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“Shit,” I mutter as Bailey appears, wide, watery eyes blinking as he looks from me to the sea. I pull him off to the side, away from the crowd that’s gathered in the harbour.

“Theo’s boat got caught in the storm. He was already in the water when the warning went out.” I drag my hand down my face, wiping off the rain.

“What happened?”

“The line snapped, so they had to wait for him to surface on his own. He had an emergency air supply on him, so he should have been safe.”

Should have been.

We don’t know if he’s conscious or not, because Chris is delaying telling Luke the truth for some fucking reason. Probably covering his own fucking arse. When I see him, I’ll⁠—

Bailey turns away from me, walking down the jetty.

“Hey, stop.” I grab his arm, pulling him back. “They sent the helicopter, so they’ll take him to Broadford Hospital.” I steer him to my car, unlocking it for him. “Wait here, I just need to check something with Luke.”

I jog back to the jetty, throwing my arms up as I get close to Luke. “Well?”

“He said Theo was unconscious when they got him on board. The helicopter’s there now, they’re going to take him to Broadford.”

I hate how calm he is. That’s his goddamn nephew out there, and he doesn’t even know if he’s alive or not. I point at him, anger blinding me. “If anything happens to Theo, this is on you and Chris.”

“Rob—”

“No.” I turn away from him and go back to my car.

“Get in,” I growl at Bailey, slamming the door shut behind me as I sit in the driver’s seat.

Beeping at people to move out of the way, I speed down the country lane to get onto the main road.

God, I need to tell Isla … I push the display on my dashboard, and the sound of ringing fills the car.

“What’s up, Robbo?” Isla answers.

“There’s been an accident. You need to get to Broadford Hospital.”

“What? Who?”

“Theo. Pick up Noah on your way. I’ve got Bailey.”

“Alright, see you there,” Isla says, voice wobbling before she hangs up.

I can’t pretend that asking her to pick up Noah is for Bailey’s sake, even though it’ll help having his friend with him if things go badly.

I think I might need him too.

NOAH

“Well, this was a great fucking idea, Jake,” I grumble as we huddle under a bus stop for shelter.

We’ve been chasing waterfalls all morning because Jake insisted on us having a bonding day. So far, we’ve seen four waterfalls, and had three arguments over football, work, and the weather.

“The storm wasn’t on the forecast!” he shouts over the rain as it pings off the metal roof.

We managed to get under here just before the rain started, but the car is parked five minutes down the road, and none of us are willing to risk getting drenched.

“It rarely is up here,” Richard mutters as he looks at his phone. “Says the rain might stop in half an hour—fuck, Isla’s calling.” He brings the phone to his ear. “Yeah, babe?”

“What is it with you and waterfalls?” I grumble to Jake. This isn’t the first time he’s dragged us out looking for them. There’s a huge one near St Bee’s back in Cumbria, where the falls run off the side of a cliff and into the sea. Jake would take us there when we were kids. I don’t think Dad knew about that, actually—the cliffs were pretty dangerous for an eight- and a fourteen-year-old, come to think of it. Even if Jake was eighteen at the time, he wasn’t exactly responsible.