Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1) (12 page)

While Sam was swimming to the next buoy, the producer reassured the women there were cameras attached to the weights and she’d definitely released it. They all watched as Sam glided through the water toward the other buoys. She made it look effortless. She swam a graceful freestyle stroke. It was obvious to all of the spectators that Sam was comfortable in the water and had possibly swum competitively. Finally, she reached the bank and walked up to the finish line. She’d completed the course in fifteen minutes and four seconds. Sam quickly wrapped a towel around herself and smiled at Al as if to say “told ya so.” Alex smiled hugely in return. She’d done it, it felt good to win.

Kathi was the last woman to have her shot at winning the one-on-one date with Al. She’d watched Sammi swimming through the course with growing anger. It wasn’t fair that
she
would get one of the coveted spots. There was no way Al would choose her in the long run. She was short and dumpy. Kathi recalled their conversation in the tent a week or so ago and knew this was her chance. She knew she wasn’t going to complete the stupid course. She wasn’t that fast or strong of a swimmer. Her idea of “swimming” was to hang out in a hot tub for half an hour. She
could
hold her breath for a long time, however, but she couldn’t swim through the water that quickly. She thought fast and came up with a plan. If what Sammi said was true, she’d come out the true winner in this challenge.

Kathi peeled off her clothes and sauntered toward the starting line and Al. She put an extra swing in her step and swayed her butt with her walk. She knew she looked good in her slightly too small red bikini. She put on her best “come hither” smile and walked up to Alex, put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Alex was surprised. Kathi had always been pretty aggressive, but this was different. She was licking along the seam of his lips, seeking entry. There was no way Alex was going to kiss her in front of the other women. It wasn’t right, seeing how he hadn’t chosen his winner yet. He refused to open his mouth to Kathi’s questing and hopeful tongue and peeled Kathi off of his chest.

“Are you ready?” he asked a bit peevishly.

“I was born ready,” Kathi responded. She jogged off toward the water.

They all watched as Kathi reached the first buoy. Like Courtnee, she pulled the rope up rather than swimming down to it. When Kathi reached the second buoy she swam down to the weight. It was quite some time before she resurfaced next to the buoy. She went down again. Obviously she wasn’t able to unhook the weight on the first try. Finally, she came up again and swam for the third buoy. She dove down again to untie the rope. Everyone waited for her to come up again. And they waited, and waited some more. Finally, when everyone started to get nervous, they saw Kathi’s head break the surface. It looked like she was having some difficulties, though. She bobbed up, then went under again. She came up again and then went under again.

Sam started for the lake, but since Al was already there he was faster. He tore off his shirt and started swimming toward the place where they’d last seen Kathi. Everyone was holding their breaths. They saw Al dive down into the water and after what seemed like hours, but in reality was no more than a minute, they saw Al come up with Kathi in a classic lifesaving hold. He had a hold of her around her chest and was swimming the side stroke to shore. Sam could hear Kathi coughing, so she knew she was going to be okay. Coughing meant she was breathing. The adrenaline was flowing through Sam’s body and she finally had to sink to the ground. She’d been ready to go out there and find Kathi herself. She didn’t like her, but she wasn’t going to let her drown!

Alex’s heart was beating double time as he swam back toward the shore. For a minute he didn’t think he was going to be able to find Kathi. He’d never been so scared. He was glad to hear that she was breathing, but he knew she was going to have to be looked at by a doctor. She’d been under the water for a long time. As Alex neared the shore, he turned Kathi around and held her in his arms. He carried her to shore. Kathi’s arms were around his neck and she was still coughing sporadically. He looked at Eddie who by now was also standing lakeside.

“Get a car,” Alex said gruffly to Eddie.

Alex gently put Kathi down on the ground near the lake. She curled to her side and continued to cough. Alex rubbed her back and told her to hang on, that they’d be getting her help soon. The other women stood back a bit and watched as Kathi coughed and tried to catch her breath.

She turned toward Al and said hesitantly, “Will you stay with me?” Al nodded and grasped her hand in his.

The producer finally came screaming up with the car, sand spewing everywhere as the car skidded to a halt near the duo. Alex carefully lifted Kathi in his arms again and started for the car that would take them to the hospital to have her checked out. Kathi snuggled into his arms and laid her head on his broad chest.

If Sam hadn’t been looking right at Kathi she would’ve missed it. Since Sam was standing right next to Courtnee she saw Kathi subtly wink at Courtnee before closing her eyes and lying against Al again. Sam was confused for a second, she heard Kathi moan a bit and wrap her hand around the back of Al’s neck and run her fingers up into his hair. Sam glanced at Courtnee and saw she had a small smirk on her face.

