“I...”Chad started.
Romeo waited.
“I’m going to the bridge.”
Ice chilled Romeo to the bone.The rage inside him turned white hot.
“What?”
Chad bit his lip.“I need to go back there.”
Before Romeo could tell him no, that was absolutely not happening.Before he could drag Chad to the outhouse and chain him up so he couldn’t, Chad spoke again.
“Will you ...will you come with me?”
Romeo blinked.
Chad’s brow twitched.“Please.”
Romeo nodded.
Chad slumped.“Thank you.”
****
Chad had removed allthe perishable supplies from the car, leaving enough room for Romeo to sit in the back.The sun visors were across, hiding him, but still, Chad insisted they go to the bridge at night.
They didn’t speak.
Romeo tried not to glare at the side of Chad’s face and instead looked out of the windscreen.The rain had started to come down, gently at first, but it quickly picked up pace, bouncing off the car and road ahead.
Chad had walked two miles from where he parked the car to where he jumped.
Did he debate the decision the whole time?
Or did he know exactly what he was about to do?
“It was here,” Chad said.
He pulled onto the curb, flicking his hazard lights on.He got out of the car before Romeo could stop him.
“Shit,” Romeo opened his own door, stepping out into the icy rain.He jogged to catch up with Chad against the railing, peering over the edge to the rushing water below.
Romeo stopped dead, looking at Chad.
Chad noticed.“What is it?”
“The balcony.”
“What balcony?”
“At the cottage.You stood like that.”Romeo couldn’t say anymore.
He saw Chad from the cottage, remembered the way his hands had momentarily tightened on the railing when Romeo tried to pull him away.
Chad looked at him a long moment, then turned his attention back to the river running beneath them.It was five meters below with a fast-flowing current.
It had been the water that had almost killed him, not the drop itself.
