Playing Games (26 page)

And there wasn't a thing I could do about
it.

I jogged back to the pretzel restaurant, my
heart heavy. We'd lost. We'd lost the race. We'd come so close and
I'd blown it. I'd said that I hadn't wanted the win, but I lied. I
totally lied.

Because right about now? I was sick that we'd
lost everything. Second place got the same money as last place.

But that was okay. I'd keep my cool and not
let anyone know how disappointed I was. How much it hurt to have
everything blow up in my face in the eleventh hour. How much it
hurt to not have Liam at my side at the end. I'd been warned that
it wasn't a real relationship, but my heart hadn't listened so
well.

And now I was in too deep.

And that hurt. A lot. It hurt worse than the
ache of losing.

When the pretzel restaurant came into sight,
I saw Liam leaning against the wall, every muscle in his body tense
despite his casual pose. His black hair was shaggy, nearly covering
one side of his face. Polly stood off to one side, scuffing one of
her sneakers. Brodie was nowhere to be seen.

They'd already left.

Liam spotted me and got to his feet, and
Polly looked my way with only mild interest. Her gaze was glum, and
I realized that she knew they'd lost. The fighting spirit had gone
out of her.

"Welcome back," Liam said in a low voice,
approaching me as I rushed forward. He carried both of our
backpacks again.

Like nothing was wrong when everything was
wrong.

I burst into tears.

Liam's eyes widened and he moved toward me,
pulling me against him. "What's wrong?"

"I…got…lost…" I choked out between sobs. "I
fucking ruined us and now you hate me."

"What?" He glanced around and noticed Polly
watching us curiously even as he hugged me closer. His hand splayed
on the back of my head and he pulled me in for a tender kiss on the
forehead. "Come on. Let's get in the cab and we can talk on the way
to the next task."

Unable to speak beyond my hysterical weeping,
I handed him the disk. I hadn't even bothered to look at the next
task. What did it matter?

With me still tucked in his arms, Liam led me
around the corner. A taxi waited there, along with one more,
presumably for Polly and Summer for when they finished their task.
Liam tossed our bags into the back seat, and then gestured for me
to get in. I slid into the car, wiping tears miserably from my
face. A moment later, he was in the car and shut the door. He
leaned in and showed the driver the clue. "You know where the Rocky
Stairs are?"

"Everyone does," the driver said, pulling
away from the curb.

"Perfect. Thanks, man." Liam sat back and
then pulled me against him again. When I wouldn't meet his gaze, he
put his fingers under my chin and tilted my face toward his. "Tell
me what happened."

"Muh-my pretzels spilled everywhere," I
sobbed. "And I got lost and went in the wrong direction and I
couldn't find the place and everyone knows I'm really bad with
directions but I kept looking because I knew you would think I was
throwing the challenge but I wasn't, and I don't want Brodie to get
ahead at all, I just want us to get back to being cool and I
wouldn't even let him see how I twisted my pretzels because I
didn't want you to think I was helping him and—"

"Shhh," he told me. "Katy. I know you didn't
help him. It's okay."

I looked up at him in surprise, wiping my
eyes again. "How do you know?"

He gave me a crooked grin. "Tesla peeked in
and said you were hiding your pretzels from Brodie so he couldn't
cheat. She was really annoyed about it, too."

I gave him a tremulous smile.

"And we couldn't help but overhear everything
you guys were yelling at each other," he told me in a low voice,
his thumb stroking across my lower lip. "Turns out your brother
blackmailed you, huh? You should have said something."

I took a shuddering breath. "I felt stupid.
Like, he used me. And I gave him the Ace and then you guys fought,
and I felt like I couldn't tell you. I'm not exactly proud of
it."

"You should have told me." He leaned in and
kissed me, light and lovely, on the mouth. "I'm not a heartless
beast, you know."

"No, but you were mad and you thought I was
working with Brodie to fuck you over."

"That's my own hang-up," Liam admitted.
"Remember I told you Tesla and I dated once upon a time? That was
pretty much how it ended up. She lied and saw other guys behind my
back. So I guess once I heard that, I kind of got blinders on and
assumed the worst."

