“And personally,” Anne said. “I want you to say it. You need, personally, to know that Riley is all right.
“Okay, yes. Personally too.”
She was too discombobulated to even pretend like she wasn’t about to lose her mind over what had happened.
They’d already examined Baby. He was bruised, and his hands had taken some abuse even under his gloves, trying to hang on to Riley, but besides that, he was basically fine.
Shaken, and more reserved and pensive than Riley had ever seen her friend, but physically fine.
Riley’s body had taken the brunt of the abuse.
“He’s going to be okay.” Anne rubbed Riley’s back. “If there was anything serious, Zac would’ve sent him to see us rather than take him into a meeting.”
Anne’s words were true. Boy Riley wouldn’t have been able to hide it if his shoulder were dislocated or something equally damaging. He probably had some bruises, abrasions.
She just needed to see him with her own eyes. Touch him.
“How could something like this happen?” She started her pacing again.
“Zac and Wyatt inspected the rigs themselves a couple hours ago. It looks like it was just a horrible accident.”
Riley shook her head. She knew these things happened in a situation where the athletes wanted to use every time advantage they could get—safety concerns took a backseat to speed.
“The equipment was checked when it was put out yesterday, but something could’ve happened. Plus…” Anne faded out.
“Plus what? Just say it.”
Anne lowered her voice a little further. “Riley is accusing Bo of cheating. Said that he moved Riley’s puzzle box during the navigation portion yesterday and then did this today.”
Riley rubbed her eyes with a weary hand. This explained the weirdness happening between the two men yesterday. “Honestly, someone moving the box would make more sense than Riley just not seeing it. And everybody knows how much Bo wants to win.”
“Maybe. But it’s a huge step to go from hiding a puzzle to sabotaging somebody’s rappelling rig. Plus, it wasn’t even Riley’s, it was Baby’s. Baby is barely in the top ten—it wouldn’t make sense for Bo to go after him.”
Anne was right. “Either way, it was scary as hell. I don’t even know what I would do if something happened to Riley.”
As soon as she said the words, she realized how ridiculous that sounded.
Thankfully, Anne didn’t point out that she was a complete moron. “Why don’t you go over to the RV and start refiling everyone’s paperwork? We left it a mess. With that big storm coming in, our jobs are just going to get more hectic.”
Anne was giving her busywork. Riley couldn’t blame her. She was as big a mess as the paperwork in the RV. “Okay.”
“Write in Johnson’s sprain and the two stitches in Iceland’s hand. Keep Boy Riley’s file out. We’ll need to add to it after I examine him.”
Riley wanted to growl at the thought of anybody else examining him. But Anne was the doctor, a very well-respected trauma physician.
Not to mention a little more neutral when it came to Riley.
But still… growly.
When Riley looked over at the cabin door again rather than heading straight for the RV, Anne stood up and got right in front of Riley. “Remember that time you got me all fancied up in red cowboy boots and sent me out on my date even though I was scared to death?”
Riley dragged her eyes away from the cabin door. “Yes. You looked really hot, if I do say so myself.”
Anne dropped her hands on Riley’s shoulders. “You have always been a good friend to me, even though when I first moved back, I was a stuttering mess and just wanted to bury myself in my work. You encouraged me to take a chance on Zac, and now we’re getting married in a couple of months. That might have never happened if it weren’t for you.”
Riley brought her friend in for a hug. “It would’ve happened. I saw the way Zac looked at you that very first moment in the hospital. He would have needed to hit his head a hell of a lot harder than that to not have wanted you.”
Anne actually blushed. She might not be so socially awkward and suffer from so much anxiety anymore, but the doctor was always going to tip on the shy side. Riley had always felt protective of her, although she didn’t need to anymore—Zac Mackay would stomp all over anyone who dared hurt his sweet fiancée.
“Anyway.” Anne pulled back from the hug with a smile. “You were very kind to me when you didn’t know me at all. I’ll never forget that.”
“It was nothing—”
“And my point is now it’s my turn to help you a little bit. You head back to the RV and get your mind off Boy Riley. I promise I will grab you if there is anything you need to know about his condition. Anything.”
Riley grimaced. “I know I’m acting like an idiot.”
“You’re not acting like an idiot. You are acting like something, but I’ll leave you to figure that out on your own. Right now, go do the filing.”
Riley almost pressed Anne on what she meant but was afraid she already knew. Riley was acting like a woman who was worried about the man she loved.
Yeah, better to leave that alone.
She walked to the RV and opened the door, startled at the silhouette of someone sitting at the back table, studying the medical files.
What the hell? Those files contained confidential medical information. No one should be accessing them except for her, Anne, or someone officially tied to the race.
“Excuse me, you shouldn’t be in here without permission.”
As she stepped closer, the long blond hair of the woman at the table came into view.
“Amber?” Regardless, she still shouldn’t be going through the files.
Amber didn’t turn around or move from the table.
“Really, you’re not allowed to be reading those. You shouldn’t be in here at all.”
She crossed back to grab the files and realized the other woman wasn’t looking at the files at all; she was just hunched over them, crying.
Shit. “Amber, oh my gosh, are you okay?” Riley knelt down next to her and put her arm around the other woman’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” Amber finally got out. “I know I’m not supposed to be in here, I just needed somewhere where no one else was around.”
“I understand. This race is really stressful. It can get the best of everyone.”
Amber began to cry even harder. “That should have been me out there today. If I hadn’t been such a coward, I might’ve been on the line Baby was on.”
“What?”
Amber nodded. “I stood up at the top of that cliff wall, trying to get up enough nerve to use the hard rappelling stations rather than going back down to the easy ones. I looked over that edge and all I could think about was the pictures of my brother’s mangled legs after his skiing accident. He lost control and went over a small cliff and broke his back.”
Riley hadn’t known Felix personally, not the way Boy Riley had, but she remembered hearing about the accident when it had happened last winter. Felix’s paralysis had hit Boy Riley and his inner circle pretty hard.
“Amber.” She grabbed a box of tissues and pushed them in her direction. “Anybody would understand you not rappelling down the hard section after what happened to Felix, and thank goodness you didn’t. I’m sure your brother’s fall and paralysis has been hard on you and him.”