by Jill Myles
“It’d be a new start for me,” he admitted. “I like being on these shows, but I realize now that I can’t make a life out of this. I need a back-up plan.” His mouth crooked to one side. “I was thinking about starting a business. Showing everyone that I can be successful at something other than flirting.”
I brushed my thumb over his lips. “You’re excellent at flirting,” I told him impishly. “But you’re good with people, period. No one can stay mad at you. Don’t sell yourself short.”
“You believe in me that much?”
“Of course.” I smiled. “You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re enthusiastic, and you always know just what to say. Not everyone’s good at that. Something in public relations would be excellent for you, you know.”
“Maybe so.” He looked thoughtful. “I have a few ideas, but we’ll see. I have to win the money first.”
I gave him a soft smile. “And I’m going to do my best to stand in your way.”
“I know, baby.” He gave me a typical Brodie grin. “You trust me, right?”
There was the million-dollar question. I thought for a moment and decided to go with my gut. “I do.”
He nodded. “We’ll get you the money. Somehow, we’ll make everything right for both of us.” He laced his fingers with mine and then kissed the back of my palm. “I promise you that.”
Jendan walked into the living room just as the intercom chimed overhead. “Contestants,” it blared. “Please proceed to the challenge area for the final Power Play.”
A nervous ball of energy seemed to settle in the pit of my stomach. I slid off of Brodie’s lap. “This is it.”
“I need to find my shoes,” Brodie said, and he raced up to our bedroom.
I turned to head to the back door, but Jendan’s hand caught my arm. I paused and looked back at him, surprised.
“Can we talk?” Jendan said quietly.
I glanced up at the Power room, where Brodie had disappeared. “Let’s make it fast.”
“I just wanted to tell you not to trust Brodie.” Jendan’s handsome face was serious. “I know he’s saying all the right things to you, but he’s been saying the same stuff to all the girls since we got here. I thought you were too smart to fall for it, but it looks like he’s gotten to you.”
I bit back my frown. “Don’t worry about me, okay?”
“I just wanted to warn you,” he said, shrugging. “He’s playing harder than all of us. His game may be full of flirting and smiles, but I’m telling you, it is a game. If he gets to the end, both you and I are going to lose.”
I said nothing.
“You’re taking him, aren’t you?” Jendan’s words were quiet. “I can’t ignore the way you two have gotten so close. You’re going to take him to the final two if you win.”
“Jendan,” I said softly. “I haven’t decided.”
“Yes, you have,” he said, seeing through my lie. “And I just want to remind you before we head out to the challenge that if you keep your word to me, it’ll look like smart gameplay. But if you break it, and take him? The jury’s going to eat you alive.”
“Of course you’re going to say that,” I snapped at him, my irritation rising. “You want to get to the end.”
“I’m warning you as a friend, Kandis.” Jendan gave me one last serious look and then stalked past me.
Irritated as hell, I followed him out into the backyard, and we headed for the challenge area. Brodie followed us a few moments later and moved to my side.
The challenge area was completely curtained off, but I could make out a faint sort of noise. I didn’t know what it was. It sounded like…shivering, or something. It was impossible to describe it. There was a card hanging from a golden rope that kept the curtained door shut. That was for me, so I headed forward to pick up the card.
I read it aloud. “House Guests, you are down to your final challenge. This will be the biggest test you will face—a test of endurance. You will have to conquer your fears and let mind win over matter in order to continue to the final round. This competition only has one rule—get in your barrel and be the last one out. Good luck to all three of you.”
“Good luck, guys,” Jendan said. He put a fist out.
Brodie bumped it, and I gave both of them a half-hearted fist-bump in return. “Good luck, everyone. We can do this.” The nervous flutter in my stomach remained. I was so close to winning the million dollars. So close. I just had to get through this last competition. I reached out and pulled the rope that held the curtains shut.
Three barrels stood on a platform, evenly spaced. Each one had a stepladder next to it so we could climb in easily. The barrels were see-through.
And the interior of each barrel was filled with thousands of bugs. Beetles and worms crawled all over each other, and cockroaches and god-knew-what-else swarmed in the mix. The pile of bugs in each barrel writhed, and over and over, the collective mass of insects made that shivering noise that I hadn’t been able to place.
It wasn’t a shiver after all. It was the sound of thousands of bug wings and legs rubbing up against each other.
Oh my god.
I moaned, pressing a hand to my mouth.
This was my worst nightmare. I could stay in a haunted house for two months. I could outfight and outwit with the best of them. I could get my hair cut in a mohawk and walk around on national TV with it in all its hideous glory.
But I couldn’t get into a barrel of bugs.
Gooseflesh broke out on my arms, and I began to sweat. “Um.”
“You okay, baby?” Brodie moved to my side, putting a comforting arm around my shoulders.
“No,” I whispered. “I don’t think I am.” I couldn’t stop staring at those barrels and their roiling, noisy, moving contents.
“Hey,” Brodie said softly, and turned me toward him. “Look at me.”
I forced my gaze away from those barrels and looked up at him, my eyes wide with fear.
“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he told me quietly. “It’s okay.”
