Playing Games
Page 49

"We need to hurry," he told me, heading for the next box and prying the massive lid off.
I thought for a minute, then leaned in. "What if we leave the item in the box and take it up the stairs? The rules didn't mention anything about that. Brodie and Tesla won't be able to see what we've got in what order, and so they won't be able to copy off of us once they figure out that they've done something wrong."
Liam grinned at me. "Sneaky. I love it."
"Let's do it, then," I said, opening the next box.
It took a few more before we found the large book that signified our stop in Dublin and the visit to the University Library. We left it in the box and hauled it up the stairs, going as fast as we could despite our cramping legs. There were only seventy-two steps (I counted) but it might as well have been three hundred. We dumped our box and raced down for the next one. After that was a chandelier, for the opera house in Paris. As we headed up again, we passed Tesla and Brodie, who were on their way back up with their next object. They were slowing down, their faces covered in sweat. I couldn't blame them - we were on our third pass up and this task was killing my legs. But we couldn't afford to slow down. Not when victory was this close.
My heart hammered in my chest as we dropped off our box, and then took the box containing the small temple up the stairs. Once we got to the Trojan horse, my legs were cramping and moving slower and slower. Liam's face was shining with sweat, his black hair sticking to his brow. I was exhausted, but sheer adrenaline kept me going.
As soon as we dumped our Trojan horse, I watched, my entire body tense, as Brodie and Tesla called over the judge. The woman picked through their pieces, then shook her head. "No. Try again."
I bit back my squeal of excitement. They had it wrong. There was time to fix this. We could still win.
We headed down the stairs at breakneck speed, and I watched as Brodie's gaze moved to our still-boxed objects. Nice try, big brother, I thought to myself. There was not going to be any copying off of my hard work today. Liam and I were both gasping for breath by the time we made it up the stairs with the stringed guitar-thing from Cambodia. I glanced over at Brodie's mat, and they had maneuvered things again, the Trojan horse now occupying the completely wrong spot.
"I'm sorry, no," the judge said again, and I smiled to myself to hear Brodie swear.
Excitement made our feet pound down the stairs, even though we were exhausted at this point. We grabbed the last box and hauled it onto the litter with weak, trembling arms.
"One more, Katy," Liam encouraged me. "We can do this. We can."
I nodded, saving my breath for the climb up those horrible stairs, and we continued forward. Each step felt enormous, and I counted them off in my head. Twenty steps, and I was gasping like a fish out of water. Thirty steps, and my sweaty hands were slipping on the wooden beams of the litter. Fifty steps, and my legs were cramped so tight that every step felt like knives. But I kept going, and Liam hadn't slowed down a bit. Sixty five steps, and we were close enough to see Brodie and Tesla standing over their mat. My brother had his hands twisted in his blond hair, and he looked utterly frustrated. Tesla had her tattooed arms crossed over her chest, giving Brodie a furious look, as if it was his fault. I felt a twinge of pity for my brother. Just a twinge.
And then we were up to the top of the stairs. I stumbled, my legs giving out on me, and we crashed to the ground.
"You okay, Katy?" Liam was immediately at my side, the litter forgotten. He helped me to my feet, his hands strong and sure as he grasped my arms.
"I'm fine," I wheezed. "Let's finish this."
We grabbed our litter and dragged it over to the final place on the mat, just as Brodie and Tesla waved the judge over again.
I held my breath as the judge considered their puzzle board. Then, she shook her head and I thought my heart would burst. "I'm sorry, no."
"Over here," I croaked. "We're ready."
The judge headed over, and I heard Brodie curse again. A cameraman came over to hover as Liam lifted the lids on the boxes and set them aside, then moved toward me. His strong arms went around my waist, and I leaned heavily on him, exhausted. My every nerve was tight with anxiety, though, and I couldn't take my eyes off the judge as she studied our puzzle. I knew we had things right. Liam knew. Had we mistaken something, though?
"Their stuff is still in boxes," Tesla called out in a whiny voice. "That's not fair."
"There's nothing in the rules that says you can't do that," Liam said. "Just to take it up the stairs and put it in the right spot."
"That's cheating," she shot back.
"You're just jealous that you guys weren't smart enough to do it," I retorted.
She gave me a narrow-eyed glare that I ignored, leaning heavily on Liam. My gaze went back to the judge, who had paced around our boxes again.
After a long, tense moment, she reached into her jacket and withdrew a bright green disk. "That is correct. Congratulations."
Liam gave a whoop and grabbed me by the waist. I shrieked with excitement, wrapping my arms around his neck as he spun me around.
"The disk," I laughed happily, wiggling out of his grasp. "Get the disk!"
He set me down, pressed a hard, sweaty kiss to my mouth that was so fierce that I could feel his lip piercing digging into my skin. Then he snatched the disk from the judge, grabbed my hand, and we raced toward that unbroken finish line.
Cameramen hovered, filming us as we headed toward that long piece of tape, and the host was clapping with excitement. We crossed the line and I felt the plastic snap as we pushed through it.
"Congratulations, Katy and Liam," Chip boomed as The World Races theme music began to play loudly and confetti rained down on top of us. "You are the winners of this year's World Games!"
Liam looked at me.
I looked back at him.
He grinned.
I flung my arms around Liam's neck once more and pulled him to me in another long, hard kiss.
 
 
CHAPTER ELEVEN
 
 
"Where do we go from here? Towards a happy ever after, man." — Liam Brogan, Post-Races Interview
 
 
The twenty-four hours post-race were a blur of activity. Liam and I were thoroughly interviewed on every angle of the final leg of the race, and then we did a new series of press junkets. A check was presented to us, on camera, and Chip gave a long speech about the challenges of the race and recounted the many tasks we'd performed.
I didn't hear a word of it. I simply clutched that oversized check, in a daze.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One hundred twenty five thousand dollars each. Holy shit. Brodie was going to be furious at me. I told myself that I didn't care, but he was my brother. I cared even though he'd played like a jerk. He'd hate that he came into second place. Absolutely hate it.
The others that had been kicked off the race at one time or another met for a big wrap party in Philadelphia. Everyone had been flown in, and they all took turns hugging me and Liam. Abby was delighted for us, and Dean didn't seem nearly as upset at losing as I thought he might be, which meant that Abby had probably told him about the baby. Either way, it was good to see them again, and I hugged them both for a long, long time.