by Jill Myles
We headed over to our marked mats, and I noticed that there was a grid set up like a tic-tac-toe board, with a big World Games globe logo in the center. Each of the empty squares were labeled one through eight, and we headed with our litter over to slot one, and dumped our sled. I was breathing hard and disgusted at how difficult this was. This last challenge was going to come down to sheer strength. Frustrated, I glanced over as Brodie and Tesla dumped their latest object onto their yellow mat, studying them.
Sled, an enormous book, a chandelier, a temple replica, a sphinx, and as I watched, they put down an enormous stringed instrument like the kind Liam had played in Cambodia. I squinted, something about that not seeming right to me.
"Come on," Liam encouraged me, and we grabbed our litter and headed back down to the bottom.
Going back down was leagues easier than heading up, and we trotted back down the stairs in record time. We headed back to our boxes and I leaned in to Liam. "Next leg was Ireland."
"I remember," he told me, prying open the next box. "You kissed me just for the hell of it."
I laughed, feeling warm. "Do you remember all the legs in order by the stages of our flirting?"
"I do," he said, and his face was serious as he looked over at me. "I got to put my hands all over you in Paris, then we had a mini-date in Pompeii. Went all the way in Egypt after you clung to me in the pyramids. Night two in Turkey, and then we fought in Cambodia. Waste of a perfectly good twelve hours in a hotel room, if you ask me."
I chuckled. "That was all you."
"I know it was," he said, and grimaced. "This box is the wrong one," he told me. "Cambodia wasn't until the seventh leg." And he showed me the stringed instrument.
Something pinged my memory again, and I squinted up at the top of the stairs, where Brodie and Tesla were descending back down to the bottom, their empty litter at hand. I looked over at their boxes - two remained. And Cambodia was seventh…
I turned and grabbed Liam's arm as he opened the next box, my fingers digging in to his skin. "Brodie and Tesla made a mistake," I whispered at him. "They've got the order wrong."
"They do?"
I nodded. "When we go up again, look at their mat."
His eyes flared with excitement. "I guess now that they don't have anyone to copy off of, they're forced to rely on their own brains."
"Then Brodie and Tesla are screwed," I told him with a grin. "My brother's a lot of things, but brains is not his strong suit."
"We need to hurry," he told me, heading for the next box and prying the massive lid off.
I thought for a minute, then leaned in. "What if we leave the item in the box and take it up the stairs? The rules didn't mention anything about that. Brodie and Tesla won't be able to see what we've got in what order, and so they won't be able to copy off of us once they figure out that they've done something wrong."
Liam grinned at me. "Sneaky. I love it."
"Let's do it, then," I said, opening the next box.
It took a few more before we found the large book that signified our stop in Dublin and the visit to the University Library. We left it in the box and hauled it up the stairs, going as fast as we could despite our cramping legs. There were only seventy-two steps (I counted) but it might as well have been three hundred. We dumped our box and raced down for the next one. After that was a chandelier, for the opera house in Paris. As we headed up again, we passed Tesla and Brodie, who were on their way back up with their next object. They were slowing down, their faces covered in sweat. I couldn't blame them - we were on our third pass up and this task was killing my legs. But we couldn't afford to slow down. Not when victory was this close.
My heart hammered in my chest as we dropped off our box, and then took the box containing the small temple up the stairs. Once we got to the Trojan horse, my legs were cramping and moving slower and slower. Liam's face was shining with sweat, his black hair sticking to his brow. I was exhausted, but sheer adrenaline kept me going.
As soon as we dumped our Trojan horse, I watched, my entire body tense, as Brodie and Tesla called over the judge. The woman picked through their pieces, then shook her head. "No. Try again."
I bit back my squeal of excitement. They had it wrong. There was time to fix this. We could still win.
We headed down the stairs at breakneck speed, and I watched as Brodie's gaze moved to our still-boxed objects. Nice try, big brother, I thought to myself. There was not going to be any copying off of my hard work today. Liam and I were both gasping for breath by the time we made it up the stairs with the stringed guitar-thing from Cambodia. I glanced over at Brodie's mat, and they had maneuvered things again, the Trojan horse now occupying the completely wrong spot.
