“Think they’ll open it back up soon?” Zoe asked from the backseat.
“No. And even if they did, we’re not doing it.” Miles clenched his jaw.
“You’re right,” Paige said. “They’ll probably need some time to get everything cleaned up and ready again. We’ll come back in a couple of days.”
“No, we’re not doing this one. Not today, not another day. It’s obviously too dangerous.” Miles called out the window.
Paige didn’t really care for Miles’s tone or male posturing. She could do what she pleased when she pleased, but getting into it with him right now didn’t seem like the best use of their already screwed time. She’d talk to Zoe about it later and together they would decide what was best for their team.
“Maybe we should start heading back toward base camp,” Paige offered instead. Better to get at least a few caches done today versus no caches. “I think there’s a couple others with similar coordinates that might be along the way.”
“Sounds good.”
Zoe and Ben each entered in the new coordinates into their respective GPS units while Miles and Paige turned the vehicles around in the road. As they drove back the way they’d just come, Paige glanced into the review mirror, shocked at how many emergency vehicles had been called in.
The other team was going to be okay, weren’t they? It wasn’t like these caches were supposed to be life threatening or anything. Chip was a sucker for creating great television but he wouldn’t put his contestants in real danger.
Even Chip wasn’t that scummy.
Before they made the first turn toward the next cache, another team drove past them heading into the chaos they’d just left. Apparently they weren’t the only team on cache 218. Hopefully Paige and Zoe and the boys would be way ahead if this other team kept following in their footsteps today.
Fifteen minutes later, they pulled up as close as they could get to a new cache. Paige all but jumped out of the car the second she twisted the key from the ignition. The entire drive Zoe had made little comments and hints about Paige and Miles together. It was unnerving. And awkward. And Paige really didn’t feel like getting teased anymore. Surely Zoe would pipe down now that they were with the boys again.
“Hey, Ben, want to share my GPS unit with me?” Zoe asked, looping her arm through his. “I think lover boy probably wants an excuse to get cozy and grope Paige again.”
“Hey,” Paige scoffed. She pulled out her lip balm to give her lips a coat before heading out on whatever trail the cache location forced them down. Cherry or mint flavor? “I’m right here. I can hear you.”
“So can I,” Miles said, coming up and looping his arm across her shoulders. “I don’t mind getting cozy if you don’t.”
Definitely cherry. Cherry is way better for cozy situations.
“And here I thought I’d signed up for an adventure show, not a dating show,” Ben said with annoyance.
“No one said they had to be dating to fool around, as was evident last night. I’m so glad to know my hospital visit didn’t affect either of your libidos. I’d hate to think my poor, possibly broken ankle had put a damper on your evening activities.”
“I offered to go with you,” Paige said. It wasn’t fair. She had offered and Zoe had shot her down. And she’d worried about her while she’d been there too. She’d just happened to distract herself from her worries by spending the night with Miles. “You told me I’d stink up your ambulance.”
“Don’t let her make you feel bad. Zoe’s just annoyed that someone is getting more attention than she is for a change.” Miles glared at Zoe as she walked away ahead of them, focusing only on her GPS instead of Miles’s words.
“Miles, be nice,” Paige said quietly. “Maybe Zoe really did want me there and I was too busy with … ” Her gaze flickered between him and the floor.
“With me.” Miles held her gaze. “But do you regret it now?”
She shook her head. No way did she regret anything about last night. Well, maybe she regretted not having her own condoms with her. That was pretty stupid. A grown adult, single, woman should always be prepared for anything. Or anyone.
“Good. Then let’s not let her ruin what was an unbelievably awesome night.”
He thought last night was unbelievably awesome? Awesome!
“Okay.”
“Come on, lover boy,” Ben called from further up the trail. “We really are wasting time again.”
Miles staring at her almost like he had last night in her bed made everything else around her disappear. Ben and Zoe ceased existing.
Miles brushed his fingers across her lips then cupped her jaw in his hand. “I can’t wait to get you alone again.”
When he kissed her, she was thankful for his height and strength because she didn’t know if she could hold herself up without having his strong arms to cling to. Strong arms that attached to an even stronger torso. One she couldn’t stop imagining hovering over her, sweat glistening across his tanned skin.
“Tonight,” she heard herself whisper, although she hadn’t planned on saying anything at all, much less inviting him into her bed again.
“If you insist.” He stepped away from her, his eyes appearing as lust-filled as she felt. He took her hand in his and led her down the path toward where Zoe and Ben had already disappeared. She wobbled once or twice on her feet before her knees finally felt strong enough to hold her.
How much longer until check in?
The sound of gravel under tires cut into her thoughts. She turned just in time to see another SUV from the show pulling in to the parking lot. Paige couldn’t tell if it was the same team that had turned up at the other cache earlier or not, but either way, they would have to hurry if they wanted any shot of getting the cache first.
