His father gaped at him as if he couldn’t believe Newt was so stupid. Maybe hewasstupid. There would be no A levels, no university, no great escape, no shedding the skin he was hiding beneath. He’d have a criminal conviction, which would blight the rest of his life. No working with children,which had been his dream, wanting to help kids who were unhappy. Not hard to guess why.
But why should he admit to something he hadn’t done? If his father had said it was Sean, Newt would have spoken to the police, risked the ensuing wrath. But Phelan… The only one who loved him? The one who’d hugged him when he’d hurt himself? The one who’d read to him every night?How can I?And what was the point saying anything when he’d been so comprehensively stitched up?
And when what should have been a three-year sentence turned out to be seven, Newt told himself his family was dead to him. He was alone and that was safer.
One
Present Day
River looked up and up and…oh fuck…up at the face of the cliff. Steep, sheer, shit-a-brick terrifying. His mind flashed back to a time indelibly printed in his head and his knees started to shake.Double fuck.
“We’re all getting cold, River,” shouted Alex, the assistant director. He’d already shoutedthe light is failingalong withyou’ll be fine once you’ve started to climb.
If Alex pressed him any harder, River would snap. But Alex was being pushed by the director who was clearly getting annoyed at the delay. The crew were fidgeting, keen to go home because most of them already had, the cameramen were in position and River’s stunt double, Barney, was safely doubled up in the trailer with stomach cramps.Bastard.River wished he’d thought of that. Too late now. He’d look like a wimp if he said no. Still tempting. Every cell in his body was telling him not to climb. He shouldn’t have been asked to do this.
But it was the last day they could use this location. He’d been asked if he’d do it and he’d stupidly said yes. But that was before he stood at the bottom of the cliff looking up at hell. That was a novelty. He was going to wreck everything if he didn’t pull himself together.
“Just climb as far as that darker section of rock,” said Justin, the director. “That’s the only shot we need. You spreadeagled on the rockface, looking right, spotting the drone, knowing it’s all over. And we have to have itnow,River, before the light changes.”
As if River would even think of going any higher… Even that looked too high. He was not into free climbing. He wasn’t into climbing at all, even if he’d had safety equipment in place. A lot of it. Didn’t matter that River had an abject fear of heights, for good reason. Not that anyone here knew. Didn’t matter that this was apiss easy climbaccording to fuckhead Barney and astraightforward ascentaccording to Malik, the expert climber who didn’t look right so couldn’t do this for him. The director ofCloud Fallneeded River to do him a huge favour, so he had to do it, and grin and bear it. Well, not grin. He was the bad guy. Grinning wasn’t allowed, which was fortunate, so looking surly and pissed off worked perfectly to mask his fear.
River took a step forward and his knees didn’t give way. It was a miracle!
“The holds are marked,” Justin said. “Quiet on set.”
“Camera ready? Sound ready?” Alex called.
Muffled responses but clearly yeses.Fuck it!
“Action,” Justin called.
I’m not fucking ready.But River started to haul himself up. The sooner this was over the better. The last shot, and the filming of his part in the movie was done. If Barney hadn’t fucked it up, they wouldn’t be having to do it again, but apparently, he had so they were.
Thinking about Barney was a good idea because it was a distraction. There was something about the guy that irritated River. Maybe it was the sly sneers he’d caught that implied Barney didn’t like him. River had done nothing to earn that dislike. He’d gone out of his way to try and change Barney’s opinion; bought him drinks, talked about how much he appreciated Barney doing the stunts, but there was somethingoff about him. Which made River wonder if the guy was actually ill or just out to make life difficult. Though Barney had no idea that even the thought of doing this had made River feel ill.
River had been walking away, almost at the car that would take him to the airport, congratulating himself on a job well done, when he’d had a call telling him there was a problem. Now he was climbing a rockface, looking for chalk marks and wondering if he’d still make his rescheduled flight. Maybe he should have changed it to tomorrow. His foot slipped and he yelped.
Concentrate!
“You’re fine,” Malik yelled.
No, I’m fucking not!
Malik was an experienced climber, but the wrong height, colour and build to replace River. He stood below, occasionally calling out instructions about where River should put his feet and how many inches he was away from the next hold. Somehow that made it more fucking stressful. When River’s foot slipped again and only his hands kept him safe, he thought he was going to have a heart attack. But a few moments of scrambling let him find places to put his feet and he kept going because he wanted this done, kept going because once upon a time his life had depended on not losing his footing.
“That was great,” Justin called.
Fuck you!
“Looking good,” Malik said.
Fuck you too!
Then River’s left foot started to shake, followed by his whole leg.Shit!
“The shaking is fine!” Justin said. “He’s desperate toescape. This is his only chance.”
The shaking wasn’t fucking fine. How was he supposed to keep climbing?
