. “This is huge. I predict the sales are going to be massive and it also means the tour is going to be even bigger.”

“Man,” I said.

I didn’t know what else to say. This was, in fact, huge.

We spent another twenty minutes or so talking to Hal, but there wasn’t really any new information for us. We were doing great, making a lot of money, and were on the track to have a huge tour, which was exciting. The money stuff was still not real, although Warren was insistent I needed to get a business manager to start dealing with the money. I’d just been shoving it in a bank account, which I guess wasn’t a thing you should do.

If I hadn’t just gotten off a transatlantic flight, I would have wanted to stay and just bask in everything with my friends. But mostly, I just wanted to get some sleep, especially since I had interviews starting in the afternoon, so at best I’d only get a four-hour nap.

We broke off as we got to the floor, with Tabitha, Lyla, and Seth all heading to their own rooms. They were as wiped out as I was.

We’d just gotten to our rooms when Jean’s phone rang.

“Yes? ... right now? ... Call the police and let them know. I’ll be down in two minutes.”

She had the ‘on alert’ look I’d seen her have only a few times, and it was always intense.

“What?”

“Nobel is here. He just walked in the front door. I need you two to go inside your room and do not come out until I come back. I’m serious, I don’t care if it’s the police or anyone else. Do not step outside. Period.”

She looked deadly serious.

“I won’t.”

She also clearly wasn’t leaving until I was inside. I pressed the card against the lock and went inside, pulling the door closed behind me. Kat looked worried, glancing back at the door.

“It’ll be okay,” I said, taking her hand and squeezing it. “Jean knows what she’s doing, she ...”

We were just walking into the suite when the bathroom door exploded open.

I did not take in the man’s face, instead focusing entirely on the knife in his hands. My body reacted before my mind could catch up. I blocked his first wild stab, deflecting it away from my chest, brushing the blade down. I did not get it clear enough. Pain flared, hot and sharp.

Kat screamed as I pushed her into the room, away from the danger. She skidded and fell on her butt next to the bed. Kat got out her phone and scuttled to the side, trying to get away from where we were struggling.

“Hit the panic button!” I shouted, bracing myself as the attacker came at me again.

The man was wild, his eyes big and manic.

I sidestepped just in time, grabbing his wrist and twisting it away from me. He managed to push me, smashing a shoulder into my chest and wrenching his hand free. He pushed me into the nightstand, my back screaming in pain as I hit the wooden edge, bending over backward, sending the lamp crashing off the side of it.

He tried to stab down again, and I managed to get my wrist against his. I gripped his arm and slammed it against the wall, trying to disarm him, but he had too strong of a lock on it, and it stayed in his hand. I tried to do it again when he smashed his forehead into my face.

My grip weakened as I was stunned and he managed to wrench away. I got my wits around me enough to duck as he slashed wildly, falling halfway on the floor. He was stretched out from the slash, and I struck out hard, jabbing him in the solar plexus, sending him stumbling back, thankfully giving me a chance to shake off the headbutt and get my feet back under me.

He wasn’t down long enough for me to get on him, and he charged again. This needed to end soon. Chef always said that fighting a knife, armed or unarmed, was something to be avoided. They were small, making them hard to block, and every hit or even block potentially deadly.

I reached out and grabbed the luggage stand, swinging it with all my might, the knife getting caught in the plastic webbing. The weapon immobilized for a moment, I took my chance shoving hard, pushing him against the wall, using the luggage stand as leverage.

The guy struggled hard. He couldn’t shove me off, not with the leverage I had, but he managed to push it down his body, getting his leg up and wedging his foot in it, which shifted the balance, his stronger leg muscles pushing me off.

The knife went off-line as he kicked me away, and I took my chance. Abandoning the luggage stand, I grabbed his wrist while swinging out with my elbow, catching him across the face.

Some of the struggle went out for a moment as he was stunned, and I had an opportunity, reaching down after elbowing him and getting my other hand on the knife hand, locking over his hand holding the weapon. I twisted hard, my hands going in opposite directions, wrenching as hard as I could.

I felt something snap and he screamed, his fingers going slack. I released the hand over his and the knife dropped to the carpet. I was not going to let up, though.

I kicked out, smashing my foot into the side of his knee, seeing it pop out in an unnatural way, sending him crashing to the ground. As he fell, I rolled him over, dropping my knee into the small of his back, holding him still, putting my entire body weight on him.

I felt warm blood trickling down my side as I held the attacker pinned to the ground. The adrenaline was still pumping, but I finally got to slow down enough and think.

This was the Nolan guy, my stalker. I recognized his face, even twisted in rage as it was. It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened. He’d somehow suckered the hotel, or faked the call, to get Jean out of the way, and waited for me in my room.

I was just looking back to Kat, to see if she’d gotten a hold of anyone, when the door exploded in, gun drawn.

“I found the guy,” I said, through clenched teeth.