"I'm sorry, no," the judge said again, and I smiled to myself to hear Brodie swear.
Excitement made our feet pound down the stairs, even though we were exhausted at this point. We grabbed the last box and hauled it onto the litter with weak, trembling arms.
"One more, Katy," Liam encouraged me. "We can do this. We can."
I nodded, saving my breath for the climb up those horrible stairs, and we continued forward. Each step felt enormous, and I counted them off in my head. Twenty steps, and I was gasping like a fish out of water. Thirty steps, and my sweaty hands were slipping on the wooden beams of the litter. Fifty steps, and my legs were cramped so tight that every step felt like knives. But I kept going, and Liam hadn't slowed down a bit. Sixty five steps, and we were close enough to see Brodie and Tesla standing over their mat. My brother had his hands twisted in his blond hair, and he looked utterly frustrated. Tesla had her tattooed arms crossed over her chest, giving Brodie a furious look, as if it was his fault. I felt a twinge of pity for my brother. Just a twinge.
And then we were up to the top of the stairs. I stumbled, my legs giving out on me, and we crashed to the ground.
"You okay, Katy?" Liam was immediately at my side, the litter forgotten. He helped me to my feet, his hands strong and sure as he grasped my arms.
"I'm fine," I wheezed. "Let's finish this."
We grabbed our litter and dragged it over to the final place on the mat, just as Brodie and Tesla waved the judge over again.
I held my breath as the judge considered their puzzle board. Then, she shook her head and I thought my heart would burst. "I'm sorry, no."
"Over here," I croaked. "We're ready."
The judge headed over, and I heard Brodie curse again. A cameraman came over to hover as Liam lifted the lids on the boxes and set them aside, then moved toward me. His strong arms went around my waist, and I leaned heavily on him, exhausted. My every nerve was tight with anxiety, though, and I couldn't take my eyes off the judge as she studied our puzzle. I knew we had things right. Liam knew. Had we mistaken something, though?
"Their stuff is still in boxes," Tesla called out in a whiny voice. "That's not fair."
"There's nothing in the rules that says you can't do that," Liam said. "Just to take it up the stairs and put it in the right spot."
"That's cheating," she shot back.
"You're just jealous that you guys weren't smart enough to do it," I retorted.
She gave me a narrow-eyed glare that I ignored, leaning heavily on Liam. My gaze went back to the judge, who had paced around our boxes again.
After a long, tense moment, she reached into her jacket and withdrew a bright green disk. "That is correct. Congratulations."
Liam gave a whoop and grabbed me by the waist. I shrieked with excitement, wrapping my arms around his neck as he spun me around.
"The disk," I laughed happily, wiggling out of his grasp. "Get the disk!"
He set me down, pressed a hard, sweaty kiss to my mouth that was so fierce that I could feel his lip piercing digging into my skin. Then he snatched the disk from the judge, grabbed my hand, and we raced toward that unbroken finish line.
Cameramen hovered, filming us as we headed toward that long piece of tape, and the host was clapping with excitement. We crosse
d the line and I felt the plastic snap as we pushed through it.
"Congratulations, Katy and Liam," Chip boomed as The World Races theme music began to play loudly and confetti rained down on top of us. "You are the winners of this year's World Games!"
Liam looked at me.
I looked back at him.
He grinned.
I flung my arms around Liam's neck once more and pulled him to me in another long, hard kiss.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Where do we go from here? Towards a happy ever after, man." — Liam Brogan, Post-Races Interview
The twenty-four hours post-race were a blur of activity. Liam and I were thoroughly interviewed on every angle of the final leg of the race, and then we did a new series of press junkets. A check was presented to us, on camera, and Chip gave a long speech about the challenges of the race and recounted the many tasks we'd performed.