Paige and Miles sprinted to catch up with Ben and Zoe who were already disappearing around a bend in the trail. Annoyance bubbled up inside of her. Maybe if she and Miles hadn’t gotten distracted in the parking lot, they’d be further along and almost at the cache already. Now they were going to have to rush if they wanted to find the cache first.
“We have to hurry,” she called as they joined Ben and Zoe. Together the four of them set out jogging toward the cache, following the little arrow on the GPS. Paige thought they might actually beat the other team, but moments later, Team Frat Boys shot past them, leaving behind a wake of laughter and jeering.
Paige slowed her pace along with the others and groaned in frustration. They just weren’t fast enough to beat the other teams in a foot race. And now Team Frat Boys would never let them live it down.
Chapter Seventeen
Miles paced the length of the common room while they waited for Chip to address the group. Spencer was already here getting his makeup touched up, which meant whatever was going on, was also going to be filmed. This was out of the show’s normal context so it couldn’t be good.
And that worried him.
“What’s all this about?” Sam asked, his daughter by his side. “I heard someone say something about an accident today, but no one seems to know what’s going on.”
Miles glanced around the room, the uneasiness settling into him making his stomach feel heavy. Why hadn’t anyone told them anything yet?
“We saw the local news this morning after everyone else left,” Ben said. “There was a breaking story. Something about a reality show and an accident. We think one of the teams got hurt.”
“Oh no,” Kristin said from beside her father, holding her hand to her mouth. “That’s awful. Who’s missing tonight? I didn’t realize a team hadn’t checked in.”
Miles scanned the various teams huddled together. Paige and Zoe sat at the table where they’d had breakfast together earlier. Eve and Rayne — Team Sisters — stood by the fireplace. He shifted, shoving his hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting.
Damn it. Who was missing?
A shot of pain in his shoulder forced his attention away from figuring out who wasn’t accounted for in the room. And annoyance shot through the rest of him at the sight of the grin on Team Frat Boy’s faces. If either one of them punched him in the shoulder again, he was going to have a really hard time not returning the gesture.
“Sorry about stealing that cache out from under you guys today,” Dean said without a hint of actual remorse.
“It was just one of those situations where we needed to get in and get out as fast as we could. I’m sure you understand how it is,” Chuck said.
Miles ground his teeth together. If there was anything he hated more than a pretentious frat boy, it was two pretentious frat boys. “It’s fine. No worries.”
“Oh good. I didn’t want you to think we were being inconsiderate to your partner’s special needs. We just had our own needs to meet.” Dean smiled and patted Chuck on the shoulder. “Like that trip today, right?”
“Hells yah!” Chuck cheered. “Cancun here we come.”
Great. Just what spring break needed — a couple extra jerks drinking on the beach.
“Can I have your attention, please?” Chip asked, walking into the room and saving Miles from any more unwanted conversation with Tweetledee and Tweetledum. “Gather around.”
Spencer joined Chip at the front of the room as the cameramen all took their places where they could see both the contestants and the host.
“Thank you all for joining us tonight. It’s unlike our usual format to film on your off-hours, but this is a very abnormal circumstance.” Spencer’s brow creased. “Chip Cormack, the show’s producer, has asked us all here this evening. Chip, why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”
Chip turned to face the teams. “I’m sure some of you have already noticed that one of our teams is missing tonight.” There was a rumble around the room as teams either confirmed that they did know or realized now that they hadn’t. Chip raised his hands to quiet everyone down again.
“This morning, shortly after the start of the day, Team Firefighters attempted our hardest cache and they were involved in an accident. They are in stable condition at the local hospital and will both make a full recovery, but the doctors have decided they are unable to continue in the race.”
A couple of gasps and a sob caused Chip to stop talking. Eve from Team Sisters held Rayne as tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Rayne must have been closer to the firefighters than Miles had realized. Sure, he’d seen them together a few times around the common room, but he hadn’t suspected they were so tight. Obviously they were if she was crying.
As he watched, Eve glanced over at him, catching his eye. She appeared even more concerned while watching him than she did to be holding her upset sister. He got the distinct impression she was worried about him too. But why would she worry about him? Maybe she didn’t want to see any of the teams hurt.
A shiver ran down his spine. How would he feel if it were Paige and Zoe lying in the hospital? His chest constricted at the thought. Well, he’d never let that happen, would he?
“What’s happened to them?” Rayne asked, her voice shaking as she tried to hold back her tears.
“They were rappelling and we think they didn’t hook in properly. They fell to the water below and were rescued by the emergency boats. But they both suffered from water inhalation along with a few cuts and bruises they endured during the fall against the rocks. The good news is, they have the best doctors at the hospital and are being very well taken care of. The doctors have assured us they will not suffer any long term physical effects from this ordeal, but they are not allowed to return to the game.”
