“I actually just arrived at the lookout point parking lot.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. In case the couple left and you’re alone.Areyou alone?”
How did he know? She sighed. “I am. But I’m heading back now. Sorry, I got distracted.” She lifted her bag and was about to head back when she noticed something shiny on the ground, near the spot where Georgia and Bo had been standing.
“Indie, you need to be careful. My dad’s seen us together.”
She moved toward the cliff edge, bending over and lifting a silver bracelet. Georgia must have dropped it.
“I parked,” Colt said quickly. “I’m coming toward you now.”
“I’ll meet you partway. I’m walking back—” Another branch snapped behind her, this one sounding closer. She gasped and spun—but she moved so fast that her foot slipped and she stumbled back, screaming as she went over the cliff.
CHAPTER 10
Indie’s scream pierced the phone line, making Colt’s heart jackhammer in his chest.
“Indie?”
No answer.
He slammed the car door closed and ran, sprinting through the trees. He knew exactly where Indie liked to take photos. It was the same place he’d proposed to her—right on the edge of a cliff.
Why had she screamed? Was it his father? Was the asshole there? Had he hurt her?
Air whipped at his face, his feet sinking into the wet earth with each step. He ignored the cool rain hitting his skin and forced his body to move.
When he finally reached the break in the trees, his gaze went straight to Indie’s camera bag near the edge of the clearing.
She wasn’t here. Where was she?
Then he saw her fingers, just a hint of them poking over the edge.
Fear wrapped around his throat, trying to choke him. He lunged forward and dropped to his knees to see Indie hanging over the edge, barely holding on.
Fuck.
He grabbed her wrist and, in one powerful tug, pulled her up to the surface.
She collapsed into his arms. “Colt! Thank God!”
She wrapped her arms tightly around him, and he just held her, completely unmoving. Fear paralyzed him. Made his limbs feel nailed to the ground.
“You’re okay,” he breathed, like he needed those words to be out in the world. As if that could cement them as truth.
“I’m okay,” she repeated.
After what felt like endless minutes, he forced himself to lean back, but he still gripped her shoulders, unable to let go. “What happened?”
“I thought I heard something, and I spun around too quickly.” Her chest heaved with panicked breaths that were just beginning to slow. “I slipped.”
“What did you hear?”
“I don’t know. The shuffle of movement. The crack of a branch.”
Colt’s fear twisted into something else. Something darker, that made every muscle in his body twitch as he turned his head and scanned the area.
