a soaking-wet Jed was returned to shore in the dinghy from the crew boat. He stomped into camp with accusations of sabotage and demanded another chance in another rowboat.
As the cameras continued to roll, he threatened to sue the show and the network and everybody on the island, especially Konrad, if he ultimately won the game.
Bobby Dixon was unmoved. “Sorry, Jed. The rules of the game plainly state that do-overs are never allowed. There’s no proof of any wrongdoing, and the cameras were on the rowboat at all times.”
“On the rowboat, but not on Konrad!” argued Jed. “He got himself out of sight and did something to make it sink, I know he did. He cheated!”
“Not winning is obviously difficult for you, Jed, but you must accept it and move on like everybody else,” Bobby said unctuously. “In today’s contest, the fastest time was Rico’s, and he wins the immunity statue.”
Bobby handed Rico the foot-high painted wooden totem pole that looked as if it had been purchased at a roadside souvenir shop.
“This is the first time in the game that anybody but Jed has won that thing,” said Shannen. “No one can vote against Rico tonight. Gee, I wonder who everybody will vote off the island?”
Three
The full moon had waned only slightly, so the bright path through the tangle of vines and low-hanging branches was as easy to follow as it had been last night. Shannen slowly, carefully made her way, as familiar with it by night as by day.
She had thoroughly explored this island during the long daylight hours, looking for food and anything else that might be useful to their group. She’d easily slipped off alone, when the cameras were fixed on groups of the others.
With Lauren unwittingly serving as a decoy, Shannen’s absences went unnoticed. Since the twins weren’t always side by side, as long as one of them was in view, who was to say which sister it was? That sort of fungibility sometimes bugged Shannen, but not on this island, not in this game.
Especially since her solo wanderings had provided her with quite a bit of useful information, some of which she didn’t share with anybody. Like the undiscovered shortcut to the crew’s camp on the other side of the island and the secluded palm grove where she was now headed.
Shannen’s heart began to thud heavily.
She’d slipped away from camp tonight, wondering if Cortnee had heard her leave. But there was nothing questionable about someone getting up and heading off “to use the facilities,” Shannen reminded herself.
Cortnee hadn’t been suspicious last night; plus, she wouldn’t know whether it was Lauren or Shannen who’d left on either night.
Certainly the last thing anybody would suspect was that practical, logical, no-nonsense Shannen Cullen was sneaking off to meet the chief cameraman. Not even Lauren, the person who knew her best in the world, would ever fathom that.
But then, there were some things that not even Lauren knew about her twin.
Nine years ago, in the throes of rebellion and intense first love—she’d often wondered how much one had fueled the other—Shannen had stopped sharing every single thought and feeling with Lauren. Her wild passion for Tynan Howe had been the biggest secret she’d ever kept. Deliberately, she hadn’t even mentioned his name to her twin.
And though she’d gloried in her secret love, when it was over—after he’d ended it—the price she had paid was enduring her heartbreak alone. For the first time in her young life, Shannen hadn’t had loyal Lauren to share her pain, thereby halfing it. Another grudge to hold against Tynan Howe, and she’d held fast to it.
Yet now, though supposedly older and wiser, here she was repeating her mistakes—the rebellion against the rules, the secrecy from her sister—and with the same man!
What was happening to that practical, logical and no-nonsense character she’d spent years honing? Why was she sneaking out at midnight, like the recalcitrant teenager she’d once been, to meet Tynan Howe? Again!
Nine years ago he had insisted he was too old for her. In her calmer moments back then—and since—she might even have seen his point and agreed. She might’ve dreamed of a day when she was out of high school, out of her teens, and had reached whatever age Ty deemed “old enough.”
But her age wasn’t the sole reason cited by Tynan as to why they couldn’t be together. It was those other, far more hurtful reasons he had supplied—the reasons she came to believe were his true reasons—that still resonated within her.
Well, she was of legal age now, and thanks to the multiple Howe scandals, Tynan was not quite the “catch” he once had been. Not that she wanted to catch him, Shannen quickly assured herself.
She didn’t for many reasons—the current, main one being this game they were playing, on opposite sides of the camera, making Tynan Howe off-limits to her.
It was déjà-vu all over again, as the saying went.
If their clandestine meetings were discovered, she would undoubtedly be kicked out of the game, in full camera view, of course. Clark Garrett and Slick Bobby would want to milk every dramatic possibility.
Lauren would feel so betrayed by her twin’s secrecy, both past and present, and the cameras would record her reaction to it all. Shannen flinched at the thought of wounding her sister.
Furthermore, if she were eliminated now, how long would Lauren last without her in the game? From the time they were little, Shannen had felt compelled to protect Lauren, to make sure no one took advantage of her more naive twin.
Would Konrad, Rico and Cortnee gang up on Lauren if her more formidable sister were gone? Being legitimately voted off the island was one thing, but foolishly getting herself kicked out of the game was unacceptable.
Unexpectedly she and Lauren had come this far. Why throw away a possible chance to win?
Though it would be wonderful to win the top prize, just making the final four would be okay, too, Shannen told herself. Being one of the final four meant a cash prize, with each runner-up—the third, the second and, finally, the first—making more in turn.
Were she and Lauren both to make the final four, the payoff would be considerable. That was not something to be lightly dismissed.
The Cullen twins hadn’t turned over their lives to a prime-time game show for the hell of it. They needed the money—the family was counting on them.
As for the risk Tynan was taking meeting her…
Well, keeping his job because he needed his salary wouldn’t be a concern for him. Whatever their transgressions, the Howes must still be rich. After all, during the entire time the Howe family had been under the full glare of the media spotlight, one story that had never appeared was their plunge into poverty.
Ty probably wouldn’t even lose his job. Wasn’t it a universal truth that men rarely paid the same price for breaking the rules that women did? And, of course, Tynan was a Howe, whose family knew a thing or two thousand about rule breaking.
Victorious concerns aside, Tynan Howe was emotionally dangerous to her. Any man who could effortlessly turn back the clock nine years and transform her into her impetuous young-girl self was a must to avoid.
Unfortunately, Shannen couldn’t seem to stay focused on all the practical, logical no-nonsense reasons why she should keep away from him. She kept getting distracted by other thoughts.
Like his name. He wasn’t even using the name Howe. She’d realized that the first day they had all arrived on the island. There were no introductions to the crew, but when she’d seen Ty among them—after getting over the initial stunning shock—she had paid close attention. And heard him called Ty Hale.
Hale, not Howe. Scrapping Howe for Hale didn’t surprise her nearly as much as the fact that he was working as a television cameraman. After all, the Howe name was no longer a