Bedroom Games
Page 23

I put a finger to my lips and shushed him.
 
 
~~ * ~~
 
 
“One…two…three…drink!” Brodie called from the kitchen. A series of cheers rose, and then silence as the others chugged.
I listened to them from my place on one end of the couch, blowing on my freshly painted nails to dry them. While I hadn’t won the reward challenge, just watching the others get hammered had provided hours of entertainment. Marla couldn’t hold her liquor, but Sunnie downed whiskey shots like a champ. They’d all been downright hilarious until Sunnie wrapped her arms around Brodie’s waist and buried her face against his neck. He hadn’t pushed her away, and I’d no longer found the drunken antics quite so amusing.
That had been enough for me, thank you very much.
So I’d gone out to the living room for some ‘alone’ time. Alone time was boring, though, when you weren’t allowed to listen to music or provided anything to read, and there was no TV in the house. So I’d painted my nails, but that had only taken a few minutes of time.
When Casper cut through the living room to head out back to the smoking area, I saw my chance. I waited a few minutes so it wouldn’t seem as if I were stalking him and then headed out back.
Casper was seated by himself on the smoker’s couches, a lit cigarette between two fingers as he relaxed and stared up at the evening sky. An ashtray was balanced on one knee.
I thumped down on a couch across from him. “Sad you’re missing the alcoholic antics?”
“Nope,” he said, tone brusque. “Haven’t drank in twenty years.” He must have realized how harsh his voice sounded because he turned and gave me a thin smile. “How ‘bout you?”
I shrugged. I could have cared less about the drinking at the moment. I had Casper alone. He was sitting in the smoking area, which was where I liked to hide my tape recorder. This was too perfect. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling out of sheer delight. Instead, I scooted a little bit closer to the end of the couch. There was a small potted palm that sat between the two couches (which were set at right angles) and if I could get him to admit something damning on tape, I just might have a chance.
“So,” I whispered after a long moment. “Are you and Sunnie together until the end?”
His cigarette paused halfway to his mouth, and he glanced at me. Then, he put it between his lips, glanced at the door, and then slid down toward me. “We’ve talked,” he said, voice low. “But I haven’t agreed to anything just yet. I’m weighing my options.”
“Everyone loves Sunnie,” I pointed out. “She’s really popular. If it gets down to you and her at the final two, you won’t win.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He took another drag on his cigarette. “She’s a good kid. I just don’t know if I want her to win the million. She’s already got lots of money from her daddy.”
I nodded. “So you plan on getting rid of her before the end?”
He gave me a sharp look. “I didn’t say that.”
I shrugged, pretending casualness, though my foot tapped a staccato beat on the table. “I’m just saying…if you have a plan to get to the end, I wouldn’t mind hitching a ride for as long as you find me useful.”
That had been the right thing to say. His eyes got a predatory gleam in them, and he sat up, leaning in toward me. “I might have a plan.”
“Oh?” I leaned in closer. “I’m all ears.”
“What about your partner?”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but my partner’s currently in the kitchen hitting on your partner,” I said sourly. “I don’t trust him to take me to the end.”
“You think those two might have a deal together?” Casper’s white brows knitted.
“They might.” I actually didn’t know if they did or not, but the thought had crossed my mind and I wasn’t ruling it out. “He hasn’t said anything to me for sure.”
Casper snorted. “I’m pretty sure they do. They constantly have their heads together. Which means you and I get left out in the cold.”
I leaned in, propping my chin on my hand. “So what do you propose?”
“I’ve been thinking about this,” Casper said. “You know they want you out this week, right?”
I feigned surprise. “I do now.”
“It might be in my best interest to keep you, though. Here’s the thing. You know who’s the strongest person in this game?”
“You?” I guessed. When in doubt, flatter the ego.
“Marla,” he said, and gave me a knowing nod.
“Marla?” I echoed. “How do you figure?”
“Here’s the thing with Marla,” he said, and he flicked his cigarette in his ashtray and then put the tray on the table so he could lean in closer. “She’s a young mother with two children. She’s not great at challenges, so she flies under the radar and lets her partner take the heat there. If they go up on the block, who do you think’s going to go home?”
“Jendan,” I guessed. “He’s strong.”
“Exactly. And Marla’s got the girl vote. Everyone likes her and she’s working the mom thing. Nobody will notice her until it’s too late, and then we’ll be handing her a million dollars. You mark my words.”
“So you think we should get her out sooner?”
“Next,” Casper said. “If I can get Jayme and Fido to put Marla and Jendan up on the block, would you vote for Marla?”
That was exactly what I wanted to hear. And yet… “You’re not telling me how you’d get Jayme and Fido to put them up.”
“I think they’d be up for it,” he said. “It’s a big move. You gotta make big moves in this game to impress the jury. Jayme has said before that she wants to shake things up. Booting Marla and splitting up that power duo would do it.”
“So you’d get Jayme to put up Marla and Jendan,” I repeated. “Then you and I vote for Marla. That’s only two.”
He began to tick votes off on his fingers. “You, me, Sunnie, and Brodie. If we tell them how we want to vote, they’ll go along with it as long as it’s not them up on the block. We get rid of Marla this week and then Jendan the week after as long as we have Power. Then, once we get a bit further into the game, we can pick off our partners. First Brodie, because he’s stronger, and then Sunnie. Then it could be you, me, Jayme, and Fido in the final four.”
Yeah, and I was the King of England. But I gave him a wide-eyed look. “I’m not hating it,” I admitted.
He nodded. “I’ve been talking with Jayme and Fido this entire time. They’re solid, and they’ll listen to what I say. I’m running the show in our little alliance. If I say you’re in, they’ll listen.”
God, this could not go better, could it? It was like he was practically stringing himself up. “So you’re going to get Jayme and Fido to put up Marla and Jendan,” I said. “You’re not worried that the two of them are too strong together?”
He winked at me, a condescending gesture. “If they are, we can always pick off the stronger one the next week. They can’t get Power a second week in a row.”