by Jill Myles
Our task was to find the hidden message that would give us our next clue. Dean took one portion of a wall while I took the next, and we worked our way through wall after wall, looking for a message.
My heart nearly stopped when I saw along the bottom of one wall, written in English, "Make your way to the Italian ruin of Pompeii at the base of Vesuvius and look for the Games flag."
Yes! Hiding my excitement, I quickly read the phrase over again, memorizing it so I could repeat it back.
Summer from the Olympian team moved to my side, scanning the wall. "Find anything yet?"
I blinked in the low light, considered, and then shook my head. "Nope." I headed further down the wall and pretended to keep scanning. I sucked in a breath when Summer crouched at the base of the wall I was standing in front of, gave it a cursory look, then sighed and flounced over to a row of lined up skulls, peering at them as if they'd have the clue.
She hadn't seen the phrase.
Biting my lip, I pretended to keep looking, and moved closer to Dean. I tapped him on the shoulder when I passed by and gave him a meaningful look. When Summer headed further into the tunnels, I leaned over to Dean. "I found it."
"Really?" His eyes widened and he jerked around. "Where?"
"Base of the wall nearby," I whispered. I gestured at it furtively, making sure that Summer didn’t see my hand motions. "We need to fly to Pompeii."
Dean left my side and pretended to continue searching the wall, knelt, read the clue, and then wandered away, still pretending to look for the answer. He circled back to me a moment later, an excited look on his face. "That’s it," he breathed, grinning. "Flying straight through to the next leg without a rest? Damn."
“I know. We need to tell the others.”
He leaned past me and gazed to where Summer was. "She find it yet?"
I shook my head. "She'll suspect something's up if we leave together, though."
"I'll leave," he told me. "After a few minutes, come up and we'll all head to the airport together."
I nodded and pretended to examine the wall he'd been staring at while he sneaked out. Slowly, I counted to sixty as Summer moved past again, then shook her head and headed further into the long, dark tunnels.
I pretended to keep searching the walls until she disappeared down a tunnel curve and was no longer in sight. As soon as she was gone, I raced up the stairs and headed back out to where Liam was waiting. Abby and Dean were still there, practically bouncing with excitement.
"So should we head straight to the airport? Or do you think there’s another part of the clue that we missed? That almost seems too easy," Dean commented, shrugging on his backpack.
"I didn’t see anything else on the wall," I told him, then glanced at Liam. "I guess we'll know for sure if we head to the airport and the other teams are there."
"Good point," Liam told me. He leaned and whispered so only I could hear him. "And good eyes."
"Thanks," I said as he handed me my backpack, and wondered why that small bit of praise made me so freaking flustered. It wasn't like he'd told me that I looked hot, or he'd been as aroused as I'd been when he'd grabbed my inner thighs.
He'd simply told me I had good eyes. Good lord, I needed to get over this crush I was forming.
~~ * * * ~~
When we arrived at the airport, we purchased tickets to Naples, the closest airport to Pompeii, and I purchased a travel guidebook. There was a three-hour wait on the flight, which meant the other teams might have time to catch up to us.
Sure enough, we arrived at our gate, and there was Joel and Derron, the war heroes, and Brodie and Tesla. Brodie and Tesla were cuddled by the gate, wrapped around each other like they'd been a couple for years. As I watched, my brother leaned over and gave Tesla a long, tongue-filled kiss.
Ew.
I shot a look at my partner, and he was eying Tesla and Brodie with the same mixture of disbelief and disgust. Abby and Dean went to go find something to eat, and Liam and I found a quiet corner of the terminal and sat down with our travel guide. There were plenty of chairs, but I wanted to stretch out my legs, and I was getting used to sprawling on the airport floor to get comfortable, so I sat down against a nearby wall and stretched my legs out in front of me. Liam sat next to me on the ground, his shoulder pressing against mine.
"They're kind of ridiculous, aren't they?" I told him, and nodded at Tesla and Brodie, who were still making out and hadn't acknowledged our presence.