“Can we see them?” Rayne asked. “I’d like to see them tonight.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t allow that. But if you would like us to pass along a message to them, please speak to one of the production team members and they’ll make sure it’s done.”
Chip looked around as if waiting to see if there were more questions. The room was silent except for the occasional sniffle.
“What cache did the accident happen at?” another team asked. “Should we take it off our logbook?”
“I can’t tell you what cache it is and there’s no need to remove it from your logbooks. We’ve had safety crews out all day working to make sure the cache is completely safe and in perfect working order. Tomorrow morning the cache will be officially reopened.”
“Thank you for filling us in, Chip,” Spencer started. He turned to face the contestants again while Chip left the room. “I know this is all a bit shocking for you. But at least this tragedy has a silver lining for you remaining contestants.”
Miles waited impatiently for Spencer to continue. Sometimes the drama of the show really got on his nerves.
“As I’m sure you’re all aware, Team Firefighters had been leading the pack with the most cache finds for the entire show so far. As it was, they had seventy-five percent of the caches already found and were well on target to finding all of them before the end of day twenty-eight. The rest of you were much closer in your number of cache finds.”
Spencer’s smile was huge. “Good news. Now that their team is out of the race, the leader board is very close. The difference between our new team in first place — Team Frat Boys — and last place — Team Models — is now only fifteen caches. That means this is still anyone’s game to win — or lose.”
The frat boys let out another obnoxious cheer while the other teams congratulated themselves on not sucking as badly as they had this morning. Even Miles couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his lips at the thought that they might actually still have a chance to win. Now, instead of being in the back of the pack, they were solidly in the middle. And the middle could win if they started finding caches faster.
“Okay, everyone,” Spencer said. “I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing. Make sure you get some rest tonight because I think for many of you, the game is officially back on.”
• • •
Ben motioned for Miles to follow him and together they joined Paige and Zoe sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch where they filmed their daily wrap-up each night. They both looked pretty darn excited.
“What’s going on? Are we interrupting your filming time?” Miles asked. The girls had been scheduled first thing after Chip’s big announcement and he had no idea why Ben had dragged him along.
“No, we’re all doing the interview together,” Ben said.
“This is allowed?”
“Yep, because we’re an alliance we can film these together,” Paige said, tapping the chair next to hers for Miles to sit.
Evan and their cameraman checked interview notes for a moment then signaled that filming had started. “Let’s start with this big announcement. How do you feel now that Team Firefighters is out of the running and off the leader board?”
“Well, we feel sad, of course,” Paige said. “Everyone was shocked when they got hurt enough to be forced out of the game.”
“And we’re excited because now we can totally still win,” Zoe said, excitement ringing through her voice.
“That’s right. Spencer informed everyone in the common room of the same thing,” Ben said shrugging. “But I’m not going to cheer about it at another team’s expense.”
“Do you think you stand a better chance at winning now?” Evan asked.
“I do. Not all of the other teams were as far behind as we were. Now we really have a chance.” Paige practically bounced up and down in her seat.
“I hate to seem happy that the firefighters are off the show, because we’re not,” Miles said. “But it definitely evens up the playing field a lot for our alliance. Although we’ve still got our work cut out for us if we want to make it to first place. We’re a good number of caches behind.”
“Unless,” Zoe said, dropping her voice low as if there were others around eavesdropping instead of the cameramen, “we get a really good cache that’s worth a lot of points and one that the other teams probably won’t attempt.”
Miles didn’t like the sound of where this was heading. “What cache are you thinking of?” he asked cautiously, fearing he already knew the answer.
“The one we tried to get today.” Paige smiled.
“What cache was that?” Evan asked.
“The one we couldn’t get because the cache was currently closed while rescue teams saved the firefighters. But now it’s open and if we head there tomorrow morning, we could be the first ones to find it.”
“And there’s bound to be a great prize in it since Chip said it’s the hardest cache they hid.” Zoe smiled. “I’ve already heard a couple of other teams saying they’re going to leave that one since they’re too afraid to follow in the firefighter’s footsteps.”
Miles shook his head. “No way.”
Ben sat forward on the edge of his chair. “If we go fast, we could beat all of the other teams. We’ve already found the general location so we’d be able to drive there quicker than the teams who have to rely completely on their GPS.”
“You’re all kidding, right?” Miles asked.
Paige pulled her usual lip balm from her front pocket and applied a coat before talking again, and Miles’s thoughts drifted momentarily to later tonight when he’d hopefully get Paige alone again so he could taste that lip balm for himself and find out which flavor she’d picked — cherry or mint. Either was fine with him.
“There was another team who showed up as we were driving away yesterday,” Paige said, “but there’s no way to know if they’re going for the cache or not since I didn’t get a good look at who was in the vehicle.”
Unscripted Love: The Complete Reality TV Romance Collection Page 39