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He stops. Turns. Jaw tight, eyes hard.

“Every challenge we’ve won, we’ve done so fair and square. My ownership had nothing to do with it.”

“Sure it didn’t. Just like this isn’t PR for your resort.”

Then he walks away.

Is that what people think? This is just PR and that I’m a shoo-in to win? My jaw clenches. I’m not a shoo-in for anything. Everything I have, I’ve worked for.

Unable to shake off Jace’s words, I climb the ladder with more aggression than I intend to, my shoulders still locked down when I reach the top and am clipped in.

The teams and Mina are below. The live stream phone is up here, on my side of the platform. Part of me wants to ask—is that what they all think? That this is rigged?

My body pulses with anger, and it’s on the tip of my tongue to ask—until I spot Cristina.

She’s led to the start of the bridge by a crewmember, blindfolded, clutching her helper’s arm like it’s the only lifeline she’s got—and something inside me twists hard enough to hurt.

Her blond ponytail whips in the air as she takes a hesitant step forward.

Her. I’m doing all of this for her, and I’ll be damned if I let her down.

“Are you ready?” Mina calls on her bullhorn.

Cristina doesn’t answer, and my chest clenches. “Cristina, I’m here. I’ve got you. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready,” she calls, so quietly my heart begins to pound against my rib cage.

Memories threaten to surface, but I force them away. No, this isn’t the past. This is the present, and I have a chance to be a hero, to not let her down.

“I’m ready, too, Mina!”

“Then . . . begin!”

“All right, Cristina. Can you hear me okay?”

“I can hear you!”

“The first three steps are good. You can walk forward.”

With both hands grasping the bridge’s wire railing, she slides her foot onto the first plank.

“Good. Keep coming.”

She takes two more steps and waits.

“There’s a plank missing in front of you. Pick your right foot up and step over it. Don’t worry, there are several more planks in front of that one.”

She does as I say and makes it.

My chest loosens slightly. “Atta girl.”

We go on like this until she’s about halfway across the bridge. It’s deathly silent except for the wind rustling the trees and the sizzle of a tiki torch scorching a moth that got too close.

“All right, we’re at the tricky part,” I call out.

This is where Maya and Logan messed up. Jace and Holly didn’t even make it this far.

“Now, there’s one plank missing in front of you. Beyond it is another plank that you can stand on. Then there’s another hole. So you have one plank to stand on with both feet. Got it?”