“Me too,” he said.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I’m not sorry.”
He leaned over and kissed her. Maria felt the thrill again that she’d felt when they first kissed in the jungle. She felt butterflies in her stomach and reached around to pull him closer to her. They kissed a long time before making love for the second time that night.
Maria - Pitcairn Island
“Team meeting,” shouted Emma. “NOW!”
Maria blinked her eyes open and yawned. She couldn’t stop thinking of her amazing night with Pietre. He’d left a couple of hours earlier to go to join the rest of his team. She knew they’d planned an early start to the day.
Apparently so did Emma.
“Hang on,” Maria called back. She laughed as she crawled out of bed and put a fresh pair of panties and a bra on. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept naked. Maybe never.
It was just after 8:00 a.m. The sun was shining brightly through the window and for the first morning in recent memory, the smile on Maria’s face wasn’t fake. She couldn’t get Pietre out of her mind. She loved the feeling of his cock being inside her, his lips sucking her nipples, while his arms held hers back above her head. It was such a wonderful night.
She tried to put that aside as she got dressed.
Emma was already up and was staring at her computer. The look in her eyes was… scary. Something was wrong.
Maybe some other team already finished?
No, that couldn’t be it. They’d heard bits and pieces of gossip about the other teams. Maria wasn’t sure how much to believe but she’d heard from somebody on the flight to Pitcairn Island that Team Harvard had imploded and there were big problems with Team Hollywood.
She wasn’t supposed to know things like that. Their computers blocked any information about the game, and Jackie Orazek played interference whenever they ran into somebody who might know anything about the game. Maria had been walking to the bathroom on one of their flights, though, and had to squeeze by a black woman coming back to her seat.
“Oh, my God,” said the woman. “You’re on that game show.”
Maria smiled from habit and nodded. That’s when the woman whispered the bits about the other two teams. Maria watched Jackie, who stood up just then and stared at her. Maria reluctantly said good-bye and walked down to the bathroom.
So if no other team had won, why did Emma look so fucking grumpy and scared?
Tanya sat on Emma’s bed and Maria joined her. As always, Jackie stood nearby, being sure to record everything with her forecam.
Emma bit her lip and then took a deep breath. “I just checked our credit card account. Almost all our money is gone.”
“What?” said Tanya. “That’s impossible. You keep our finances all recorded to the penny. There has to be a mistake.”
“No mistake,” said Emma. “Somebody went into our bank account and transferred most of our money out. Thirty-five thousand dollars.”
Maria could see a tear drop from Emma’s eye. “We’re almost broke?”
Emma lifted her head and stared at Maria.
And it hit her.
Pietre had to have stolen the money.
Maria felt her stomach fall away from her. Tanya turned to face her too. “You think… ?”
She felt her chest tighten, making it hard to breathe. He couldn’t have.
Of course he could. He’s a drug addict.
Maria couldn’t talk. Could barely think. He used her. He just fucked her to be close enough to find out how to get into her computer. She must have left it logged in or something.
Oh, God…
Emma wiped her face with her hands. “Your fucking boyfriend stole our money!”
Maria knew she was right. She couldn’t think of anything to say. He spent all the money from his own team and now stole their money. Her whole body felt tightness and she felt a huge sense of betrayal wash over her. She looked down, not able to face her teammates. She knew she’d just cost them the game.
They were quiet for a few minutes. Maria could only hear her own heavy breathing. She tried not to cry, but she still had trouble looking at Emma and Tanya.
She knew this was all being recorded by Jackie and it would be broadcast back home. Mom and Dad would see how she fucked up. Sleeping with a guy she barely knew and letting him ruin their chances of winning.
Fucking Pietre. How could she have been so stupid!
She knew Team Genius had left the hotel and was off doing their task. She wouldn’t see them again until they left the island. Even then, they’d probably leave without Team Superior, abandoning their partnership.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
Nobody replied. Maria turned to Jackie. “Can I replace the money from my own bank account?”
“No. You know the rules.”
Maria snapped at her. “You can’t just let them steal from us.”
Jackie just shrugged. “I’m just here to record everything, but you all know how the game is played.”
Maria turned to face the other girls. “We can’t quit. We’ll find a way. Let’s talk about our next job and get it done.”
Emma nodded and read from her computer. We have to find Heartbreak Ridge and climb it. There’s two paths. One is easy and takes a long time, the other is treacherous and fast.
“Can’t be that treacherous,” said Tanya. “They’re just playing for the cameras.”
“It’s on one of the other islands,” said Emma. She typed something and pulled up a satellite image of Henderson Island, one of the four islands in the Pitcairns. “Let’s go.”
Henderson Island was 100 miles from Pitcairn and ten times its size. They had enough money to hire a boat to take them to the island, which rose high above the ocean. Nobody lived there because it was too rough and uncivilized.
Maria stared back behind the boat during the journey, knowing that Pietre would be long gone before they returned and they’d have no chance to find them again until the show had completed its eight-week run.
