Frozen Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 3) (2 page)

Eddie gathered his camera operators around him for their first production meeting before the contestants were to arrive later that day.

“Hello again, everyone. Welcome to Alaska.I wanted to make sure you knew what I expected of you for this shoot and what the general plan is for the show. As you know, this i
s
no
t
a dating show. I’m bringing in twelve men to compete in typical Alaskan challenges each week. At the end of the six weeks, there will be two men left and they will have to go out in the wild and survive over a three day period. The person who completes all of the tasks the best will be named the ultimate
Extreme Alaskan
.

“The plan for the first few weeks is to travel only a short distance away from Anchorage to compete in mini-challenges. While those challenges are going on, you’ll all have to be on hand for filming. When we aren’t filming challenges, your time will mostly be your own, as will the contestants’. They won’t be allowed to leave the production house, but neither will we be filming them all day, every day, either.

“Generally, you’ll all be working at the same time. You won’t be assigned to work all day every day, but it’ll vary with what is going,as to how long you’ll work. I’ve procured a different hotel than where you stayed last night. This one is closer to the production house. You’ll stay there for the rest of the shoot. I expect you to arrive at the set on time and to work your entire shift. There’s a rental SUV that you’ll have to share. You pay for your own gas if you decide to go anywhere other than the set and the hotel. It’s up to the five of you to figure out who’s driving when and where. I don’t have time to deal with that crap. Also, I’ve had enough drama to last me a lifetime, so keep it to yourselves. I don’t want to hear about it. Nothing can go wrong on this show, and I mea
n
nothin
g
. The rest of my career depends on this show going off without a hitch. Does anyone have any issues with anything I’ve said so far?”

Nobody said a word. Even Jeff, who was usually a complete smartass, kept his mouth shut. It was obvious Eddie was dead serious and that his past legal troubles had changed the type of producer he was.

“Great,” Eddie said, continuing with his rules for the show. “When we get down to the last few challenges they’ll most likely be overnight wilderness trips. You’ll be split up and will be paired together to watch and film the men competing in and completing the challenges. The contestants will be sent out either in pairs or in a trio and there will be two cameras on them the entire time. I expect you to work together amicably and to get the money shots while they’re out there. If you don’t think you can hack the temperatures or the kind of terrain we’ll be sending the contestants out in, let me know now and I’ll replace you.”

Kina scowled at Eddie, as he stared right at her. She glared back. Just because she was female didn’t mean she couldn’t handle the cold temperatures. What a jerk. When she didn’t say anything, Eddie finally nodded his head and continued.

“All the contestants have signed waivers of liability so if anything happens to them on the set, anything at all, no one can come back and sue us. You’re all covered as well because of the contract you signed. If you get hurt, you’re covered by the company’s insurance.” Left unsaid, was the implication that the show would be aired no matter what might happen to a contestant or one of the camera operators as well.

“Great. Well, if you have no questions, I’ll meet you all back at the production house at three this afternoon where you’ll meet the men and we can get this show started.”

At no time did Eddie thank them for their time or for their service. They were employees, no more and no less.

Kina watched as Eddie threw a set of keys to Taylor. He caught them midair and turned to the rest of them with a smirk. “Who’s driving?” he asked unnecessarily.

They all agreed that Taylor could be the designated driver for now. He was the oldest and no one had any issues with him driving them around.

They all checked into the hotel and found their rooms were on the same floor, clustered together at the end of a hallway. It wasn’t the fanciest place to stay in Anchorage, but it wasn’t a dump either. Kina was actually a bit surprised. With the money problems Eddie and the production company had, she figured they’d be put up in a ‘rent by the hour’ kind of place. Kina noticed her room was right next to Jonathan’s. She tried to ignore the tingles in her stomach at the thought of him being that close, but deep down, she was pleased.

* * *

Jonathan had listened to Eddie’s words with only half an ear. He was standing by Kina and trying not to watch her as they all listened to the producer. She was beautiful. Not very tall, but all muscle. The top of her head came up to about his shoulder. She might be small, but he knew she was strong as hell. He’d watched her lug her camera equipment all over the set in Arizona and knew firsthand how heavy it was. She was no-nonsense and he admired the hell out of her for agreeing to film here. Alaska in September and October wasn’t a walk in the park. After learning they’d all have to be trekking along with the contestants and roughing it just as they were, he was even more impressed. He didn’t think she’d back out of the challenge and he was right.

