Read Online Stand By Your Hitman by Leslie Langtry - Free Book Online

up. They were fighting for me! We really were a team! Or they didn’t want the woman who’d caught and made breakfast to lose a hand. And how could I get a decent manicure anyway if a damned piranha chewed my fingers off? It just didn’t make sense. Although the idea of making my own prosthetic arm was intriguing. Hmmm. Maybe I could trick it out with an index finger that shoots lasers. That would be really cool .
    Julie started screaming. “Look! We have to keep the show competitive! Just do it!”
    Wow. She snaps easily. Good to know .
    Cricket was turning green thinking about it, and Silas looked a little too happy. No one from the other team spoke. Maybe they hoped we’d drop hands and they’d win the spa treatment by forfeit.
    Alan narrowed his eyes. “You will do it, or you will send two team members home—tonight!” By the way the veins in his forehead bulged, I guessed he was serious.
    “Look, guys,” I said, “it’s okay. Piranhas rarely attack humans. I’ll be fine. Let’s just get it done.” I looked across to my counterpart and saw that Moe, the unemployed thirtysomething who lived at home, just shrugged. Apparently, when your mom washes your underwear and getting up to go to work just means shooting for higher scores on your PlayStation, something like this doesn’t bother you.
    The team looked at me with either admiration orconcern. It didn’t matter which. I’d been around piranhas before. I figured if I moved slowly and didn’t threaten them, I’d be okay. Chances were the other fish had more to fear than I did.
    “I don’t know,” Isaac said slowly. I realized I was in danger of liking him. And that would be bad. Focus, Missi. Piranha first, deal with Vic later .
    I shook my head. It would be far worse to have to vote two people off and risk losing challenges. I needed to stay in the game until I could figure out whether or not I was to take Isaac out.
    “Let’s just get this over with. I can do it,” I said resolutely.
    “You heard the lady,” Alan said with a grin that made me want to beat the crap out of him. “The first team to have all of their pearls wins. Go!”
    I slowly dipped my hand in the dark water. Moving fast would have seemed threatening to the piranhas. Although as nasty as this water was, chances were they couldn’t see anything either. Maybe I’d get lucky and they’d be extremely nearsighted. Can fish be nearsighted? I mean, who’s going to give them an eye test? It’s not like they’d recognize a giant E , or for that matter, be able to communicate it if they did….
    My hand brushed lightly against the scales of a fish, bringing me back to the here and now. I felt two pearls on the bottom. Very slowly, I pulled them up and tried to figure out how to give them to Lex. We weren’t supposed to let go of our hands and that meant they had to travel down the line some other way.
    I looked him up and down—maybe a little too intently. The other team hadn’t figured it out either. So, I let my hormones decide and popped the two pearls into my mouth and kissed Lex, rolling them off my tongue onto his.
    Electric current ripped through me and I realized it really, really had been a while since I’d kissed a man. At first Lex looked surprised, until he felt the two pearls. He looked at Sami and the rest, who were completely shocked. Briefly, he opened his mouth and showed the pearls to Sami. She grinned and leaned toward him, taking the pearls from his mouth to hers.
    I must admit that I was a little jealous. Then I realized I should be trolling for more pearls. So I slowly dipped my hand in again and pulled up two more. Happily, I popped them in my mouth and kissed Lex again. This was way too much fun. Maybe all our challenges could involve the connection of two body parts.
    A shout of disgust came from Silas, who didn’t look too pleased to have to kiss Isaac for the pearls, but he sucked it up like a good boy in blue.
    Moe put a pearl in his mouth and