She still couldn’t believe how he’d deceived her. She thought of the kind look in his face and the way he was so gentle with her. How could he have fooled her?
It didn’t make any sense. She was a better judge of character than that.
During the boat ride, she opened her own tablet and logged on. It’d been logged off, but that didn’t mean anything. She could have left it logged on and Pietre just logged out after he stole the money.
She clicked the Banking icon and stared at the transaction list. The boat ride they were on was the most recent and the one before that was dated last night. That was the $35,000 transfer.
The boat bounced in the waves as it sped on its way. It made the monitor hard to use but Maria managed to click on the transaction to open the details.
The time of the theft was 3:42 a.m.
What?
Maria gasped when she saw that. She knew that at that time, she was making love with Pietre. She remembered looking at her watch when she woke him.
He couldn’t have stolen their money.
“Guys!” Emma and Tanya moved over to sit on either side of her.
She was almost giddy with relief. “Pietre didn’t steal the money. He couldn’t have.”
“Somebody on their team did,” said Tanya.
“Look…” Maria pointed to the user id logged for the transaction: EmmaLehman.
“That can’t be,” said Emma. She took the tablet and stared at it.
As she stared at it, Maria repeated, “It couldn’t have been Pietre. I knew it. It made no sense.”
“It was Jonathan,” whispered Emma. “He knew my password.”
“He what?” shouted Tanya. “You told him your fuckin’ password? What were you thinking?”
“Cool it, Tanya,” said Maria. “Obviously she wasn’t planning on him stealing from us.”
“How could he?” said Emma. “I love him.”
Nobody offered an answer to her.
“We’re landing,” said Maria. “Put this aside. We have a job to do.”
Emma kept staring at her tablet until Maria took it out of her hand. “Put it away, Emma.”
Emma nodded, but she seemed completely distracted.
Chapter 25: Production
Mary - Los Angeles
Mary Copperfield walked through her mom’s home. The house was huge, with more than 4,000 square feet devoted to just one person: Cynthia Wright.
Many of the walls were covered with stills from her shows, while others had newspaper clippings. One room was almost a museum, with several pedestals holding the four Emmy Awards Cynthia had won for her work.
Two rooms contained a total of four computers and a dozen file cabinets. It was going to be a mess to sort through the property after…
After Mom dies.
As much as they’d always had their differences, she was still her mother. She didn’t want her to die. She wanted more time with her away from Hollywood, away from the horrible shows she’d created, away from the soul-sucking monsters of the studios.
She’d never had that time with her mother, and now she never would. The doctors gave her only a couple of days left to live, and much of the time, Cynthia was hallucinating.
Mary went to her mom’s bedroom and sat down beside her.
“Are you awake, Mom?”
Cynthia opened her eyes and smiled. “Good to see you here, sweetie.”
Mary took her hand and felt her mom hold onto her tightly.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Good.”
“Pain?”
“Yeah. It’s okay, though. I don’t need anything just yet.”
“Okay.”
Mary looked at her mom and was thankful she was being lucid. She had so few of those times.
“Did you see the show yet?”
“Yes. I watched the second episode this morning.”
“I haven’t seen the second one.”
“It was…”
She didn’t know how to continue. Carlos committing suicide was so awful, and somehow her mom was a part of that, by creating the show. She inadvertently caused the poor man’s death.
“I know it’s not your thing, but people want it.”
“Do they, Mom? Do they really? And if they do, do you have to give it to them?”
Cynthia didn’t answer for a moment, but then she replied, “Every show I created had a life of its own. The dance shows were bright and cheery, optimistic and full of life. The survivalist shows were edgy and they challenged the contestants. The game shows were intelligent and thoughtful. I liked to think that the shows grew themselves, created themselves.”
“And what is Scavenger Hunt?”
“I don’t know. It’s only now being born and I’m not part of it. It’s Rick’s show now. I’m just a castaway.”
“Mom, he’s ruining your reputation.”
“He can’t do that. He can only film a show.”
“It’s not just a show… there’s something not right about it. If it has its own personality, it’s all negative. That’s why people are so addicted to it. They want to see what disaster is coming next, what person will have their heart ripped from their chest, and which person will die. How can you not see how awful that is?”
Cynthia blinked and licked her lips. “I just wanted a show that would be the best ever.”
Mary decided to change the subject. “I heard from Aunt Florence today.”
But Cynthia was grabbing more tightly to her hand and she started to grunt.
“Mom?”
The bedridden woman collapsed, her eyes closed. She was hooked up to a monitor and Mary could see her heart was still beating, but something had happened. She pressed the panic button on the bedside table to call the ambulance.
“It’s okay, Mom. Help is on the way.” She held onto her mother’s limp hand until the ambulance showed up.
Cynthia never recovered from the stroke.
Chapter 26: Team Hollywood
Brittany - Eighteen Months Earlier
Fernando and Brittany had been trying to get pregnant for more than a year now and nothing was happening. At least that’s the way he understood it.
