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Jack leaned in and brushed my hair away from my face, tucking it behind one ear. “I need to know if there’s anyone still alive who shouldn’t be.”
Chills coasted over my bare arm. “What are you saying?” Because it sure as hell sounded like he was—
“Does anyone need to die, Charley?”
The intensity of his words nearly knocked me down, but I needed to keep my shit together. No more falling. “I don’t trust you, Jack Hughes. So, you won’t be getting jack shit from me.” I spun away from him and hurried forward without giving him a chance to grab me again. Although, with his lightning-fast reflexes, I had a feeling if he really wanted to stop me, he could’ve, ten times over.
Instead, he growled out a curse from behind. He was keeping up with me like my shadow protector, one I didn’t need. Well, definitely didn’t want.
After a few more minutes of walking alone with my chaotic thoughts, we finally rejoined the cast of the show. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t finding them gathered at the edge of a cliff.
“Nice of you to join us,” Stephen said, turning his attention away from the other contestants and toward me. “Most couples wait to hit the suite before . . . well, anyway, we’ve been waiting for you all to start.”
The cameramen off at his sides snickered, and the “illuminators,” as I’d dubbed them in my head, steadied the beams of light toward something just off the edge of the cliff. Lovely. A rope suspension bridge that looked more like a death trap than a walkway.
“Don’t tell me you think we’re going to cross that piece-of-shit bridge,” Oliver spoke the words that had to be on everyone’s mind. “It’s, uh, missing about seventy-five percent of its steps. And that’s gotta be a forty-foot drop into the water down below. Just a small FYI, we’re not all lightweights here.”
I maneuvered around a few contestants from another team to get to the edge, and a horrible gut-sinking feeling hit me when I got a better look at said death trap. Fifty feet in length maybe. Two thick ropes ran parallel across a ravine with a few wooden planks as “steps.”
Oh, hell no. I wasn’t letting my baby sister go near that.
“Exactly how is this an icebreaker thing?” Mya asked, coming up alongside me.
“More of a trust-building exercise,” Stephen shared. “Everyone on the team must make it across the river and back. You’ll need to work together if you want to ensure you all complete the task.”
“And if we fall?” Jack flanked my other side, taking in the view lit up by what felt like lights bright enough to land a plane in the jungle.
Stephen shrugged. “Then you take a swim. It’s deep enough to pillow your fall. Slight current. It’s a narrow river. An offshoot from the Amazon, though.”
“And there are piranhas, snakes, caimans, and a lot of other dangerous-to-our-health things in the Amazon,” Oliver shared.
I’d spent the last eleven years doing everything in my power to protect my sister, how could I place her in harm’s way like this? And if this was only night one of the competition, what was in store for us next? Money wasn’t worth it.
“We’re not doing it.” I focused on my sister to let her know my mind was made up.
“I’ve done plenty of ropes courses before,” Lucy responded, talking to me like it was just the two of us, the world fading into the background. “We’ve got this.”
“No. This is different.” I crossed my arms, a slight chill sweeping over my skin. Part nerves. Part nighttime in the jungle. The weather was changing without the sun. And my imagination was conjuring up the potential of a jaguar creeping up on us. I chose to ignore that paranoia part of my brain for now.
“What happens if we don’t, at least, try to cross?” Lucy asked Stephen.
“You can pack your bags and leave,” he answered in a flat tone. “Now, make up your minds. Team one is going first.”
“And who is team one?” When did we get a number?
“You’re team one,” Stephen said with a dismissive chuckle, then he went over to the cameramen and began pointing, issuing directives about the lights.
“And if there’s nothing left of this piece-of-shit bridge after team one is done?” someone from another team called out.
“Then your teams luck out, and you don’t have to complete the challenge,” Stephen replied. “It was just the luck of the draw that team one was chosen first.”
Luck of the draw my ass. I planted my hands on my hips and peered around at the others. This was my chance to leave. To bail and get a safe ride out of there and away from this entire mess. We had to take it.
“No,” Lucy said, reading my mind. “I’m doing this. I’m done running, Charley. I need to do this, for me.” My sister’s trembling voice and strong words about did me in. “If the women cross first, since we weigh less, that should put less stress on the bridge, right?” she went on, letting me know the conversation I’d never actually started was over.
I caught sight of Jack peering at my sister as if he’d picked up on the double meaning of her “done running” comment. Yeah, she was talking about way more than just running from the jungle. Damnit.
“But even if we all make it across, we still have to make it back, so it won’t matter about our weight,” Mason pointed out. “I’d rather test out the boards and see which are the most reliable. Find the best path first before you all cross.”
