Page 20 of Secrets in the Deep

“I’m okay.” Emily’s whispered words only reached Ryan.

“You’re not. We need to get you warm.” Gently, he helped her sit, the voices of Zac and her mother and the director coming in from the right.

Everyone wanted a piece of her. Did they not see what had just happened? That she needed some space and time to breathe?

Assholes.

He started to lift her, but she shook her head. “No, I can walk.”

“You almostdrowned.”

“Ryan.” She met his gaze. “I’m okay.”

“Darling.” Her mother was suddenly in front of her, throwing a blanket over Emily’s shoulders. “Oh God, you poor thing. We need to get you warm. Come on.” She turned to Larry, the safety coordinator. “Andyoucan figure out what the hell just happened.”

Ryan helped Emily to her feet. “I’ll take you back.”

Melanie looked at him, and even though he was sure she tried to hide it, even though he’d just pulled the woman’sdaughter from a damn river, there was hate in her eyes. “Thank you for your help, Ryan, but we’ve got it from here.”

His back teeth ground together. He wanted to fight her. He wanted to lift Emily into his arms and carry her out of this forest. Make sure she got the care she needed.

But then Emily looked at him and gave him the smallest, subtlest shake of her head. A silent plea to let her go.

It took a lot to do as she asked. But he did. He stepped back. He watched, like a helpless idiot, as Emily, her mother, and a couple other crew members moved through the woods.

Zac stood beside him. “You okay?”

“No.” Nothing about this, or the two of them, or what had just happened was fucking okay. He looked at his friend. “Find out why she slipped. And why the harness snapped.”

Then he was storming back to the parking lot. Even then, even while he moved in the opposite direction, he wanted to detour. Go to her trailer.

He barely stopped himself.

When he reached his truck, he pulled off his sweatshirt and jeans, changing into spare clothes he kept in the back, not caring who saw, before dropping behind the wheel.

His phone vibrated as he drove. Thankfully, he’d left it in the truck. Saved him replacing it.

For a single fucking second, he wondered if it was her.

He checked the screen.

Not her. The group chat he had with the guys.

Of course it wasn’t her. He’d sent her three messages since arriving in town. She hadn’t responded to a single one. Why would she write to him now?

When he reached his house, he took a quick shower to get rid of the river stench before changing into shorts and a T-shirt. Then he did what he always did when his head was a mess—hemoved his body. Exhausted it. Ran so hard and so fast that he was too tired to think.

Still, she lived inside him. Her beautiful hazel eyes in his head, her soft skin beneath his fingertips.

And he felt it all again. The fear that had rocked his body when she’d slipped. The sheer fucking terror at seeing her disappear beneath the water.

Like he was losing her a second time.

He pushed his body faster, needing the tightness in his lungs. The burn in his muscles.

An hour later, his chest heaved as he stepped through his back door. He went straight upstairs, stripped off and stepped into his second shower of the afternoon. The water was hot enough to burn his skin.

Good. He wanted the bite of pain. Maybe that would take his mind off Emily. Off the night he’d ended things.