Sam suddenly realized what she’d just seen and was furious. Kathi was faking it! Sam recalled their conversation about a week ago and knew she’d inadvertently given Kathi the idea. Al was a protector. He’d do everything in his power to protect them, simply because they were women. It wouldn’t matter if he liked the woman or not, he’d do whatever he could to make sure they weren’t hurt, and if they
were
hurt, to nurture them. After all, that was what he’d done with her. Sam felt sick. She couldn’t believe Kathi would stoop so low. But it’d been effective. She was wrapped around Al and on her way to the hospital where he could lavish some more TLC on her. She had found a way to get her one-on-one date with him without having to win the competition.

It was a subdued group that made its way back to the bus. Even Robert didn’t seem inclined to put on his show airs and announce the winners of the contest. Everything was on hold until Kathi came back from the hospital. Sam already decided to keep her mouth shut. She knew she didn’t belong here and there was nothing she hated more than to know that someone was faking an injury. She’d grown up with it in her water polo career. Her teammates were constantly faking some sort of injury to get out of hard practices. Their shoulder hurt, their knee hurt so they couldn’t tread water, they had a migraine...the excuses never ended. Sam supposed that was why she hated to show any type of weakness today and why she was mentally stronger than a lot of people.

She couldn’t tell Al, he probably wouldn’t believe her anyway. She’d tried to tell a coach once that one of her teammates wasn’t really hurt and she got in trouble. The coach yelled at her in front of the entire team and made her swim extra laps. The fact that she’d tried to do the right thing and got in trouble for it had already happened once on this show, with the barn incident, and Sam wasn’t going to put herself in that position again. The hell with everyone. She knew, however, that she wasn’t going to even try to be nice to Kathi after today. And she’d stay away from Courtnee as well. Those two were in this scam together and she wasn’t going to have anything to do with it.

The women were all too keyed up to really do much when they got back to camp. They all waited around to see when Kathi was going to come back. Sam hoped they weren’t going to keep her overnight. She wondered how she was going to explain to the hospital staff that she wasn’t really sick after all.

Eventually, they saw a car pull up. Al got out with Kathi leaning heavily on his arm.

“Thank you, baby, for helping me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you here. You saved my life,” she said, looking up at him with wide eyes. Sam watched cynically as Al walked Kathi to the tent with the rest of the women following along behind. He helped her into the tent, assisted her in lying down, kissed her on the forehead, and covered her with the blanket.

“Sleep, you’ll feel better later, I’m sure.” Alex turned to the other women who were now inside the bunkhouse with them. “She needs to sleep, make sure you don’t bother her. She had a close call today, but she’ll be fine. I’ll see you all later.” And with that he walked out of the bunkhouse, got back in the car and was driven away.

Sam looked sadly at the car driving away from the camp. A part of her wished Al had seen through Kathi’s rouse. He hadn’t even looked at her as he left the tent. Maybe it was a sign that the feelings she had for him were only one sided. Hell, she was sure that was it. There was no way he could think she was attractive, especially compared to the other women. Sam was disappointed in Al. She’d thought he was different. It was an awful feeling to think she was wrong. That he was like most of the other men she’d met in her life. Superficial and only concerned with his libido.

Sam sighed and came back to the present when the women gathered around Kathi.

“Are you really okay, Kathi?” asked Amy with a furrowed brow.

“Oh, yeah,” Kathi responded a bit too cheerfully. “Are you kidding? Being carried and held and cosseted by a hunk of a man all afternoon? I’m great, just great.” She smiled and looked at everyone. “Worked out better than if I won the competition. I wanted to win a one-on-one date, but I got one anyway and didn’t have to finish the stupid course.”

Courtnee stood up and shooed everyone back to their bunks and away from Kathi. “She needs to sleep, you heard Al. I’ll stay right here and make sure she’s all right, the rest of you just go to bed and you can see her later.”

The other women grumbled a bit, but went back to their bunks.

“Okay, give!” Courtnee said to Kathi in a low voice as soon as everyone was away from their sides. “I want to know every detail!”

Kathi and Courtnee talked for over an hour. Kathi told her new friend all about how concerned Al was, how he wouldn’t leave her side, and when she thought she was losing his attention all she had to do was moan a bit and he’d be looking at her with concern all over again. He held her hand just about the entire time. She told Courtnee how Alex had helped her into the hospital gown since all she’d been wearing was her bikini. Kathi told Courtnee about how she faked the coughing and the pain in her chest when the doctor was examining her. She did have to get an x-ray done to make sure there wasn’t any more fluid in her lungs, though. They laughed at that since there was no chance of there being any fluid in there in the first place since she held her breath the entire time she was underwater. They laughed at how Kathi had taken the wind right out of Sammi’s sails after her great performance.

