“Everything’s done,” Adrienne said, suppressing a smile. She knew Valerie coming over here to talk to her must have taken a great deal of effort, and she didn’t want to scare her away. Not after Valerie had spent all of yesterday afternoon and last night dodging her as if Adrienne carried some highly contagious nineteenth-century disease. But no matter. Adrienne wasn’t bothered. The chase was usually the fun part anyway.
“There’s always something to do,” Valerie said, planting her hands on her hips. The breeze coming off the water pushed loose strands of hair across her face, and she impatiently tucked them behind her ears again. “You can wash the rice pot, or collect shells for bowls, or be actually useful and find more sticks for the fire because we’re constantly running out.”
Adrienne regarded her for a moment. Valerie’s hair was thick, and although she had it tied in a pony, a few wavy strands kept escaping. She wore a faded navy Sitka T-shirt with a large moose printed across the front. The sketch was cracked from too many washes. Underneath that shirt were small breasts, a toned stomach, and a tattoo above her left hip bone. Adrienne had noticed all of that yesterday after the swim from the boats to the beach. She’d looked Valerie up and down and had rather enjoyed how it had made Valerie squirm.
Adrienne sat up, bent her legs, and held her knees with her arms. Then she patted the pebbles beside her. “Sit.”
Valerie did not sit. Instead, she took a step back as if Adrienne might bite. Sensible. Adrienne was, in fact, a biter. “Oh, come on,” she said, smiling. Adrienne had once been told she had a very magnetic smile. Princess Victoria of Sweden had whispered it against her mouth in the Royal Box at Wimbledon during a particularly brutal game between Djokovic and Nadal. “We’re partnered together, and nothing is going to change that. Well, unless we go to The Sending and neither of us wants that, do we?”
“We’ll get there quicker than you think if you don’t start helping out around camp,” Valerie shot back. She tilted her chin slightly defiantly, and Adrienne felt a little jolt in her stomach. She did love a good gunfight, and that wasn’t a bad shot.
“Then amuse me,” Adrienne said, patting the pebbles again. “You owe me after lying to me. Keeping me company is the least you can do.”
The shock on Valerie’s face was adorable. “Lied to you,” she spluttered. “What do you mean I lied to you?”
“Fine,” Adrienne said, flourishing a hand in the air like it would conjure up the word she intended. It appeared that it did. “Deceive,” she said. “You deceived me.”
“Deceived you?” Valerie gasped so loudly a few heads turned toward them. Adrienne ignored them all and stared at Valerie with a gaze that refused to back down.
“Yes,” Adrienne said. “I told you I was coming onto Season Ten ofOutlast Herand you said nothing. Not a single word. You could’ve been honest and told me you were cast too.”
“How is that deceiving you?” Valerie said, looking completely flabbergasted.
“It just is,” Adrienne said matter-of-factly. Wasn’t deceit subjective? If Adrienne felt deceived, then surely it was so.
“You’re ridiculous,” Valerie said, shaking her head. She turned to move away, and Adrienne found herself unwillingly shifting as if to catch her, like a firefly that she could put into a glass bottle and stare at for her own amusement.
Adrienne was just about to shoot a glare when Eden’s voice thundered across the beach.
“We’ve got a challenge!”
Adrienne whipped her head back in time to see Eden brandishing an envelope in the air.
Her stomach grumbled as if on cue. A challenge meant reward, and reward meant food, and she was surprisingly hungry. She leaped up before Valerie could walk away and slung her arm over her shoulder. Then she ignored the way Valerie stiffened and whispered in her ear. “Let’s win this challenge. I’m starving.”
“WELCOME, CONTESTANTS, to the first-ever challenge of Season Ten.”
Adrienne clapped with the rest of them, though with a little less enthusiasm than the others. Mostly because she was still trying to comprehend the ginormous obstacle course that towered behind Vivian. Was that a hamster wheel of death? And that wall had to be two stories high and as smooth as a gum tree’s bark. Were they actually expected to climb over it?
She would be lying if she said the whole thing wasn’t terrifying. Watching the challenges on screen had always made everything seem somewhat achievable. Last season onOutlast Her:Redemption Island in the Azores, Adrienne had watched Tiffy Gonzales single-handedly roll a massive circular wooden drum through deep sand while rain had lashed violently sideways and thought,how hard can that really be?
The answer, apparently, was extremely. In real life, the challenge—especially this horror of an obstacle course—was aggressively bigger. Adrienne was beginning to wonder if she’d ever win a reward, and worst of all, she was beginning to think the whole pair swap thing had been a cataclysmic mistake. Valerie was the shortest contestant here. If Adrienne had to rely on Valerie scaling that wall to win the reward, they’d be fucked.
“Hallie,” Vivian said, tilting her head toward the firefighter. “You set anOutlast Herrecord yesterday.” She paused for impact. Adrienne found Vivian’s pauses a little too long and a little tedious. “You started the fire within thirty minutes of arriving on the island.”
Everyone clapped. Adrienne included, but once again hers was more of a forced politeness than actual genuine elation for Hallie. Seriously, what was so special about that?
“Valerie,” Vivian said, turning toward her. As she turned, her tortoiseshell sunglasses hanging from her neck caught Adrienne’s eye. Jacquemus, if she wasn’t mistaken. Adrienne approved. “How does it feel to be back in the game?”
Valerie, who was standing on the other side of the mat, inhaled before she said, “Different. Last time, half the contestants were returning players, so the playing field felt more even.” Her gaze skimmed across the group, touching nearly everyone except Adrienne. “This time there are only two of us, so naturally I feel a little more exposed.”
“And the swap?” Vivian asked, tilting her head in such a way that the sun caught her blonde hair and turned it a buttery gold. Adrienne had expected Vivian to give her wife some sort of acknowledgement—Adrienne was watching with hawk eyes—but there had been nothing. Not a wink. Not a smile. Nothing. Maybe Sienna was right. Maybe there wouldn’t be any favoritism. “How does it feel to be so wanted that another contestant gave up her original partner to be with you?”
A few heads turned toward Valerie again. Adrienne’s included. She watched her closely and could practically see the gears turning in her head. In fact, she could see them trying hard not to jam. “I think it’s a little too early to know whether being wanted is a good thing out here.”
Wasn’t being wanted always a good thing?
“Adrienne,” Vivian said next.