He did have to tamp down his desire to speak up and tell her she shouldn’t do it. He knew it wouldn’t be safe. He saw how she’d glared at Eddie, when the man had dared to look at her when he was telling them to let him know if anyone didn’t think they could handle the filming schedule and atmosphere. She wouldn’t hesitate to put him in his place if Jonathan piped up and said anything to her.

Eddie had a lot to prove, so he knew the challenges and situations the contestants would be put in would be extreme. And if the men were doing extreme things, the camera operators would have to be as well, because they had to get it all on film. It wasn’t as if he didn’t think Kina could do the things they’d be asked to do, he just didn’t want her to get hurt or even be uncomfortable. He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, though. Kina would hate him for sure, if he even for a second, insinuated she shouldn’t do it.

He was thrilled beyond words, to be right next door to her in the hotel, even though their rooms didn’t have connecting doors. Just being close to her made him feel more relaxed. It was silly, she was a grown woman and had been taking care of herself for her entire life, but he felt reassured just the same. Of course the other camera operators were also nearby. That didn’t sit as well with him, but Jonathan tried to reassure himself that Carl and Taylor were happily married. He didn’t know Jeff at all, but would give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

In about three hours, it’d be time to get to the set and start setting up for their first shoot. This was always an exciting time for the contestants and camera operators alike. The time for planning was over. The show was about to start.

Because this program wasn’t a dating show, Eddie had ditched his previous host, Robert. But since he knew he had to market the show to both men and women, he’d hired a woman named Shannel to be the host of this new reality show. Shannel was tall, slender, and of course, beautiful. She had an innate grace about her. Kina wanted to hate her at first glance, both because of the woman’s looks and her own experiences with the previous beautiful women on Eddie’s shows, but unfortunately she couldn’t. Shannel was a riot. She swore like a sailor and had a wicked sense of humor. It was really hard to dislike her when the first words out of her mouth when she met all the camera operators were, “Thank you for all the hard work you do.”

Jonathan, Kina, and the other camera operators got to work setting up their equipment so they’d be ready when Eddie started the show. Jonathan watched Jeff sidle up to Kina and start flirting with her. He really wasn’t surprised when she ignored him and continued getting her camera ready to go. Jonathan heard Jeff mumble, “Dyke” as he walked away toward his own camera. Jonathan just shook his head. Why did guys do that? If they couldn’t score with a woman they automatically accused her of being a lesbian. Ridiculous.

When the time came to set up their places for filming, Jonathan made sure he was between Kina and Jeff. There was no use even pretending he wanted Jeff anywhere near her. He mentally shrugged as Eddie introduced the contestants.

Most of the men were tall and all were muscular. Jonathan thought they’d all have some outdoor experience, or at least some sort of survivalist job, but Eddie was smarter than that. He knew there were already shows on television about extreme survivalists competing against one another. Eddie had chosen strong muscular men, but ones with regular jobs.

Jonathan knew he’d never keep them straight, but then again, he didn’t really have to. His job was to film them, regardless of who they were. As long as he had good camera angles and got all their actions on film, nothing else mattered.

Kina was fascinated with the group of men Eddie had picked for his show. The men were all good-looking and from all walks of life. Slade was a lawyer, Julio designed websites, Trent was a nurse, Zach worked in IT, Ian owned his own restaurant, Benedict was a licensed sex therapist, Drew was a probation officer, Nash wrote articles for a newspaper, Cole was a security officer, Grant was a radiologist, Roger a teacher and last, was Darius, a chemist.

It was an eclectic mix of people and jobs, and most likely, personalities. Eddie might claim to not want drama and to believe there wouldn’t be any at the production house, but Kina knew he was wrong. Sometimes men could provide more drama than their female counterparts, they were usually more subtle about it, though. At the very least, the competition itself would cause the men to have some disagreements.

Kina worked in tandem with the other camera operators to get close-ups of the contestants and to get good angles of Shannel meeting each man and introducing the premise of the show. Everyone seemed eager to get started. The first challenge would be the next morning. Two men would be sent home then. Eddie’s general plan was to send two men home each time they had a competition. Kina could tell the contestants were nervous, but excited at the same time.

