Welcome to Paradise (28 page)

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I’ve realized that with him, it’s always somebody else’s fault. I thought he really liked me, but I realize now that what he liked was that I would take the blame. I’m good at that.”

“You
were
good at that,” Gabe corrected. “But whether or not you accept it, I don’t want him throwing it at you. And I’m pretty sure he will.”

“I’ll stay away from him. He’s not going to say anything in front of other people. Probably not, anyway,” she added honestly. “As long as I’m not alone with him, I’ll be fine.”

“And anyway, I’m the one who should really be worried about leaving you alone out here,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Why’s that?” he asked, standing back from her now, his arms around her waist, and looking down at her with a smile.

“I suspect Rachel has a little thing for you,” she said sternly. “And I know how hard it is for you to keep your hands to yourself. You’d better be behaving yourself while I’m gone, or I
am
going to be dumping you on the dance floor. And remember, the camera doesn’t lie. Danny’s going to keep an eye on you for me, aren’t you, Danny?” she asked over her shoulder.

“
Mira.
You’re supposed to ignore me,” he growled. “How many times do I have to tell you?”

Gabe laughed. “She looks all soft and sweet, Danny, but she’s got a sassy side. Don’t I know it.
”

The cameraman sighed with exasperation. “You are too. Supposed to ignore me, I mean. You guys are worse than Zara.”

 
“Maybe that’s because you’re
always around,”
Mira complained, “so we’ve gotten to know you too well.”

“Hey,” Gabe protested. “Quit talking to Danny. This is
my
time. And you were just getting all jealous, and I was loving it.”

“You were?”

“Definitely. You going to fight for me?”

“No. No fighting.” She tightened her arms around his neck, looked into his eyes, and spoke from her brimming heart. “What I’m going to do is, I’m going to wrap my arms around you. I’m going to hold you so you feel it, so you remember it. And while I’m gone, I’m still going to be holding you, every minute of every day. And you’re going to stop what you’re doing, sometimes, to feel it. You’re going to feel my arms around you, holding you. You’re going to feel me loving you.”

“Danny,” Gabe said quietly.

The inevitable sigh. “What now?”

“Go away.”

Gabe stuffed his hands more deeply into the pockets of the wool jacket against the midnight chill and eyed the unfamiliar outlines of the cabin. He probably could have thought this out better. The full moon had lit his way reasonably well to the Clearing, and then along the path from which Arcadia had emerged so many times. Of course, he could always have turned around and
asked Stu the way, but he preferred to forget that he was being followed by a camera
. But whatever the case, what was he supposed to do now? He didn’t even know which side of the loft the men were sleeping on.

Just as he was steeling himself for an exploratory trip that had every possibility of ending disastrously for Alec as well as himself, the cabin door opened, the figure stepping out into the moonlight more familiar to Gabe than his own reflection.

“Gabe?” Alec called softly. “You out there?”

Gabe stepped from the shelter of the trees and walked to meet his twin. Performed the handshake they’d worked out when they were ten, the routine of fist-bumps and special grips both a little juvenile and the most comforting thing ever. Then put his arms around his brother for a quick hug.

“Who’s got a
Spidey
Sense now?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

“I woke up and knew you were here,” Alec agreed. “But let’s go over by the creek where we can talk.”

“OK,” Alec said, once they were seated on a couple of boulders. “What’s up? This about the vote?”

“
They going?
That the plan?”

“You know it,” Alec said with satisfaction, understanding the question perfectly. “It’s obvious how you feel about him. Hell, when he said what he did at the dance, I wanted to deck him myself. So imagine living with him for five long weeks. It’s like he’s disintegrating. We’re in
Lord of the Flies
territory over here.”

“And if you’re asking me to keep him on somehow,” he finished, “I can’t do it. And I wouldn’t if I could. I’m counting the hours, and so is everybody else.”

“We’ll be merged after tomorrow, though,” Gabe argued. “And then he’ll hate me, not you. I’ll deal with him. Plus,” he went on in his most persuasive tone, “you still want to win this game, right?”

“You know I do.”

“Well, that’s our best bet in all respects. Go to the end with the two of them, and we win, no-brainer. And the same thing’s true for Stanley and Calvin. Vote out Rachel and Kevin instead tomorrow, and you’ve removed one of the two obstacles between Calvin and a million bucks. All he and Stanley have to do is beat you and me in the Safety challenge, and he’s won the whole thing.”

