Grump’s City Girl (Boots and Heels #2)

14. Cassie

Chapter 14

Cassie

I knew what the asshat was going to say before he spoke. Ryker was not one of those guys who played the long game. Heck, I don’t think he ever considered what the long game was. He was the type of guy who ran on emotion, and I could tell what that emotion was.

Rome rolled his eyes and huffed, just as Ryker said, “Blindfold.”

“ What !” Danielle shouted. “Are you insane , Ryker? We have a chance to live another week, and you’re giving it away? For what?”

“For a chance to knock someone out,” Ryker said, pushing away from the wall. “If one of these guys can go, I will be even happier, because I know I will win this challenge too.”

She stepped in front of him. “Ryker, for God's sake, listen to common sense. You save yourself first!”

Ryker sidestepped her. “I am saving myself by kicking someone off, please, hand me that blindfold.”

I slid an apprehensive look to Danielle. She looked ready to rip her hair out, and I made to go after her. Beau grabbed my arm and nodded to the left. Liliana was shooting daggers my way, and when her eyes met mine, she gave me a slow headshake.

Of course. They wanted this drama for the views.

But the producers were not writing this. They did not need to. It was unfolding all on its own.

Ariana handed Ryker a blindfold that looked like a long strip of cloth rather than the sleep mask I’d imagined, and, like the jerk he was, he made a production of choosing who he was going to give it to.

He approached Rome first and circled him like a shark in bloody waters, while Rome looked heavily annoyed, as if he wanted to swat Ryker away like a fly. He taunted him. “Is this your time to show how truly useless you are? Hmmm, no.”

Slipping behind Quentin, he snorted. “Not even worth my time. You’ll weed yourself out by yourself.”

“Jonas,” he said. “I won’t even bother. Your airhead of a teammate will sink you. And Emory, try not to fall over yourself in the race. You’ve already got two left feet,” Ryker said smugly.

Fucking hell, he was gunning for Beau.

To his credit, Beau didn’t slug him when he stopped in front of him, but the tick in his face told me that was all he wanted to do. Grinning, Ryker handed him the black strip. “Here you go, big boy. Let’s see if you can walk that cocky talk, cowboy. Do you want my help putting it on?”

“Nah, I got it.” Beau held out his hand. When he got the blindfold, he added, “You’re going to regret this.”

“We’ll see,” Ryker grinned. “Game on.”

“Holy shit,” I muttered while looking at the stretch of green where the crew had made a long obstacle course with tires for jumping in, scaffolds with swing ropes, rock-climbing walls like at the gym, and another climbing wall and a mud pit. “What do they think we are? Army cadets?”

Liliana came forward, her clipboard in hand and covered from head to toe in plastic cover, and I wondered why. Where would she be to get splashed, or was she a germaphobe? “Everyone, please line up; the hosts will be out and will explain the rules soon.”

I gazed at the sky, hoping Mother Nature wouldn’t surprise us, then trained my focus back down as Sutton and Adriana came forward. They stayed true to their aesthetic. She was wearing homey, casual clothes, and he was in his slick Italian ten-thousand dollar suit. He was holding a cap.

After the production crew set up their grips and mikes and whatnot, we started filming.

“Welcome back,” Sutton said, “Before we get to the good part, well, for us, we need to make sure that the handicaps are fair and square. You will be picking a wrist tie or ankle tie out of the hat, and then we will tie you up.”

“There are three of each in the hat, so go on and pick,” Ariana said. “Ryker and Danielle first up.”

Danielle dipped her hand into the cap and took out a folded note, “Ankles.”

“We’ll make it work,” Ryker shrugged.

“Quentin and Nelly next,” she called out.

They got wrists, and so did Rome and Alice. Quentin and Nelly got ankles, and when I dipped my hand in, I plucked out, “Wrists.”

I could feel Beau’s relief, and when we got my left hand bound to his right, he said, “When I say go, twist your wrist around and hop on my back. I’ll get us through the tire jumps.”

“But—” I swallowed, “How can you know where?”

“I saw the length between here and there, and I think I have a very good idea of the spacing I’ll have to use.”

It was hard… but I had to trust him.

Beau said, “What is your dominant hand?”

“Right,” I replied. “Yours?”

“Left,” he said, “Let's hope we get hands tied, your left hand and my right together, and leave out strongest out.”

When one of the crew came to tie us together, we let them tie us up, leaving our strong hands out, and then they wrapped the blindfold around Beau’s eyes. “Did you get to see the obstacles?”

“Most of them, yeah,” Beau replied. “A few of them will be sticky, but I have a plan for that. You need to trust me on those.”

“How do we navigate the first one,” I said while watching the other contestants line up. “The tire jumps.”

“This might be harder than I thought,” I said.