"That's Tesla for you," Liam said, his voice wry. He glanced at me. "I can't believe you thought I was with her."
I shrugged, and thought of his hands on my inner thighs again, then shivered.
"Cold?" He looped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me close.
I'd been about to protest that I wasn't all that cold, but his arm against me felt really, really good. Comforting. Warm. Heavy and delicious. So I snuggled a bit closer and pulled out the travel guide so we could review it while we waited for the flight.
And put it away again when a cameraman was suddenly in our faces. "Katy, why don't you tell us what place you think you're at right now?"
I mentally groaned. We were sometimes dive-bombed by the cameramen who wanted us to do insta-interviews. The more footage they had, the more they could create a compelling story, I supposed. And an insta-interview usually meant that you had to get away from your partner and go quietly speak one-on-one with the camera. I'd never had one shove into my face and start interviewing me like this. Maybe it was because I was cuddled against Liam.
Good TV and all.
Damn, Liam was really good at this pretending stuff. Might as well make good TV myself. I put my hand on Liam's thigh and glanced at him, appearing to consider things. My nails scratched at his leg through his jeans, idly rubbing. "Well, there are three other teams here besides us, so we're definitely in the middle of the pack. I think that's a good thing." I squinted up at the camera. "Though I wouldn't mind if the other teams missed the flight. It sounds mean to say that, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is a race."
Liam's arm over my shoulder tightened, and I felt the muscles in his leg tense as I continued to scratch him. Then, I felt his fingers play along the edge of my shirt sleeve, brushing against my exposed skin. It sent tingles through my body.
"How do you feel about Brodie and Tesla's partnership? They seem to be dominating."
I glanced over at my brother, who was still sucking face with his partner, oblivious to the cameraman that filmed them a few short feet away. "Um, Brodie and Tesla are interesting, I guess. I was really hurt when he abandoned me, at first. But I think Liam and I are making a pretty good team." I looked up at my tall partner, whose shaggy hair was halfway in his face, covering one of his eyebrow piercings.
Liam smiled at me, that finger still teasing along my arm. "I think so."
"You two seem to be getting friendly," the cameraman prompted.
To my horror, my face turned bright red. I could feel the flush moving up my cheeks, heating them. Liam chuckled and tugged me against him, tucking my head onto his shoulder. "She's not going to answer that right now. She's too tired."
I gave the camera a yawn and snuggled closer to Liam, who made a surprisingly delicious person to rest against, and closed my eyes. I felt his fingers begin to play with one of my blonde pigtails, and I smiled to myself. Eventually, the cameraman moved on and we were left alone again.
"The coast is clear," Liam murmured. "You can wake up now."
I could. But I was suddenly exhausted and Liam was so good to lean against. I yawned again and turned my face into his neck. "Do I have to?"
I felt his laugh more than I heard it. "Nah," he said. "Take a nap. We can plot our race domination on the plane." His fingers continued to play with my ponytail, almost idly. "I'll stay awake."
And even though it wasn't fair and I should have stayed up to keep him company, he was warm and snuggly and I was so incredibly tired. Liam smelled wonderful, his neck barely brushing a
gainst my nose. I drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
"Can I put in a request that we have more legs like the Paris one? More partner on partner action?" — Liam Brogan, Paris Leg of The World Races
When we arrived at the airport in Naples, it was late at night. We took a cab out to Pompeii, and even though it was dark, we bought tiny flashlights at one of the airport stores with the last of our money and hunted up and down along the roped off tourist areas until we found The World Races mat.
To my surprise, it wasn't a local waiting for us, but Chip Brubaker and a camera crew. Brodie and Tesla were already there, sitting off to one side, and so were Dean and Abby. Liam and I arrived in third place, and we were promptly handed our next clue.
The clue indicated that our team task would start once Pompeii opened at seven in the morning. Until then, there was nothing to do but wait.