"Well, that's not my problem," I told him
with a sniffle.

"No, it's not." He gave me a sheepish look.
"And I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Thank you," I told him softly.

He leaned in and kissed me again, his tongue
stroking over my parted lips. I felt the stud of his piercing glide
along the seam of my mouth, and I opened for him, letting him flick
against my tongue as we deepened the kiss. It was apology and
comfort and desire all at once, and I melted into his arms. He
broke the kiss a moment later and smiled down at me.
"Forgiven?"

"Forgiven," I agreed, sliding my hands under
his shirt to caress his bare skin. "Not that I suppose it matters,
since we've lost the race."

"We'll finish strong," Liam told me, wrapping
his arms around me and hugging me close. "No shame in second
place." He leaned in. "And with you in my arms? I've already
won."

Those three sweet words did a lot to soothe
my worries, I admit.

~~ * * * ~~

"We're here," the cab driver announced.

I looked up from where I was snuggled against
Liam's chest. The minutes had flown past, and though it wasn't a
long drive, I'd enjoyed every moment of it, wrapped in his embrace,
his hands touching my face, my hair, my skin as if he couldn't get
enough of me. All the while, he hummed a wordless tune under his
breath. I wasn't sure if that tune was for me or for him, but it
was pleasant nevertheless.

"Thank you," Liam said, handing the man some
money. "You don't have to wait."

I started at that, then realized…this was the
last stop. He wouldn't have to wait because we were done with the
race. Mouth dry with a sudden burst of anxiety, I grabbed my bag
and handed Liam his, and we piled out of the cab. As we emerged,
Liam held his hand out for me and I took it.

To my surprise, he lifted our twined hands to
his mouth and kissed the back of my hand. "We didn't start this as
a team, but we'll end it as one."

I smiled at him. "I'm just sorry we couldn't
win."

"I'm not," he said. "I got a lot more out of
this race than just a paycheck."

I felt my entire body flush with the heat of
those words and we headed forward.

As soon as I saw the Rocky statue, I laughed
to myself. This was why this place was referred to as 'the Rocky
Steps.' A large statue of Rocky Balboa was off to one side and we
passed it, heading toward a massive series of steps led to the
pillars at the front of the museum. I vaguely remembered a scene
from the Rocky movies where he'd jogged up them.

At the base of the steps, there was a
World Games
mat, a series of boxes off to each side of the
judge waiting there. I squinted at the top of the stairs - Chip
Brubaker waited there, along with a fleet of cameras and a finish
line tape that was intact.

Midway up the steps stood Tesla and Brodie,
moving slowly as they carried a yellow mini-Trojan horse on a
litter.

"They're not done with the last task," Liam
told me, surprise in his voice. "No one's won yet."

I blinked at my brother and his partner,
unable to believe it. Sure enough, I watched as Tesla dropped the
front of the litter, spilling the Trojan horse to the ground. She
put her hands on her knees, panting, and I watched a look of
frustration contort Brodie's face.

This wasn't done yet.

I gave Liam an incredulous look, and as one,
we both broke into a sprint and raced to the judge's mat at the
bottom of the stairs.

"Welcome to the last leg of The World Races,"
the judge told us in a low, smooth voice. It was a woman this time,
dressed head to toe in the colors of the race, the big planet logo
of
The World Races
emblazoned across her chest. She proudly
held out the last clue disk.

I disentangled my hand from Liam's and took
the disk with shaking fingers and flipped it over, reading it aloud
softly. "Welcome to your final task. For this task, you must take
the marked litter and, one by one, take a series of objects to the
top of the steps and place it on the numbered mats designated for
your team. Each of these objects represents a leg of the race, and
you must put them in chronological order. Once you have placed your
object, return to the bottom of the stairs for the next one. When
you have placed all eight objects in order, the judge will give you
your final token. When you have that token, you may cross the
finish line."

"That shouldn't be too hard, then," Liam
murmured into my ear, his breath tickling my skin. "We can do
this."

"We can," I agreed, excitement pounding
through me. I shrugged off my backpack and tossed it next to the
series of large black boxes and the litter that was off to one
side. The pink group of boxes was untouched - Summer and Polly were
still at the last challenge. Off to one side, the yellow boxes were
demolished, all but two opened. They were close to the end, then.
If we worked hard, we could do this. "Come on."