I shook my head. “It’s not okay. I have to do this. I have to.” I looked over at the barrel again, and that was a mistake. I felt sick and freaked out all over again. “Have to.”
“Then let’s get going,” Jendan said, and he stepped toward the platform.
I nodded. Brodie gave me another concerned look, but we separated and headed for our places.
Each step up the stairs to the platform felt like I was heading to my execution. I could do this. I could. There were a million dollars at stake.
So a few bugs would touch me. Big deal, right?
I made the mistake of looking over the edge of my barrel, and I moaned all over again. Oh God. There were so many bugs. Big fat ones with little clawed legs and some with segmented bodies. I was pretty sure there were cockroaches in there, long ones, and I saw the undulation of something with a jillion legs as it sank into the pool of writhing bodies. Once I stepped in there, some of them were going to smash against my skin and then I’d be sitting in dead bugs and live bugs—
My stomach heaved, and I clamped a hand over my mouth. I stepped backward, away from the barrel. I squeezed my eyes shut and hunched down into a crouch, desperately trying to keep my breakfast down.
Warm arms moved around me again. “Hey,” Brodie said in a soft voice. “Breathe, baby. I’ve got you.” He held me close and steered me away from the barrel, and I let him. We moved to sit on the edge of the stage together, and I leaned heavily against him, panting. I rubbed my arms, unable to stop shivering.
“It’s okay, Kandis,” he told me, his fingers stroking my cheek. “If you can’t do it, you can’t do it.”
“It’s stupid,” I told him, and tears spilled out of my eyes. “They’re just bugs, right? I should be able to get into a barrel of bugs.”
“It’s not stupid when you’re scared. I don’t want you to have to go through that.” He lifted my chin with his fingers and leaned in to whisper. “I’ve
got this, baby. I’ll win this for us, okay? You said you trusted me. Let me win this for the two of us.”
Every part of me wanted to protest that I needed to get back in there, to suck it up and be an adult and sit in a barrel of bugs for a million dollars. But I just couldn’t. “You’ll win this for us?”
“I will,” he told me, and he pressed a kiss to my mouth. “You let me worry about everything from now on, okay?”
I nodded and raked my short hair back from my face and then exhaled heavily. “Okay. Okay. Okay.” I didn’t know if I was convincing him or myself. I looked over at Jendan. “I’m not going in there.”
He gave a crisp nod, handsome face impassive. “You do what you gotta do.”
Brodie pressed another kiss to my forehead, and then he jumped to his feet. “Let’s get this show on the road, then, shall we?”
I hopped off of the platform, wanting to put as much space between me and those bugs as possible. I was unable to stop shivering, despite the sweat coating my body. It was more than fear, though. It was anger. I was angry at myself because I couldn’t get past my bug squick to compete in what could be a million dollar competition. I knew it was simple panic, but I held on to Brodie’s words. I’ll win this for us, okay?
I’d put my trust in him.
There was a bench set up on the far end of the challenge area for non-participants; someone must have guessed that not all of us would be able to suck it up and participate. I sat there as the two men climbed the stairs to their barrels.
“You ready?” Jendan asked Brodie.
“Count of three,” Brodie replied.
I drew my legs up and curled into a little ball, squeezing my eyes shut and clamping my hands over my ears. I didn’t think I could even listen to them get in. So I burrowed down and counted backward from a hundred in my head, waiting. When I was done, a stole a peek up at the stage.
Both men were seated in the barrels up to their necks. Jendan had a vacant look on his face, as if he was trying to zone out and not think about what was going on. Brodie, however, was wrinkling his nose and making faces, clearly disgusted. He saw he had my attention and raised a hand to let me know he was okay. A gigantic beetle crossed his arm as he did.
I turned away and heaved up the contents of my stomach.
Long minutes passed. No one talked. No one said anything, actually, and the only sound was that constant shivering hiss of the bugs as they moved against each other. I couldn’t look at the stage. I got up from the bench, paced away, and then retreated to the far end of the backyard. The smoker’s couches that were set up on a corner of the porch were far enough away from the challenge area, so I headed there and lay down, curled up on my side as I waited. The upholstery smelled faintly of cigarette smoke, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t participating, but I couldn’t leave the backyard, not while fate was being decided.
Brodie said he’d win this. He had to.
Hours passed. From my vantage point in the distance, I could see both men still sitting quietly in their barrels. Every once in a while, someone would raise a hand to flick a stray bug that moved too close to a face (and set my stomach to roiling all over again) but for the most part, they were silent. The tension was palpable in the air. I watched them as much as I could, chewing on my fingernails in anxiety.
God, why did this have to be the last challenge? Why was I such a chicken that I couldn’t do this after all? Jendan and Brodie clearly hated it, but they were doing the challenge. They were stronger than me. Me, I freaked out at stupid bugs. Cut my hair off? Sure. Touch a bug for a million dollars, and I was out. I hated myself for being so weak.
More time passed, and the afternoon heat was thick and muggy. The quiet in the yard was intense, and I found myself nodding off, exhausted.
I jerked away at the sound of a male shout. I bolted upright, rubbing my eyes. Who was it that had broken?
