Chapter Twenty - Lucky
CHAPTER TWENTY
The look Becca gives me is anything but friendly, and I know the camera is capturing it all in high-definition.
But all I can see is the golden flecks in her beautiful, warm brown eyes.
I’ve never been an eye guy, but hers have my heart threatening to beat right out of my chest. Even when she’s glaring, she’s gorgeous.
My hand starts to lift, to reach for her, but I force my arm to straighten at my side.
“Fine,” I grind out, playing my part. “Sean and Iris, it is.”
Becca smirks in victory.
“Finalists” Dozer’s voice is amplified by a megaphone. “Take your positions. When the horn sounds, the challenge will officially begin.”
Becca and I step away from each other, the tension between us so thick, even the viewers back home will feel it.
I roll my shoulders and grab a paintball gun from the rack, turning to eye the course.
The shootout arena has been set up to look like a smaller version of Tombstone.
There are wooden cutouts of building fronts, as well as platforms and towers of various heights to give us a different vantage points of the playing field.
I spot some stacked hay bales, barrels, and an old wagon full of burlap bags.
There’s even a stagecoach off to one side.
Each team’s flag sits at the top of a wooden wall, attached to a pole.
Our green flag stands stark against the blue of the sky, snapping in the breeze.
Each team starts from their own base, so Becca and I hurry over to get in position. Tony is right on our heels.
Dozer checks to make sure all the finalists are in position before lifting an air horn over his head. “Let the game begin!” he yells, blowing the horn to signal the start of the challenge.
“Let’s go,” I gruff, darting out from behind our base. Things are relatively quiet, as if the teams are sizing each other up, waiting to see who’s gonna make the first move.
Keeping low, I scramble to the nearest bit of cover, a massive wooden structure painted to look like an old-timey bank.
Various camera people are stationed around the course, and I see one in a backwards red hat zero in on me.
I twist around. Becca is crouched behind a barrel, clearly heading in the opposite direction.
I almost laugh, but I let out a groan instead, making sure Red Hat has a good shot of me rolling my eyes.
The other finalists are slinking around like we are, but no one’s made any big moves yet.
“Hey!” I hiss, waving an arm and trying to get her attention. “Becca! What are you doing?”
Her eyes dart toward me, so I know she hears me, but she pretends not to.
“Becca!” I try again. Still nothing. “You’re going the wrong way!”
“No, you’re going the wrong way!” she hisses back.
On the other side of the course, the air erupts with the Pop! Pop! Pop! of flying paintballs. It’s like a seal has been broken and the arena instantly becomes the Wild West.
I peer around my cover and leap backwards as Ross fires right at me. Paint splats against the storefront, only inches away from where my face had been seconds ago. Becca is still crouched behind the barrel, but our opponents have spotted her and are firing in her direction.
Leaping sideways, I roll out of the way of a volley of paintballs and manage to make it over to Becca without a hit.
“You can’t stay here!” I shout. The quiet stillness of the game is gone, and everyone is yelling over the thwack and pop of the paintballs.
“I know that!” Becca snaps, readjusting her hold on the gun.
“Well, let’s go!” I say, pointing to a wagon a few feet away.
“But Evie and Ziven’s base is that way.” She gestures towards their flag, waving in the completely opposite direction.
Another volley of paintballs comes flying at us, and I grab Becca, pulling her to me, and pushing us both towards the ground. We land in a heap of limbs, hitting the solid surface much harder than I expected.
“You don’t have to crush me, you know,” Becca snaps, disentangling herself.
It takes me a minute to respond, mainly because adrenaline is pumping through me so fast that my eyes have blurred. It’s only for a second or two, but it’s enough that my brain recoils from the memory that surfaces and threatens to strike like an asp.
Fear spikes through me, but I swallow it down. You’re fine, I tell myself. You’re fine.