We opened the first box. It was a replica of
a sphinx. "This one's Egypt," I told him. "Not first."

"We need to find Greenland," he told me,
opening the next box. "Here, this is it." He tossed the lid of the
box aside and I moved to view it. It was a wooden replica of a
sled, about three feet long and complete with wooden dog at the
front, all painted in black. Cute. Liam began to pull it out of the
box and then grunted. "Jesus, it's heavy."

I moved to help him and was surprised at how
freaking weighty the thing was. "Did they weigh it down with lead
bricks or something?"

It took both of us to drag it over to the
litter, and I grabbed the front, Liam with the back. I grunted
indelicately as we hoisted it into the air. The thing weighed a
fricking ton. No wonder Tesla and Brodie were still doing this
challenge.

As a unit, we moved forward, and since I was
in front, I set the pace. I started out charging up the stairs, but
that quickly gave way to a steady, slow climb. You couldn't move
fast with the heavy litter, and the stairs seemed like and endless
procession. It felt like it took forever to get to the top, and by
the time we did, my hands and shoulders were burning. We barely
passed Tesla and Brodie on the way up, and my brother didn't seem
worried. As soon as we got to the top, I knew why. They already had
five of their eight objects at the top. It was a disappointing
sight to see, but I forced myself to concentrate on our team. What
Brodie did no longer mattered. It was all about Liam and I.

We headed over to our marked mats, and I
noticed that there was a grid set up like a tic-tac-toe board, with
a big
World Games
globe logo in the center. Each of the
empty squares were labeled one through eight, and we headed with
our litter over to slot one, and dumped our sled. I was breathing
hard and disgusted at how difficult this was. This last challenge
was going to come down to sheer strength. Frustrated, I glanced
over as Brodie and Tesla dumped their latest object onto their
yellow mat, studying them.

Sled, an enormous book, a chandelier, a
temple replica, a sphinx, and as I watched, they put down an
enormous stringed instrument like the kind Liam had played in
Cambodia. I squinted, something about that not seeming right to
me.

"Come on," Liam encouraged me, and we grabbed
our litter and headed back down to the bottom.

Going back down was leagues easier than
heading up, and we trotted back down the stairs in record time. We
headed back to our boxes and I leaned in to Liam. "Next leg was
Ireland."

"I remember," he told me, prying open the
next box. "You kissed me just for the hell of it."

I laughed, feeling warm. "Do you remember all
the legs in order by the stages of our flirting?"

"I do," he said, and his face was serious as
he looked over at me. "I got to put my hands all over you in Paris,
then we had a mini-date in Pompeii. Went all the way in Egypt after
you clung to me in the pyramids. Night two in Turkey, and then we
fought in Cambodia. Waste of a perfectly good twelve hours in a
hotel room, if you ask me."

I chuckled. "That was all you."

"I know it was," he said, and grimaced. "This
box is the wrong one," he told me. "Cambodia wasn't until the
seventh leg." And he showed me the stringed instrument.

Something pinged my memory again, and I
squinted up at the top of the stairs, where Brodie and Tesla were
descending back down to the bottom, their empty litter at hand. I
looked over at their boxes - two remained. And Cambodia was
seventh…

I turned and grabbed Liam's arm as he opened
the next box, my fingers digging in to his skin. "Brodie and Tesla
made a mistake," I whispered at him. "They've got the order
wrong."

"They do?"

I nodded. "When we go up again, look at their
mat."

His eyes flared with excitement. "I guess now
that they don't have anyone to copy off of, they're forced to rely
on their own brains."

"Then Brodie and Tesla are screwed," I told
him with a grin. "My brother's a lot of things, but brains is not
his strong suit."

"We need to hurry," he told me, heading for
the next box and prying the massive lid off.

I thought for a minute, then leaned in. "What
if we leave the item in the box and take it up the stairs? The
rules didn't mention anything about that. Brodie and Tesla won't be
able to see what we've got in what order, and so they won't be able
to copy off of us once they figure out that they've done something
wrong."