The ride back to the hotel was filled with good humor. Everyone on the crew was in good spirits and was excited to get the show started. When they arrived back at the hotel, everyone piled out and headed toward their rooms. Jonathan watched as Kina unlocked her door and stepped inside. He made sure the door shut securely behind her and turned to glare at Jeff, who’d been watching Kina from his door as well. The other man gave Jonathan a chin lift and closed his door.

Jonathan took a deep breath. Should he or shouldn’t he? It was killing him to let Kina be, knowing she was his, but he didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t very well invite himself into her room and settle in, no matter if he really wanted to do so. He’d barely spoken with her and he knew she was very closed-off. He didn’t want to do anything to turn her against him before she really got to know him. He’d just have to wait. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but for now he’d do it.

The camera crew had arranged to meet at the car early the next morning so they could get to the set on time and be ready to go when Eddie assembled the contestants. Jonathan subtly arranged to sit next to Kina in the far back seat.

“Good morning, Kina.”

“Good morning, Jonathan.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, you?”

“Not really.”

Kina looked directly at him for the first time that morning, her eyebrows raised. Jonathan answered her unasked question.

“I never sleep well the first night in a strange place.” He debated what he wanted to say next and decided to go ahead and tell her something personal about himself in the hope she’d want to get to know him better. “I also sometimes have nightmares, so I generally don’t sleep well anywhere.”

Wow. Kina wasn’t sure what to say to that. She desperately wanted to know more about the handsome man sitting next to her, but she didn’t want to be nosey. She knew she had a reputation of being standoffish, but she didn’t want to be with this man. Aw, the hell with it. He’d brought it up in the first place.

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah, nothing I want to go into here and now, but if you get to know me better, I’ll share.”

Kina blushed. Shit. She hadn’t meant to lead him on in any way. She never did with any man, but he took her words the wrong way. She tried to backpedal. “I didn’t mean…”

Jonathan interrupted her. “It’s okay. I want to get to know you better and I want you to get to know me better. I probably shouldn’t have thrown that out there, knowing we didn’t have the time, or the privacy, to talk.” He looked her in the eyes and lowered his voice, knowing the others in the car were probably listening. “I like you, Kina.” He laid it on the line.

Kina blushed again. Double shit. She liked what she knew of him too, but didn’t want to encourage him. Things with guys never worked out with her. Ever. Even if she wanted them to. She had to protect herself.

“Well, I don’t think I like you.” She turned away from him and focused on the scenery.

Jonathan laughed. Kina fumed. How dare he laugh! He was supposed to get pissed at her, any other normal man would. She didn’t understand him at all.

Neither of them said anything else all the way to the set. When they arrived, Kina immediately got busy with her equipment and tried to ignore Jonathan altogether. She didn’t miss it when he stepped in front of Jeff and blocked him from setting his gear down next to hers. Interesting. She appreciated that more than she could say, but she’d never tell him. Jeff was a pain in her butt. She was constantly rebuffing him, but it never seemed to make any difference. He was like an annoying little puppy, no matter how often you scolded him, he always came back for more.

Eddie had obviously briefed Shannel about the day’s activities because the hostess gathered the contestants together once the cameras were up and running to explain how the day would go. Everyone was invited into the dining room at the house where the long table was set with twelve place settings, one for each contestant. The men were instructed to each stand behind one of the chairs around the table. Once everyone was in place, Shannel explained the first challenge.

“I hope you all like to eat! A big part of survival in Alaska is being able to find enough to eat. As you know, Alaska is home to a booming fishing and seafood industry. Many people make their way up to our fiftieth state to make a living off the abundance of seafood in our rivers and seas. Today, your challenge is courtesy o
f
Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehous
e
right here in Anchorage. It’s called the Six Pound Seafood challenge. Yes, you heard me correctly. Your challenge today is to eat six pounds of seafood as fast as you can. The restaurant has their own name for this, they call it the Kodiak Arrest Challenge. For our challenge today, the two men who finish their six pounds the slowest will be leaving the show and won’t have the chance to be crowned Extreme Alaskan. If there are more than two people who can’t finish all their food, we will weigh whatever is left to see who’ll be leaving. In this case, the two men who’ve eaten the lowest number of pounds of food will be going home.