The nice thing about this leg, though, was that we were given two hundred dollars, which we carefully pocketed. We'd been almost broke up to this point, every dollar carefully spent on food and taxis. Two hundred dollars would be a total luxury.
With nothing else to do and hours to go before daylight, we sat down with the teams to wait for the others to arrive. There was an open spot between Dean/Abby and Brodie/Tesla, but Liam's hand tugged mine, indicating we should sit a short distance away, and so we did. We kept a flashlight out, pulled out our guide book, and began to plot.
"It's a team challenge," I told Liam as we re-read the clue. We could choose 'Apollo' or 'Jupiter' according to the clue, which didn't tell us too much. "The guidebook mentions a Temple of Apollo, and a Temple of Jupiter. That has to be it."
"Maybe we have to visit one of the temples?" Liam suggested.
Made sense. "I think there's a floor plan in this thing. We could figure out which one is simpler and go to that one—"
A shoe scuffed to my side, and then Brodie was squatting next to me. "Hey, sis."
Liam leaned in front of me protectively, glaring at my brother. “Buzz off.”
I closed the guidebook and gave Brodie a suspicious look. "I see you remembered that I exist?"
"Nice to see you too." Brodie smirked. "So I guess you're still mad at me?"
"You'd guess right. You ditched me, and you've been ignoring me to play tonsil hockey with the rock star. Like I'm supposed to be grateful that you're paying attention to me now?" I shifted, moving a little closer to Liam. "You made it quite clear that you're not in this for family, and that's just fine with me."
"Look, I said I was sorry, Katy."
"Actually, you didn't—"
"How was I supposed to know the Ace would split us up?"
"Why did you use it to save another team anyhow?" I looked over at Liam. "Sorry. No offense."
"It's okay," he told me, but his face was tight with dislike as he watched my brother.
"Cause it was Tesla Spooner," Brodie told me. "Fucking hottest rock chick ever."
"So you sold me out because you wanted to make out with a rock chick?"
"Well, yeah." And he grinned boyishly.
I wanted to kick him in the nuts. "You suck, Brodie."
"I'm sorry you're still mad, Katy. I just wanted to see if you two wanted to work with me and Tesla for the rest of the race. We can still make it to the end with both of our teams, you know. I think it'd be a good thing."
I stared at my brother. "Are you serious? You ditched me and now you want my help? Our help?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Makes sense to me. Now instead of just me and you, it's two teams. We can work off of each other and push to the end." His gaze moved to our guidebook. "And we can share information."
"Or," I said in a sarcastic voice, "we could share our information and you could use it to hose me again. Nice try, Brodie."
"Fine. If you're going to hold a grudge, I can't stop you." Brodie gave me a sad look that I didn't buy for a minute. "Can we borrow your guidebook for a few, at least?"
"No," Liam said. "Get your own."
"We didn't have the money on the last leg," Brodie said, talking to me and ignoring Liam. "It'd be really helpful if you could let us just see it for a few minutes—"
"No," I said this time. "There's plenty of time before seven am. Go get your own guidebook."
"But you've got one right here—"
"And we said no," Liam reminded him. "You've been a dick to your sister the whole time. You shouldn't be surprised that she doesn't want to help you."
"Fine. You don't want to help me?" Brodie reached over and plucked the guidebook out of Liam's hands, getting to his feet. "Then I'll just take it—"
Instantly, Liam was on his feet, going after Brodie, and grasped the guidebook. “That’s not yours.”
Brodie put a hand on Liam’s jaw, planting it and trying to shove him aside to keep the guide from him. The two men began to scuffle, and I screamed as they started to get a bit violent. What the hell was happening? "Stop it, Brodie," I yelled, leaping to my feet.
"Liam, quit it," Tesla bellowed off to the side.
"Hey, buzz off," I called at her, even as the men's struggles got more aggressive.
A ripping sound cut through the air.
Suddenly, Chip was there, pulling Brodie off, and Dean stepped in, blocking Liam. "What's going on here?" The host asked. Cameras hovered all around, catching every humiliating moment for TV.
