“Thanks!”
Riley was glad Amber was working through this. Was glad she’d chosen to go the safer route. Recovery looked different for everyone, and he would hate for her to have a setback just to prove something that ultimately didn’t matter.
When he got to the rappelling stations, Damon and Bo were long gone—already down on the ground. Baby was making his way down the cliffside. He’d chosen the left rig, the fastest one. Riley didn’t waste time worrying about it. He hooked himself into the middle rig a few feet over from Baby’s and got himself lined up correctly.
A few moments later, with a laughing yell, he launched himself over the side. That first drop was always a thrill he’d never get used to and would always love.
He took the cliffside even faster this time, his pace almost reckless. He wanted to catch up with Bo and Damon. He caught Baby about halfway down.
“I thought that was supposed to be the fast rig, Bollinger.”
Baby laughed. “Fast one? Definitely isn’t with me on it. I don’t know why going up the cliff is so much easier for me than going down. Story of my life, I guess.”
Riley chuckled. “Well, you’re still in first place for the nonprofessional athletes. So you’re doing pretty fucking good.”
Riley swung himself over toward Baby to give him a high-five.
Which saved Baby’s life as something happened to his rig much farther up, toward the top of the cliff. Baby began to tumble backward, falling with nothing to catch him but the bottom of the canyon still another seven or eight stories below them.
Riley grabbed for Baby with his free hand, years of honing his reflexes allowing him to catch his friend’s wrist. He grunted at the weight.
The emergency rope had failed. The only thing keeping Baby from falling were their grips on each other’s wrists.
“What the fuck?” Baby’s eyes were huge as he reached up to grab Riley’s wrist with his other hand.
“Shit.” Riley gritted his teeth. Damn it, Baby was no lightweight. “I don’t know. Something happened to your rig.”
Riley had no idea what and there was definitely no time to figure it out now.
Yells were coming from the bottom of the cliff wall, and at least one of the voices was Wildfire’s. No doubt Zac and the others were doing everything they could.
But nothing could be done quickly enough to save Baby if he fell.
“We need to get you hooked to my rig.” He bit out the words. “You’re going to have to crawl up me.”
Baby was already moving as Riley spoke, letting go of Riley’s wrist with one hand to wrap his arm around Riley’s waist.
Neither of them wanted to let go of each other’s wrist so that Baby could make the transfer, but both of them knew it had to happen.
“Ready?” Every second they hesitated was more strain placed on their bodies. Exhaustion would become a factor quickly.
“Yup.” Baby’s voice was tight. Riley couldn’t blame him.
“One. Two. Three.”
With a groan, he swung his arm back. They both let go of each other’s wrists and Baby’s other arm wrapped around Riley’s waist. Baby immediately reached up and grabbed Riley’s harness. It was still a lot of pressure on Riley’s body from the added weight, but at least it wasn’t all on his arm now.
He could hear Baby’s deep breaths behind him. They were in a less precarious situation than a moment before, but still dangerous.
“Man, I don’t think I can hoist myself enough to clip onto your harness. I think we should just get down as fast as we can.”
“How’s your grip?” Even as Riley asked the questions, he began inching down the side of the cliff. A controlled, slow descent was harder on the muscles, especially with a two-hundred-pound tagalong, but actual rapelling with leaps and slides wasn’t even an option with Baby’s precarious grip.
“Not going to lie. I definitely wish I were holding a cold brew right now rather than staring straight at your ass.”
“Hey, while you’re down there…”
Baby chuckled. “No offense, but if I’m going to be this close to someone’s ass, I prefer it to be the female variety, and not while I’m dangling off the side of a cliff.”
“Dude, you better just hope I don’t get any sort of stomach upset like you had a few minutes ago.” Another few steps down. Slowly. Painfully.
“If you’d be so kind as to notify me ahead of time if that’s going to happen, I’ll just go ahead and let go and plummet to my death.”
Riley continued to move as quickly and steadily as he could, ignoring the strain on his own muscles. “Yeah, can’t blame you. Definitely the less agonizing of the two options.”
He could hear the sounds of people below much clearer now—multiple voices in various stages of panic, yelling different things.
He ignored them all, except for one. “One step at a time. One step at a time. One step at a time.”
Riley blocked out everything else except the sound of Wildfire’s steady voice. She wasn’t the loudest, definitely wasn’t the most frantic.
But she knew exactly what he needed to hear.
Every step down the cliff wall was agonizing on his quads. The harness, not meant to support the weight of two fully grown men, was digging into his chest and shoulders to the point of drawing blood.
“Hang in there, Baby,” he said through gritted teeth, ignoring the stinging sweat dripping into his eyes.
“Hey. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
Riley would’ve chuckled if he’d had the extra energy. Instead, he continued to move downward until finally they were close enough to the ground that the people there were able to grab Baby and help him off Riley’s waist.
The relief of no longer holding Baby’s weight was instantaneous. Riley lowered himself the rest of the way to the ground, leaning back against the cliff wall as someone reached over and unhooked him.
There was chaos all around as volunteers shot dozens of questions in their directions, checking the gear, and looking over him and Baby for injuries.
He found Wildfire. She looked up from examining Baby’s hands to meet Riley’s eyes.
He gave her a slight nod, communicating with her in the way they had for years, when it hadn’t always been easy to talk outright with one another.
She needed to know he was okay.
He needed to give her that reassurance.
He wanted more. Wanted to pull her into his arms and just breathe in her scent.
This wasn’t the first time he wasn’t able to do that. They’d traveled to places all over the world where public displays of affection were completely unacceptable, if not illegal.
But always before, he’d known it was just a matter of time until he had her in his arms where he wanted her.
She looked away, and frustration pooled in his gut.
Damn it, there wasn’t anything he could do about the situation with Wildfire right now. And for the first time, that was okay because there was plenty of other stuff to be furious about.
Like how one of his friends would’ve been dead right now if it hadn’t been for a random, midair high five.
“Where the fuck is Bo?” Riley asked. “He’s got some god damn explaining to do.”