The Hating Game (37 page)

Adam
surged through the ocean towards her, quickly bridging the gap between them. But just as he closed in, a rogue wave rolled across the bay, slamming into the side of his boat and flipping him over.

‘
Oh my God!’ Mattie screamed. She could only see the flat bottom of Adam’s kayak, bobbing on the surface. Finally Adam’s dark head emerged.

‘
Are you al
l right?’ she yelled.

Adam didn’t answer.
Not that Mattie could hear, although the movement of his lips indicated a reply of some sort. Thank God he was okay.

Kyle and the instructor had finally given up on the seals – about time – and were now moving towards them, but the current was briskly pushing both her and Adam out of the cove. And all Mattie could do was sit, helpless.

The instructor stopped beside Adam and hauled him onto the closed-in front of the kayak; Adam’s own boat was miles away now. Then Kyle glided through the water towards her.

‘
Thank you
,’ she said, as he pulled his kayak alongside. Relieved to be safe, she reached out and put a hand on his arm. He felt so solid. Swallowing hard against the rising emotion, she looked into his eyes. ‘Kyle–’

‘
Where’s your paddle?’ he interrupted, deliberately avoiding her gaze.

Mattie lifted her hand and tears formed, wind stinging the release. He still sounded so distant. ‘Um, I don’t know. I must have dropped it.’

‘
Well, just hang on to the side. We’ve got to get moving. If we drift past those rocks, there’s no way to get back under our own steam. The current’s too strong.’

Mattie nodded and grasped the side of his boat for dear life as they inched towards the shore. After a few moments, Kyle turned towards her. ‘Okay?’ For a split second, she saw a trace of the old, familiar softness in his eyes and hope shot through her frozen body. Maybe it wasn’t too late? Perhaps he
did
still care.

Mattie nodded and after a brief glance he turned away
to battle the waves. Certainty surged through her. She loved him. What that meant for the business could be worked out. But for once she wouldn’t wait until all the questions had answers, until things were black and white. There was surety in one thing: she wanted Kyle.

And that
was all she needed to know.

*

Adam shook with anger
, watching as Kyle pulled Mattie’s boat across the water, the tall blond surging through the waves with clean, short strokes. Bloody Kyle got to be the hero, while he was like a wayward chick being carried to the nest! Grabbing Mattie’s paddle and letting her drift out to sea – with the intention of being the hero who brought her back to safety – was a brilliant idea, but somehow Kyle had managed to foil his plan.

If only he could get mobile in the water again; maybe flip Kyle’s boat? No way was this over. Heroes didn’t let the villain triumph. Adam struggled against the instructor, who was holding him firmly by the neck of his wetsuit. To his annoyance, the instructor’s grip didn’t slacken.

‘
Just hold still, will you!’ the instructor
said. ‘We’re almost there.’

Adam
jerked again but the instructor’s grip was firm. Soon they’d reached the shore and Adam had no choice but to roll off the kayak and into the shallow swells, watching Kyle triumphantly carry Princess Mattie back to solid land.

It wasn’t fair. He was the one who’d put
in the time; waiting, watching for a chance.
He
was the one who’d transformed himself from zero to hero. He couldn’t let her fall for Kyle again!

Time
to get tough.

Real
heroes did anything necessary to ensure the right outcome.

And so
, by God, would he.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

One in two believe they know best when it comes to choosing their friend
s’ partners,

but woul
dn’t dream of letting their friends select a partner for them.

JESS
SWITCHED OFF THE TELEVISION and paced back and forth. What was Deniz playing at? Already twenty-four hours had passed since Jess had rung to tell her about Adam. Deniz had said she’d look into it and get back to her, but Jess had heard nothing. For what felt like the zillionth time, she picked up her mobile and checked the display. No missed calls, no new messages.

Well, screw that. Jess was tired of waiting around for people to
call her back. Her friends were in danger, and if Deniz wasn’t the answer then Jess would just go to the Isle of Wight herself. Sure, she didn’t know the location of the holiday camp . . . or even how to get to the Isle of Wight. But she’d figure it out.

She’d give Deniz a final try, though.

‘
Deniz Grady.’ T
he familiar nasal tone sounded peeved.

‘
It’s Jess McKenzie. Did you find out anything?’ Jess was through with wasting time.

‘
Oh, yeah. Sorry, hon. I was meant to ring you back, wasn’t I?’ Jess could hear her chomping chewing gum.

‘
That’s al
l right,’ Jess said. ‘So what’s going on?’

‘
Got the okay
from my editor for a story, done a bit of digging – talked to a doctor who apparently examined the contestants, and yeah, that Adam bloke is a fucking psycho.’

‘
He’s not a psycho . . .
’ Jess said automatically, before remembering that actually, he was.

‘
So I’m headed to the Isle of Wight now. Get the lowdown first-hand, you know? Just about to leave, in fact. Look, I’ll talk to you later, yeah? Got to catch the last ferry.’

‘
Wait!’ Jess couldn’t leave the fate of her friends in the hands of a tabloid reporter
. ‘I’ll come with you! I can . . .’ Jess’s mind worked frantically. ‘Give you an exclusive on Mattie and Kyle! Tell you exactly what happened with Adam! And just think how cool your article will be – on the road with the star’s best friend, trying to uncover the truth behind the reality show!’ Jesus, where had that come from?

‘
Okay
,’ Deniz said finally, after subjecting Jess to a few more seconds of heavy mastication. ‘Meet me outside Victoria Station in an hour.’

‘
Sure,
absolutely, is there anything I can–’

But Deniz had already hung up.

*

‘
This place is a fucking tip,’ Silver said
, looking around the mobile production unit at the caravan site.

