“Mikhail?”

“My coach. One of my coaches. We keep in touch a little bit. Of course he was there at the time. Things got pretty crazy because the first notes came while my father was sick, then he snatched me after my father had died. So much happened at once.”

“One of your coaches?”

She nodded. “There was a team and several different coaches and instructors and trainers. Endurance training, ballet, ice work. For me there was also yoga, sports therapy, and then the tutors and homework.”

“How many hours a day was that?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Every one of them, I think. It started early, ended late. That’s not even counting fittings for costumes, choreography, music...and did I mention homework? How about the number of nights I went to bed with bags of ice wrapped to my ass or calves?”

He smiled at her. “You earned those medals, Gracie. It was a lot to give up. But are you happy now?”

“I was,” she said, her eyes glistening again. “Until that came.” She sighed. “What kind of jollies does a person get out of just scaring me to death?”

He shook his head. “It’s not normal, you know. It’s sick and twisted. And from what you tell me, not entirely his fault.”

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I feel like I should run and hide.”

“That’s because you’re scared and upset. But it’s going to be all right. You’ll have to think things through a little, ask yourself some questions...” He got up and opened the little fridge. He didn’t find what he wanted, so he looked in the small wine rack on top and pulled out a bottle of Merlot. He opened it and poured a small glass for her. “Have a little of this and take a few deep breaths. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“I really don’t expect you to—”

“You don’t expect me to help protect the girl I love?” he asked.

She stared at him. “You love me?”

“Of course I do, Gracie. Couldn’t you tell?”

“You never said anything about love...”

“I was waiting for you to trust me, to be honest with me. Look, I understand how you could want to escape that old life, as difficult as—”

“No, Troy, you don’t! I don’t want to be that person anymore! That friendless person so many people talked about and hated! Do you have any idea how painful it is to be the constant object of everyone’s jealousy? As if I had something that belonged to them? As if my mother’s money could buy anything—well, it can’t buy safety or a family or love!”

“And so many people admired you, also,” he said. “But, no matter what name you decide to use, I’m always going to think of you as Gracie. Everyone loves you. You’re not an overworked, abused, overexposed teenage girl anymore. And the first thing you have to let go of is all the secrecy. Your friends can’t watch out for you if they don’t know anything. When you let the cat out of the bag, people are going to wonder why in the world you’d keep an accomplishment like that a secret.”

“Because they don’t understand how hard it is to be in that life!”

“You’re not in it anymore, honey.” He laughed a little and grabbed the last cold beer out of her fridge. “I have to admit, I had trouble understanding why you’d hide that. Gracie, I get that a lot of it was hard, worse than hard, but it’s also an achievement. No one’s going to hate you for it.”

She sipped her wine. “We don’t know that for sure.”

“Yes, I know it. First thing we’re going to do is get you a couple of things for protection. I think we can find ’em online real easy and get them sent overnight. Maybe some pepper spray. How about a stun gun? A Taser.”

“I have to admit, there are a few people I’d like to zap...”

“That’s my girl. Only bad guys, okay, baby? Then we’re going over to see Seth. He needs to know there’s been this contact. I don’t know if you’d call it a threat, exactly, but it’s creepy and he’s the law around here. Besides that’s a good time for you to unload all this on your best friend. You know you can trust Iris to accept you as exactly who you are, no kidding.”

“I guess,” she said.

Ten

Iris’s house was the scene of quiet domesticity. It almost brought tears to Grace’s eyes, she was that envious. It wasn’t quite seven and apparently they were just getting around to dinner. Seth had changed out of his deputy’s uniform into a pair of jeans and a sweater. Since Troy had called and asked if he and Grace could stop by to have a word with them, Iris had added two plates to their dinner table.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have,” Grace said.

“But of course I should have! And I apologize—it isn’t much. I was just about to put in a frozen pizza and since you wanted to stop by, I pulled out a second. To my embarrassment, I have a good supply of frozen pizzas! I doctor them a little—extra pepperoni, cheese and mushrooms.”

“That’s almost like cooking, right?” Seth said. “Come in. Let’s toast whatever you have on your mind.”

“I don’t think this is toastable, but it’s definitely drinkable. Grace has something to tell you. Then we could use a little help,” Troy said.

“Absolutely,” Seth said. “Let’s sit in the kitchen.”

“I hope nothing’s wrong,” Iris said, pulling out a chair for Grace.

“Something’s wrong,” Grace said. “I’ll try to give you the short version. I haven’t been entirely honest with you about my past. My life. I’m not exactly who you think I am. I’m sorry—it’s not that I didn’t trust you.”

By now it was getting a little easier to talk, since telling Troy was the hard part. She got the whole story out without all the details about daily life as a competitor, in about fifteen minutes. Iris, stunned by this new information, punctuated the story with Seriously? You’re kidding me! and Holy crap!

“My God, you’re famous,” she finally said. “I thought you looked familiar but couldn’t place the resemblance.”

“Only famous at certain times and in certain places, but I’m not that competitor anymore. Which is why I didn’t say anything. And it’s also why this freaked me out. This guy was obsessed with me.” She slid the envelope toward Iris while she explained what had happened with Bruno.