Playing Games(13)

I snorted. Not likely.

To my horror, Brodie stood up, brandishing the sealed envelope that had been marked as our prize. "I'll use the Ace."





CHAPTER FOUR


"That douchebag just fucked me, all because he wanted to sleep with my partner. What? No cussing? Fine. That jerk just dicked over his sister and me. What? I can't say dicked on camera either? Come on." — Liam Brogan, Ireland Leg of The World Races











"What the fuck, Brodie?" I called, staggering to my feet.

Chip plucked the Ace from Brodie's hand, brandishing it triumphantly. "And we have our first Ace of the game in use! Yellow team is going to use it to save the black team! That makes this round a non-elimination round!"

My jaw dropped. "Wait, don't we have to vote on this?" But no one was listening to me, it seemed.

Tesla gave a small cry of happiness and jumped on Brodie, kissing his cheek and bouncing all over him as she squealed her thanks. I rolled my eyes at that, and eyed Liam, who was bent over, hands on his knees, as if he were about to hurl again.

I didn't blame him. I kind of felt like puking at this moment myself, and it had nothing to do with a bellyful of mukluk. What the hell was Brodie doing?

"But this Ace," Chip boomed, and held the envelope aloft, "has a twist!" And he tore the top off the envelope.

I groaned. Of course there was a damn twist. Nothing was ever simple in this damn game. My stomach gave an uncomfortable anxious lurch (but it might have been the mukluk).

I was going to kill Brodie for doing this to us.

Chip pulled out the bright green card inside the ace packet with a flourish and read it aloud. "Since the teams are all safe on this leg, the next leg will be double elimination. In addition, since Yellow Team saved the Black Team, there will be a mix-up of those two teams. You will swap partners."

I stared at Chip, aghast.

Liam straightened, frowning.

Tesla gave a happy giggle, and Brodie just hugged her again.

"Swap…partners?" I said slowly, then looked over at Tesla and my brother. "So I'm with Tesla?" I asked, deliberately misunderstanding.

Chip shook his head. "Since the teams were initially boy-girl, we'll keep them boy-girl. You're now with Liam, and Brodie is now with Tesla."

"Seriously?" I stared at my new partner in horror. Liam had the grim expression of someone who'd just been told he needed a root canal.

"Gee, that's a bummer," Brodie said, in a voice that didn't sound bummed at all.

I turned and gave him a scathing look. "You? Do not talk to me. At all. Ever again. I’m here on this race because of you, and you just screwed me over."

Brodie gave Tesla a look that said I was being tiresome, which just infuriated me all the more. "Quit being so dramatic, Katy," he told me. "Liam's a nice guy."

"Yeah, and I'm a nice girl who had to shovel raw whale blubber into her mouth so we could get first place! Except now I've lost my partner and I'm paired up with the dude that pushed me to the ground and can't eat whale blubber to save his life! So you'll forgive me if I'm throwing a bit of a fit here."

My new rock-star partner said nothing at my ranting, but that didn't surprise me. Heck, the guy never said anything around me.

"So which one of us is in last place, then? Huh?" I gestured at the four of us standing in front of Chip. "Who's yellow and who's black?"

"We'll draw straws," Chip announced, seemingly unruffled by my rage. An assistant rushed forward to hand him the straws, and he mixed them up in his hand and then held both of them out to us, the bottoms carefully masked. "Whichever one is tipped with black means that they will be black team…and last place. Yellow will remain in the lead."

He held the straws out to Tesla. She glanced at me. I waved a hand at Liam. "Let him do it. Doesn't matter what I say around here anyway."

Liam pulled a straw.

It was black-tipped.

I ignored Brodie's whoop of delight and shook my head. "Someone point me to my tent, because I'm done for the day."

"Igloo," Chip corrected.

I could have cheerfully pushed everyone into the icy waters of the bay in that moment.











It was cold in the igloo. Not a surprise, considering we were in Greenland, in a shelter made of ice. I'd more or less sulked in there for the entire afternoon. Abby had come by to try and cheer me up, but I could tell she thought I'd gotten a shit deal, too. "If Dean and I get an Ace, we'll use it to save you, I promise," she told me. "And if we have a chance to sell your brother down a river, we'll totally do it. Dean thinks he did an awful thing today."

"He did," I agreed. Hearing it from another person made me feel a bit better, at least.