Playing Games (24 page)

I ran a hand over my pigtails and shook my
head. "You're wrong."

He put his hands up, as if to stop my
argument. "Just tell me one thing. Did he promise to split the
prize money with you if you helped him?"

I was silent, rather horrified. Brodie
had
promised to split the prize money. "It's not what it
looks like, Liam—"

"Fuck." He shook his head. "I can't believe
you fucking slept with me just to win some money."

I grabbed one of the pillows off the bed I
sat on and threw it at his head. "I didn't sleep with you for some
prize money, you asshole."

"Then why did you?"

"I thought I liked you. I guess I was wrong,"
I said bitterly. "You're kind of a dick."

"Yeah, well, you're kind of fake."

"Fuck you."

"Have you been throwing challenges?"

"Have I
what
?"

"Throwing challenges. You know. So your
precious brother could catch up."

"Are you kidding me?" I thought my jaw
couldn't drop any lower. I was wrong. "You really think I've been
throwing challenges?"

"I don't know what to think anymore."

"Gee, if my memory serves me correctly,
someone on this team's been sucking at challenges and it wasn't
me." I tapped my finger on my chin as if mockingly contemplating
things. "Who sucked at oil wrestling? Who sucked at eating mukluk?
Actually, I should be asking you if you were throwing challenges -
you're the one that started fighting at the oil wrestling and made
us lose six hours!"

The look on his face could have iced a
glacier. "I attacked your brother because I didn't like the way he
treated you. I see now I was misguided and it was all just to fuck
with my head. I'm sorry I bothered."

My jaw worked silently. I could think of
nothing to say. The hurt spiraling through me - and the anger - was
too intense. "You're wrong about me."

"Yeah? Prove it, then."

"How?" I snapped at him. "No matter what I
do, you think I'm helping my brother out."

"Don't fuck us in the challenges in this last
leg. If we win, I'll know you weren't lying. If you throw the
challenge just to let your brother get ahead? I'll know where
things really stand."

"Fine."

"Fine, then."

"All right."

He glared at me, then shook his head, getting
to his feet. "I'm not staying in here tonight. I'll find someplace
else to crash."

"Whatever," I yelled after his back.

He slammed the door and I was left alone in
the hotel room. I flopped back on the bed, utterly furious.

Throwing challenges? Working with my brother
behind his back?

I'd have been utterly furious…except that the
more I thought about it, the less innocent my part in things seemed
to be. How was it that I'd had the best intentions and still gotten
screwed in this?

And how was it that I'd had the attention of
a guy that seemed utterly perfect for me…and managed to somehow
mess that up?

Abby was right - this wasn't reality, and it
was messing with my head. I was ready for this race to be over so I
could go back to my real life. At least there, I knew how things
stood. There, rock stars with delicious tattoos and sexy piercings
didn't romance me and drag me into bed, or trace tiny circles on my
arms as I leaned against him. No one was so attuned to being with
me that he had to touch me all the time.

That was reality.

This? This was just a dream that had turned
into a nightmare.

CHAPTER TEN

"Everything's all wrong. All wrong, and I don't know how to fix
it. All I know is that I don't know if I can trust Katy, and that
makes me so goddamn miserable I can't stand it. I'm in love with
her and I don't know if I'm being played for a fool."
— Liam
Brogan, Final Leg of
The World Races

Liam didn't return to our room that night. I
didn't see him again until it was nearly time for us to depart, and
he met me on the mat, thin-lipped and frowning in my direction.

"Hi," I said softly as I took my place on the
mat next to him. "Where'd you sleep?"

He shrugged. "Didn't sleep. Just needed to
get my thoughts together."

"Oh." I studied him. He looked more than
tired, he looked…done. Like all the fun had gone out of this and he
wanted to be anywhere but standing next to me. Which hurt. "You
know, Liam—"

"Let's just race, okay, Katy? I don't feel
like talking right now."

I forced myself to put on a carefree smile.
"Sure. Whatever."

An assistant ran up, tapping her watch. "Time
to go." She handed us our clue and we watched the cameraman
approach. When he gestured for us to begin, I offered the clue to
Liam. Normally I was the one that read them, but that was back when
we were a happy little team.