“And don’t tell Calvin, but from yours and my point of view, it wouldn’t even be that cut and dried,” he added, seeing a more thoughtful expression come over Alec’s face. “
Stanley’d
rather duke it out with you and me for the million than Scott and Mira
or
Rachel and Kevin. Even if he and Calvin win the challenge,
Stanley’s going
to push for us to stay. That ‘let the best man win’ thing. Stanley isn’t a real strategic player. Too straight-up of a guy for that.”

Alec shook his head regretfully. “It sounds good when you say it, but I can’t do it. I go to Calvin and tell him I want to vote Rachel? He’s going to think I’m playing
him, that
I’m working with Rachel to vote him off, because he and Stanley are our biggest competition. Calvin
is
a strategic player. You and I’ll find
ourselves
on the jury in no time flat if I do that.
Because Scott’s going to be voting you and me.
You know he is.”

“You can convince Calvin, though. You’re good at that. You can talk anybody into damn near anything.”

“Did you
hear
me? It’s too risky, and I want to win!”

“Why?” Gabe demanded. “Because you need half a million more dollars? We wouldn’t even be here if the producers hadn’t recruited us. You never even wanted to do this. You didn’t come here for the money, and you know it.”

“I don’t care,” Alec said stubbornly. “I’m here now, I’ve put in the hard time, and I’m not shooting myself in the foot just because you’re hot for some girl. She’ll still be there in a couple weeks, after we’ve
won.
She can’t exactly go anywhere. Anyway, I thought the whole idea was that we were supposed to be thinking deep thoughts out here. And
I’ve
actually done it. Got my next project all mapped out, thanks to a whole shitload of plowing and haying and wood-chopping time to work through it. You were right, thank you very much, great downtime. Now I’m ready to go back and get into it. Just as soon as we
win
.”

“And meanwhile, what have you been doing?” he continued. “Not thinking, that’s for sure. And not playing the game either. You’re one of the most disciplined, competitive guys I know. If there was one thing I would’ve said I was sure of, it was that you’d want to win this thing even more than I do.
And that you could do it.
Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”

“I’ve won already,” Gabe insisted. “I’ve got what I came for.”

Alec groaned. “Is this the sappy part where you tell me true love is the greatest treasure? Come
on.
You’ve known her, what, six, seven weeks? You’re headed right over a cliff here, and you’re supposed to be the cautious one!”

“If you mean I’m in love, the real deal, then you’re right. I don’t care how long it’s been. Look at the people on Arcadia, even the ones who’ve left now. Compare them to people you’ve worked with for years, and tell me which ones you know better.”

“You really mean it, don’t you?” Alec asked wonderingly. “You’re really ready to . . . what? Have you even
slept
with her?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Gabe said. “And none of your business.”

“Oh, man,”
Alec
groaned. “You
haven’t.
How do you know that it’ll even be worth it?”

“You got a stove in your cabin?” Gabe asked.

“What? Of course we do.”

“Does it get hot?”

“Yes,
it gets hot. Why, you want to cook something? You’ve gone around the
bend,
you do realize that, right? You are now officially nuts.”

Gabe ignored the comment. “How do you know it’s hot? You ever touch it?”

“All right, all right,” Alec muttered. “I get it.”

“That’s right. I don’t have to make love with her to know I love her, that she’s the only one for me. That’s not how it works.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Alec said in alarm. “Slow down there, boy. This is Sir Galahad again, isn’t it? OK, she was with the Prince of Darkness there, and you rescued her. Great. Good job. Doesn’t mean you have to carry her off on your horse and take her to live at the castle.”

“I think you’re mixing your fairy tales,” Gabe said with a little smile.

“Whatever,” Alec said impatiently. “It’s still too fast.”

“No. It isn’t. And I need you to do this for me. I need you to help me keep her safe.”

“So
that’s
what this is about,” Alec said with relief. “That’s ridiculous. You’re letting your imagination get way ahead of you. Wherever they’re keeping them, you know all the others are there too. So he says some nasty things to her. She’s a big girl. She can handle it. This isn’t actually the Wild West, you know, and you don’t have to have her under your protective arm to keep her safe.”

“I need to keep her here,” Gabe said stubbornly. “I know I do, that’s all. I need you to help me do it. You owe me, and I’m collecting on that. Right now.”

“I
owe
you?”

