Double Black Diamond
up her jacket. We speed-walked around the corner, heading toward the mountain, but I slowed after a minute, panting. My head pulsed, and my mouth was Death Valley dry.“Veena . . . wait. You need to tell me . . . where you’re going.”
She tugged my arm again, but I pulled back. “Seriously. I have to at least let my team know where we’re headed.”
Cooley and his group were already in place at VMA. They would have seen us leave and followed at a distance, but our rapid departure would definitely confuse them.
I tugged up my coat sleeve. Brown asked me to use my watch to let him know where we were going when we left VMA. I didn’t think I’d need to use it so soon. He’d provided wireless ear buds, but with only Veena around, I didn’t think I needed them.
She studied my wrist. “Nice watch.”
I couldn’t contain myself; I grinned. “It’s custom. Part of a system my team uses to follow me, and you, if you agree to carry a tracker.” My bag at the hotel held her pocket-sized tracking device that doubled as a panic button.
“A tracker? So you can follow me around?”
“Only if you agree.”
She scratched her nose, looking doubtful. “Are you going to tell me where I can and can’t go, too?”
“No.” My voice was firm. I wasn’t her babysitter, except in the sense that whatever she chose to do, I’d make sure she didn’t get hurt. Or worse. “It’s your life, Veena. We’re only here to keep you safe in it.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied my face. Hopefully she saw the honesty there. “We’re going to the gondola.”
I relayed the information to Brown.
“Keep me posted,” he responded.
Veena’s eyes sparkled. “Your job is so rad.”
I had to agree.
She led me through a pedestrian area with ski shops, coffee bars, and restaurants that looked like they wouldn’t serve me if they knew my bank account total.
“Don’t you have class?” My breath curled away behind me as we rushed along. The sky was clear, but snow lined the streets and paths, and even with my coat and hat, I was freezing my butt off. Veena was barelegged, but I didn’t see so much as a goose bump on her.
“In the mornings. Afternoons are my training time, but because I train or compete on weekends, I have Mondays off. Time to play!”
For some reason, coming from Veena, that sounded dangerous.
We entered a square ringed by buildings embellished with flowery designs and strung with twinkle lights. Some had turrets. I guessed they were hotel rooms and condos, places for tourists to stay slope side.
In the center of the square, kids skated on an ice rink while parents sipped hot drinks by fire pits. The whole place smelled like a campfire. To the left, through a gap in the buildings, the ski mountain rose steeply in front of us. People slid down that thing on boards? At top speed?
At the base of the hill, a blue-roofed building covered the gondola machinery. Every few seconds, cars suspended from a thick cable popped out and rose up the hill carrying skiers and riders. Veena led me over to two teens, an Asian boy and a white girl, waiting outside.
“Finally! Let’s go,” the girl said with an accent. The bleached blond hair snaking out from her wool hat was dreadlocked. I recognized Alison King from the digital photos of Veena’s friends I’d gotten from Brown. “I know the liftie. He’ll let us skip the line.”
“Hey, I’m Gage,” the boy said to me. Dark stubble covered his chin, and a pair of ski goggles hugged his forehead and messy black hair. Gage Ito had been in the photos, too. He jerked his thumb at the girl. “And this paragon of manners is Ali.”
“Nic Rossi,” I said.
Ali held out a gloved hand to bump. “How ya going, Joey?”
I blinked. “What?”
“She doesn’t speak Aussie or snowboarder, Ali,” Gage said.
“A pleasure to meet you, newbie.” Ali shot him an eye roll. “Happy? Let’s do this before Chase changes his mind.”
Veena gave me a sheepish look and shrugged. “Joeys are people new to snowboarding.”
I sighed. First Green, now Joey. Being new to a job sucked.
We walked through an empty line marked Ski School, bypassing a candy-colored swirl of skiers and riders waiting to board the gondola. A few guys wearing hats, gloves, and blue coats with Vail embroidered on the back stood inside stomping their feet against the cold. Music pumped in the background, battling with the noisy gondola. Cars whipped around in a semi-circle, and then slowed so people could load and unload.
Ali waved to one of the guys as we walked up. The plastic nametag on his chest said Chase and Silver Springs, Maryland. She hugged him with a squeal. “Can we jump on?”
Chase scratched his shaggy beard and waved us into line in front of a distracted mom herding three kids and their gear. “Hop in.”
“Thanks!” Veena dove into the open door, and we all piled in after her.
“Love ya!” Ali yelled as the door closed.
My stomach stayed at the bottom of the hill while the rest of me rose up. The gondola didn't move that fast, but I seriously wasn’t feeling well now. Thinking through the headache was like plowing through an opponent in self-defense class at Juno.
“So . . . what are we doing?” I asked. Veena and her friends didn’t have skis or boards with them.
“You’ll see,” Veena said, and the others smiled. She pulled fuchsia snow pants out of her backpack, tugged them on under her skirt, and shimmied the skirt down over the top. She handed me a red pair of the puffy pants. “I brought an extra pair for you. I hope they fit—you’re taller than me.”
Huh. That was thoughtful. I pulled them on. They were short but covered the tops of my boots. “Thanks.”
Veena yanked a water bottle covered in a swirling design out of her bag and drank, making my dry lips pucker. The