Not when I was Katy, Scheming Sister From
Hell.

He nodded at me. "You go ahead."

"Gee, thanks." I flipped The World Races disk
and peered at the writing. It was dark out, the middle of the
night. "Make your way to Betsy Ross's House in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. This is the last leg of the race. You have one
hundred dollars." I pulled the money out and brightened, smiling at
Liam. "This might be the first place we've gone where we didn't
have to exchange anything."

"Let's just head to the airport," he said,
putting his hands on his backpack straps and walking forward.

My face fell. Was he going to be like this
for the rest of the trip?

If so, this was going to quite possibly be
the longest leg ever.

~~ * * * ~~

It definitely felt like the longest flight
ever, I thought to myself as we sprinted off the plane some thirty
hours later. Two layovers and more hours in an uncomfortable
airline seat than I could imagine, but we had landed at our final
destination. All three teams were on the same flight - Summer and
Polly had been at the very back of the plane, and Tesla and Brodie
had been toward the front. Liam and I got the last two seats and
had spent every leg of the flight separated.

I'm sure that made him happy.

It was awkward, though. We'd gone from
awkward, unhappy team to fun, happy couple, right back to awkward,
unhappy team. Liam didn't talk to me during layovers, even though
we sat next to each other. He just put his earbuds in and began to
tap a beat out on his bag, lost in music and looking everywhere but
at me.

I tried not to let it bother me too much. The
others had given us a few curious looks, but no one came over to
chat except for Brodie, and I'd chased him off. The last thing I
wanted was to sit down and have a long pow-wow with the brother I
was supposedly in cahoots with.

At least we'd finally landed. I was the first
racer out of the plane, and had to stand around and wait for my
partner. Brodie and Tesla raced past with a smirk, but Liam wasn't
too far behind.

"Let's get a cab," was all he said to me.

"Fine."

Cabs were easy to find at the airport, at
least, and we ran to one just as Brodie and Tesla's cab pulled out
ahead of us. "Do you know the way to the Betsy Ross House?" Liam
asked the cab driver, tossing his bag into the trunk. I shrugged
out of my pack and moved to set it in the trunk next to his, but to
my surprise, Liam took it from my hands and placed it next to his.
At least his chivalry remained in place.

"Yep," the cab driver said easily, then eyed
the cameras. "You guys in some kind of race?"

"Yes," I told him, sliding into the back
seat. "Can you drive fast?"

"Lady, you ain't seen fast," he told us as he
moved back to the front seat. He got in and adjusted the rearview
mirror as Liam sat next to me and closed the door to the cab. "You
look familiar."

"I get that a lot," Liam said, but didn't
offer an explanation.

"Buckle in," the cab driver told us. And then
we peeled out of the airport. The lurch of the car flung me,
headfirst, into Liam's lap - I hadn't finished buckling myself in.
And my chin went right into his crotch.

Warm hands helped me upright. "Careful," Liam
murmured. His grip seemed to linger on me for a moment longer than
necessary, and then his hands went to the belt. "Like he said,
buckle in."

"Getting there," I whispered, feeling a bit
breathless and hot at Liam's touch. Maybe all wasn't lost between
us. Maybe he'd had a chance to stew on his doubts and realized that
I wasn't leading him on.

But Liam didn't say anything else, and I
sighed and buckled myself in.

A short time later, we pulled up to the Betsy
Ross House just in time to see Brodie and Tesla disappear inside.
We were right on their heels.

"Wait here," Liam told the cab driver as he
grabbed my hand and we raced after the yellow team. The Betsy Ross
house was a quaint little woodsy courtyard in the middle of the
city, an old-fashioned flag fluttering on one wall. There was a
large tree in the front and several small cafe tables, but no World
Races mat. It had to be inside.

We made our way inside, and sure enough, at
the front door stood a woman dressed in a white cap and old
fashioned clothing. She smiled at us, disk in hand. The disk was
labeled clearly with "Individual Challenge."

I looked at Liam. "You or me?"

"I'll do it," he said, and stepped onto the
mat.

