Page 19 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

Monday

Alina

"Guys, this isn't funny. He left before us. He should have been back by now."

"Alina, I'm sure he'll be here any second," Kristen said. "His crazy driver probably got lost or something."

My phone buzzed and I quickly swiped my finger across the screen.

"Holy shit," Alex said.

I looked up and saw that they had all received the same text message alert.

It was about a missing ITA athlete, last seen in a town on the outskirts of the athletes' village earlier tonight.

There was a picture of him in the alert.

I had seen him before. His name was Liam.

He was on the Canadian swim team. He had competed in a few races against Chris.

"What if whoever picked up Bryce was somehow involved with this guy disappearing?" I asked. "Maybe they saw the three of you dressed up as mustachioed Canadians the other night and..."

"Shhh!" Tim hissed. "Keep your voice down. Don't bring up the operation in public."

"No one is targeting Canadian athletes," Alex said. "Everyone loves Canadians."

"Yao Kai isn't thrilled with Canadians right now. Since we ripped his pants and he thinks we're all Canadian."

"So you think the Chinese government is going around kidnapping Canadian athletes because of a prank? It's China, not North Korea."

"I don't know." My phone buzzed again. But it still wasn't Bryce. It was another alert. The director of the ITA was suggesting that all athletes stay inside the athletes' village until Liam was located. For our own safety.

"Okay, I'm going to call him," Alex said.

Before he made the call, his phone buzzed again.

Alex laughed. "He's fine. Apparently his Uber driver got him back super fast and took the bumpiest route possible.

He felt car sick so he went back to our room.

I told him to lay off eating so many brigadeiros. "

I took a deep breath. Thank God. "What a relief."

Alex smiled at me. "I'll let him know how worried you were."

I laughed. "I mean, we were all worried." I wasn't sure why I was denying it. They had all been joking around and I had been worried he was kidnapped with Liam.

"Mhm," Alex said. "Come on, Tim, let's go see if he's okay." He slapped Tim on the back.

Tim bowed slightly. "Ladies."

Kristen giggled.

Tim immediately grabbed her hand. "Until tomorrow." He kissed the back of her hand.

"See you later, guys," Alex said and started to walk away.

"Guys?" Tim dropped Kristen's hand and ran after Alex. "They're women. You're always so disrespectful."

I tuned out the rest of their conversation and turned toward Kristen. "You like him?"

"What? Psh." Kristen walked past me in the direction of our dorm.

"Are you denying it?"

"I'm not the one denying anything." She raised her eyebrow at me.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Clearly you like Bryce."

Kristen knew me better than anyone. And she always knew when I was lying. I was starting to feel butterflies in my stomach just thinking about seeing Bryce at the game tomorrow. Bryce. Even his name was sexy. "Yeah, I do."

Kristen squealed. "I knew it!"

I couldn't hide the smile that had spread across my face. There were a million reasons why I shouldn't be feeling the way I was feeling right now. But I didn't care. "I really like him, Kristen."

She threw her arms around me. "I told you everything would be okay."

"But..."

"No buts!" She pulled away from me. "You can get over Chris, win Gold, and get Bryce. For once in your life you're allowed to have it all. If you don't stop worrying, you're going to miss out on living, Alina."

Yesterday I felt like I had lost everything. I needed time.

"We're in Brazil. Did you ever think we'd end up here?" She looked up at the stars above us. "We worked so hard. We deserve to enjoy this moment."

I looked up too. She was right. I took a deep breath. It was time to start living. I'd never forgive myself if I let Chris ruin the most amazing week of my life.