“Al didn’t even mention the contest or the show the entire time we were together,” Kathi gushed. Kathi was pleased with herself. She knew she’d made a great impression on Al and she couldn’t wait to see him again and show him she was better, but not
too
much better and that she needed some more TLC.

“God, what a day,” Alex said out loud, even though no one was in his tent listening. This had to be one of the scariest days of his life. He’d almost seen another human being, a woman at that, die in front of his eyes. It’d taken everything he had to not break down in front of everyone when he knew Kathi was going to be okay. Kathi was really scared and she was obviously in a lot of pain on the way to the hospital. He’d held her the entire way. While he was scared for her, he was also a man and couldn’t help but remember how well she fit into his arms. She was a good looking woman and he couldn’t help but think about how they might fit together outside of the show.

Once they got to the hospital he stayed by her side for as much of the examination as he could. The doctor told them she wasn’t any worse for wear and she could return to the show. She seemed to be better on her way back to the camp, almost back to normal, but once they pulled up and saw the other women waiting and watching for them, she seemed to get weak again. He couldn’t understand it, but was certainly glad she was on the mend. She’d scared ten years off his life.

Alex gathered a clean set of clothes and headed to the communal bathroom to take a quick shower. He could hear the excitement around the camp. This would make for great television once the show aired. He was under the impression that sometimes he still didn’t know what was going on, even though he was able to watch the tapes from camp each night. He really didn’t think it was appropriate for Kathi’s near death to be made into “must see” TV, but he knew what he thought didn’t matter to Eddie. He’d do what he needed to do to make his show successful.

Later that night when he was relaxing in his tent he heard a soft “Alex?” come from outside his door. It was Kina. He remembered she was the camera operator who had shared her concerns about Sammi after the snake incident. She slid into his open tent after Alex invited her in and handed him a tape.

“I’ve already watched the day’s tapes,” he told her, shuddering as he remembered watching Kathi in the water and his rescue from earlier.

“This is the tape that Eddie didn’t want you to see,” she told him solemnly. “When you’re done watching, put it out behind your tent and I’ll grab it and put it back so he doesn’t notice it’s gone,” and with that, Kina slipped out the door.

Alex wondered what was on the tape and why he hadn’t been allowed to see it earlier. What was Eddie trying to keep from him? He got pissed just thinking about it. He’d
known
all along that Eddie was sneaky, but he’d hoped he was being honest with him. Alex glanced at the tape in his hand and prayed it wasn’t of the women getting dressed or something just as offensive. He just didn’t feel right watching that, although the women didn’t seem to care a camera was watching them inside their bunkhouse.

He put the tape in the player and watched the scene from earlier that night as he helped Kathi to her bed. This was the tape from inside the bunkhouse at the women’s camp. Alex watched as he walked out the door and Courtnee shooed everyone away from Kathi and back to their own bunks.

Alex couldn’t believe what he saw on the tape. He knew the contestants on shows like this could be one person in public and another person when interacting with the other contestants, but for some reason, he never saw this coming. This was low. This was beyond low. Alex watched the tape three times, making sure he was hearing what he thought he was hearing. Kathi and Courtnee were talking about Kathi’s “accident.” He’d never been so furious in all of his life. She’d done it on purpose! Kathi wasn’t drowning, she’d only pretended to be in trouble in the water and had used him. If he was back in his world he would’ve destroyed her, but he wasn’t. He was here in the Outback on a ridiculous dating show with ridiculous women who thought they could manipulate him. He felt ashamed at how he’d felt earlier in the day with Kathi in his arms. He’d been holding a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

              At first he wanted to storm into Eddie’s tent and quit, no matter what his contract said. Alex was disillusioned and couldn’t believe anyone could stoop as low as Kathi had today. He thought about all the other times he was with the women and wondered how else he’d been manipulated by either the women or by Eddie. He wanted to lump them all in the same category as Kathi and Courtnee, but something wouldn’t let him. He thought about Lori and Amy and Sammi. He felt relatively sure they, at least, were being honest with him. He thought about it a long time. He thought about what his next move should be. If Kathi wanted to make herself seem as if she was a completely different kind of person, he’d play it her way…for now.

Alex put the tape outside where he and Kina arranged, and lay back down on his bed. There had to be a reason why Eddie didn’t want him to see the tape. He wondered again what else he hadn’t seen. While the production team might have made him think he was one of “them,” it was obvious now they were using him as much as they were using the girls. It was all about the ratings, and they didn’t care who got hurt in the process. He was done playing by their rules. He’d tried, but they’d upped the ante. He’d play their game, but he had a few aces up his sleeve as well.