“You sure do.
All those years of you calling the shots?
Know how many times I went along with you? Well, it’s Payback Time. I’m not the tail of your dog anymore.”

“What tail? What dog? We never even
had
a dog. You’re seriously worrying me here, bro.”

“All those Halloween costumes?
The horse thing, seventh grade?
The Slinky Dog?
What was the common denominator there?”

“They were awesome? We won Best Costume? What?”

“They were always your idea, for one. And I went along with them.”

“And I’m supposed to give up a million dollars, because I got to choose our Halloween costume. You. Are. Dreaming.”

“And the other thing about them,” Gabe went on inexorably. “Who was the head, and who was the tail? Who decided where we went, and who followed along? Me, that’s who
.
I spent eighteen years being the tail of your damn dog. And I was happy to do it, most of the time. But I’m not the tail anymore. And I’m telling you that I’m right about this. It’s important to me.”

“It’s a million dollars,” Alec objected weakly.

Gabe said nothing, just continued to look at him.

Alec sighed and caved. “All right, Dog Head. I’ll do my best.”

Mira gripped Gabe’s hand more tightly as they took their seats the next afternoon. Looked over at Zara, seated with Hank on the jury,
got
a smile in return, a nod that set the older woman’s long silver earrings jangling. Well, at least she didn’t seem mad at Mira for voting her out. That would make the next couple weeks a lot easier. Gabe still seemed to think she might not be going today, but Mira couldn’t believe that was possible. Keeping her and Scott might be a good strategic move, but the situation on Arcadia looked too tense to her. She’d seen that body language too many times in meetings. The person all the others turned away from, that nobody could look in the eye.
The toxic person.
The one who had to
go.

“So, Arcadia,” Cliff began. “Here’s your chance to talk at last.
And your chance to vote.
Alec, did it seem like it would ever happen?”

“No,” he said, dark brows drawing together. “Our teamwork hasn’t been there on the men’s side. And you can’t win without that.”

“Got a comment about that, Scott?”

“Are there arrogant guys on Arcadia?” Scott asked from his spot at the end of the row, a little distance from Rachel. “You bet there are. People who don’t want to listen when somebody else has a better idea, because only they know how to do everything.” He shot a poisonous glare in the direction of Alec, sitting at the opposite end of the bench. “But you notice, when it was something where individual talent counted, and
all
of us could contribute, when one person wasn’t deciding he had to call all the shots, we
did
win.”

“Sounds like there’ve been some big personality clashes over there,” Cliff said innocently. “Rachel, did winning improve the mood?”

“No,” she said bluntly. “It’s just made it more tense. I can’t wait for today to be over.”

“You think today’s going to solve the problem, then?”

“Yes.” Her glance at Scott couldn’t have been more meaningful.

“Calvin,” Cliff said. “Is that going to be the basis of your vote today? Harmony? Group dynamics?”

“It shouldn’t be,” Calvin said. “Because even though I know you’re enjoying keeping us in suspense, we all know we’re merging after this. It’s got to be about strategy.”

“Want to elaborate on that?”

“No,” Calvin decided. “No, I don’t. I’ll let my vote do the talking.”

“And with that,” Cliff said, “
it
’s time to vote.”

The process was quick. Four people, walking one by one to the voting booth, writing a name on a strip of paper and holding it for the camera to record, then folding it, dropping it into a Wells Fargo strongbox with a hole cut into the top before returning to their seats.
Nothing celebratory about it.
The mood was grim, and the look on Gabe’s face matched it.

Cliff moved to the voting area, and the usual pause ensued as he looked through the votes, arranged them for theatrical value.

“It’s OK,” Gabe said, looking down at Mira. “You’re going to be all right.”

“I know,” she agreed, doing her best to smile reassuringly. “But I’m leaving. There’s no other answer.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Gabe,” she said urgently. “It’s
all right.
I’ll see you in a couple weeks. When I vote for you to win a million dollars,” she went on, trying to make him smile. “That’ll be a good day. I can’t wait.”

They fell silent again as Cliff brought the box back to his podium, set it down and opened the lid.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll read the votes. The team voted out will follow Jay and the other jury members out of the Clearing,” he explained unnecessarily, “and won’t return until next week, when you’ll be on the jury yourselves, watching the vote taking place that will determine our Final Four.”

“First vote,” he said, pulling out the first strip and pausing for dramatic impact. “Alec and Gabe.”

“Scott’s,” Gabe muttered. “I hope.”