His mother was concerned about the time it was taking. “It’s probably your fault,” she blurted out to him once. “You’re probably too old to have kids.” Even Brittany managed to be embarrassed for him. He looked hurt, but after a quick minute she didn’t care. As long as he never found she was still taking birth control pills, nothing else mattered.
He started pushing her to have themselves tested, and that was the last thing she wanted. After a few more months of no luck, though, she finally agreed, as long as they could go separately. She felt too embarrassed to have Fernando with her.
“If something’s wrong with me, I’ll need time to absorb it, and then we can talk about it.”
“I know, sweetie, but I can just go with you, and you can go in to see the doctor on your own.”
She insisted, and as always, he agreed.
Instead of going to the doctor, though, she went shopping. She said the test results would take a few days.
As it turned out, Fernando came home one day and told her that he had heard the result of his test. He had a low sperm count. It didn’t make it impossible for them to have kids, but it was much less likely. He was so upset about thinking he was letting her down, knowing how much she wanted children that he suggested they investigate sperm donors.
“No, baby. I don’t want that. I only want your children. We’ll just keep trying, no matter how long it takes.”
She waited a couple more days and then told him that her results were normal.
They eventually stopped talking about having kids, because it had become a tense subject. She wasn’t feeling tension, but he was. Secretly, she laughed at that.
“You’re so understanding,” he whispered to her one night. “But, it’ll happen one day if God wills it.”
She nodded and rolled her eyes.
Brittany had it made. Fernando made lots of money for her, he doted on her hand and foot, and she spent most of her time relaxing or shopping.
I deserve it, she told herself. She remembered that she worked hard to get out of the horrible life she’d lived.
All she had to do now was put out every once in a while and she had everything handed to her.
She noticed, though, that lying around wasn’t doing much for her figure. She used to have a flat belly and now she had a bit of a pouch. Her thighs were a little thicker than she liked them, too. She could get off her ass and exercise but that didn’t sound very appealing. Brittany decided to look into surgery.
That’s what people with money do. Why exercise to have fat taken off when you could just have a surgeon do it for you? She had much better ways of spending her time instead of sweating and counting calories.
She went to a surgeon to get the details. He tried to convince her she really didn’t need it, that diet and exercise would do the trick. Well, that was the wrong answer. She told him what she thought of that idea.
The surgeon agreed to take her money and arranged for liposuction. The recovery was rough on her. She hadn’t really understood how fucking painful it was going to be, but once the swelling went down, she couldn’t believe how awesome she looked.
Fernando wasn’t happy about the surgery and had tried to talk her out of it. She started crying and saying how not being able to have a baby had really taken a toll on her and so she’d started eating out of control. Now she really wanted the surgery to make her feel better about herself. That did it. Just bring up the pregnancy thing, and he was putty in her hands.
Brittany started noticing other things she didn’t like about herself.
Her breasts were okay, but they’d be much better if they were a little bigger and firmer…
Her lips were a little thin. They’d be much better if they were a little ful
ler…
Fernando kept quiet but he wasn’t happy about the surgeries. She didn’t give a shit. Doctor Wilson just kept improving her.
Once, Fernando mentioned how much money all this was costing, but she just told him how it kept her from falling into a deep depression about her lost babies. He never mentioned it again.
Somehow, though, something changed. She could see it in his eyes.
Fernando started working more, and when he came home he’d eat dinner and watch TV and drink beer. He barely spoke to her, not that she cared. She was free to do what she wanted. He also wasn’t as interested in sex any more, which was a big bonus.
Life was good.
Brittany - Twelve Months Earlier
Now that Brittany had so much extra time on her hands (not needing to spend any of it with Fernando), she decided to pamper herself at the spa. She loved it. It was so relaxing, and she made a habit of going once a week. She’d get her nails done, her hair, a pedicure, and she even started getting a massage to top it all off.
Massages with Ricky.
He didn’t speak English very well, and her Spanish wasn’t great, but it didn’t matter. They didn’t need to talk.
Ricky certainly wasn’t like Fernando or Carlos. He was lean and young and strong and he had rippling muscles and the most wonderful magical hands. As he massaged her, he whispered foreign things into her ears. She had no clue what he was saying and it didn’t matter. She loved his soft voice just inches from her ears.
She’d never cared much about sex because it meant nothing to her. She thought back to that first time with the asshole, Marc Orso, from the strip club. After that time, she had sex with so many random men that she didn’t care about. As long as they paid her, she’d do anything with them. She usually never saw them again, but some did come back for seconds and thirds.
Then it was Fernando. Again, she’d never cared about him. In her mind, the sex was a trade for money.
But Ricky —
He was the first one who actually ever got her juices going. She’d fuck him anytime. In fact, she was already trying.
Then she got her wish. One day when he was rubbing her down with oils, she got brave. She took her towel off and sat up. She was completely naked. Ricky was caught completely off guard. She loved that.
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