Stand By Your Hitman by Leslie Langtry Read Free Book Online

I’m sure that’s not a good enough reason, but oh well.
    “And you had no problem smuggling that in?” He looked impressed. At least, I wanted him to be impressed as he checked out my bracelet. “I thought it was an artifact from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” His smile gave me goose bumps in spite of the heat.
    I giggled like an idiot and made some stupid “aw, shucks” motion with my hand. Ugh. Okay Missi! You don’t know anything about this guy and you’re already proving your mother right. Snap out of it!
    “And,” Cricket’s voice squeaked a few yards away, “I can build a fire like nobody’s business.” She emerged from the jungle with a really pissed-off Silas in tow.
    Cricket and Silas stopped short, gaping at my fire.
    “How on earth did you do that?” she cried.
    The cameramen, Jimmy and Bert, looked at me with their mouths hanging open. Obviously, I’d tripped the monkey. On Survivor , the players had to do challenges to earn flint for fire. They wanted to know how I managed it and likely knew they’d be in trouble since they hadn’t been there to get it on tape.
    “Damn,” was all Jimmy said.
    I shrugged. “I just rubbed two sticks together and poof.” Lex stifled a grin as he turned to feed the fire.
    “Can you do it again—so I can at least capture it on film?” Bert pleaded. Aha, I knew it . But now I was in trouble. I’d need their compliance throughout the taping, but in all honesty, I cannot rub two sticks together to make a fire. I swear, the whole idea of it is a hoax dreamed up by some sadistic Boy Scout.
    I shook my head. “No. I can’t guarantee it. I just got lucky, that’s all. Besides, we need to keep this fire going so we can topple the tree.”
    The cameramen didn’t even try to hide their disappointment as the other two joined them. Isaac and Sami made it back with an armload of dead plant matter in time for my physics explanation. I was pretty impressed with myself—but I could tell the others were suspicious. That is, until the tree fell on Silas.
    In hindsight, I guess we should’ve been watching for that, but Silas wasn’t hurt, and actually, the minor injury seemed to make him happy. Okay, so he looked more constipated than blissed out, but I’ll take what I can get.
    It took the rest of the day to fell enough trees and gather enough leaves to make a pretty decent lean-to. Sami and Cricket managed to weave some thick mats for the floor, and once we were all done, I had to admit we had a really nice place. Dinner consisted of coconuts. Tomorrow would be our first challenge and we needed to get some sleep.
    “Well I, for one, am glad Missi’s on our team.” Isaacstartled me by talking. We don’t really talk to our Vics…ever, really.
    Lex nodded. “I think, overall, we have a pretty good group.”
    “We’re supposed to call it a tribe!” Silas barked.
    “Does anyone want to do any team-building exercises or sing?” Cricket offered, in a way that implied she meant to be helpful.
    “Fuck off, bitch,” Sami said, and the rest of us hid our grins.
    “I’m still amazed at what you did today, Missi,” Isaac continued.
    “Well, I just hope it was the right thing to do,” Silas grumbled. “Everything needs to be authentic or I’ll get acid reflux.”
    For some odd reason, I got the feeling Silas enjoyed heartburn, but I left that unsaid and turned to Isaac.
    “No big. I was lucky enough to know what to do. I’m sure everyone will have a moment like that.” Okay, so I was lying. I didn’t really think some of us were capable of doing much, to tell the truth. Cricket could be counted on to drive us to murder with her inane camp psychobabble, and Silas would only be of use if we had to take on Robert E. Lee.
    Nobody really had a response, so I stood up and headed down the beach.
    “What the hell are you doing?” Sami asked. I was getting used to her language—at least enough to realize she meant nothing by it.
    “Mashing up