“Except I don’t understand how you benefit from it.”
“How do you always miss the point?” He looked up to the pale clouds creeping across the inky sky, their gentle rain hesitating. “My world just ended. My career, my reputation, every contact who could help rebuild my life? I gave all that up to be here protecting you—”
“Barnes, just admit you came here to sabotage me. It doesn’t matter. No one cares.”
He inhaled, seething. “Do you realize how easily I could? One word about how you led Arjun on in Alaska, and you’d be as ruined as me. But have I touched it?No.”
“I’m actually impressed you waited this long to threaten that.”
“Are you listening to yourself? I’m not threatening you! Why would I ever dredge up that crap? It helps nobody.”
“You don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I replied, my throat tight.
“Well, how could I? I was only the second choice after all.” His voice was empty now, his expression impossibly lost. I’d worn the same one afew months prior in a grocery store parking lot, when the man I thought I knew best became a stranger all over again.
It struck me then that I’d been wrong. Erika wasn’t the only one who needed to hear what I had to tell. I’d thought Barnes had to be gone for me to confess it to her, but she deserved to see both of us held accountable, to face the truth even he didn’t know, no matter how certain he was that he did. “You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually glad you’re here.”
If he responded, I didn’t stay to hear it. I knew where I had to go.
2005
SEASON 3, EPISODE 10:
“The Book of Luke”
“I know where we have to go!” Arjun yelled over our bickering teammates. This scavenger hunt in Juneau should have been ours to win. It was the last Tribulation before the final, but too many voices remained on our team—exactly as Barnes had engineered. “It’s the funicular up Mount Roberts,” Arjun insisted, waving the map to our dysfunctional colleagues. “‘Lastly,robamountainoffun!’ That’s the clue!”
I advised we split up and darted off with Imogen and Arjun, so adept at my performance by then I wasn’t even acting. We were the trio we’d always been, bounding to the funicular station where the sight of a languishing cameraman proved Arjun correct, but we weren’t the only arrival. “Is that LuMoJun, live and in person?!” Barnes called, jogging up a side street.
Arjun and Imogen exchanged a grudging look as we all approachedthe tram, the cameraman in tow. “Only four per car,” said the unamused attendant from his booth.
The cameraman stuttered, paralyzed to address his cast. “I have to go too.”
“If you take a seat, then somebody’s at a disadvantage,” Barnes replied curtly.
“Let me walkie Helena—”
“To say I’ll sue if you make me wait? Or Arjun’s family will, if you delay his team?”
“That’s a distinct possibility,” Arjun added, not missing a beat.
Barnes chuckled when the funicular lifted off moments later, the cameraman left wilting in our wake. “Helena will ream that poor bastard for this. It’s officially the Great Lost Scene ofEndeavor, us four in a confined space.” He grinned, none of us answering.
Two flags, purple and red, waited at the summit. Barnes snatched his, I grabbed ours, and then we were back in the cable car, Barnes sliding beside me. “Leave your flag,” he whispered while Imogen and Arjun boarded, and as the tram departed, I tucked it between my thigh and the bench. It would be a harmless accident—that guaranteed his safety.
“Luke,” Arjun spoke up, the car vibrating as we began our descent. I went white, worried I’d been caught. “Your seat belt,” he indicated with an awkward, tender smile.
Barnes pointedly buckled me in before I could myself, a dangerous light igniting in his eyes. “So, have you three discussed hotels for next year?”
“Hotels?” Imogen asked.
“The wedding.”
Like a bird flying into a sprinkler, Imogen’s head practically spun. “Wow, I’m so…touchedto be included. What a surprise!” To me too.
“Did I steal his thunder?” Barnes winced innocently. “I thought Luke already told you.”
“I was waiting,” I replied tightly, knowing I couldn’t contradict him.Barnes leaned in, all stage whispers and confiding smiles. “Imogen, I’m assuming he hasn’t asked you to do the reading yet either? My fiancé, the great procrastinator. Which passage did you pick, babe?”
