Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(63)
“Anyone who breaks the rules should be punished, son,” he heard his dad lecturing, the way he had any time Will so much as thought about skipping around the rules. “Without rules, without enforcement of those rules, life is nothing but chaos, and chaos will not be tolerated.” The lecture usually preceded having some privilege taken away or being grounded for a week and required to write an essay about his transgression.
He shook his head over the thought and stood. Everyone else was standing as well.
“Hey, Jonathan, this is Jogi.” Jogi held the walkie-talkie up between him and Sandy.
“Let me guess,” Jonathan’s voice crackled back. “You’re ready to be picked up.”
“Yep.” Jogi chuckled. “Me and Sandy, and Laura and Ben too.”
Jonathan sighed. “Okay, we’ve got one other pick-up about five miles west of where you are. After that, we’ll come to get you. Think you can hang out for an hour or so?”
Jogi looked at the others. They seemed endlessly relieved to have their competition end.
“I’m cool with sunbathing by the lake until they get here,” Laura said.
“Yeah,” Jogi spoke into the radio. “We’re good.”
“Great,” Jonathan said. “I’ll have HQ track your GPS signals—I assume we’ll find Laura’s right with yours—and we’ll radio you back to let you know where the pick-up point will be.”
“Thank God.” Sandy let out a breath and went back to the boulder to sit down.
“Anyone else want to come home while you’re at it?” Jonathan asked.
All four of the others glanced to Will and Melody. Will himself sent one last questioning look Melody’s way. He hadn’t stopped worrying about her ankle since she took her tumble yesterday, and if she wanted to go have it looked at, he would give up his plans to prove a point by winning in a heartbeat.
But Melody said, “Nope. We’re gonna win this thing.”
“Excellent.” Laura grinned.
“Just the four of us,” Jogi told Jonathan.
“Gotcha. Keep your radio nearby. We’ll call back with a pick-up location.”
“No problem.”
With that conversation over, activity switched to making sure Will and Melody had everything they needed and were packed and ready to go. Will’s blood began to pump hard with expectation that he hadn’t felt since they’d started the competition. He really would have loved nothing more than to find Ed and let him know just how badly he was about to lose. Unlike the way his dad saw things, though, Will was more determined to prove that winning came from excelling rather than punishing anyone for cheating.
“You ready?” Melody asked at last, hefting her restocked backpack over her shoulders.
“Very ready,” he replied.
A mischievous grin spread across her lips, lighting up her eyes. “I can’t wait to hear what you’ve been sitting here plotting this whole time.”
“Me? Plotting?” he feigned innocence.
“Psht! You’re far more devious than you let on to anyone, Clementine.” She took a step closer to him. “But I know you far too well to be fooled now.”
A rush of lust pushed through him, burning into something much deeper. His gaze zeroed in on her lips and his mind on the thought of kissing her senseless.
“Clementine?” Laura’s giggled question knocked those impulses right out of him.
They both pivoted to face the others, and Melody answered, “My Darling Clementine.” She grabbed his arm and squeezed it, tilting her head to his shoulder.
“I get it,” Jogi said with a wide smile.
Sandy snorted and shook her head, but she was smiling too.
Will felt the need to get away from the others and on with the race stronger than ever. “Let’s go,” he said to Melody.
“Bye guys.” Melody waved to the others and she turned and took her first few steps off into the woods beside him.
“Bye,” they called after them.
“Be careful,” Laura added. “Maybe it really is just Ed and Katrina causing trouble, but there could also be a bigger alliance of baddies out there.”
“Do you think there are other people working with Katrina and Ed?” Melody asked after they’d been hiking for about ten minutes up the slope of the ridge. Her ankle was holding out much better than she could have hoped for.
Will considered it, then answered, “It’s always possible, but I didn’t see Ed interacting with anyone during training in a way that would indicate he was planning on forming an alliance.”
Melody giggled, swaying closer and taking his hand. “I love it when you talk all technical.”
He let himself grin and take her hand. “That’s not technical. That’s not even close.”
“Yeah,” Melody shrugged, “but it’s cute.”
They continued up the slope for more than an hour. During lunch, Will had put his head together with Jogi and Ben to discuss the terrain in the area. Based on what Jogi said, the river was about to wind around the base of the ridge. They’d found their location on the map, calculated how far away the finish line was, and determined that it was quicker by far to hike up and over the ridge then down the other side rather than following the course of the river.