“Tell me what you’re seeing,” he said. “I have a plan in mind, but I am not sure it will work.”

“First, we have the tires for jumping in, then we have a scaffold with a swing rope that sends us onto a platform that heads down to a rock-climbing wall like at the gym and another climbing wall, then lastly a mud pit and a bell at the end,” I said. “I guess the winner rings it… but huh, that’s weird, I hadn’t noticed.”

“What?” he grunted.

“The course is wide at the front like the tires are stretched for about twenty-five feet, giving all of us enough time to run through them, but it narrows before the scaffolds with the swing rope. There are only three of those, two of the rock climbing walls behind that and by the time it gets to the mud-pit?—”

“There's just space for one.” Beau hummed. “Seems right to me. It wouldn’t make sense to have an open field where everyone could run free; there had to be a challenge to push us.”

I eyed him. “We are almost ready. What is your plan?”

“Beau,” Ariana cut in, taking the blindfold, “crouch a little?”

He did, and she looped the blindfold around his eyes two, three times, then knotted it off before she tied our wrists together. “There you go.”

“There is no time limit to complete the course, but we do advise you to do it as quickly as possible,” Sutton said. “Use your senses, cooperate, and trust each other; you have to if you want to get to the end of this course in one piece… and win it.”

“One more thing,” Ariana added. “Immunity is done with from today, but the advantages of winning the other challenges will be good ones, we promise.”

“I think you know how this is going to go.” Sutton rocked on his heels. “Or at least have an idea by now. The obstacle course is an exercise in teamwork; you will have to put your hands, legs, hearts, and heads together to get through it in one piece.

"As you can see, the course narrows down as it goes to the end. The first two teams who ring the bell are safe, the third has a fighting chance, but the bottom two, you are firmly on the chopping block.”

“This time, the two teams on the bottom will be the only ones participating in the elimination round,” Ariana said, “Make sure it's not you.”

“What is your plan?” I whispered.

“When they say go, twist your wrist so your hand can lay flat on mine, then jump on my back,” Beau said.

I swallowed. “Okay.”

“Line up,” Sutton said as he stepped to the sidelines. “When the gun goes off… run .”

Beau crouched a little, and I felt anxiety flood my belly, and the moment Sutton started the countdown “Three… two… one"—the gun went off!

I twisted my hand and hopped on Beau’s back, and he took off, grabbing me under my thighs, holding me tight, and jumped into the tires expectedly. I didn’t know how the hell he did it without looking, but my heart beat a mile a minute.

He cleared the six tire pairs in seconds, and I told him, “The scaffold is right ahead; keep going… there is an incline.”

Beau followed my orders to the T, and we got the scaffold. I grabbed the rope, then handed it to him while I locked my legs around his middle and laced my arms under his to grab his shoulders without impeding his grip.

He got us down to the lower level in a second, and I said, “The walls are next. How do we go about those?”

“When we get there, I will hoist you over, brace your feet on the backside of it, and pull me up with you; it’s the best way,” he said as we got to the wall. It looked eight feet high, and Beau slipped me off his back, crouched, and made a well with his fingers.

I stepped into it and grabbed the top of the wall, then flung my legs over it. Half on the top, I reached for Beau, grabbed his hand, and pulled. He scrambled over the wall and ran to the second one, leaped up, and, because of his height, easily hoisted me up over it, then flung me on his back again.

“The climbing wall is next,” I said, “Hold me tight. I have one free hand to work with. I’ll guide you with the one we have tied, and you need to do the footwork, okay.”

I flung my hand out and grabbed a handhold, pulled Beau’s up to the other, heaved myself up. Beau followed even with one hand occupied. We inched up, foot by foot, until I reached for another handle—and slipped.

“Shit!” I screamed.

“Don’t let go,” Beau said while holding onto the other ledge. “I trust you… I trust you, baby. Keep going.”

Heart pumping, I flung myself up to grab another handhold and then hauled up, the blind need to win thrumming through my gut. We got to the top and grabbed the ledge while Beau swung his legs over—and the fucker jumped to the ground.

“C’mon Cassie,” he said, “I’ll catch you, let go.”

“One foot to the left,” I yelled, and as soon as he moved, I let go and clenched my eyes tight.

He caught me, and I grabbed his hand, running to the mud pit. I dropped to my belly, and we started crawling—and out of nowhere, the sky opened, and rain came down in a white torrent. Jesus.

Half blind by rain and splattering mud, I used my aching legs and knees and pushed, using my forearm to move the mud from my eyes and nose, trying to see the end through the rainstorm.

I went and slogged through the muck and finally got to the end. Beau pulled me up and grabbed my hand. We grabbed the rope for the bell and yanked once, twice, three times; then I collapsed in his arms.