"You sure?"

"Can't think that Betsy Ross was famous for
eating disgusting things," he murmured, and cast a sideways look at
me. "We'll be fine."

I nodded, but felt a little easier. Liam
didn't seem to be as angry. Guarded, yes. Angry, no.

"Betsy Ross was the creator of the original
American flag," Liam read aloud. "Outside of this building, you
passed by a replica of the original flag. In the next room, there
are two hundred and thirty seven incorrect replicas and three
correct. Find a correct flag and return it to the judge for your
next clue." He turned and looked at me. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," I told him softly.

He opened the door to the room and stepped
inside, and I caught a glimpse of hundreds of flags, a cacophony of
red, white and blue stripes. I winced in sympathy. The flag might
be easy to identify if you knew what you were looking for, but
digging through all of those? They'd start to look the same after a
while.

"You can go to that room and wait," the judge
told me, gesturing at a door at the far end of the small room.

I nodded and stepped through the doorway.
There was a small side room with three chairs lined perfectly in a
row.

And sitting in the middle one? My
brother.

That meant that Liam was against Tesla in
this task. That also meant that I'd be against Brodie in the next
one.

And if I didn't outperform my brother? Liam
was going to think I threw the challenge.

I groaned at the sight of my smiling blond
brother. I was totally hosed.

"Nice to see you, too," he told me.

"You screwed me in this game, you know," I
told him as I thumped to the seat next to him.

"How so?"

Did he really not know? I gave him an
incredulous look. "The Ace."

"Oh." He shrugged. "You didn't have to give
it to me."

"You blackmailed me! You deliberately
withheld information and then blackmailed me to get it after you'd
promised you'd work with me. What was I supposed to do?"

Brodie grinned and leaned over to noogie my
head. "Don't be mad, Katy. I'll buy you some cool stuff with my
prize money when I win the two hundred and fifty thou. It's the
least I can do to say thank you."

"I don't want you to promise me money," I
sputtered. "My partner already thinks we're in cahoots. He's
furious."

"Is he, now?" Brodie seemed really interested
in that. "Good. So does this mean you're going to throw the next
challenge?"

"No! Are you kidding me?"

"Come on. He's already mad. And I'll make it
worth your while after I win, I promise."

"Just shut up, Brodie. It's not even up for
discussion."

"Suit yourself." But he wouldn't stop
smiling, which infuriated me more.

I crossed my arms over my chest and slouched
in my chair, irritated as hell at him. "I hope Liam blows Tesla
away in this challenge and you have to eat our dust for a
change."

"Won't happen," Brodie said smugly.

Ten minutes later, the door opened. Both
Brodie and I sat up, alert and waiting for our partners to return.
I gave a whoop of delight when I saw it was Liam, and nearly
launched myself into his arms. "So fast? You did awesome!"

He grinned at me and displayed the next task
disk that he'd won. "Guess I have a better memory than I
thought."

I took the disk from him, and noticed
Brodie's interest. I shoved it under my shirt so Brodie couldn't
sneak a peek at the writing on the backside. "Let's get out of
here," I told Liam.

He nodded, and his hand went to the small of
my back, instinctively moving closer to me.

"Don't forget what we agreed, Katy," Brodie
called after me.

I gasped. That lying sack of shit. I turned
and confronted him. "Nice try. I didn't agree to anything with
you."

"Uh huh," he said, and winked
exaggeratedly.

"Bullshit," I told him, and turned back to
Liam. "He's full of it."

But Liam only gave me a speculative look.
"Let's just get in the cab. We don't want to lose our lead."

Damn it. Why was I even trying? Liam wasn't
going to believe me, no matter what.

~~ * * * ~~

I stood outside of the small storefront and
read the sign to make sure that I was at the right place, then read
the clue-disk again. "Go to the Pretzel Factory. Inside, you will
find trays of dough waiting for you. You must twist 200 pretzels
Philly-style and then hand them to the baker. The baker will then
hand you a large box of finished pretzels that you must deliver to
a nearby office. There, you will receive your next task." I turned
and looked at Liam. "Wish me luck."