She takes a breath, but it only seems to feed the fire in her. “I want to jump. God, I want to go all in you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. But you”—she jabs at my chest again—“are the one who’s held us back.
She steps further back, arms flying wide. “You left!” she yells. “And then you came back, and I forgave you so easily because I got it, understood that you’re hurting, that those letters were dragging you under.” Her chest heaves, chin wobbling. “I even tried to keep some distance between us, but you got under my skin. Crawled your way back into my heart.”
Another step back, the dirt shifting beneath her feet.
“You gave me your pretty words. You gave me mind-blowing orgasms that I am apparently addicted to”—she waves her hand up and down in a furious gesture, and I fight back a smirk at what she just admitted—“and yet after all that, you still can’t put us first.”
My stomach drops like a stone.
“You still cling to your past. You’re making me hide things from my best friend. You’re not letting go. Not for me.” Her voice breaks, then hardens. “I want to jump. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with you.”
Rocks slide down the slope behind her. She doesn’t notice.
“Madison—”
“But will you catch me?” she whispers. “Will you truly catch me? Because I’m not so sure anymore.”
She steps back, not realizing she’s at the ledge, and the ground gives out beneath her heel.
“Madison! NO!”
I lunge, fingers grazing empty air as the trail crumbles. I skid to a stop, choking on my breath as she falls, her scream tearing through the trees.
“Madison!” I roar, lungs burning, heart free-falling with her. “Madison!” I scream again.
Her body hits the lower rocks with a sickening crack before the water swallows her.
Seconds stretch—feeling like minutes, hours—before she resurfaces, face down. The glare reflecting off the water blinds me, a harsh flash of white and yellow light. I blink rapidly, yanking at my hair, and when my vision clears, all I see is the blood rippling across the surface.
Shouts explode below. Water splashes as people dive in.
But it all feels far away.
My heart fractures. My body goes numb. The world mutes itself.
Where the sun shatters across the water, I lose her.
25
…
HUNTER
“Her injuries are?—”
I blink. The words warp, echoing through a tunnel.
“Skull fracture… subdural hematoma…”
My vision pulses. All I see is blood in water. Her hair fanned out, the sun breaking across the surface.
“Won’t know more until?—”
My chest tightens. I should have caught her. I was right there. I saw the dirt shift. I was supposed tocatch her.
“Surgery to stop the bleed?—”
I see Claire standing next to the doctor, hands trembling against her stomach, her eyes wide, hollow, lips pale. She looks at me.At me.Blame, fear, both. I don’t know. I can’t breathe.