“On the menu today are three pounds of luscious King Crab legs, a one-and-a-half-foot-long fresh reindeer sausage, seven salmon cakes, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and for dessert, one berry crisp. You have no time limit to eat everything, but remember, the two people who finish the slowest and eat the least amount of food will be leaving. Does anyone have any questions?”

Kina laughed silently as she looked through her camera lens and saw the looks of dismay on most of the men’s faces. Six pounds was a lot of food, especially considering they hadn’t been warned about the food challenge. They’d most likely eaten a large breakfast to prepare themselves for the day.

The men all sat down and their plates were loaded up with the platters of food from the servers a
t
Humpy’
s
. This was great publicity for the small ale house and they’d donated the food for free. Again, Kina thought Eddie could be a jerk, but he definitely knew his business.

As the bell rang for the contest to start, the cameras rotated around the table. Every slurp, every burp, and every bite of food was immortalized on camera for the world to see. Kina wondered for the millionth time why anyone ever agreed to be on a reality show. If only they could see what she saw through her lens. Oh, Kina knew much of it would be edited out, but it was still disgusting. She never wanted to see herself on the big screen. She was perfectly happy in the background.

After about thirty five minutes Nash was the first one finished with his plate of food. He triumphantly raised his arms and declared himself, “Done!”

Kina nearly snorted out loud. She wasn’t sure that finishing all that food first was something to crow about.

Shannel agreed that he’d finished and he was escorted to a platform behind the table to wait for the others to finish. Slowly, some of the others finished their portions. Darius, Roger, Cole, and Grant were the next four to finish. They joined Nash on the platform. There were seven men still eating. Finally, after ten more minutes, Slade and Julio joined the others. Now there were only five men left. It didn’t look like any of them were going to be able to finish all the food on their plates.

When they’d all finally given up, Shannel motioned for the scales to be brought in so they could see who ate the least.

From the camera’s perspective it was disgusting. The leftover food for each man was piled together in a bowl and placed on the scale. Kina made sure to get some good close-up shots of the uneaten food dripping down the side of the bowls. Yuck.

After all the weighing was done, Shannel gathered all the men in a room next to the dining room. They lined up and Kina barely paid attention as Shannel did a run-through of the contest. The hostess asked some of the men to discuss their strategy and to talk about what the hardest part of the competition was. When all was said and done Shannel dramatically announced that Zach and Drew had eaten the least and were declared the losers.

Kina followed Drew as he went up the stairs to pack, as Taylor followed Zach. The two men didn’t say much, at least nothing that was dramatic enough to make it into the edited version of the show. The two men were escorted out of the building, with Kina and Taylor hot on their heels filming every aspect of their departure.

Meanwhile, back in the decision room, Jeff, Carl, and Jonathan filmed as Shannel told the remaining ten contestants to get some rest because the competitions would only get more difficult as time went on. She explained that the last two men standing should expect to spend a couple of nights out in the wilderness to complete challenges to determine who would be deemed the Extreme Alaskan.

* * *

Jonathan watched as Kina laid her head back on the seat in the car as they all headed back to the hotel. His fingers actually twitched to take her head in his hands and give her a massage to try to help her get rid of her headache. He didn’t think she’d appreciate his familiarity. He knew she noticed that once again, he blocked Jeff’s attempts to sit next to her in the car, but he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, this was assigned seating and he’d always get to sit next to Kina. 

“How about we all get together and have a beer at the bar?” Carl asked as they neared the hotel.

“Sounds good to me,” Jeff and Taylor agreed.

Jonathan looked at Kina, waiting to see what she wanted to do. When she didn’t say anything he nudged her with his shoulder. “What do you say?”

Kina opened her eyes to look at Jonathan with surprise. “Oh, me too?”

“Hell yeah, why wouldn’t you think you were invited?” Carl said with surprise from the front seat.

“Well, I just figured you’d want to hang out with the guys.” Kina said honestly.

“Yo
u
ar
e
one of the guys, Kina,” Carl said laughing.

Kina heard Jonathan say under his breath, “The hell she is.”

She looked toward him only to see a look of innocence on his face. She laughed out loud. He was too much. “Okay, I’m in.”