I did, grudgingly, and flipped it over.
"Your next clue is at Blarney Castle in Ireland. The charter planes will take you back to Reykjavik, Iceland, and from there you may select your flight to Ireland. One hundred dollars has been provided for food, drink, and necessities." The hundred dollar bill was inside an envelope fitted to the back of the disk. "Have this disk - along with the others you receive - when you cross the finish line." I held it out to Liam to read.
He declined with a wave of his hand, glancing at the distant horizon. "I suppose we should head back to the airport, then. I'm guessing we're going to be on the last charter flight again."
"I'd say that's an accurate guess," I replied sourly. I shrugged on my backpack. "Might as well get it over with, then."
One trip to Acapulco, coming right up.
It wasn't surprising to me that when we arrived at the airport in Reykjavik, all the other teams were still there. A travel agent had suggested that we fly in to Cork, the next flight to leave, and sure enough, all the other teams were waiting at the terminal.
They didn't look happy to see me and Liam, either. I supposed that if we hadn't caught the same flight, they would have been assured that we were one of the teams sure to go. This way, it was a toss-up all over again. I had a hunch that the producers were deliberately shoving all of us together just to see how the two new teams – mine and Brodie’s – reacted to each other.
Too bad for them. I was still in a bad mood, so I took my water bottle and headed to a seat away from all the others, not feeling particularly social at the moment. I didn't care about getting to know the others or 'hanging out' with them, since they didn't seem to want to get to know me, either. No one had made any effort but Abby, and she was cuddled up next to Dean, her eyes closed as if trying to take a nap before the plane got here.
Brodie was sitting in the center of the group with Tesla at his side, looking for all the world as if she'd always been his partner. His arm was loosely around the back of her chair, and she leaned into him, laughing at everything he said. I rolled my eyes and ignored them. Sitting down, I pulled my legs up into my chair and rested my arms on my knees.
Liam glanced at me, and set his backpack down next to me. Then, he went to chat with Tesla, likely to talk strategy or to bitch about his partner. I didn't care. This wasn't fun anymore. If we were the first ones kicked off? I'd be just fine with that. I'd gone from being genuinely excited about being in first place and thinking we had a shot at the money to feeling abandoned.
"Oh, don't worry about her." Brodie's voice rose above the crowd, and I could hear it from where I sat. "She's just in one of her Cranky Katy moods. She'll get over it soon enough."
The teams around him tittered. I narrowed my eyes as a camera zoomed in on my brother, who didn't seem to give a shit that I was miserable.
"Maybe she's cranky because her brother abandoned her to hook up with a hot girl." The voice was deep and smooth and held just a hint of reproach. "I imagine that anyone would be in a bad mood if that happened to them. She got sold out by her partner."
I looked up in surprise. Liam’s back was to me, so I couldn't see his expression. But that voice had been his. Was he defending me?
The crowd went quiet. Tesla wriggled in her seat, as if uncomfortable, and Brodie scowled at Liam.
I glanced away, pretending not to notice that Liam abandoned their little crowd and came to sit next to me in the empty seat. He didn't look over, just grabbed his pack, put his headphones on, and began to drum a beat on his backpack, acting as if nothing in the world bothered him.
Me, I was full of confused thoughts. I'd been nothing but nasty to the guy and he'd defended me. Meanwhile, my brother, who was supposed to have my back? Had been calling me by the childhood nickname that he knew drove me crazy – Cranky Katy. Brodie and I argued - that was just how siblings were - but on TV? It was kind of embarrassing.
And yet Liam hadn't sat around and laughed at Brodie's words. He hadn't joined in the little party that was trying to make me feel bad for being unhappy. He'd chided Brodie to his face and then turned and left.
At least someone had my back.
"Blarney Castle, just up ahead," I told Liam, folding up the map I'd been reading. I was in the back seat of the small car with the cameraman, given the task of navigating while he'd drove, since Liam was better with a stick shift than me.
We'd more or less reached an uneasy truce since getting off the flight at Cork. While we weren't exactly friendly with each other, we'd fallen into a working relationship of a sort. We were polite and efficient as we'd gotten into the car rented for us, bought a map, and found our way to the next location. Liam was a rather quiet sort, so I didn't know what he was thinking.