“Why are you doing it? You’re risking a hell of a lot.”

“Nick wasn’t as well-off as the rest of us. We met up at a skate park when we were kids and became the Original Renegades, and this lifestyle, it doesn’t come easy…or cheap. With his accident, even though we kept it quiet, he missed shows, lost sponsors, then started losing everything. Landon and I, we can easily keep him afloat financially, but we can’t touch his depression, or how he feels about his future. But this can give him a future in the arena he loves, that will allow him to not only support himself but build his life again. I know you don’t know him, but Nick is as much my brother as Landon, as much my friend as Penna. This started as the four of us, and we can’t sit back and watch while he implodes any more than he already has. And we’ve seen a huge difference since he came back on board. He’ll call now, he gets excited about the gear—the stunts. He has equal production credit in the movie, equal billing. That was the secret deal we struck with my father, why he’s the one who’s producing the movie…and consequently holding my leash.”

“Who knows?”

“Just my dad, Penna, Landon, and I. He still won’t talk to anyone else, especially Brooke.”

I nodded, snuggling closer into his chest. His warmth was delicious, and he smelled incredible, like ocean, and Paxton…and home. “That’s why you can’t shut it down.” He’d been muttering about killing the project all evening.

He shook his head. “No. I love Nick, but you—”

“I’ll live.” I took a steadying breath. “I understand guilt, even if it isn’t warranted. If I had a chance to help Brian… I don’t, and you do for Nick. If you want to keep going, I’ll support you. But I am honestly terrified of something happening to you, so we have to find out who is after us, who benefits the most from shutting you down.”

“Leah, while we’re alone, I need to ask. When you fell, who did you see at the bottom? We have to rule people out.”

I closed my eyes and let the memory in that I’d been pushing out all afternoon. “You,” I answered. “Landon was already on the shore, but I saw him there next to Penna. Bobby, I think? Some of the camera crew? I know I left Brooke on the blanket, and Little John was standing there, too.”

“Okay. What about Zoe?”

I stiffened. Had that voice been female? It was gruff, but it could have been forced. “I don’t remember. I mean, she could have been down there. I don’t want you to accuse her of doing something because I didn’t call roll while falling to my near death.”

“Near death, indeed. Okay. Not a word of this outside us, Landon, and Penna, okay? They’re the only ones I trust anymore. And you’re moving in here. No argument.”

I knew I should fight that, stand on my own, but being held by him felt so good, so safe. “Okay.” The pain meds were finally kicking in; everything was blurring at the edges.

He pushed my hair back off my forehead. “Sleep, Firecracker.”

My eyelids grew heavy. “The night of the accident, I held on because I knew if I let go, I’d end up with Brian.”

“Right.” He didn’t stop running his fingers through my hair, the massage soothing, lulling me to sleep.

“Today, I let go because I knew I’d end up with you.”

His breath was ragged as he pulled me closer. As I drifted off to the rhythm of his heart, I realized it was the first night we’d slept in the same bed without having sex, and yet it was the most intimate we’d ever been.

“It wasn’t just a moment today,” I whispered. “I do really, truly love you.”

I fell asleep before he could respond, but not without realizing that he hadn’t said it back.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Paxton

At Sea

“How is she?” Penna asked as we gathered on the deck. It was nearing three o’clock in the morning, but none of us could sleep. Landon leaned back against the railing, his arms folded across his chest, and I stood on the empty side, the three sides of our triangle that used to be a square.

“She’s finally asleep,” I said, running my hands over my hair. “Who the fuck pushed her?”

“I don’t know, but we need to figure it out,” Penna said. “Who else knows she was pushed?”

“Just us,” Landon answered. “She said it pretty quietly.”

“Us and the person who pushed her,” I corrected him. Barely contained rage rolled through my body, stretching through my limbs, begging to be let out to cause destruction, to pulverize the person who had hurt her.

“Right. Okay. I was on the shore, you were in the water, Landon was right next to me,” Penna said, rubbing the skin between her eyes. “I remember Little John yelling for help, and that was behind me. He was next to Brooke, I think. We could ask her, but she’s still pretty shaken up. I think it reminded her too much of when Nick crashed.”

Landon nodded. “Makes sense. Some of the CTDs were back there, too, but I wasn’t paying much attention.”

“Did you pass anyone when you ran up?” I asked.

He nodded. “Some of the camera crew—the ones who’d gone up with us—were about halfway when I reached them, but they’d heard the screaming and were headed back up. I honestly ran right past them.”

“I need their names, even if we have to line them up. Who else do you guys remember?”