“Second vote.”
An even longer pause this time.
“Rachel and Kevin.”

“You’re kidding,” Kevin, from his spot beyond Gabe.

Cliff looked up from the third strip. “Scott and Mira.”

The hand holding Mira’s was squeezing so tightly now, it was almost painful.
A split vote?
Mira wondered. How was that possible? Could Gabe be right?

“The fifth pair to leave,” Cliff announced. Turned the strip around to face the group. “Scott and Mira.”

Gabe turned a distraught face to Mira. “I’m sorry,” he said miserably. “I thought it would work.”

Mira pressed his hand,
then
dropped it to turn and give Stanley a quick hug.

“You take care, now,” he murmured. She could see the tears standing in his eyes. “He gives you any trouble, you tell him he’ll be answering to me.”

“Thank you,” she said. “For everything. I’ll see you soon.” She was choking up now too as she stood up, hugged Kevin briefly as well, then turned to Gabe.

He pulled her into him, squeezed tightly. “If you’re worried,” he said urgently, “tell somebody. And stay away from him.”

“I will,” she promised. She’d thought she’d prepared for this, but it was so much harder than she’d thought it would be. She reached out her hand, laid it along his unshaven cheek, and looked into his eyes. “I’m holding you,” she whispered.

Then turned to join Scott, waiting impatiently for her on the other side, his face a mask of frustrated anger.

“Well,” Cliff said as Gabe watched Mira’s straight back disappearing among the trees. “That’s something that I frankly was expecting to happen a while ago.”

“And now,” he paused theatrically, “the moment you’ve been waiting for. The six of you will be walking back to Paradise. And don’t worry, Arcadia. We’ve moved your clothes over while you’ve been here.”

“I don’t care about my clothes so much,” Rachel said above the noise of the conversation that had begun at the announcement. “What about my pies, and the beans I’ve got soaking? Did you move those? I don’t want to have to start over.”

“I’m sure,”
Cliff
said with a smile, “that those have been moved too. Six more days, guys. Then we’ll see you all back here, and it’ll be a whole new game.”

“Sorry,” Alec said, the minute he’d hustled to the front of the little group to catch up with his twin, striding ahead on the path to Paradise. “I tried. I really did. I talked to Calvin. Did the only thing I could to keep him from thinking I was playing him. Told him you’d come over, and what you’d told me. That I’d promised you I’d help you. And I did my best to explain why it’d be a better strategic move to vote Rachel and Kevin out.”

“You must not have tried hard enough,” Gabe said grimly. “Because you’re a persuasive guy. And that was a good argument.”

“You’re reckoning without Scott’s truly spectacular level of unpopularity, though,” Alec pointed out. “And I did more than that. I told Scott to vote Rachel off. Told him I wanted to go to the end with him. I thought that kind of blatant self-interest would be credible to
ol
’ Scott. But as you saw, he didn’t buy it. And it wouldn’t have worked anyway, not without Calvin’s vote. I almost thought I had it, there at the end. But as it was, the best we could’ve done was ended up in a tiebreaker between Rachel and Scott, and I can’t imagine that Rachel wouldn’t have won. But I
tried.
”

“That was
you?
” Rachel asked in astonishment. She and Kevin were right behind them, Gabe realized with a start, and had overheard everything. “You stabbed me in the back? You tried to get me voted out? I can’t believe you’d do that, after everything that’s happened! After I won the challenge for us, finally, so we could get rid of him!”

“I couldn’t help it,” Alec protested. “It wasn’t about you. You know how much I hate Scott’s guts. I hate
more
than his guts. I hate his . . . capillaries. I hate his
tendons.
But I was under orders. I’m not supposed to be the head of the dog anymore. Mr. Big here’s the head now. I’m just wagging along, being the tail.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said angrily. “Is this some kind of secret twin language?”

“Kind of like that. Apparently. So secret that even I didn’t know about it till now. Sorry I voted for you. I really am.”

“Sorry doesn’t really cut it, though, does it?” Kevin asked thoughtfully as his sister fumed beside him. “You know you guys have a target on your back. Well, that target just got bigger, if that’s possible.”

“Yeah, but now we have a Safety challenge, right?” Alec said. “So there you go.”

“Wow, you’re cocky,” Rachel marveled. “You’re that sure you’re the strongest person out here?”

“Nope. But I’m betting Dog Head here can pull us to victory.”