"This asshole stole what wasn't his," Liam said, waving what was now one half of a tourism guide to Italy. "And I'm tired of him walking all over my partner. Katy's been nothing but nice about this whole shit deal and her brother thinks he can just do whatever he wants."
My jaw dropped a little to hear Liam defend me like that - against my own brother. It was…really nice.
Chip frowned at the two men. He looked at Brodie. "Is it true that you stole from this team?"
Brodie gave a sigh of disgust and tossed the ripped half of the stolen guide onto the ground. "I didn't realize they were going to be such pussies about it."
"I'm sorry, but stealing is against the rules. Yellow team, you will have to take a two-hour penalty for rules violation at seven am, when the facilities open."
The look Brodie shot my way was withering. "Seriously?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Too bad," Liam said in a bland voice, then scooped up the discarded half of the guide.
"Careful," Chip said. "I can give you a penalty too."
Liam returned to my side and said nothing else. I could practically feel the tension vibrating off of him. I put an arm around his waist and steered him away from the tense little group. "Come on. Let's just go sit down."
The crowd dispersed, and a cameraman came to our side, filming as Liam and I sat down off to the side again. I barely noticed that another team came up to the mat, looking confused as everyone scattered. Summer and Polly. I looked at Liam, noticing that his lip was swollen on one side. My fingers brushed over it. "You okay?"
He ran his tongue over his lip, and it slid against my fingertips, which just made my entire body flare up. "Yeah. Your brother elbowed me in the face."
My eyes narrowed. "He's such an ass. You want me to say something?"
"Nah. They'll kick him from the game."
“And you don’t want that?”
“Not if it’ll make Tesla run screaming to the label about what I did.” After a moment, he grinned. "Pretty sure I elbowed him in the gut, though."
I smiled back, and let my hand drop back into my lap.
To my surprise, he picked up my hand and kissed my fingertips, right where his tongue had brushed against them. "He doesn't know what he missed out on when he lost you as a partner."
Warmth flooded through me. I tried to think of what to say, but my gaze was fascinated by his mouth on my fingertips.
A large hand clapped me on the back, startling me. "You guys ok?" Dean leaned over us. "That was some messy shit, huh?"
I nodded and pulled my hand back toward me, hoping Dean and the oth
ers hadn't noticed that electric moment between Liam and I. "We're fine. Thanks, Dean."
He nodded. "You let me and Abby know if you need anything."
As Dean left, I squeezed in next to Liam and tucked my legs close. Like at the airport, I pulled my body close to his and snuggled in as we waited for dawn. Neither one of us spoke, and it seemed like a bad move to pull our guide out right away again.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to Liam.
His fingers reached out and brushed along my jawline in a tender caress. "I'm not."
~~ * * * ~~
Wendi and Rick, the mother and son team, were the last to arrive in Pompeii. They showed up some time around four in the morning, while I was trying to sleep, and the sounds of Wendi's high pitched bawling woke me up. We were a little sad to see them go because they were genuinely nice, but teams had to leave. That was just how the game worked. As long as it wasn't us, I didn't much care.
When six am rolled around, the remaining teams started to head back to the entrance designated for the competition. Liam and I waited a bit, then consulted our guide again.
Two major temples inside Pompeii - Jupiter and Apollo. We studied the floor plans, then decided that we'd head to the Temple of Jupiter, despite it being just a bit further into the city than the Temple of Apollo, since everyone would probably head to Apollo first. Then, we joined the others.
At seven, the teams flooded into Pompeii. The ruins were magnificent – from the cobbled streets to the graffiti-covered and frescoed buildings around us. I wanted to stop and look at the fascinating city, but we didn't have time. It was a race, after all.
The first temple we passed was the temple of Apollo, and we could see the challenge areas set up. Immediately, four teams broke off and headed for it. Abby and Dean hesitated and looked at us, and we headed on to the next temple. They followed us, since we’d agreed to work together on this leg of the race as well.