Playing Games
Page 37

And I smiled to myself as I scanned the countryside. It had worked out wonderfully, if I was honest with myself. And Brodie just wanted to get ahead in the race. There was no harm in that. At least he hadn't asked me for money.
"See anything?"
"Not yet," I told him. "Nothing that even looks like a message."
"Me either. Keep looking."
I did, obediently scanning the countryside with the binoculars.
"Hey, Katy?" Brodie said after a few more minutes.
"Hmm?"
"So…what are you and Liam planning to do with that Ace?"
I sighed. "Leave it alone, Brodie."
"Oh, come on," my brother said in a pleading voice. "You and Liam have been hovering around first place for several legs now. Tesla and I have a good leg, and then we drop all the way to the back of the pack again depending on whether or not she's having a good day or a bad day. And guess what kind of day she's having today?" There was an unpleasant tone in his normally cheery voice.
"A bad day?" I said, trying to hide my gloating and failing.
"She's hot, but man, she's really high maintenance. You can ask Liam about that." Brodie sounded a bit disgusted with his partner. "She drinks like a fish, insists on using all of our money, and she's horrible with a freaking map."
I chuckled. "Is she good at anything?"
A pause, and then Brodie gave me a sly grin. "Well, yeah. She's pretty good at something."
My face flamed. "Yuck again, Brodie! I did not want to know that."
"You asked!" He reached over and tried to give my head a brotherly noogie. "So, come on. Are you going to help your brother out?"
I turned back to my side of the balloon, scanning for the message. "Shouldn't we be looking for the clue?"
"I found it about five minutes ago, actually."
"What?" I yelped, rushing over to his side of the basket. My stomach heaved when the thing lurched in response, and the others in the basket glared at me. I clung to the chicken bar and raised my binoculars again. "You saw it and didn't tell me?"
"Well," Brodie said. "That's why I wanted to talk about the Ace."
I scanned the hills behind us with my binoculars, but could see no hidden messages, no nothing. Crap. Double crap. I'd lost the message and Brodie was going to hold it over my head. "I can't believe you!"
"Like you said, it's a race for two hundred and fifty grand, Katy."
"You really, really suck."
"And you have the Ace."
I resisted the urge to fling my binoculars at my brother's head. "So you're blackmailing me? Is that it? If I don't give you the Ace, I'll end up in last place because I'll have to go up again. But if I do give you the Ace, I'm helping you win. What exactly am I supposed to do here, Brodie? Either way, I lose."
"You should give me the Ace because I'm your brother," he said, his face earnest. He gave me a puppy dog look. "And Tesla hasn't done her challenge yet. You know whatever it is, she's going to suck at it. She's hung over like hell. And then we're going to be last, and I'm going to be eliminated." His face, so similar to mine, drew into sad lines. "It doesn't matter if you go up twice in this stupid balloon. I'll still be the one going home at the end of the day."
"Brodie," I began.
"You don't need it," he pleaded with me. "Liam's a great partner. And even if he wasn't, you never wanted to win. Not really. But I have to win, Katy. I have to stay on the show for as long as possible. And I can, if you give me the Ace. Think of what good TV it'll make - a secret brother/sister alliance."
I wavered. "It's not exactly secret if we work together. People kind of expect that, don't you think?" But that 'good TV' comment had me thinking, and thinking hard. I could save my brother and make him happy, get the clue from Brodie and ensure Liam and I stayed at the front of the pack, and the sneaky exchange would make good TV.
Except Liam would be mad that I'd given away our advantage. He wanted to win. And he hated Brodie.
And I'd promised Abby that I'd save her if it came time. Abby, my best friend on this race, and the one who'd really helped us out from day one. Not Brodie.
But Brodie was my brother. And he had the clue I needed.
I pulled the Ace out of my pocket and held it out to him. When he reached for it, I snatched it out of his grasp. "Just a second. I need you to make me a promise, first."
His eyes lit up. "What's that?"
"I promised Abby and Dean that we'd save them. If they get into danger and you don't, I want you to use it on them."
"Done," Brodie said quickly. He reached for it again.
This time, I smacked it into his hand, feeling uncomfortable as I watched his fingers curl over that important packet. He stuffed it into his pocket and then enveloped me in a boisterous hug. "You're the best, Katy. You know that?"
"Yeah, yeah," I murmured, but I hugged my brother back. Liam had said it was mine to use as I judged, after all. Maybe he wouldn't be too mad about this.
Maybe. Or maybe he'd be pissed that I'd given Brodie and Tesla the chance they needed to push ahead. He wanted to beat Tesla, and he wanted the money. He also hated Brodie.
Ugh. I got anxious just thinking about all this. "So are you going to tell me the clue?"
Brodie dragged my smaller form against him and noogied the hell out of my head. "You know I would have told you either way, right?"
"Jerk," I said, squirming out of his grasp. And no, I hadn't, but it was good to know now. "Just tell me the dang clue."
He pointed at a section of the distant hills. "There's a circle with several race flags set up over there. I imagine we'll pass by it again when we come in to land the balloon. And there are words spelled on the ground. 'Time for your partner to get oiled up.'"
"Oiled up?" I stared at the area Brodie had mentioned, but couldn't see anything. "I bet you're looking forward to that."
"You have no idea," he said with a dreamy grin.
Yuck, again. I elbowed Brodie…but then I imagined Liam all oiled up, and my grin was probably as dopey as Brodie's.
 
 
~~ * * * ~~
 
 
Sure enough, I saw the area Brodie had mentioned when we circled back. My brother hadn't been lying, which I was thankful for. I raced out of the balloon and back to Liam, who had both of our bags on his shoulders. Tesla was stretched out on the ground, a shirt tossed over her eyes as she either napped or tried to kill her hangover. I stepped past her and flew into Liam's arms. He grinned at the sight of me, spinning me around.
"How was it?"
"Spectacular," I told him, though I couldn't quite muster an enthusiastic smile. Giving the ace to Brodie was bothering me, though it did appear that he hadn't been lying about his partner having a bad day. I nodded back to Tesla's prone form. "What's with her?"
"Hung over," Liam said, leaning in to whisper it, and then nipped at my ear. "You find our clue?"
"I did," I told him. "Come on."