I didn't hear a word of it. I simply clutched that oversized check, in a daze.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One hundred twenty five thousand dollars each. Holy shit. Brodie was going to be furious at me. I told myself that I didn't care, but he was my brother. I cared even though he'd played like a jerk. He'd hate that he came into second place. Absolutely hate it.
The others that had been kicked off the race at one time or another met for a big wrap party in Philadelphia. Everyone had been flown in, and they all took turns hugging me and Liam. Abby was delighted for us, and Dean didn't seem nearly as upset at losing as I thought he might be, which meant that Abby had probably told him about the baby. Either way, it was good to see them again, and I hugged them both for a long, long time.
Tesla wasn't speaking to me or Liam. Brodie gave me a quick hug of congratulations and then disappeared into the crowd again.
We hadn't had a minute to ourselves since the race had ended. By the time the interviews and the wrap party were over, it was extremely late at night, and the crew had assigned us separate hotel rooms. I collapsed into mine and fell instantly asleep, exhausted from endless days of globetrotting and worry. As I fell into bed, I briefly wondered that Liam hadn't come to find me. Or were we over now that the race was?
It's reality TV, but it's not reality. Abby's warning rang in my mind over and over again.
She'd been right all along. Maybe Liam figured that now that we were done with the race, me and him were done as well. It did seem like a natural place to break, I thought wistfully, if one wanted to break things off.
I didn't, but I wasn't the only one in this relationship, of course.
~~ * * * ~~
"Katy Short?" Someone pounded at my door. "Are you awake?"
I sat up, pushing my messy hair out of my eyes, disoriented. I'd been dragged from an incredible dream about Liam and Egypt and the hours we'd spent in the hotel room exploring each other. Waking up and finding myself in my lonely bed? Not the best way to start the day.
I went to the door and opened it, staring blearily at the production assistant there. "Yes?"
"Your ride to the airport leaves in twenty minutes. I'm here to make sure you get there."
"Oh. Okay. Give me a few to shower and get ready." I shut the door again when I saw her nod, and then dragged myself to the shower, trying to wake up. I still felt hung over from the race.
When I wiped the foggy mirror and stared at my reflection, I considered my wet blonde hair. This was the first day in a while that I wouldn't have to wear my hair in pigtails because the race had mandated it. Running my fingers through it, I grabbed a clip and just twisted it into that. No fuss, no muss. Back to normal Katy all over again. Race Katy was going to be a memory soon enough.
And I thought of Liam again. Would I have time to say goodbye? I dressed quickly, shoving my things into my bag. We'd had to travel light for the race, so luckily I didn't have much to pack.
When I opened the door to my room, though, I was surprised to see Brodie there. "Hey, sis," he said cheerfully. "You up?"
"I am," I said in a wary voice. This cheerfulness after losing the race? That wasn't like Brodie. My brother was known to sulk for days on end. "You going to the airport with me?"
"Well, I was supposed to, but I came to say goodbye."
"Goodbye?"
He grinned again, unable to contain his excitement. "The producers met with me last night. They liked me so much on The World Races that they want me to be on Endurance Island, which starts taping in two days. So I'm flying from here directly out to the filming location. Isn't that awesome?"
"Wow, that is. I'm surprised, honestly."
He laughed. "Because I played like a dick? Apparently the production crew loved that. They don't have nearly enough villains for good TV so they're throwing me onto Endurance Island in the hopes that I can stir things up there, too. And they even mentioned the show House Guests."
"House Guests?"
"You know, the one where they stick a bunch of strangers in a house together? Apparently they're about to do an all-star version in a few months, and they're considering casting me." He gave me an excited hug. "Isn't this amazing?"
"It is," I murmured, still dazed. "Wow. I'm really happy for you, Brodie. Things are looking up. You're not mad that I won?"
"Oh, I'm annoyed I didn't win," Brodie admitted, and gave me another brotherly noogie that I barely escaped. "But Tesla totally fell apart in that last challenge and she drove me crazy. As soon as she started whining about going up the stairs, I knew we'd lost it."
