Part 2 (1/2)

'That's what I do.'

He nodded. 'I heard that you like to do your own stunts. Impressive. Me, I like guns and knives. Did some desert survival contests, too.'

'Fascinating.' Fortunately, the guys weren't in the mood to chitchat, so Gina motioned Shay and Olivia along and they headed toward the bow of the s.h.i.+p. 'Okay, so that seems normal.'

'Nothing like Jake and his lasers,' Olivia said.

'No. And Trace and Ryder are clearly in prime shape for an outdoor adventure like this.'

'I'll say,' Shay said with a wink. 'One with dark hair, one with light hair, both s.e.xy as h.e.l.l. What woman wouldn't want to be a sandwich between those two?'

Gina laughed. There were several other compet.i.tors so they split up to do some investigating. When they met up again, they compared notes. All the others were engaged in extreme sports or had experience in what Gina would consider normal weaponry. Nothing unusual.

Gina straddled her lounge chair and took a sip of her tea, puzzled by Jake's invitation to the reality show. 'If we're going to be competing in a physical challenge, what the h.e.l.l is someone like Jake doing here? He's a heavy smoker, thin as a rail, and totally out of shape, and he uses laser weaponry.'

'Maybe he's in better form than we think,' Shay suggested.

Gina rolled her eyes. 'I find that hard to believe. I'd smoke him in a hundred-yard dash.'

'I could, too,' Olivia added. 'Everyone else seems to fit just fine. Maybe he's a fluke, misrepresented himself or something. Or he's fooling all of us.'

Gina shrugged. 'Could be.'

'I'm just going to look on him as one less compet.i.tor to worry about,' Olivia said.

Or maybe Jake was the one to really watch.

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After a nap, a shower, and a change of clothes, Gina went up on deck in search of Shay and Olivia. Something just didn't feel right about this whole reality show. While there were a handful of them like herself who seemed like fish out of water, anxious and excited and completely clueless about what was to come, the others seemed to keep to themselves and within a group on their own, almost as if they had banded together in secret. And those were the people who seemed to be spending a lot of time talking to Derek. Did they have some kind of 'in' with him?

She didn't like alliances. The last thing she wanted was to start this game at a disadvantage. Maybe she'd hunt down Shay, Olivia, Trace, Jake, and Ryder and see if they noticed the same thing she had about the others.

But when she went upstairs, no one was topside. The sun was sinking fast into the water, and she took a moment to enjoy the few minutes alone and watch the glowing sunset.

The quiet was unnerving. Despite the gentle hum of the s.h.i.+p's motor and the waves cras.h.i.+ng against the hull, she still felt alone with her thoughts.

And time to reflect was never a good thing.

Another adventure, another chance to escape. One movie after another, never a moment to go home and face herself in the mirror.

Who would she face if she did? Who was Gina Bliss? Wasn't even her real name. And where was home, anyway? It certainly wasn't the gla.s.s house on the beach in Malibu. The last real home she had was the one she and her mother had shared. The one she'd been wrenched from when she was eight years old. The ten years she'd spent in foster care after her mother disappeared had never been home.

She didn't have a home.

'Why are you all alone?'

Startled, she whirled around to find Derek standing behind her. Placing her hand over her heart to calm the skittering beat, she said, 'You scared me.'

'You need to develop nerves of steel and better sensing capabilities if you're going to survive this game. You never know who'll be sneaking up behind you.'

Smart-a.s.s. Was this some kind of test? 'I'll keep that in mind, thanks.'

'Everyone's downstairs and gathered for dinner.'

'You aren't.'

'Not hungry right now.' He lifted his hands and lit one of the fat stogies, the smell of cherry and smoke filling the air.

'I see.' She turned away and resumed watching the last quarter of the sun sink below the horizon. Derek stepped beside her.

'With all those starving men, you'd better hurry or you'll miss dinner.'

'I'm not too worried about it.' If he insisted on staying out here with her, this would be a good time to quiz him about Jake, about the compet.i.tion.

'You need your strength for the compet.i.tion.'

She grinned. 'I'll eat. You worried about me?'

He shrugged. 'Just a friendly warning.'

'So what do I have to look forward to?'

'You trying for some advance recon, Bliss?' He leaned his forearms against the railing and turned his head to look at her. The wind blew locks of dark hair against his forehead. Thick, dark hair. The kind a woman wanted to slide her fingers in. She curled her nails into her palms and bent forward against the railing, focusing her attention on the waves.

'I would never try to get you to divulge secrets, Derek. Besides, I already have an idea what's going to happen.'

'Oh yeah? And what's that?'

She really had no clue, but he'd given her an opening and this was her chance to see if he'd reveal anything. 'We're going to arrive on the island, then we're going to race around with paint-ball guns and chase after guys in demon makeup and shoot them and score points that way. Or maybe it'll be like flag football. First one to grab the flag from the demon wins.'

He arched a brow. 'Think so?'

Casting him a sideways glance, she asked, 'Am I wrong?'

He took a long, slow puff of his cigar and blew it out, then grinned. 'I think you'd better go eat your dinner. You're gonna need it.' He slipped a hand in his pocket and strolled away.

Dammit! She'd gotten nothing from him. Nothing! Not even a hint. So much for charm and persuasion.

She might as well eat dinner, then huddle up with the others for a talk. Though she didn't have what she'd exactly call a psychic kind of sixth sense, Gina had keen powers of observation and the ability to read people. One wasn't successful in Hollywood for as long as she'd been without being able to cut through the bulls.h.i.+t.

And there was some definite bulls.h.i.+t going on with this compet.i.tion.

She meant to find out what it was.

'Gina's suspicious,' Derek said to Lou.

Lou raised a brow. 'How do you know?'