In the distance, Jendan crawled out of his barrel, brushing bugs off of him with frantic hands. He raced out of the challenge area and dove straight for the pool, ripping off his clothes. “Fuuuuuck,” he shouted, and he cannonballed into the pool.
I…didn’t know whether to laugh or cheer.
He erupted from the water a moment later, scrubbing hard at his skin, a disgusted look on his face. “Ugh! That is the worst!”
Brodie emerged from his barrel a moment later, and a buzzer went off. “Brodie is the winner of the final Power Play,” a voice chimed over the intercom. “Congratulations, Brodie. Be ready for the final nomination ceremony tonight.”
“Thanks, House,” Brodie said in a cheerful, unhurried voice. He picked bugs off of his clothes as he casually walked off the stage.
I stared at him, numb. He’d won. Really? I looked over at Jendan, who was still scrubbing at his skin in the pool, and tried not to look at the ring of bugs and bug parts surrounding him in the water. “What happened?”
“I nodded off,” Jendan said, disgust in his voice. “One got into my hair and went for my ear. I flipped out.”
I stood up, cautiously approaching Brodie as he moved to the edge of the pool. “You won?”
“I won, baby!” he called, and spread his arms wide. “Come give your man a kiss.”
Covered in bug grossness? I shoved him into the pool.
Jendan laughed, and Brodie did too, when he came up out of the water. “I suppose I deserved that.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Did you see the way Marla lit into my partner? I have never wanted to punch a soccer mom in the mouth so badly. The worst thing is, I get the impression she’s not the only one ready to tear into Kandis. What, all because my baby’s sneakier than they are? I think she’s fucking awesome, and I love that she’s devious. It’s damn sexy.” – Brodie Short, Day 61
I straightened my blouse and admired my reflection in the mirror. Tonight, I was up on the block again. I’d dressed nicely, since it felt like you had to dress up when you were nominated in case it was the last time people saw you. I didn’t bother to pack my bag, though. I still needed to do laundry and there was plenty of time for that tomorrow once the house was down to just me and Brodie.
Tomorrow night, one of us would have a million dollars in hand. We just had to go through the vote-off tonight.
With one final check at my eye-makeup and lipstick, I headed downstairs.
“Two minutes to on the air,” a voice intoned. “Please take your seats.”
I rushed across the big, empty house and headed to the living room. Jendan was already there, seated in one of the nomination chairs. The other one was empty, waiting for me. Brodie was the lone one sitting on the other couches, and he had a smile on his face that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
That concerned me. Instead of heading for my chair, I moved to Brodie’s side and snuggled close to him. We still had two minutes, after all. “You okay?”
He nodded, and he leaned over to give me a quick kiss on the mouth. “Just sad about Jendan, is all. He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah, but we’re almost to the end,” I told him. “Not much longer now.” I gave his thigh an affectionate squeeze, and then got up, heading to my chair.
Then, we were on the air. Becky Bradley’s face showed up on the monitor. “Hello, House Guests!”
“Hi Becky,” we called out.
“Welcome to the second to the last show of this season’s House Guests! It’s been an exciting one, hasn’t it?” She didn’t wait for us to answer. Instead, we heard her talking to the studio audience about the challenge earlier that day, and then silence, which indicated they were showing a film clip. When they came back, Becky began to grill us.
“Brodie, how does it feel to have won?”
He ran a hand down his chest and stretched. “Feels awesome, Becky. It means I get to relax.”
She tittered. “And your teammate, Kandis. She chose not to participate at all. How does that make you feel?”
“I honestly do not blame Kandis one bit for not participating.” He look
ed over at me and winked, and then turned back to Becky’s monitor. “I’m scared of STDs, and if it was a barrel full of STDs, I don’t think I would have jumped in there for all the money in the world.”
I snorted and then smothered my laughter behind my hand. What a ridiculous thing to say. But I knew how Brodie worked. He was trying to divert Becky’s attention away from me and back to him. In a way, he was protecting me by being outrageous. That was so sweet.
“Jendan, how do you feel about Kandis not participating in the challenge?”
I looked over at the stuntman. He hesitated for a moment and then threw his hands up. “It is what it is. I can’t blame her, because I think she’s a lock either way. So if I were in her shoes, I don’t think I would have done it, either.”
For some reason, his words bothered me. Did he think I hadn’t participated just because I knew I was safe? That wasn’t how I felt at all. I frowned at Jendan, but Becky was talking again.
“How are you feeling tonight, Kandis?” Becky’s voice was silky smooth.
Gee, that was a loaded question. I smoothed my green blouse and then ran a hand down my jeans, trying not to fidget too much. “Well, I’m disappointed I didn’t participate in the challenge, of course. I feel like I should have, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
“With that in mind, do you feel vulnerable for eviction?”
I looked at Brodie’s smiling, handsome face. “No,” I said honestly. “Brodie’s had my back, and I trust him. So I’m going to keep on trusting him.”
Brodie’s smile didn’t change.
“All right, then,” Becky said. “When we come back, we’ll let the nominees have one final statement, and then we’ll take the only vote— Brodie’s. Stay tuned!”
An unnatural silence hit as we waited through the commercial break.