Stepping away, Beau ripped the blindfold from his eyes, wiped the mud from my face, fixed his big palm around the back of my neck, and kissed me. I opened my mouth as much in shock as in need. I let out a soft moan as he deepened the kiss and pulled me tighter towards him.

My arms went around his back, holding on to him as our tongues moved around each other fiercely, in shock and relief. In the back of my mind, I knew he was doing this for the people in front of us, but still, I let myself enjoy the feeling of being in his arms, even if it was only going to be one time.

However, as he stepped away from me and our eyes locked, I wondered just what I had gotten myself into.

Three hours later, every speck of mud washed away, I stepped into the dining room, and chatter dropped dead. I looked around and saw every eye pasted on me. “Ummm, what is going on?”

Nelly burst first. “You! Well, you and Beau. How the hell did you do that?"

Rome came around with a cup of tea in his hand. “You two were like a well-oiled machine out there. How did you beat the system so effortlessly? Half of us are thinking you knew ahead of time and cheated.”

Dumping his magazine onto a chair, Ryker huffed. “It’s not half of us… we are all damned thinking it. There is no way you could have done that so easily without cheating. Was that blindfold mesh, for fuck's sake? Did he see through it?”

“Like hell I did.” Beau’s growl ripped through the room like a tiger’s roar. “You saw them fucking tie my eyes up. I was blind out there, but you know what? Unlike you, I have a partner that I fucking trust, and you have your head so far up your ass, you think the whole fucking world is against you.”

“He’s right, Ryker,” Sutton said while stepping in, dressed in tan slacks and a green button-down. “You’ve got a chip on your shoulder the size of Texas and half of Mexico, but no one here gives a shit about that, and this is on the books.”

Scowling, Ryker asked, “So, how did they win?”

“Because they worked smartly, like we wanted all of you to do,” Sutton replied. “Frankly, they reminded me of some of my army buddies back when I served, using two bodies as one. They had teamwork and unity; they used their bodies to their advantage and employed common sense. You should have used your immunity, Ryker. Instead, you gave Beau and Cassie a ticket to the top.”

“Well, we came in third, so,” he shrugged.

“Who came in second?” I asked.

Rome lifted his hand. “We did.”

“We’re fourth,” Emory nodded to Greer, and my heart sank.

“Quentin and I are fifth, with Jonas and Sissy last,” Nelly said, her face twisting in defeat. “But we’re going to fight. I don’t know what the next challenge is, but we’re staying.”

I snuck a look at Sissy, who was picking at her foot, sunk under the shadow of looming failure and elimination. I promised myself I would go and check on her later on. Ariana came in and looked around before her brows lifted high, and she whistled.

“Man, I could cut the air in here with a paperclip,” she said. “What happened? You know what, don’t even reply to that. It doesn’t matter. We’ll be filming in a moment, so get your game faces on. First, we will be looking over the clips from the race this afternoon. Please assemble in the backyard where the chairs are set up.”

While the rest filed out, I turned to Beau and asked, “I didn’t get to ask you back then…” I swallowed and wrapped my arms around my middle. “…Why did you kiss me? Was it for the viewers? Was it to make them think we’re reconnecting or that we’re… I dunno, trying to set us up to fight next time?”

Beau tilted his head, and even with my eyes down, I could feel his stare digging into my skin. His hand caged my chin and pulled my face up to meet his, and his expression did not change, but his eyes glimmered. “I kissed you because I wanted to, Cassie.”

With that, he walked off to the backyard, but I stood in place. “I didn’t even get to ask you why you called me… baby.”

Realizing I was the last one, I hurried and got to the backyard, where some of the seats were now replaced with lawn chairs and a few beanbags. Beau was reclining in one, and I went to join him.

This time, he slid to the ground and sat between my legs, his arms on my knees. I couldn’t help myself and ran my fingers through his hair, digging my fingertips into his scalp, and heard his soft moan.

“If you keep doing that, I might have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here caveman style,” he said softly. “I love it when women do that to my hair.”

Sutton came around, still a bit underdressed for what I always held his standard to be, but I thought it might be a quick little change. I was sure he would be back in full Italian get-up by tomorrow. Ariana came in a bit later, her hair down instead of up from a moment ago, and she had earrings in.

“Three…” Liliana called. “…two … one. We’re rolling.”

“Glad to see you all again.” Ariana smiled. “Earlier today was a bit of a shocker, wasn’t it? A few of you did exactly as we’d asked and used your strengths to your advantage, one team more so—” her eyes flicked to me and Beau, but I didn’t care. I still carded my fingers through his hair, “—and a few of you didn’t. I think it’s time for a recap, shall we?”

“Lights,” Sutton rocked on his heels as the lights dimmed. “…camera…” the screen descended. “…action!”