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“Are you going to fight me, Zane?” she laughs.
“I’ve never fought a woman before, but I’m not against it,” he growls. “She stays with us, or we all leave.” There’s intensity in his gaze.
“Then go,” Jane says, twisting the face of the camera away from Zane as she turns her back to him.
“Let’s go,” he says waving toward Colin and I. “We’re leaving.”
Neither of us bat an eye. Somehow, we’ve all gotten on the same page about Sara. While I’m pretty sure Colin is feeling things for her as well, a part of me wonders if Zane is too.
Sara pushes open the door and hops out into the sand. “I’m not letting you do this. I’ll go. You guys stay. It’s not worth it to me. I have a bit of money now. I can make it on—”
“Oh, sweetheart. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t quit and collect a check,” Jane laughs. “You have to be voted off.”
“You didn’t say that!” Sara barks. “You said five grand a day and—”
“Did you read the contract?” Jane reaches into her back pocket for a copy as though she were expecting this moment. “It’s all right here. Maybe one of these men here should’ve been looking out for you a little more.”
Sara takes a deep breath and looks toward us. “I don’t need the money. I’ll be okay.”
I don’t know how much Colin and Zane know, but I know that’s not the truth. Besides that, I don’t want her leaving without me.
“None of us need the money,” I say. “Let’s go.”
I take Sara’s hand in mine, and we walk toward the water, ready to jump on one of the ten boats that stay just a few hundred feet offshore. I’ve seen it a dozen times, someone wants to leave the island, they call a boat, and they pull in to get the contestants back to wherever they came from. The whole process looks seamless on television. Except when we sit on shore, nothing happens. Jane doesn’t radio anyone in, and the boats stay sat offshore.
“Cut the camera,” she says in a low whisper. I can barely hear her over the waves crashing, but when I do, I know what’s coming next. We’re only two days into production. She can’t lose four players this early in the game. Not only that, but if Kemp made some deal with her, surely, he’d lose interest in starving himself when Sara left.
“Well played boys,” Jane says, sitting on the sand next to us. “You’ve got me. Sara can stay on your team.” She offers up the minimum right away. There was no way we were staying if she wasn’t on our team. That’s obvious.
“Great,” I say. “But she’s also not a pawn anymore. The games go back to a survivalist theme. In other words, you’re not exploiting her.”
Jane looks down at her bare feet. Her toenails are bright red and lacquered with something shiny that makes them look fake as a wave spills up over top.
“You’ve got me,” she says. There isn’t out right sarcasm in her voice, but I know it’s there. “I’ll see you four at the next challenge.”
None of us say a thing. I’m sure she’s full of shit, but I also know how much Sara could use this money.
“What happened after we ran up to the well?” Zane growls. “Did Kemp touch you?”
“He pulled a tag that forced him to dance with me.” Her voice is shaking when she speaks.
Zane leans forward to catch eyes with Colin and I. “We’re fucking done if Jane pulls this shit again. Do you hear me? Done.”
There’s no arguing between Colin and I, but Sara stands from the sand and steps into the ocean, her small body collapsing into the first wave that hits her.
I stand from the beach and join her in the salty water, gripping her waist in mine as she tries to hide her tears.
“What’s wrong?” My heart crumbles seeing her in pain.
She shakes her head and looks away. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over now.”
“What’s over now? Sara, you have to talk to me. What did he do?”
Wiping a tear from her face, she steadies herself in the waist deep water and looks toward me, her gaze more tortured than it has been since we got here. “I did a bad thing, Brad, and I don’t think he’s going to let me get away with it.”
Chapter Twelve
Sara