“I just saved your life,” I manage to grumble back, peeking around the barrel. “We’ve got to move.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” Becca rolls her eyes and darts past me towards a bunch of hay bales, stacked in a pyramid.
There’s a chorus of cheers from a few feet away.
Skai is standing at the top of Sean and Iris’s base, their blue flag clutched in her hand.
Ross waits at the bottom, covering her. That’s one flag down.
Back at the other end of the course, Ziven and Evie are moving towards our own green flag, which we’ve left completely unprotected. On purpose, of course.
“We have to go back!” I point over my shoulder to our base.
Becca shakes her head. “It’s too late to save it.” She nods her head towards Evie and Ziven’s base. “They want ours, fine. We’ll take theirs!”
Near the edge of the orange base, I can see Sean and Iris creeping towards it, and I know Becca can see them too, though she pretends not to. It’s like she’s reading my mind, and I nearly grin at her.
“Fine,” I snap. “Let’s go. Watch your six.”
“What?”
“Watch your six,” I repeat. “It means keep an eye on your backside.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?”
I groan, hefting my gun up a little higher. “Come on, let’s go.”
The playing field is a melee of chaos at this point and paintballs are flying through the air without targets.
The Starlight officials are launching paintballs to create an added degree of difficulty to the game.
We run, crouched over to keep from getting hit and dive behind a small wagon.
Sean and Iris are the same distance from the orange base as we are, although they’re coming from a different direction.
Despite our attempts to hide, they definitely see us.
“Okay,” I breathe, “Here’s what we’re gonna do. Sean and Iris are right there. You climb the tower and get the flag. I’ll cover you.”
“That’s exactly what they’ll be expecting. You climb the tower, and I’ll provide the cover.”
“Are you going to argue with me about everything?”
Becca cocks her head, making a show of pretending to think hard about her answer. It’s downright adorable, but I force my brows to furrow.
“Probably.” She bats her eyelashes and gives me a “go to hell” smile. I almost break character right then and there, but I manage to hold it together.
I shake my head. “Whatever. We’ll do it your way.”
Becca smirks. “Good. I’ll draw their fire, you get the flag.”
“On the count of three then.” I sling the strap of my weapon over my chest. “1 . . . 2 . . . 3!”
Becca pops up from behind the wagon yelling like a banshee and sending a stream of paintballs directly towards Iris and Sean.
I don’t hesitate, leaping to my feet and dashing towards the tower. I hurl myself at it, climbing as fast as I can. My gun slaps at my back, and behind me, Becca yelps as a paintball smacks into her, right as my hands grip the orange flag.
I rip the flag down, but Becca yelps again, louder this time and my body reacts before my brain does. I twist in her direction and then Bam! Bam! Two paintballs slam into me, one into my chest and one on the shoulder of the arm holding the flag.
I’ve played paintball before, but even still, I’m not prepared for the force of the impact. I lose my balance and go flying backward off the top of the tower.
The ground slams into my back so hard all of the breath is shoved from my lungs, and I gasp.
Sean dashes over, ripping the flag from my hands and running off before I can blink twice, and then there’s nothing but blue sky overhead.
In an instant, I’m back in that dry Alabama field with an ATV on top of me. The engine roars in my head, filling my ears and sending spikes of pain shooting through me. Sunlight beams down, blinding me, so I squeeze my eyes shut against the light and the images assaulting my senses.
“Lucky!” Becca yells, and I feel her hands on me, her fingers digging into my arms as she peers over me. “Lucky, are you okay? Can you hear me?”
I can’t tell her yes. My entire body is trembling, and I can’t breathe as the roaring in my head grows louder. I squeeze my eyes tighter against it, the shaking getting worse. No, no, no. The voice in my head is my own, but it’s too small to silence the roaring.
My chest is so tight it feels as if my lungs might burst, and I open my eyes gasping.
I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe. My eyes find Becca’s and I want to tell her, but I can’t.
I can’t breathe.
I squeeze my eyes shut again.