Nate shrugged as Baz grabbed a few empty tins of Red Bull and chucked them in the overflowing rubbish bin. It was pretty disgusting in the luxury van – the air was fuggy with the scent of grease and unwashed bodies, and you could almost sense the sleeplessness as the techies hunched over monitors showing live feeds from the contestants’ caravan. Nate glanced at the screen – no one was moving and the caravan was silent. It
was
almost midnight.

Nate yawned and didn’t even bother covering his mouth. One more night until Silver planned God-knows-what to push Mattie out. And one more day of doing his best to make sure the contestants didn’t kill each other and then he could . . . What? Do another show? A thread of uncertainty ran through him. The thought of doing all this again on yet another series made him feel sick.

He tried to tune
in to what Silver was saying. Having only been present for five minutes she’d already issued about twenty thousand orders.

‘
So I hear there was
high drama on the seas today, boys!’ She tore open a fresh packet of sausages and Nate grimaced as the odour mingled with the stench in the caravan. ‘What happened? I thought we agreed we’d tone it down, let the tension rise until the final day tomorrow.’

Baz looked over at Nat
e, obviously expecting him to answer, but Nate stayed silent.

‘
Baz?’

‘
Well, um, Adam had his own plans, apparently. From what
we could see, he took Mattie’s paddle and–‘

Silver impatiently waved a hand clasping two sausages. ‘I couldn’t really care less about the details, Baz. What I do care about is keeping things under control.
We
dictate the storylines, not the contestants.
We
tell them what to think and do. Got it?’

Baz’s head was moving up and down like a nodding dog riding speed humps in the back of a bus. ‘Right, right. Of course, Silver.’

Silver narrowed her eyes. ‘I’m worried about you boys not being on top of things. We’ve only got one more day – tomorrow’s the most important.’ She gnawed at the double-sausage snack in her fist.

‘
So what exactly is the plan?’ Nate asked, trying to sound casual. Baz had been surprisingly quiet about the whole thing.

Silver smiled slowly. ‘Well.
You’ve arranged for the zip thing, right?’

Nate
nodded. ‘Yes, tomorrow’s Relationship Repair activity is the zip-wire. You slide between trees on a cord. Really trendy these days, you know. The site is just up the track there. I can show you after if you–‘

Silver cut him off with another wave. ‘Well, boys, let’s just say we have a little midnight mission beforehand. Or rather,
you
do.’

Nate stared. Midnight mission? ‘What do you mean?’

Silver cocked
her head. ‘It’s fucking brilliant. When you boys were faffing around in the waves, I had our cafeteria cook slip a sedative into the contestants’ evening meal.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Given that they ate a few hours ago, they should out cold for the next six hours or so. You two will go in, move Kyle into Mattie’s bed. Come morning, you’ll wake up Adam first. He’ll see the two of them, and then . . .’ She bit into yet another sausage, raising her eyebrows. ‘I wouldn’t even worry about the zip-wire, lads. There’ll be no need.’

‘
That’s incredible!’ Baz breathed, looking at Silver as though they were in the presence of the goddess of all game shows.

Nate’s brain couldn’t even form words. Sure, Silver was the queen of ratings, grabbing at any opportunity for drama
. But to drug the contestants? And put them in compromising positions – literally?

‘
Oh, don’t wor
ry, Nate,’ Silver sneered at his distraught expression. ‘The sedative’s perfectly safe. And no one will get hurt, we’ll be watching at all times. We just need Adam to go mental enough to scare Mattie off the show.’ She pointed the sausage in his direction. ‘It’s critical you rouse Adam first, before Mattie or Kyle moves out of position. One of you needs to watch the monitor all night, keep an eye on them.’

‘
Sure, sure, no problem, you can count on me,’ Nate babbled, feigning enthusiasm as his heart thumped in his chest. Adam was really going to lose it if he caught Kyle and Mattie in bed, and Nate wasn’t so sure Silver
would
intervene to stop the violence. Given what he’d seen, she would probably be the first one to hand Adam a knife and encourage him to go for it ‘to add extra colour’.

Maybe he could sneak out during the night and somehow thump on the bedroom side of the caravan to wake up Mattie and Kyle before Adam saw them?

‘
Come on, then,’ Baz said, springing to his feet like a spaniel. ‘Let’s go move Kyle.’

‘
Remember,’ Silver said as they left the caravan, ‘we all get a bonus if we pull this off. So
. Don’t. Fuck. Up.’ The sausage wobbled as she stabbed it in the air for extra emphasis.

Nate
gulped as he followed Baz’s spiky head out the door and into the cool night air, unable to believe he was actually taking part in the ludicrous plan. But it was better to play along now, to be on the contestants’ side if they needed him – or an ambulance. If he protested too much, Silver would just chuck him out, leaving the contestants completely at her mercy.

One more day, he repeated again. One more day.

*

A few hours and a ferry ride later, Deniz and Jess hurtled along the dark and deserted roads of the Isle of Wight. Inside Deniz’s battered Corsa, all was silent except for the reporter’s incessant gum-chewing. The machine-gun questions directed at Jess, covering everything from Mattie’s childhood to what she ate for breakfast, had finally ceased. Jess gave as little detail as possible, but it was exhausting.

‘
You sure you know where you’re going
?’ Jess asked, yawning and trying to peer through the fog.

‘
Unless that idiot Baz lied, yes. I knew shagging him would pro
ve useful at some point. Plus he owed me one, after such a dud night.’ Deniz glanced at the map beside her. ‘We should be on the right road. Hard to tell with this bloody fog though.’

A bright sign
up ahead loomed through the gloom – the only lights they’d seen for miles. Garlic Farm, the letters spelled out. Deniz abruptly swung the wheel and the small car squelched in the mud lining the bumpy track.