I said nothing, ignoring Brodie's revisionist history. Tesla's whining hadn't lost the challenge for them - their lack of puzzle skills had. But whatever got my brother through the day. "Speaking of Tesla, how's she taking the loss?"
Brodie shrugged. "Don't know. I heard they flew all the other teams out about two hours ago."
My jaw dropped. "They…what?"
"Yeah. I didn't get to say goodbye, but that's fine." He grinned. "I knew it was just for the show anyhow."
But I was still reeling in shock. All the other teams were…gone? Liam hadn't come to say goodbye? Had we just been for the show, too?
I feel like I've already won, Liam had told me in that last cab ride. I blinked rapidly, fighting back tears. "Oh."
"Sorry you didn't get asked to go on Endurance Island, Katy. They told me they only had room for one person." My brother gave me a mock-sad look that told me he was trying really hard not to be excited, but failing.
I waved a hand idly at that, my chest still aching at the thought of Liam flying out without even bothering to say goodbye to me. "I don't want to be on Endurance Island anyhow. I just wanted enough money to give my business a boost."
"Well, you've got it," he said cheerfully.
I did. I had the money and the win. I just didn't have the guy. I should have been thrilled.
But instead, I just ached.
~~ * * * ~~
A half hour later, the cab dropped me off at the airport and I headed inside, ticket in hand. Being in the airport again after all the running around of the past few weeks made me instantly tired, and I couldn't seem to muster any enthusiasm as I headed to my gate. It felt weird to sit down at a gate and not have a cameraman hovering to tape my every movement. I slumped in my chair and tried not to think about how weirdly lonely it felt to be on my own for the first time in weeks.
Maybe the loneliness was because I'd been discarded romantically? I kept telling myself that it wasn't important. My brother had been callously dumped by Tesla and wasn't upset because he'd known it was short-term. I told my brain that I shouldn't be upset, too. But I couldn't help it.
I had stupidly fallen for a guy that hadn't even wanted to be my partner in the beginning. Unhappy, I stared off into space, resisting the urge to tap my fingers on the bag like Liam had, always with a melody in his head.
Whispers and giggles drove me out of my reverie. "You think that's really him?" someone said nearby.
I glanced up.
Two girls were giggling, and one had her p
hone out and was videotaping something in the distance.
"Go ask him for his autograph," another girl whispered, and more giggling followed.
I craned my head, trying to see what they were staring at. To my surprise, Liam Brogan, lead guitarist of Finding Threnody, was heading my way, a backpack slung over one deliciously tattooed shoulder, his shaggy hair falling over his brow, piercings gleaming in the sunlight streaming through the airport windows.
And he was heading directly for me.
I got up from my seat as if in slow motion, staring at him, drinking in his tall, delicious form, the dark eyes, the wicked glint in his gaze, the sensual mouth that I loved to kiss.
He ignored the girls filming him and the stares he got, and came to stand right in front of me. His gaze moved over my hair, and his mouth quirked into an amused grin. "No pigtails?"
"I'm done with those for now."
"Shame," he said, and the word was so low and husky that it made me quiver. "I kind of liked those."
I blushed. "You're still here? I'm kind of surprised."
"Why? You never came to say goodbye."
My jaw dropped. "I…Brodie said—" I snapped my mouth shut and groaned. "God, remind me never to listen to my brother again." I rubbed my forehead, just thinking about the headaches that came with being related to Brodie. "He told me everyone else flew out hours ago."
"Not me," Liam said. "I was waiting to talk to you, but you never came."
"It wasn't because I didn't want to," I told him softly, and to my horror, my eyes filled with tears. "I just thought that we were done because the race was done."
Liam's arms went around me, and he pulled me closer. "Now when," he whispered huskily, "have I ever given you that impression?"
My hands slid around his waist and I splayed my fingers on his back, enjoying the play of muscles against my hands as I stared up into his face. God, he was gorgeous. I could eat him up with a spoon. No wonder all these girls were ecstatically taping him. "But you're a big famous rock star and I'm nobody."
